Sends, Aux and Effects
 

I have a session which has 6 Background vocals going to an Aux which has some effects plug-ins on it. Obviously I want all the voices to have all the effect (100%) so I have the Aux fader at max. Now, how to I go about making volume and panning automation changes to the vocals without messing up my overall effect level. Do I use pre or post fader sends? How do I output just a aux with the effect not with a mix of the dry track and the effected track...is this possible?

All the best,
PMH

Re: Sends, Aux and Effects
 

Dynamics effects (compression, EQ, gating) should be inserted. Time based effects (verbs, delays, chorus, etc.) should be sent to with post fader sends. So, your six vocal tracks should have all EQ, compression inserted on each track. Or, if you want/need to save plugin power you can set the outputs of each vox track to say bus 1/2 where an aux picks them up. Use the aux to place dynamics plugins to effect all tracks, but don't change the original track levels too much. If you bring the original track level up/down that will effect how the dynamic plugins respond. This means that if you tweek your aux sub-group compression for an hour and then bring your vocal tracks down 2 db, you have to start tweaking all over. On your aux sub-group use a post fader send to say busses 3/4 where another aux has all timebased stuff on it. All time based effects should have a 100 percent wet level so that no dry signal is present at that auxes output. Then you can automate the AUX sub-group and the ratio of dry to wet will stay the same (because of the post send). If you inserted the dynamics plugs on each individual vocal track then you can automate each vocal track by itself.