Tips for user coming from Cubase

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andihausi
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Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:02 pm

Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by andihausi » Tue Dec 02, 2025 8:09 am

Hi, I am moving more and more work over to Ableton coming from Cubase, but still have some things where I need more seasoned users advice for workarounds :)

- in Cubase you can make a track inactive, so it stays in the project but doesnt use any CPU at all (it keeps all its settings and plugins and you can just make it active again if you need it). Is there a way to do something similar in Ableton?

- Track Versions/Alternatives: in Cubase you can make Track Versions which means, you duplicate the track on itself, you can edit it differently etc and if you want go back to the previous version you can just switch versions. Is there somehow a workaround using the track lanes in Ableton?

Thanks in advance!

[jur]
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Re: Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by [jur] » Tue Dec 02, 2025 9:10 am

andihausi wrote:
Tue Dec 02, 2025 8:09 am
- in Cubase you can make a track inactive, so it stays in the project but doesnt use any CPU at all (it keeps all its settings and plugins and you can just make it active again if you need it). Is there a way to do something similar in Ableton?
Nope. You have to do it manually by turning off the track's devices. There's M4L devices that can do it for you I think (if you have M4L, of course).
andihausi wrote:
Tue Dec 02, 2025 8:09 am
- Track Versions/Alternatives: in Cubase you can make Track Versions which means, you duplicate the track on itself, you can edit it differently etc and if you want go back to the previous version you can just switch versions. Is there somehow a workaround using the track lanes in Ableton?
Yep, you can use track's Take Lanes to do this. It's main purpose is to do comping, but it can be used for track versions/alternatives (that's personally the way I used this feature).
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andihausi
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Joined: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:02 pm

Re: Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by andihausi » Tue Dec 02, 2025 12:38 pm

thanks for your help! So in general, turning track's devices off completely turns them off and not just only bypasses them?

[jur]
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Re: Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by [jur] » Wed Dec 03, 2025 11:59 am

andihausi wrote:
Tue Dec 02, 2025 12:38 pm
completely turns them off and not just only bypasses them?
What would be the difference?
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slow.robot
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Re: Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by slow.robot » Sat Dec 06, 2025 4:08 am

[jur] wrote:
Tue Dec 02, 2025 9:10 am
andihausi wrote:
Tue Dec 02, 2025 8:09 am
- in Cubase you can make a track inactive, so it stays in the project but doesnt use any CPU at all (it keeps all its settings and plugins and you can just make it active again if you need it). Is there a way to do something similar in Ableton?
Nope. You have to do it manually by turning off the track's devices. There's M4L devices that can do it for you I think (if you have M4L, of course).
doesn't freezing the track essentially do this? you can freeze, then just mute the track, no?

[jur]
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Re: Tips for user coming from Cubase

Post by [jur] » Sat Dec 06, 2025 11:30 am

That's an option yes but at the cost of rendering to audio, which might or might not be a concern wrt hard drive space.
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