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Confusing effect setup with aux. busses!


BBBlack

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I'm trying to work a certain effect out, but I'm having trouble going about it.

 

I have a piece of recorded audio on a regular track in Logic. I have that sent to an auxiliary bus. This aux bus has a distortion effect in its channel strip. I have the distortion effect fading in and out occasionally via automation of its wet/dry control.

 

I want to hear just the result of the distortion effect through the send, without any of the sound from the original track coming through.

 

I'm not sure where to go from where I already am. It's definitely possible that there is some dead-simple way to do this that I am just overlooking. Or, it may be impossible.

 

Either way, any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to accomplish this without having to cut the original track up, thus creating more tracks, because my CPU is on the verge of suffering from an unmanageable amount of overloads!

 

Thank you!

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Two ways to do this:

 

1. Click-hold the send and set it to prefader, then lower your channel fader.

 

2. Or... Assign the output of that channel strip directly to the bus that's being received on your aux channel. Get rid of the send.

 

Either way will work!

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I should have said this in my original message, but I need to keep the original track exactly as it is, without turning it down, but still have the result of the distortion-effected signal in its own track (aux) for me to work with.

 

This is one of those things that I can seem to entirely wrap my brain around, so maybe those two things you suggested will do this, but I'm just doing them wrong. Let me know!

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One other thing -

 

When I tried setting the distorted aux bus to pre-fader and turned down the original track (I did this just to experiment), I could still hear the original track through the aux.

 

Is what I'm suggesting even possible? To only hear the distortion effect? Or does the effect have to have the original sound audible to create a sound of its own at all?

 

 

ALSO-

 

The distortion effect starts at 100% dry and goes up about 50% wet, then back down to 100% dry when it quits.

 

It still seems possible that I can mute the incoming signal and only hear the effect.

 

I tried making a duplicate of the original track, turning it's fader all the way down, sending it to the auxiliary and setting that to pre-fader so that I could hear the effect and also the original track, but I could still hear the original track through the aux from the silenced duplicate of the original.

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I'm still not clear on what it is you're trying to achieve.

 

I have that sent to an auxiliary bus.

Why?

 

I have the distortion effect fading in and out occasionally via automation of its wet/dry control.

What distortion plug-in is this?

 

I want to hear just the result of the distortion effect through the send, without any of the sound from the original track coming through.

Then forget about sends and bus and signal routing, put the distortion plug-in on the audio channel strip, and turn the "dry" signal all the way down.

 

I need to keep the original track exactly as it is, without turning it down

Why since you just said you don't want any of the original track in your mix?

 

The distortion effect starts at 100% dry and goes up about 50% wet, then back down to 100% dry when it quits.

 

It still seems possible that I can mute the incoming signal and only hear the effect.

"dry" means original incoming signal without effect. So unless your dry signal is set to zero, you'll hear the original incoming signal without effect.

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When I tried setting the distorted aux bus to pre-fader and turned down the original track (I did this just to experiment), I could still hear the original track through the aux.

What you want to be sure you are doing is setting the "Send" on the original track to prefader.

 

Is what I'm suggesting even possible? To only hear the distortion effect?

When you change the wet/dry control to dry, you will hear the original signal unaffected. Set to wet, you will hear the signal in its now distorted form.

 

But perhaps if I'm reading between the lines of your post correctly, maybe you want to only hear the distortion component with no original signal component at all. Sort of like a fuzz track? If so, let me know and I can tell you how to do that.

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Then forget about sends and bus and signal routing, put the distortion plug-in on the audio channel strip, and turn the "dry" signal all the way down.

Well, that's what you'd think, but on top of the distortion fades, I want to put reverb or delay so it becomes a smooth swell that emerges from the original sound, but I can't have the delay/reverb catch any of the original track after the distorted part fades out fully - it should only touch the distorted sound.

 

Why since you just said you don't want any of the original track in your mix?

I do want the original track in the mix, with the distortion shimmers on top of it, but those distortion shimmers have to come from the original track but they can't include the sound of that original track - ONLY the sound created from the distortion. The wet/dry automation from the distortion plugin (Airwindows Density2) starts at zero, and goes up to about 50% and then back down to zero. I basically only want to hear the track with the distortion plugin from the moment it leaves 0% wetness to the moment it returns back to 100% dryness. If I can achieve that, then I can send it to another auxiliary track and apply reverb/delay to make it smoother.

 

 

But perhaps if I'm reading between the lines of your post correctly, maybe you want to only hear the distortion component with no original signal component at all. Sort of like a fuzz track? If so, let me know and I can tell you how to do that.

This is correct! I'm not sure what you mean by fuzz track, though. But what you described is exactly it.

 

Also, I did have that send set to pre-fader.

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But perhaps if I'm reading between the lines of your post correctly, maybe you want to only hear the distortion component with no original signal component at all. Sort of like a fuzz track? If so, let me know and I can tell you how to do that.

This is correct! I'm not sure what you mean by fuzz track, though. But what you described is exactly it.

OK! Yes, this is a fuzz track. No sends, no bus, no aux, just two tracks. It works like this...

 

1. Select your origin audio track. From the Track menu choose New Track with Duplicate Setting.

 

2. Select all the regions and Option-Drag them down to the new track so you have two identical tracks in all respects. Group these so their fader levels stay the same, if you like.

 

3. On the new duplicated track, insert a Gain plug-in and Enable Phase Invert. Play the two tracks back and you should hear nothing, right?

 

4. On the original track, insert your distortion plug, with the settings you like. Play back the two tracks. Boom, there's your fuzz track. All the original signal is cancelled and you just get whatever the distortion plug is adding, in all its truncated glory!

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That's pretty nifty. Worked well. However, I still need to hear the original track, but I suppose if I make yet another copy along with the two cancelled-out ones, it'll work just right. Either way, this is a perfect starting point. Definitely wouldn't have figured it out in my lifetime!

 

Thank you fader8!

 

 

EDIT:

Nevermind, two tracks work just fine. I just got confused there for a second. This is exactly what I need! And I believe I'll be able to send the fuzz track to its own auxiliary bus while maintaining the phase cancellation. Maybe if I make it pre-fader? We'll see! Either way, this is exactly what I needed.

 

Thanks again. I appreciate it endlessly.

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Double nevermind!

 

I still needed to use three tracks to get the fuzz track and the original track to sound. But it still works! However, I've found that adding the other plugins I wanted to add (PanMan and Modulation Delay) cause the phase cancellation to, well, cancel, and the track doubles. The distortion plugin maintains the cancellation, though. Could this be because the other plugins alter the stereo field? Also, sending the fuzz track to an aux bus obviously didn't work, because it no longer has the inverted track to go with it.

 

What I'd like to do is put the fuzz track, fully rendered, into a new track. But I'm not sure if bouncing in place would maintain the phase cancellation. Any idea on how I'd go about this? I want to do this so I can apply the other effects.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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What I'd like to do is put the fuzz track, fully rendered, into a new track. But I'm not sure if bouncing in place would maintain the phase cancellation. Any idea on how I'd go about this? I want to do this so I can apply the other effects.

Glad this worked out for you. Yes, rendering it is a good idea. Extend the locators to encompass the regions you want to bounce. Solo the two tracks. Click Bounce on the output channel strip. Choose "Add to Bin". When it's done, drag the new file to an audio track, then use the "Move Region to Original Record Position" command.

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Could this be because the other plugins alter the stereo field?

Any process that shifts phase or adds artifacts, which is almost everything including a simple EQ, will disrupt the cancellation of the signal. It doesn't take much.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Your welcome!

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