VCA emulation

[Jermak]

I saw a tutorial recently that show Kenny from Groove3 using VGA masters. He said that LE users could use AUX tracks. OK I understand how to do that.
However I have a problem and ask if there are better ways to achieve this?

If I have say 7 drum tracks bussed to AUX sDRUM bus.
If I solo safe sDRUM then I can solo the snare track and hear just that.
What if I want to hear the drums and bass tracks in solo do I have to group the drums & bass tracks and then solo? Because I can't solo the sDRUM AUX & sBASS AUX as they are solo safed.

Am I on the right track (no pun) any help appreciated...

[cwsand]

I'm not sure what you're asking here. If you group the drums together, you can solo them all by pressing one solo button, then if you want to also hear the bass, just solo the bass. If you have other tracks with solo safe on that you don't want to hear, then you can either un-solo safe them or mute them.

[Jermak]

Thanks for replying cwsand.

Maybe I have spent too long on this and I can't see the wood for the trees.

Take a reasonable rock mix:
12 drum tracks (kit mic'd plus sampled kicks and snares plus parallel comp tracks)
3 Bass tracks (DI + Cab mic'd + augmented bass synth)
5 Keys tracks (Organ + synths etc)
4 Perc tracks
12 Guitar tracks (acc + ele + leads etc)
15 VOX tracks (Lead and or harms)

From what I can gather using VCA's you group the drums and create a VCA master. Repeat for each of the above groups. Now you have 6 VCA masters which can be solo'd and muted independantly of what is done to individual tracks. Correct me if I am wrong but a VCA seems to be a "solo-safed AUX" that can be solo'd in its own right.
This means one can solo all drums then add all basses to check the mix.
Quickly taking the groups in or out to check levels.

Many years ago in another life using Sonar there was the ability to group tracks and put them in a folder which could be solo'd muted etc. I believe reaper now has this function also.
(Please this is NOT a them and us comparison but trying to explain what I am trying to do)

Now in PT9 (not HD) I can group the above tracks like drum-group, bass-group but then I would also have to create a drum+Bass group or select multiple individual groups - I don't really want to do this as I want to mix as much as I can using the 003, selecting groups on and off means mousing or keyboarding.

What I have come up with so far is creating 8 submasters for drums, basses etc and solo safed them. Then put them as the first 8 tracks, then they come up on the 003 as the visible tracks without banking anywhere.

If I group them or even run across the 003 I mute all 8 aux's - this mutes all sounds in the mix. Then I solo the aux's by unmuting.

Is this the preferred way or what?

[Craig F]

VCAs don't have any signal flowing through them
an AUX most likely has signal flowing through it

You need to look at Solo Mode more closely:
X-OR: Solo switches to the track that you have pressed Solo on unless you hold Shift down first then it keep the first solo and adds the second

now I cant remember the other options

[Jermak]

Thanks Craig I will look into that.

Every little helps said the actress to the Bishop

[danander11]

VCA's also allow for coalescing which Aux's cannot do.. a handy feature.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by Jermak

Thanks for replying cwsand.

Maybe I have spent too long on this and I can't see the wood for the trees.

Take a reasonable rock mix:
12 drum tracks (kit mic'd plus sampled kicks and snares plus parallel comp tracks)
3 Bass tracks (DI + Cab mic'd + augmented bass synth)
5 Keys tracks (Organ + synths etc)
4 Perc tracks
12 Guitar tracks (acc + ele + leads etc)
15 VOX tracks (Lead and or harms)

From what I can gather using VCA's you group the drums and create a VCA master. Repeat for each of the above groups. Now you have 6 VCA masters which can be solo'd and muted independantly of what is done to individual tracks. Correct me if I am wrong but a VCA seems to be a "solo-safed AUX" that can be solo'd in its own right.
This means one can solo all drums then add all basses to check the mix.
Quickly taking the groups in or out to check levels.

Many years ago in another life using Sonar there was the ability to group tracks and put them in a folder which could be solo'd muted etc. I believe reaper now has this function also.
(Please this is NOT a them and us comparison but trying to explain what I am trying to do)

Now in PT9 (not HD) I can group the above tracks like drum-group, bass-group but then I would also have to create a drum+Bass group or select multiple individual groups - I don't really want to do this as I want to mix as much as I can using the 003, selecting groups on and off means mousing or keyboarding.

What I have come up with so far is creating 8 submasters for drums, basses etc and solo safed them. Then put them as the first 8 tracks, then they come up on the 003 as the visible tracks without banking anywhere.

If I group them or even run across the 003 I mute all 8 aux's - this mutes all sounds in the mix. Then I solo the aux's by unmuting.

Is this the preferred way or what?

If the solo is really important to you, consider using a dummy track.

Use a mono Aux.

Just group it with your groups and use it as a master that allows you to solo mute and control volume of many faders. Not a VCA but should do what you need it to.

Good luck.

[Jermak]

Thankyou Kenny so much. I think I understand what you are saying.

Mind you, it's your fault I started down this complicated setup to get my best template ever.

So I create 6 mono AUX's ( as per my example above) and group them each with their respective tracks. NOT solo safe-ing them.

Then I have to select all 6 groups in the group pane, then by soloing say the drum mono AUX it would solo all corresponding drum tracks. Then doing the same for bass would allow me to ADD that group of tracks.

Putting it into solo latch mode I should be able to select via the 003 each group - If this is correct and I understand you correctly - Brilliant !! exactly what I wanted.

Thanks once again.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by Jermak

Thankyou Kenny so much. I think I understand what you are saying.

Mind you, it's your fault I started down this complicated setup to get my best template ever.

So I create 6 mono AUX's ( as per my example above) and group them each with their respective tracks. NOT solo safe-ing them.

Then I have to select all 6 groups in the group pane, then by soloing say the drum mono AUX it would solo all corresponding drum tracks. Then doing the same for bass would allow me to ADD that group of tracks.

Putting it into solo latch mode I should be able to select via the 003 each group - If this is correct and I understand you correctly - Brilliant !! exactly what I wanted.

Thanks once again.

That sounds right to me. And you don't need to buss anything extra.

[Larue]

Hi Kenny,

Watched the VCA chapter of the tutorial...having difficulty finding a workaround for wet effects in LE. I like how the VCAs mute not only the tracks but the sends to verb and delay. How do you recreate that with just buses?

I can't come up with an answer for global verb and delay sends. The only thing I can think of is to create those sends for each group of instruments. In other words, rather than having one quarter note delay for all instruments, you create separate quarter note delays for drums, guitars, vocals, etc., and group those effects sends with their respective tracks, then bus the tracks AND sends to an aux to control both wet and dry.

Hope this makes sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(Thinking of getting the Complete Toolkit...)