Difference between SEND and INSERT in cubase

These are general recording terms. Send is a signal send, an output usually to send a signal to effects. An insert is a send and return (a loop) in the input path right after the preamp, usually used for dynamic effects (eq or compression) or anything inserted into the signal.

I don't use Cubase but I'm sure they mean the same thing in that software.
 
The difference between a send and an insert - in Cubase, ProTools, or any hardware environment (doesn't matter) - is this:

A SEND: a signal goes from the channel you are working from to an effects device (typically), and from there, it is returned to the channel.

For the purposes of explanation, I'll describe how it works in a hardware environment. The effects device is set up on a send/return loop, which is often fed by any number of channels.

Let's say you have a nice rack-mounted reverb unit that you like, but you only have one. You could set up a reverb sound that will work for your tracks, and send your lead vocal to it, and maybe your snare drum and the floor tom. By adjusting the amount of "send," you can get more or less reverb on the lead vocal than you would get on the floor tom - even though they are both feeding into the same reverb unit with the single setting that you have dialed in.

An INSERT: like the above, a signal goes from the channel you are working from via what amounts to a stereo plug - one quarter inch plug branching off in a Y to two quarter inch plugs. One side of the Y goes to the input of an effects device, and the other side of the Y goes from the output of the effects device and back into the board at the stereo plug.

The disadvantage of working this way in a hardware environment is that the reverb unit (or whatever other effect you're using) can ONLY be used on that ONE channel. If you want reverb on another channel, then you have to set up another reverb unit.

So.... what about software?? Obviously, there are no plugs to worry about, as it is essentially a "virtual" environment. (hence the V in VST...)

A SEND: still works the same way in that you can dial in one setting onto one instance of a plug-in, and send varying amounts of send/return levels from any number of tracks. This is a very CPU friendly way of doing things, as you only have to open up ONE instance of the plug-in, therefore minimizing processing power. The limitation is that you're kinda stick with that one sound that you've dialed in.

An INSERT: Let's say you want to have DIFFERENT reverb settings from your favourite reverb plug-in. Set it up as an insert. Track one goes to a spacey hall reverb; track two goes to a medium sized room reverb with lots of early reflections; track three goes to a medium sized room reverb with lots of pre-delay, etc. You would have to open up three instances of the same reverb plug-in, and dial them all in individually, but it is still very possible. The disadvantage here, is that you use up more processing power.

Hope that hasn't confused you further....

Chris
 
Chris Tondreau said:


A SEND: a signal goes from the channel you are working from to an effects device (typically), and from there, it is returned to the channel.


I would only change one word here Chris. "it is retruned to a channel on the mixer (or two if the effect is stereo, or even the Effect Return channels). I only pointed this out because the way you wrote it, it made it seem like you are returning the effect unit back to the channel the fed it. After reading it again, I knew you didn't mean that, but that is something that could possibly confuse some.

A Channel Insert is a bit different than Aux Sends are. You can think of inserts as a way to disrupt the audio running through the mixers channel strip. It has it's own send and return. This is an important distinction on analog mixers, because generally, the Insert is usually not considered an appropriate place to use a delay or reverb effect. Why? Simply because these kinds of effects generally are added IN ADDITION to the original audio. If you used the insert to use these effects, any "mix" between the original audio and the effect would have the be "mixed" in the effect unit! In addition, on an analog console, let's say you wanted a digital delay on the vocal. If you use the insert to do this, your audio will now go through an extra a/d/a conversion through the digital effects processor. Also, if you wanted to use any type of dynamic processor on that vocal, you would have to include that in on the insert chain, and would have to make some decisions concerning where the dynamics processors goes in that chain, ie., before or after the effects unit. The reason this is not so swell is that effect processors tend to not have such great a/d d/a converters and can sometimes be a bit noisier than you may want. Also, the metering on these unit are typically horrible! :) All things you wouldn't want to subject your nice full sounding vocal track to!

Whew! This is going to get deep here! :)

I will now back up and define a couple things.

There are two types of "processors" an engineer might want to use in audio. They are:

Effect processors - These will include delays (echo's), reverbs, flangers, phasors, chorus, pitch shift, and possibly resonant filters. The nature of these processors are to USUALLY add something to the original sound. They don't usually aim to modify the dynamics of the sound at all. These effects usually assume that you will still have some of the original audio blended together with the effect, but this is not always the case either!!!

Dynamic processors - These will include compressors, limiters, noise gates, expanders, and eq. The nature of these processors are to modify the dynamics of the audio. You could think of these type's of processors are being "in-line" of the audio. They will directly modify the original audio and put out "new" audio per se that is modified. But, there are times where you still want the original audio untouched to blend with this dynamically modified audio, but those uses tend to be a bit more obscure.

So, effect processors tends to be processors that add something "new" and blend it with the original audio. Dynamic processors tend to modify the original audio.

Knowing this distinction helps in making a decision on how the processor needs to be fed audio!

Crap, I will be writing nearly a book to explain this in full!!! ;)

The "Insert" on a mixing board is a place to, well, insert a processor. The insert "send" is a way to get the audio to the processor. On most mixers, the Insert jack is a Tip Ring Sleeve jack, where the send is taken from the Ring (some mixers use the ring though!!!), the return is taken from the Tip (some mixers use the ring though!!!), and the Sleeve is the common ground for both tip and ring. On this TRS (tip, ring, sleeve) type of insert, you use a special type of cable that is a TRS male jack on one end, and two TS (tip, sleeve) on the other end. It is wired so that the tip of one of the TS ends goes to the tip of the TRS end, and the tip of the other TS end goes to the ring of the TRS end. Both TS end sleeves wire to the sleeve of the TRS end. To simplify this, the TRS jacks "send" is like the channel output to go to the processors input, and the TRS jacks "return" is lke the channel input to come from the output of the processor. This gives you a "loop" that a processor can be "inserted" into. No other channel of the mixer will be included on this "loop". It is self contained on the channel of the insert jack. The insert is ALWAYS pre fader, but it may be pre or post eq! FIND OUT WHICH IT IS ON YOUR CONSOLE!!! That is VERY important info to know.

Now, I know there has been some other posts here that explained this, and explained it well enough! So I am sorry for the redundancy, but the full explaination needs to be included here.

Okay, so we know what the channel insert is.

"Send" is an incomplete term!!! I use Sonar. On each mixer channel, when in "mixer view" there "1" and "2", each with a "pre" switch and a button that is the "on/off" switch. In the "track view", they are labeled "A 1" and "A 2" and have a button for on/off. At this point, if somebody didn't understand what these are, I would say RTFM!!! :) But, I will give it away and tell you that these are Auxillary Send 1, and Auxillary Send 2. The "pre" button is to make the Aux (short for Auxillary) send pre-fader. By default, it is set to post-fader. The "on/off" button is by default set to Off. You have to turn it on. I will assume that in Cubase, as well as in most software mixers that the Aux Send is Pre EQ if it is Pre Fader, and of course Post EQ if it is Post Fader. On analong mixers, usually you have internal or external ways to make the pre fader aux send Pre/Post eq. This is useful. It is important that you KNOW whether the Pre Fader Aux Send is pre or post eq!!! DON'T assume it is either way! I will be helping with a rather lengthy mod on an Allen and Heath console that a club I work at sometimes just purchased where we need to open the console up and change some internal jumper on EACH CHANNEL to make the pre fader aux send pre eq too!!! The pre fader aux send came from the factory set to post eq!!! This is horrible for using the pre fader aux send for on stage monitor mixes!!! Luckily, we can at least change that. Anyway....

Okay, so what! Cubase may have different labels for the same thing, and NONE of this has explained what the Auxillary Send is, nor have I got a hair closer to answering the question as to what it may be used for, or how it would be used differently from the channel insert.

Aux sends, like channel inserts, are a way to take the audio on that channel on the mixer and route it to something else. Unlike the Insert Jack though, the Aux Send doesn't have a way to route the signal back to the channel. It is better to think of the Aux as another "mixer". Each channel has an Aux Send, and any audio fed from individual channels is summed together at the Aux Send Master. This is just like all the channel faders route to the Master Fader on a mixing board. One distinction though, Aux Sends are usually mono. They can indeed be stereo if the manufacture give that option, but generally, they are mono.

So, the Auxillary is sort of like a sub-mixer. It is cool because it does not disrupt in any way the audio present on the channel. It "taps into" the audio on the channel and sends it somewhere else. This is of course useful.

While recording, the Aux send is a way to possibly feed a headphone mix to a performer where the performer can have a mix adjusted for his/her taste without disrupting the mix the engineer might be listening to in the control room. Of course, this depends on whether the Aux Send is pre or post fader! Pre fader means that the Aux sends is making it's "tap" into the audio before the channel fader. The channel fader can be turned up and down without effecting the volume of the Aux Send. In post fader mode, the Aux send is getting it's "tap" after the channel fader, and any channel fader adjustments will of course show up on the Aux Send. Not very good for most situations where you are using the Aux Send for a monitor mix for the musician. If the musician is say a drummer playing along with some sequenced tracks, he may need to hear the click track, where you the engineer may not want to hear it at all in the control room. Not possible to do this with a post fader Aux Send.

Anyway, that is ONE use for the Aux Send.

Another is to use the Aux Send to feed a mix of multiple mixer channels to an effect processor. Let's say in the case where you want to use a reverb unit to enhance the ambiance of the mix, you can feed any or all the mixer channels to the reverb unit. This mix is seperate from the channel fader mix.

Like I said earlier, the Aux Send is just a seperate mix, sort of a "sub-mix" that can be sent to something. You have to of course have a way to RETURN that mix somwhere. Generally, analog mixers provide Return Channels on the mixer for this purpose. Generally, the Return channel is stereo and includes an volume control and panning control, although, some mixers might not include either! (I forget to note that the Aux Send usually has a master volume control, but on Mackie mixers, this is not the case!!! On Mackies, the channel aux sends are just summed together and sent out with no way to turn down the summed mix!!! They did this to save a few bucks, but it is a royal pain in the butt to optimize the taper of the Aux send volume controls. I won't get into this any more than that at this point...this post is long enough!!! :)). You certainly on an analog mixer don't HAVE to use the Return's for the effect unit, you could use a channel of two on the mixer channels to do this. Whether you use the Return channels, or a channel on the main part of the mixer depends upon what kind of control you need on the effect return and how many mixer channels you have vs. how many tracks of audio you are mixing.

In software mixers, the Return doesn't usually go to mixer channels. Doesn't really need to. At least in Sonar, the Aux Send provides and Aux Return for the effect! So, you could view the whole Auxillary 1 deal as it's own mixer channel where the Aux Sends on the mixer channels feed to Aux circuit a mix, and the Aux circuit has an Insert for an effect!!! It provides it's own return that on analog mixers doesn't neccesarily need to be used. In software mixers, at least as far as I know, the Return is the only place for the effect to return to. Some software mixers may allow you do setup the Aux Return as regular mixer channels, but with the capabilities of software mixers (automation!!!) there is little need to do so.

Okay!!! Took long enough, but hopefully I have at least covered the basics about how the ROUTING of Insert's and Auxillary Sends are done. I with I was better with graphics and could have included drawings to help visualize the routing of each, but alas!!! I am a damn audio engineer. :) Visual art is beyond my reach! :) Also, I have not included EVERY possibility of routing for insert's and aux's. Some insert's don't use TRS jacks at all! Some have a seperate send and return on EACH CHANNEL!!! Each mixer will have different capabilities for the Aux sends. Pre/Post fader, Pre/Post eq, mono/stereo, on/off switches, etc....You have what you have. RTFM to find out WHAT you have!!! :)

So, what to use for what?

I will point out right now that the way I like to use inserts and aux sends will differ from console to console (depending upon how they inserts and aux sends are set up...pre/post eq, pre/post fader, etc....). We also get into how you want to use your processors to add to or modify the audio. The reason nice mixers provide so much versatility is because with increased versatility, any engineer can come in and work on the console and do so in a way that THEY like to work with inserts and aux's. So what I am saying is that there are MANY possibly ways to use inserts and aux's. I will probably not share EVERY possibility. In addition, the different ways you use inserts and aux's will change the way processors blend/modify the original audio. There is no RIGHT WAY to do things, on the way that accomplishes what you want to hear in the end. So, nothing I say from here on out is LAW by any means. I will share uses that are SOMEWHAT standard, but by no means are MY standards another engineers standard!!! Okay, disclaimer over. :D (I only put that in there because I don't want sjoko2 coming along busting my balls about aux send use...;) John Sayers is clever at surprising me from behind too!!!! LOL)

Almost without fail, you will use channel inserts as a way to modify the channels audio with Dynamic Processors. This is a very efficient way to compress a vocal track, or use a noise gate on a snare drum. You might have a favorite EQ that is better than the mixer channels eq, and this insert is where you would want to use it. Since the dynamic processor is usually only used on one specific channel, it is more efficient to use it on the insert rather than using an Aux Send and Return. Using the Aux Send/Return STILL requires that you have a mixer channel dedicated to the incoming audio (otherwise, how else would you feed the Aux Send? ;)) You don't have to burn up an Aux send to do this. Also, keeping proper gain structure throughout the mixer is easier this way on the insert. I will not talk any more about that. Take my word for it.

Aux Sends will almost always be used for effect processors such as delay and reverb. Why? In the case of reverb use, often, you will be feeding possibly several channels of audio to the reverb. Maybe you won't though. But the Aux send give us a way to "blend in" the effect with the original audio not being modified at all. Using the insert on a analog mixer to use a reverb may not be desirable because the audio will go through a A/D/A (analog/digital/analog) conversion that will more than likely effect the sound quality of the channels audio. By using the Aux send, the effect can be a full effect sound that is blended with the original audio, and the original audio is not effected at all by the A/D/A conversion. In software mixers where you would be using a plug in for the reverb, this wouldn't be a big deal because the audio will not go through this extra conversion. But in the case where you will be using the same reverb settings for many channels of audio, in a DAW, it is more efficient to use the Aux for this, rather than having a seperate reverb on each channel. Now, that is not to say that there isn't benefits to using a separate reverb on many different channels of audio. But traditionally, you will only use one or two reverbs in a mix. Yes, some guys will come along here and say that they use 4 or 8 reverbs in a mix. Cool for you!!! I am just saying that 2 reverbs in many cases is enough, and the Aux sends are a very efficient way to do this so that ALL the mixer channels can feed to the reverbs if you want. If you want a separate reverb for each channel, well, the insert's MIGHT be a better way to go. But so many other factors come into play at that point. The quality of the effect processor will be shown off much more on the insert because now you are relying on the processor to pass the original audio with very high quality. Crap...I will stop right here. Too many subjective issues here.

There are uses that fall under "gray areas". The use of pitch effects (chorus, flanger, phasor, pitchshift, harmonizers, etc...) will react much differently using insert than they will using Aux send.

The above statement needs some careful explaination. Sorry if I don't cover it in enough detail for some.

I will start by using the Flanger effect. A flanger will sound very different if you blend it with the original audio as opposed to having it modify the original audio and only use the modified sound. Traditionally, a flanger is supposed to modify the original sound, but a more subtle effect for it is to blend it with the original audio. Depending upon the the capability of the flanger unit, and depending upon the effect you want (the fully modified sound, or the "blended" sound) depends upon where you would use the effect, either at the insert or a Aux send. If you want the fully modified sound, the insert is the most efficient place to insert the effect. If you want blended, the Aux Send might be a better place for it because you can do so much more with the effected sound without altering the original sound. Which way sound best to you? Try them both!!!

Also, maybe you want to have a flanger accross MANY channels of audio. In this case, having a separate flanger on each channel is not very efficient.

I would tend to use a Chorus on the insert. It just sounds more "right" this way. The chorus not only add's some time delayed pitch effect, but the processor also modifies the original sound a bit, and my experience is that this effect works out better on a insert rather than trying to blend the effect with the original signal. The processor seems to provide a better effect when it blends it together internally. Again, this is just my preference and not LAW!!!

All pitch type effects behave a bit differently. I would usually first try them as insert's, but never discount the use of an Aux for their use. You should try an Aux just to see what it may sound like. 9 times out of 10 you will probably prefer the insert route, but that one time, the Aux route might give the best result. If you are wanting to effect MANY channels with the same pitch type effect, you will almost HAVE to use an aux send because it makes better use of your resources (meaning, cpu power on a DAW, or the fact that you probably don't have 24 dedicated chorus effect processors to use on your analog consoles inserts for each channel of audio!!!! :D)

I didn't go into pre/post fader and pre/post eq Aux sends. No need to. You understand now what that means, and if you think logically about the use of the aux send, you will of course know that sometimes you will NEED the aux send to be pre/post eq and/or pre/post fader, or some combination of the two. Again, the capability of your gear and your preferences in the resulting sound reign in your decisions here, not what I have to say. :)

Hope this helps a bit. I will now give my fingers a well deserved break from typing!!!! ;)

Ed
 
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