Going Beyond Logic Pro's 15 Plugin Limit?

[Wazii]

Hello LogicProHelp.com,

 

I'm facing an obstacle I'd like to overcome in Logic Pro X (10.6.2 to be exact). I've ran out of available insert slots for my Audio FX plugins on an audio track. The plugin slots seem to be capped at 15, meaning you can not have more than 15 plugins for one audio track (the same should go for instrument tracks too). I tried using busses to continue my plugin chain as well but I don't believe they work for my intentions. I found that busses don't allow you to mute the dry and keep the wet sound. The dry sound is always there, even when set to 0. This means that any plugins I add to the bus only really works for wet-based plugins, such as reverb or delays. And not for dry-based plugins, such as pitch correction, vibrato or even an EQ.

 

I require a way to genuinely go beyond 15 plugins in one audio track. Any support would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you,

Wazii.

Edited May 6, 2021 by Wazii

[Eriksimon]

Two things: imo you have too many plugins (but you're free to overdo it, of course), and two: when dry is at 0, there is no dry signal, period. If you still have dry signal, you've made a routing mistake somewhere, or you're using a badly designed plugin. Daisy chaining via buses to auxes IS the way to surpass the 15 plugin limit.

 

Buses do allow to mute the dry sound - well, actually, the buses/auxes have nothing to do with that, it is the plugins who "decide" if they have an option to shut off the dry signal. And then there are plugins that do not really "have" dry/wet signal (such as EQ's).

[Wazii]

Two things: imo you have too many plugins (but you're free to overdo it, of course), and two: when dry is at 0, there is no dry signal, period. If you still have dry signal, you've made a routing mistake somewhere, or you're using a badly designed plugin. Daisy chaining via buses to auxes IS the way to surpass the 15 plugin limit.

 

Buses do allow to mute the dry sound - well, actually, the buses/auxes have nothing to do with that, it is the plugins who "decide" if they have an option to shut off the dry signal. And then there are plugins that do not really "have" dry/wet signal (such as EQ's).

 

Thank you for a quick response!

I tested making a new audio track with 1 vocal recording. It has no plugins or anything. The sound is playing back as it should. When I simply add a new bus under "Sends", the vocal is doubled. I can tell because it is twice as loud. At this point, the bus has no plugins inserted and is empty. When I add a plugin, such as reverb (ChromaVerb, stock plugin from Logic), the dry is automatically already set to 0 and the wet is set to 100. Now the dry is not doubled anymore, but the original vocal is still playing. This sounds alright with reverb in particular since in this case, there is 1 dry playing and the reverb is administering the wet, creating the dry and wet output. However, this is problematic if I want to effect the initial dry sound with the plugins I add and not only add a layer of wet, which is my case. It may be also worth mentioning that if I do input a plugin that is meant to effect the dry and I do put the dry at 100 (or don't add a plugin that sets the dry to 0), then again, the vocals are doubled with both the original recording and the dry from the bus playing in the output.

 

So I believe my problem with busses is that when added, they produce a second dry output on top of my original channel output, instead of acting as an extension to my plugin chain.

 

Do your busses work the same? If they don't, how do you route yours differently? Thanks again for your support.

[Eriksimon]

"When I simply add a new bus under "Sends", the vocal is doubled."

 

You shouldn't do it like that, you should daisychain: so do NOT use the send, but set the output of your track to the bus. That way the signal is not doubled.

If you use a send, you get two outputs to the stereo out: That of the original track, andf that of the receiving aux. If you set the output of the original track to the bus, you only get one output to the stereo out. See how the yellow gets TWO signals to the stereo out, whereas the red gets only one signal to the stereo out.

 

[David Nahmani]

I tested making a new audio track with 1 vocal recording. It has no plugins or anything. The sound is playing back as it should. When I simply add a new bus under "Sends", the vocal is doubled. I can tell because it is twice as loud. At this point, the bus has no plugins inserted and is empty. When I add a plugin, such as reverb (ChromaVerb, stock plugin from Logic), the dry is automatically already set to 0 and the wet is set to 100. Now the dry is not doubled anymore, but the original vocal is still playing. This sounds alright with reverb in particular since in this case, there is 1 dry playing and the reverb is administering the wet, creating the dry and wet output. However, this is problematic if I want to effect the initial dry sound with the plugins I add and not only add a layer of wet, which is my case. It may be also worth mentioning that if I do input a plugin that is meant to effect the dry and I do put the dry at 100 (or don't add a plugin that sets the dry to 0), then again, the vocals are doubled with both the original recording and the dry from the bus playing in the output.

 

So I believe my problem with busses is that when added, they produce a second dry output on top of my original channel output, instead of acting as an extension to my plugin chain.

Yes, that's the expected behavior, also known as "parallel processing", and seen in yellow on Erik's diagram: you have your dry signal going straight to the output, while in parallel you have that same signal routed to a bus where it's processed then routed to the output. So on the output you have a sum of both the dry and the processed signals.

[Wazii]

"When I simply add a new bus under "Sends", the vocal is doubled."

 

You shouldn't do it like that, you should daisychain: so do NOT use the send, but set the output of your track to the bus. That way the signal is not doubled.

If you use a send, you get two outputs to the stereo out: That of the original track, andf that of the receiving aux. If you set the output of the original track to the bus, you only get one output to the stereo out. See how the yellow gets TWO signals to the stereo out, whereas the red gets only one signal to the stereo out.

 

Schermafbeelding 2021-05-04 om 13.38.01.png

 

That definitely did the trick!

Thank you so much! I appreciate your support.

 

 

I tested making a new audio track with 1 vocal recording. It has no plugins or anything. The sound is playing back as it should. When I simply add a new bus under "Sends", the vocal is doubled. I can tell because it is twice as loud. At this point, the bus has no plugins inserted and is empty. When I add a plugin, such as reverb (ChromaVerb, stock plugin from Logic), the dry is automatically already set to 0 and the wet is set to 100. Now the dry is not doubled anymore, but the original vocal is still playing. This sounds alright with reverb in particular since in this case, there is 1 dry playing and the reverb is administering the wet, creating the dry and wet output. However, this is problematic if I want to effect the initial dry sound with the plugins I add and not only add a layer of wet, which is my case. It may be also worth mentioning that if I do input a plugin that is meant to effect the dry and I do put the dry at 100 (or don't add a plugin that sets the dry to 0), then again, the vocals are doubled with both the original recording and the dry from the bus playing in the output.

 

So I believe my problem with busses is that when added, they produce a second dry output on top of my original channel output, instead of acting as an extension to my plugin chain.

Yes, that's the expected behavior, also known as "parallel processing", and seen in yellow on Erik's diagram: you have your dry signal going straight to the output, while in parallel you have that same signal routed to a bus where it's processed then routed to the output. So on the output you have a sum of both the dry and the processed signals.

 

Thank you!