Plug-In Usage Tips and Techniques

[Lunkhead]

I just posted this in the Free Plug-ins thread and thought maybe we could use a thread that's actually more about how we use our plug-ins, so we could share any tips and techniques we have that seem to work, and help each other out when we're having problems getting our plug-ins to do what we want.

Maybe I'm using it wrong, but it feels like the only two effects I can get out of it are "imperceptible" and "drowning," with no in-between

Usually that's a problem of dry/wet balance.

I'm not sure if this is normal or right or whatever, but I always apply reverb as a send effect. I set up an FX channel with the reverb plugin I want on it and set the plugin's mix control to 100% effected (aka wet) sound. Then I use the send amount on the individual tracks to try to dial in the right amount of reverb per track. If you're not already doing that, maybe you could give that a try to see if lets you dial things in more precisely. Usually I also send all the tracks in a group of "similar" tracks (e.g. all backup vocal tracks) to the same FX channel.

[JonPorobil]

Good thinking. In fact, I refrained from replying to that thread for fear of getting too far off-topic.

Anyway, I do a lot of futzing with wet/dry to limit the effect, but it seems that as soon as it passes the threshold of audibility, it's already obvious and artificial-sounding.

Sam, I'm not at all familiar with the process you've described - I think it might utilize a feature set that isn't available in LE4. I'll investigate when I get home, but odds are I'm just going to walk away from this problem completely if I come home and find a package with Cubase 6 waiting for me.

[fluffy]

I don't know cubase but I could make screenshots of how to do it in Logic. unfortunately I'm nowhere near my computer at the moment and likely wont be for the rest of the day, but I'll try to remember to do that tomorrow.

[JonPorobil]

Probably a moot point for me now. Cubase 6 just got here.

[Lunkhead]

This will probably be useful to you regardless of what Cubase version you use. I guess the beginning of it is making an FX track. That should be one of the options when making a new track, below Audio, MIDI, Instrument. I think it's down with the other track types like Group tracks, etc. When you create the FX track, you should get prompted to choose an effect. You can choose one (like Room Works) then or not. After you've created the track you can add/remove/edit plugins in the "Insert" section of the FX track however you like, as you would with an audio track. As I mentioned above though you'll want to set the mix on all the Insert plugins on the FX track to be completely wet. Then for your Audio tracks you should have a section called "Sends", like "Inserts", with some slots where you can select a send destination. Select your FX track and make sure the send is enabled and you can then set how much you want to send to the FX track. One difference with doing things this way is that your track will sound louder, because you're actually keeping the original completely dry track in the overall mix and also -adding- to the mix some amount of it going into the FX track (as opposed to when you've got the plugin applied on an Insert).

[Billy's Little Trip]

The talk about a reverb that can make you happy. I've been using and happy with the Cubase bundled reverbs. But nyjm reminded us of one that Ken listed in the free plug in thread. Glaceverb. I just used it for the first time last week and I'm still playing with it (the reverb, pervs). I really like it. I say try it.
http://songfight.net/forums/viewtopic.p ... 011#p18011

Ha, moving it back to the free plug thread. Does the fun ever stop?

[fluffy]

Here's an example of how a send effect channel strip looks in Logic. You set your tracks that you want to go to the shared effect as having some bus (in this case Bus 1) as the send, and then Logic automatically creates an Aux track that has that bus as its input, which you can name whatever you want (in this case I've named it 'Reverb,' but the actual channel is Aux 1). The various send levels (the little green partial circle next to the send slot) are different for each channel, meaning that the various audio channels will be reverbed different amounts.

A simple send effect configuration in Logic

Screen shot 2011-07-02 at 10.53.42 PM.png (45.39 KiB) Viewed 1258 times

You can also use a bus as an output, rather than a send, which is useful for doing a group mix or the like (although the annoying thing is Logic assumes that any effect placed on a bus's Aux channel is being used as a send effect, so it defaults the 'dry' level to 0).

In case it isn't self-evident, each Logic channel strip is composed of the following:

[Setting] - this is the quick setting button that's used to call up presets and do copy-paste operations on the channel strip and such
[EQ] - Displays the EQ curve for the first multi-band equalizer insert
Inserts - plugins that apply to this individual channel
Sends - splits off the post-Insert signal of this channel to a mixing bus
I/O:
: Input - where the signal comes from (on an Audio track this is where it records from, on an Aux track this is where it mixes from)
: Output - where the post-insert pre-send signal goes to
Automation:
: Group (for controlling the automation of independent channels simultaneously - I haven't messed with this yet but it doesn't really seem all that useful IMO)
: Mode (basically how it records new automation if you're into using a control surface instead of just drawing curves with a mouse)
and then comes all the usual stuff (current signal level, pan position, volume, mute/solo/stereo mode/input monitor/record) and then the name of the channel itself.

Logic also provides some signal routing stuff for MIDI events but that goes through a completely different interface.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I didn't read any of that, but thank you for showing me something I'll probably never use.

This world is so fast.