Fading a Plug-in effect in/out

[mgmartino]

So I've noticed on some reverb plug-ins you can automate the Mix level therefore at 0 the reverb has no effect at all and at 100 it is as strong a reverb as it'll get. Its very useful for adding little effects to a track and not having to make a new track that is identical to the original except for the new plug-in effect and then and cutting out the small region of audio that you want to have the effect on.

 

However I can't find that option when i go into the automation section of every plug-in... So i was wondering if there was a way to automate the bypass feature of a plug-in? That way I could use it in the same way i previously described but on more plug-ins than just reverbs...

[shivermetimbers]

That's what the AUX channels are for.

[David Nahmani]

You can automate the bypass however bypass is just ON or OFF, there's no values in between. So you can only automate the whole plug-in on or off.

 

There are various routings that can be used to adjust the dry / wet of a plug-in that does not have dry/wet parameters. The easiest is probably to send your signal to a bus, in which case Logic automatically creates an Aux channel strip receiving that bus, and you can place your effect on the Aux, determining the amount of wet signal with the send knob:

 

[mgmartino]

Oh i see. Thank you for that tip, but so now how do I get it back to how I had it. For example I moved the Overdrive plug-in into the aux track that the bus is sending to but now the distortion is too loud. Is there a known default setting for the volume of the bus send or the actual volume fader on the aux track that will have it at the level it was before I moved it to the bus so I can mess with it from there instead of messing with it now to try and get it back to the way I liked it before I moved it to the Bus send??

[David Nahmani]

If the Overdrive was the only, or last plug-in on the original channel strip before you moved it to the Aux, then click-hold the send (the blue insert that says "Bus 1" and choose "Pre-fader". Then option-click the little rotary knob to its right, to set the gain to 0 dB. You'll have the exact same audio level reaching the Overdrive plug-in as before.

[rone2him]

That's what the AUX channels are for.

Woo smt... ants are crawling all over my screen... oh those arn't ants... their Auxs

[mgmartino]

does the volume fader on the Aux track itself also control the wetness? Because now that i know how to control the wetness from the knob next to the Bus send I'm just a little confused about where to go to draw/click in the automation

[strikingtwice]

does the volume fader on the Aux track itself also control the wetness? Because now that i know how to control the wetness from the knob next to the Bus send I'm just a little confused about where to go to draw/click in the automation

 

No, the volume fader does not control the wetness, the AUX track is entirely wet. The volume fader controls the level of the effected track. If you wanted to automate, you could do it either by fading in the volume of the aux or by automating the appropriate Send on the original channel.

[David Nahmani]

does the volume fader on the Aux track itself also control the wetness? Because now that i know how to control the wetness from the knob next to the Bus send I'm just a little confused about where to go to draw/click in the automation

 

The send knob controls the amount of wet level before the overdrive.

The Aux volume fader controls the amount of wet level after the overdrive.

 

The results are different (automating the send knob will make your sound have more and more gain and distortion, while automating the Aux volume fader will change the level of your distorted sound which has always the same distortion sound).

[mgmartino]

so when I get the mix of overdrive that i like, do i have to lower/raise the main track volume fader and the aux track fader in congruent increments? Because I noticed when I lower the main track volume fader all the way to -00 i still can hear it slightly if i solo that track

[rone2him]

yeah, u can assign both channel outs to go to another aux (Sub*) and control the mix from there, or tie the two together in the group slot

[David Nahmani]

so when I get the mix of overdrive that i like, do i have to lower/raise the main track volume fader and the aux track fader in congruent increments?

Yes - but more importantly, when you do it, do you have the result you wanted?

 

Because I noticed when I lower the main track volume fader all the way to -00 i still can hear it slightly if i solo that track

That's not normal. A fader on -∞ does not let ANY sound pass so you should have complete silence when the fader is set to -∞. Check your settings? If nothing helps, post a screenshot of your Mixer with the fader set to -∞ and still present on the Stereo Out, so we can see what's going on.

[mgmartino]

I'm just a little confused because when I lower the main track volume fader. it is barely audible and it sounds like its only playing the audio with overdrive on it (from the aux track). And when I lower the Aux volume fader all the way to -00 it is still pretty loud but has no overdrive. I have to lower both the main audio track volume fader and the aux track volume fader to -00 to reach my goal of having no sound coming from the track. However thats a problem because lowering the Aux track to suit the preference of one audio track also lowers the volume of my other audio tracks that are using that same bus, that I do not necessarily want to lower the volume of...

[redlogic]

I'm just a little confused because when I lower the main track volume fader. it is barely audible and it sounds like its only playing the audio with overdrive on it (from the aux track). And when I lower the Aux volume fader all the way to -00 it is still pretty loud but has no overdrive. I have to lower both the main audio track volume fader and the aux track volume fader to -00 to reach my goal of having no sound coming from the track.

 

If the Overdrive was the only, or last plug-in on the original channel strip before you moved it to the Aux, then click-hold the send (the blue insert that says "Bus 1" and choose "Pre-fader".

 

What you're experiencing, is the expected behavior if the send is Pre Fader.

Set the send to Post Fader and when you lower the main track volume fader, the amount being sent to the Aux lowers also.

 

You need to decide what you want.

 

Do you want the level of the send to be dependent on the fader (Post Fader)?

or

Do you want the level of the send to be independent of the fader (Pre Fader)?

 

Both scenarios have their uses.