Copy/pasting plugin parameters

[LightUnderTheDoor]

So in the context of teaching myself to mix, I've been trying to find a way to do something I've never needed to do before, and I'm finding that functions I would have assumed were basic in a DAW like PT are perhaps impossible or at best extremely difficult...

I'm mixing a film with, of course, several locations. I'd intended to set up three AUX tracks for reverbs, so I can alternate between them or have more than one going at a time to emulate various types of spaces. I'm primarily using 2C Aether for this purpose, most of the parameters of which can be automated, except for an all-important one... Of course, you guessed it: Preset/Space selections can't be changed on the fly, despite Space being the most fundamental function that affects all the other settings in this particular plug-in.

You see where I'm going with this.

The most basic, intuitive approach to copy/pasting plugin state yields no result whatsoever, so I've gone and read up on a bunch of different techniques and roundabout methods for copying the state of a plugin to another identical plugin on a separate track, essentially cheating Space automation settings. Problem is, none of them have worked for me, and many seem to rely on functions that aren't available for users who aren't running HD.

Does anybody have experience with this sort of thing in a non-HD environment? Tips would be great!

[Michael Zull]

So you just want to copy a plugin with all of it's current settings to another track/aux? On Mac, hold Option and click and drag the plugin from one to the other, on Windows it's either Alt or Ctrl and the click and drag.

[LightUnderTheDoor]

Ah! Sorry, that's not quite what I meant.

What I need to do, basically (and unless there's a better approach), is keep two versions of the same reverb plugin on separate sends, so that I can alternate between them from one scene/location to the next. Each one would have settings for particular locations or environments, but those settings would still need to change from scene to scene. The problem is that the fundamental setting in the reverb I'm using, which determines the basic environment that all the other parameters defer to, can't be automated.

Basically, If I've got, say, 10 different locations in the film, I don't want to have to set up 10 different FX sends, each one with a unique type of environment. I'd like to keep my sends and individual plugins to a minimum, and simply switch all settings on the resources I've already got. So ideally, I can start with send 1/reverb 1 in a bedroom environment, switch to send 2/reverb 2 in an outdoor environment for the next scene, then switch back to send 1/reverb 1 in a tunnel for the following scene.

Hopefully I'm making sense.

From what I'd understood, there is a roundabout way of performing this sort of switching, but it requires a complex plugin state snapshot or copy/paste procedure that may not even be possible if I'm not running HD. Basically, I'd need to keep a separate instance of the verb on a separate track just so that I can tweak each new environment, then write that plugin's state to a specified range on one of my two "official" send track plugins... I thought it could be a simple matter of selecting a range in the dummy/settings track, special-copying all automation, then highlighting the relevant range in the second track and pasting something-something, but no dice at all...

Again, I'm not sure if I'm making sense... However, a rep from 2C has confirmed that, by default, I'd need to be running multiple instances of the plugin, each with a particular environment setting, to achieve the effect I need. The problem is, even bypassed, plugins still use system resources (this one is quite heavy), so I really don't want to manage 10 sends with 10 different contiguous instances of this one same effect... Not sure the CPU can manage all that.

[LightUnderTheDoor]

It sounds like you're trying to consolidate 10 plug instances down to two instances and then automate or reset each of those two instances to cover five different spaces or presets each? Is that about right?

And, the one parameter you'd like to automate, does not automate. Though not all parameters automate on your verb......You do know that you can save any preset in all it's entirety. Right?

If that wouldn't do what you need you could "commit to audio" as many of the different spaces/ room ambiences as possible.
Burn yourself tracks of the wet signal, and just save each preset in the standard preset menu.

Maybe I'm missing what you're after. HTH

No, that's pretty much it. It just seems like poor resource management to have so many effects sends for multiple instances of an identical module, rather than just being able to alter the most fundamental parameters on the fly just like all the other functions can be, particularly when CPU load is factored.

I know I can save an entire "patch" once I've got it to my liking, but then there's no way I know of to load that patch only onto a specific range on a track without altering the settings for those same parameters on the rest of the track. Or is there?

[musicman691]

No, that's pretty much it. It just seems like poor resource management to have so many effects sends for multiple instances of an identical module, rather than just being able to alter the most fundamental parameters on the fly just like all the other functions can be, particularly when CPU load is factored.

I know I can save an entire "patch" once I've got it to my liking, but then there's no way I know of to load that patch only onto a specific range on a track without altering the settings for those same parameters on the rest of the track. Or is there?
If there's an audiosuite version of the plugin you could treat each segment separately making use of presets you saved for the plugin.

[JFreak]

In case the patch change doesn't work for you, you can always use bypass automation and waste some DSP/CPU performance.

For example, your "reverb" aux might have 10 different reverb settings on 10 different insert slots and you automate all bypasses so that only one is active at all times. It eats resources for breakfast, but if there is no way changing settings within one plugin from one hall to another chamber within a split second, then that's what you need to do.