Bus Tracks and FX tracks

[tonyyyd]

Hey all,

 

I am coming from an Ableton Live background and I am trying to figure out how to make a return track that has all of my delays/ reverbs / other FX on them. When I make the bus tracks, there's no dry/wet signal knob so I am not sure how to control the amount of an effect or multiple effects on an instrument track. Thoughts?

 

Also, in terms of mixing, how do I make separate tracks for just the kick drum, snare drum and hihat? duplicating the drum track is duplicating all of the auxiliary tracks and busses, which is just making my project very messy.

 

And why can I not create track stacks of certain kits? My project is getting messy with over 6 tracks for drums and percussion

 

For example if I make a kit using the preset "SoCal" I want 4 tracks, kick, snare, hihat and toms. If I duplicate the original track, sometimes one of the tracks won't even produce sound even though there is midi data on the track

But in all cases, when I duplicate the drum tracks, ALL of the bus tracks / effects tracks are being duplicated as well. Which is seriously making a mess out of my mixer window and making it really difficult to get a good mix.

[tonyyyd]

bump?

[tonyyyd]

anyone?

[stardustmedia]

I didn't understand your situation completely, but I got the feeling that there is a misunderstanding of the signal flow concept. Logic is pretty much different than Ableton. Logic is built like a classic mixer, Ableton is made for live performance purposes.

 

Each channel (e.g. bass, synth, snare, kick, hihat, etc.) can feature a aux/bus/effect send. So you create e.g. on each of those channels 3 sends. E.g. one for reverb, one for short delay and the third for long delay. You'll have in the mixer now 3 new aux channels, put the plugins on them and set their mix level to 100% (= wet). Set the aux fader to 0 (zero).

 

Now with the sends on the channels you can control the mix level for each instrument separately. That works as long as you don't need the effect 100% wet, where the original signal is not heard anymore. That is the classic way to do it, that audio engineers use since 50 years successfully.

 

I don't know Drum Tracks very well. But if I remember right you can assign individual outputs for each drum element. In the mixer you can then create multiout tracks that are assigned to these indivual out. This will give you the possibility to process each drum element individually. No need to duplicate the whole Drum Track.

 

I highly recommend you check some online tutorials for Logic X and get to learn the basics, because Logic is pretty different than Ableton.

[tonyyyd]

Woah, I think I'll stick to Ableton. Didn't think it would be THAT complicated.

 

I've checked out tutorials, none really seem to explain why adding instruments from the instrument library is adding around 3 aux tracks for effects for each instrument I add. I just want ONE aux track for delay, ONE for reverb and ONE for long delay, and I want to mix the instruments to taste to one or more of those Aux tracks.

Where is this "wet" knob you speak of?

[David Nahmani]

@tonyyyd, I'd recommend you set up your own 3 Aux channel strips for those 3 effects you describe. When you insert a patch, click the action menu at the bottom left of the Library, and choose "Enable Patch Merging", then deselect the Send button. Then manually choose the sends you want to the 3 Auxes you've created.

 

Does that make sense?

[stardustmedia]

Where is this "wet" knob you speak of?

 

Almost every plugin has that. Open the plugin and there you go.

 

I repeat, you usually make the dry/wet balance with the faders. Original track level is dry, FX aux level is wet. That's how the people do it, since decades And there are several very good reasons to do that. For me the most important one is that the Mix knob works generally in %, not in dB. So from 1% to 2% you get a 6dB bump, which is in many cases too much. A fader has way more resolution than a mix knob

 

Another very important reason is that working with effects sends let you work in parallel, not in serial. This way you can process the effected signal individually. And you can share the effect among multiple tracks.

 

Yeah, I know, for a lot of rookies, or people coming from Ableton, this classic concept of signal flow seems complicated. But it's acutally not. I believe it's the best way to work.

 

 

PS: Not meant to offend you. I see a lot of Ableton sessions from my customers and often they look very overcomplicated, almost like a mess. That's why I don't wonder, they cannot come up with reasonable mixes. Good for me though I think it's because they hardly think about technical signalflow and to work systematically (at least during mixdown).

[tonyyyd]

Where is this "wet" knob you speak of?

 

Almost every plugin has that. Open the plugin and there you go.

 

I repeat, you usually make the dry/wet balance with the faders. Original track level is dry, FX aux level is wet. That's how the people do it, since decades And there are several very good reasons to do that. For me the most important one is that the Mix knob works generally in %, not in dB. So from 1% to 2% you get a 6dB bump, which is in many cases too much. A fader has way more resolution than a mix knob

 

Another very important reason is that working with effects sends let you work in parallel, not in serial. This way you can process the effected signal individually. And you can share the effect among multiple tracks.

 

Yeah, I know, for a lot of rookies, or people coming from Ableton, this classic concept of signal flow seems complicated. But it's acutally not. I believe it's the best way to work.

 

 

PS: Not meant to offend you. I see a lot of Ableton sessions from my customers and often they look very overcomplicated, almost like a mess. That's why I don't wonder, they cannot come up with reasonable mixes. Good for me though I think it's because they hardly think about technical signalflow and to work systematically (at least during mixdown).

 

Ok you're not really explaining HOW I am to do that? Adjusting the wet level in the effect itself isn't really giving me the effect I am looking for. It's just turning down the "volume" of the effect and it lowers the overall db of my track. Again, not what I want.

So there's no knob on the Instrument rack in the Inspector to adjust dry/wet sends?

[stardustmedia]

I already told you how to do it. I also told yiu the benefits. Try it. If you don't like it you can still go back to Ableton. Logic is not Ableton. Cubase is not Logic. Ableton is not Protools. Fibd the DAW that fits you best and live with its 'disadvantages'. No DAW will give you everything.

[tonyyyd]

When I create a track, how do I delete a send? I already deleted the bus tracks but the sends still show up on my instrument in the Inspector Window.

[stardustmedia]

Click and hold the send. Menu pops up. Choose 'No send'

[tonyyyd]

alright, when I make a bus with an effect on it, increasing the "wet" is only increasing volume...shouldnt it just make the effect more vibrant? Idk..

[lologic]

alright, when I make a bus with an effect on it, increasing the "wet" is only increasing volume...shouldnt it just make the effect more vibrant? Idk..

 

The effect on a bus/aux is always supposed to be 100% wet, because it's a pure effect.. How much of it you want relies on the originating fader and send amount

 

lol

[tonyyyd]

alright, when I make a bus with an effect on it, increasing the "wet" is only increasing volume...shouldnt it just make the effect more vibrant? Idk..

 

The effect on a bus/aux is always supposed to be 100% wet, because it's a pure effect.. How much of it you want relies on the originating fader and send amount

 

lol

 

 

In this image, I want just the REVERB to be 100% wet, I don't want turning the Send knob to influence volume. Just reverb. How do?

So to be clear, I am turning the little knob near "Bus 1" and "Bus 2" to increase the effect right? All this is doing is increasing dB..

http://i62.tinypic.com/24y1udx.png

[lologic]

In this image, I want just the REVERB to be 100% wet,(...)

 

On the right side of the space designer plugin is a red slider for 0-max. set it to max, then it will be 100% wet, and the send knobs control the amount of signal that reaches the reverb. You can also pick pre or post fader send knob behavior to achieve the precise result you want

 

lol