As far as I can see, I would approach it in this way:
Sorry…You are way overcomplicating this process
All cut-and-pastes will leave tracks at their full 3 hour length, even in a new project, regardless of how long it ‘appears’ in each song. Certainly, that would take up a lot of disk space on the project drive and where you back them up to.
Not when you use “backup project” & tick delete unused media and minimise audio files…you will get only the files you need at the length you have cut them in the arrange window and you have no need to mess around with templates, recreating any FX and groups etc etc…all your project settings are kept intact.
So step by step.
- Save the song under a different name in case you mess up (just a standard save as)
- Create the folders on your audio drive for each song (Outside of Cubase)
- Cut all audio except for song number 1 in the arrange window
- Backup project to new folder. Tick boxes to delete unused media and minimise audio files
- Use undo to get all the audio back to full length
5.Start again at step 2 for song number 2
You could move the files or process bars/delete bars from tempo in this project before backup project so there isn’t a gap at the start or you can do this in the individual songs projects later on.