UNDERSTANDING Send Effect Channels

#mixingtips #cubase #mixingvocals
UNDERSTANDING Send Effect Channels

Music used in this video by Sandra Kouame

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[victorbicudo]

Hey chris you missed out on an important factor. When using fx channels you usually want to keep your "mix" parameter at 100% on the effect, otherwise you'd be turning some of the dry signal up instead of just the effect itself.

[peterbrandt]

I'd like to react to the comment :). If you want to use ONE reverb, he's probably right. But while I often do this for drums, I'm doing that almost never for vocals, guitars, etc. Often I use even several reverbs on one instrument / track. Maybe a large reverb for the chorus and just a room on the verse, or vice versa.
Thanks Chris and I think you're absolutely right on that. I just remembered, when I used an LXP1 on vocals and that didn't feel as a restriction back in the day.

[Bring_MeSunshine]

Agreed: Back in the day, especially on live PA mixing consoles, where you were lucky to get 2 aux sends; one for monitor levels and, one - maybe two - for FX sends, you'd pick your most suitable reverb setting from your multi-FX box, and apply where necessay via the aux sends of each channel. But, with modern DAWs, we can chuck groups, FX sends and Insert FX in all over the show, using multiple reverbs, multiple delays to build a sonic landscape and environment for the track to work in. As soon as automation became something that your average Joe could afford, and wasn't simply the preserve of those with multi-thousand pound SSLs, well, your average Joe and a decent computer could enter the realm of professional mix engineers for a fraction of the price - I love today's technology, so let's use it.

[nondelusional]

Hey Chris, thanx for all of the knowledge, I have embraced it and my production is now all pro .

[Ernestasish]

Good, now I know that it's better to have your individual workflow with send effects. I think another point why it may be benefitial to implement FX channels in mixing is that you limit the variation of different reverb settings which leads to a more natural sound instead of using 10 different reverbs which may mess the mix up.

[Dooby]

Thank you, Chris! You confirmed my idea of mixing. Nice explained.

[premwah]

Thanks Chris your explanation is so simple to follow it helps me a lot

[CorradoRossiMusic]

Hi Chris, thanks again for your efforts about learning how to do our stuff much better...
I never lose an episode from you.
Keep up the great work and...ciao (that was a nice surprise in the video, considering I'm Italian) ;-)

[alexanderadeyinka]

Hey Chris! Thanks for all you do. Do you have a tutorial showing how you did those vocal throws with the lush reverb. I'll appreciate. Thanks!

[sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

GREAT VIDEO!!!! Thank you SO MUCH, Chris!

I would LOVE a video on strategies for tracking vocalists during a session... from some of the more major signal chain considerations to mic placement to singer staying in place vs working the mic etc. etc. etc.

[ruk--]

Great video, be very aware of people who tell you there's only one way to do things. That's almost never true in life and indicates someone who is very shortsighted.

[rudolfbaethge]

Hi. Good simple explanation!. I will add the role of pre and post fader impact on the FX channel.

[soniafumouxlabouesse]

merci Chris! c'est vraiment très bien expliqué, et cela m'a bcp aidée! toutes tes vidéos sont vraiment top!! merci merci!

[MichaelMx]

Good info thanks. Now I know exactly what it does.

[Tone]

I have the super simple question. When you selected the verb channel to send your dry vocals to what input was it before you labeled it verb. I have a 4 channel interface with an additional 5 and 6 line input. I hoped explained that right! Great tutorial by the way!

[realraven]

4:55 the main reason for "sharing FX" is when you have a group of instruments you want to process "as one thing" for instance a Choir of 8 voices - you obivously do not want 8 different reverbs with different EQs / tails for the 8 voices.

But I do find sometimes reaching for a Plate Reverb that I have already set up for vocal and put it on a guitar just out of being lazy.

But then the big question is to which channels to route the FX - obviously you want to route the vocal reverb to your vocal submix and you do not want any guitar turning up there. To get to that stage (separate FX channels) quickly after "lazily sharing" you can just select the FX track and duplicate it, then reroute its output to the guitar group and finally reroute all sends on the guitars to that instance of FX for a cleaner experience.

I used to route FX tracks directly to master but it's a bad idea because you will upset the balance if you automate the vocal submix - so FX should be routed to the respective submix groups (vox, guit, keys etc.). The worst thing that can happen is that your FX are routed to the Stereo Out (and not to your master where you presumably have summing compression)

[rickymolina]

Definitely notice the added warmth and clarity - I like the way the bass jumps out slightly after you turned on CTC-1 on the master buss. Thank you so much for showing us how you use the S1 console emulator. I like the rhythm and the arrangement too!

[freddiespellsmusic]

Hi Chris! Thanks so much for this great tutorial. 🙏🏽
There is still one question: Is there a way to re-order the sends in the tracks in Cubase? I could not find anything to this particular issue.
f.e. if I have a send for a reverb and another one for parallel-compression. From my point of view it makes sense to first send the signal-copy to the par-compression and then to the reverb. But if I had set it the other way round I could not find any solution to re-order these sends except tedious copy - delete - paste etc.
Thx! F.

[k_loucin]

hi there, this was a great video but I've got a question. Is for example my vocal bus limited to 8 send effect slots or can I get more than 8. I've got the issue that I use Reverb and delays and for each of them a side chain compression which both take away a slots of all possible 8 send effects and then I have less free send slots to use. Is it possible to route the vocal bus to another group/bus to use 8 more send slots or are they affected by the sends that I used on the bus before. I'm looking forward to hear from you and get some help, thanks a lot! Kind regards, Nick

[campingroadtrips]

Great vids Chris, newbie question, i cant get my head around this one, I have my lead vox trak, I have an fx channel on it, fx is reverb, but how do i add more vst's onto the same fx channel so that i can control individual fx sends going to the vox trak on the one single fx channel? please advise, thank you. CB 8