First Song Mixed, Can I transfer the EQ, COMP, etc. to other songs?

[Nate74]

I feel like I should know this but have been using a work around for years. But figure even this old dog can learn a new trick. I'm in Sonar X1, but suspect most DAWs can do what I'm wanting to do.

I recorded a band today and they did 8 songs, all very similar in feel and style. I have one of the songs mixed pretty well and would love to use the same EQs, comps, reverbs, etc. on the other songs as a starting point for each.

I can save the the EQ and COMP for each channel individually and then recall it in other songs. Not bad. Or I can export the individual tracks as WAV files from the other songs and then drop them into the song that already is mixed. I've done this in the past but it's a time consuming process.

So what I'm thinking is that there may be a way to save all the FX sends and individual track inserts as a template of some sort, then go into the other songs and recall the template?

Does that make sense?

Sort of like back in the 2" days just changing tapes but your mixer remained the same.

Is there such a thing in my DAW? What would it even be called? "Template" doesn't seem to yield results similar to what I'm thinking.

Thanks y'all.

 

[Mack Caster]

@Nate74 , good morning. I did this vid real quick showing how I can do this in Reaper. Forgive the sound quality as I am using the mic from my laptop and a $29.00 screen capturing software. I also stated about adding a compressor and it was an EQ.

Here is the link to the video. Templets on Vimeo

 

[timvracer]

Hey Nate,

Yes you can do this, I use Sonar X1 and do it all the time. I have a library of "effects chains" that I can use as a starting point for various tracks. If you right click on the effects bin of a track or a bus, you can convert the multiple effects of that bin into an "effects chain". This will create a single "effects" holder which chains your individual effects within. You can do cool things in an effects chain, like set up top level dials and settings that will change individual settings within the chain. In anycase, you can then save the effects chain to a file (right click on the effects chain and choose save to file). This will save the "chain" of effects with their current settings.

Now in another file, you can right click on the effects bin, and load an effects chain into it from a file.

Good luck!

 

[Nate74]

Hey Nate,

Yes you can do this, I use Sonar X1 and do it all the time. I have a library of "effects chains" that I can use as a starting point for various tracks. If you right click on the effects bin of a track or a bus, you can convert the multiple effects of that bin into an "effects chain". This will create a single "effects" holder which chains your individual effects within. You can do cool things in an effects chain, like set up top level dials and settings that will change individual settings within the chain. In anycase, you can then save the effects chain to a file (right click on the effects chain and choose save to file). This will save the "chain" of effects with their current settings.

Now in another file, you can right click on the effects bin, and load an effects chain into it from a file.

Good luck!

This is pretty cool. Thanks!

It wasn't quite what I was thinking of, but this does open up some possibilities.

I was actually thinking of some way to import a predefined set of not only effects for every single track within a song, but also the panning, FX sends, levels maybe even the bus configurations, etc.

This may be wishful thinking though. And I may need to stick with exporting each track's wav file and then dropping them into a file that is already setup...

Part of my struggle in searching for this option is my difficulty in explaining it I fear.

 

[KrystianL]

Hey Nate,

I'm using the newest version of Sonar, but maybe saving templates is the same. If you open up the mix you want to use as template, click 'file'->'save as'-> 'template' and It will save the tracks without audio but with the effects, eq, compress you had in the mix! Hope this helps you and is relevant to X1.

 

[Robus]

As others have said, you can save FX chains in Reaper and then add them to your tracks. Something you might consider doing going forward is set up a project template that has all the FX chains and routings that you typically use. Then use it as your default when you create a new project.