Old school vs new school VCA vs Routed Folder

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by pweinrobe

question for all you Routed Folder + S3/1 users:
is there a shortcut for "spill folder" that can be triggered from the keyboard?

i'd love to be able to do that instead of having to reach up and double click...

Shift+F when folder track is selected.

[[email protected]]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the really useful post.

As a new user can someone help me out

I don’t have VCA as an option as I’m using PT artist. Which is fine for all my needs - apart from I would like to use VCA on the drums

Mainly because it changes the amount sent to the drum buss so I can control the untreated verses treated sun mix

With routed folders (my only) option - my understanding is that 100% of the dry signal is processed - is that that case - is there a workaround that would simulate the VCA behaviours


Or have I gotten myself lost down a rabbit hole ….?

[Raphaeld]

I’m not exactly understanding your question but I can share how I use routing folders. I typically have 17 tracks of drums in a routing folder calls DRUMS SUM. Within that routing folder I have a SNARE SUM routing folder that contains the snare top and snare bottom. This allows me to adjust the snare volume or process it as one. It’s the only drum I have two tracks of. If I want to process any of the individual drums I do that on the tracks inside the DRUMS SUM routing folder (e.g. kick, HH, etc.). If I want to process the snare as one, like I said above, I do it on the SNARE SUM routing folder. If I want to process all the drums, like parallel compression, I can do it on the DRUMS SUM routing folder. When I don’t want to work with the drums I close the DRUMS SUM routing folder and the 17 tracks just disappear down to one. That’s my workflow.

[[email protected]]

Hi Raphael

Thanks for the reply and that’s very useful.

I have a similar sets - though only one mic on the snare so simpler in that respect

My main question is I want to use parallel compression on the whole group / all
Members of the toeing folder

But I don’t want to only have the professed signal in the mix bus - I want to have the dry signal and processed as separate so I can mix the compressed bussed signal in

Does that make any more sense ?

[Raphaeld]

All my instruments are set up like the above drums. For example, EGTR SUM, BASS SUM, ORCH SUM (midi), etc.. The last group of faders, just to the left of the Master fader (which is the last fader on the right) are AUXes where I mix my regular and compressed drums together. I call them MX for “MIX”. They are MX_DRUMS, MX_BASS, etc. So my DRUMS SUM goes to MX_DRUMS and out to my master fader (BASS SUM->MX_BASS, EGTR SUM->MX_GTRs, etc). This allows me to put a send on DRUMS SUM to a compressor and have the compressed drums sent to MX_DRUMS along with the output of DRUMS SUM. All the SUM routing folders go to a corresponding MX aux. Get it? Each SUM routing folder gets sent to an MX AUX track and out. Lastly, I have two VCAs. One called “BAND” and another called “VOX”. The BAND VCA allows me to work with the MX instrument tracks and the MX VOX the vocals. These MX tracks, and the VCAs are where the majority of the mix automation reside. For example, if I want to raise the volume of the band for the chorus I used the automation on the BAND VCA. This is my template. I know it’s a lot; does it make sense?

[JingleDjango]

Steve you've got your street address in the 'Location' field of your public-facing forum profile. You might want to change that as it's published with each comment you post.

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the replies - and thanks for alerting our location, much appreciated !

I think I have got it ! I’ll put it into practice and report back

Thanks everyone for helping a newbie

[midnightrambler]

Oh good this thread has been re-activated, which gives me another chance to say : VCA FOLDER PLEASE! Or, if you want to look at it another way, a basic folder with an added overall volume level control for those things within that folder.

At the moment I have to create a 'basic' folder, and then a group with all the elements of that folder, then a VCA fader to control all those tracks within that group, then rename the VCA fader, and then keep updating that group should I decide to move another track into or out of that folder.

The only reason I can think of against a VCA folder is that you would be changing the mix simply by moving a track into or out of that folder. Maybe this is a good enough reason not to implement it?

[originalscottyg]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

Oh good this thread has been re-activated, which gives me another chance to say : VCA FOLDER PLEASE! Or, if you want to look at it another way, a basic folder with an added overall volume level control for those things within that folder.

At the moment I have to create a 'basic' folder, and then a group with all the elements of that folder, then a VCA fader to control all those tracks within that group, then rename the VCA fader, and then keep updating that group should I decide to move another track into or out of that folder.

The only reason I can think of against a VCA folder is that you would be changing the mix simply by moving a track into or out of that folder. Maybe this is a good enough reason not to implement it?

Yes yes yes!!! BUT...the VCA needs to show up in VCA filtered mode on the Avid Control app Track page, and also show up in Multi-Master Mode on an S3 or multi-S1 setup.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

The only reason I can think of against a VCA folder is that you would be changing the mix simply by moving a track into or out of that folder. Maybe this is a good enough reason not to implement it?

I can't think of any argument against it. VCA folder should have been implemented from the start. It makes more sense to me than a routing folder. It literally follows the logic of a VCA. A track could still be a member of more than one group, but any track within that VCA folder would automatically be assigned to that VCA. If it's removed, a simple popup asking if you want to coalesce would do. Just like normal.