Help with outboard gear on inserts

[Gary F]

Hi

New to Pro Tools. Can anyone advise on using outboard gear as an insert.

Have setup my Voicemaster Pro as an insert (routing it in on input 5 and out on output 5). The signal gets processed and back into Pro Tools as it should, but any insert I place after this has no effect. I'm routing the signal first to the Voicemaster Pro and then on the second insert I added Reverb but it has no effect after being processed by the Voicemaster Pro.

Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

Thanks

Gary

[Gary F]

Anyone please!?

[Lapick]

Seeing that there were no replies to your post and since I haven't had a reason to use a hardware insert yet I set one up to see if I could replicate your problem. It worked just fine. I went out to an external channel strip (via channels 7-8 in my case using PT7, 002R) and then dropped a verb plug after that and both worked fine.

Hope you were able to resolve the problem?

[Gary F]

Hi

thanks for the response, still no luck.

Using PT7 with 002R, output 5 to Voicemaster, input 5 back into Pro Tools, then added DVerb on the next insert down but has no effect at all. If I put the DVerb first it's fine. I've tried other outputs, other outboard gear and it has exactly the same effect, anything put after an outboard insert has no effect on the signal. I've had another PT user look at it but can't work it out.

Checked the cables, tried other ins and outs, different outboard gear, check my settings but still no joy. Yet if I bus the signal to an Aux Track with Dverb it's fine.

Gary

[Lapick]

After posting I played with that setup some more and did find one bit of strangeness. It may have the same underlying cause as your problem or it may not but in either case it's not a fix so feel free to move on to the workaround if you like.

I found that the bypass function on the D-Verb plugin didn't work. I moved it ahead of the hardware insert and it still didn't work. I then added a delay after the hardware insert to see if it was maybe a D-Verb issue. The order was now D-Verb->Hardware Insert->Delay. Bypass worked on the delay so I checked the D-Verb plug again and it too was suddenly working. After restarting Pro Tools and recreating that configuration from scratch everything including bypass worked just fine. It may be that there's some problem with the routing logic under certain circumstances.

Possible Workaround
Create an Aux Input with it's input set to use a bus and put the verb plug (and any others) there. Route the output of the track with the hardware insert to the Aux Input bus and the Aux Input will become the main out for that track.

Hope this helps.
Lapick

[Gary F]

Hi

thanks for the info, there no problem if I route to an Aux track.

There doesn't seem to be any problem if I insert the hardware then the plugin on either an Aux track or Master Fader track. The problem only exists on an Audio track.

Will keep working on it, thanks for the info.

Gary

[Lapick]

There doesn't seem to be any problem if I insert the hardware then the plugin on either an Aux track or Master Fader track.

Exactly, I may not have explained the workaround very well. I wasn't suggesting that you use the Aux Input in send/return mode. Keep the hardware insert on the Audio track and use that track as you would normally but instead of the tracks main output going to the mix bus (channels 1-2 by default) feed it to the input of the Aux track (via an internal bus) which is where the verb plug will go. That effectively turns the two tracks into one with ten inserts instead of five but also separates the hardware insert on the Audio track from any other inserts you use on the Aux Input track.

Just a thought.

[Gary F]

Hi

Yes, I see it now, thanks. It works for me fine, but still odd I can't have the two effects on one Audio track.

Thanks again.

Gary

[Gary F]

Ok, I at least have the excuse of still being a bit of a beginner.

Low Latency Monitoring was enabled. When I disabled it, all inserts were processed.

I thought that Low Latency Monitoring only applied to record-enabled tracks. Why should it affect tracks in normal playback mode? Is this a bug?

Gary

[IntelDoc]

Gary,
As a heads up. Not sure why you are slapping Dverb across like that. It is better and you have much more control if you put it on a AUX track (stereo or Mono - usually stereo) and make the input a BUS then send the vocals and whatever else you need verb to to that bus.

That way you have a universal verb and can layer the verbs. TURN LOW LATENCY OFF. I never use that thing. HATE IT!

So....

1. Create a STEREO AUX and set it to 0db and SOLO SAFE (Alt click or cntl click the Solo - can never remember which it is when I am not at the console.)
2. Make the inputs BUSS 1-2
3. ADD verb of choice.
4. SEND the vocals out to BUSS 1-2
5. Use the BUSS Send to make the verb level where you need it. That is the individual track verb level and can be automated, etc.
6. Do this for all tracks that need that specific Dverb or verb.

Good luck,
Doc