Adding Effects...PLEASE HELP!

emojoe

New member
Ok...this is something that I still don't understand...how do you add effects to an already recorded dry track with an outboard effects unit, such as the TC Electronic M-ONE?

More specifically...I have linked my TC Electronic M-ONE to my Soundblaster Live Platinum via the S/PDIF I/O. I record using Cool Edit Pro 1.2. I record one instrument at a time (since I'm a solo artist), using the TC Electronic M-ONE as my A/D and D/A converters, and then I send the signal to my computer via the S/PDIF I/O connection. I like this setup because I have my right and left balanced inputs at 24-bit, 128x oversampling, and I'm sending my signal digitally so I avoid extraneous noise (although the SBLive!'s S/PDIF I/O are supposedly only 20-bit and it only records at 16-bit, oh well).

I like to record my tracks dry, bypassing both effects engines on the TC Electronic M-ONE. After recording these dry tracks, I would then like to add effects onto my dry tracks using the TC Electronic M-ONE, but I am clueless how to do this. I don't have a mixer for obvious reasons (don't need one, as I'm only recording one track at a time), so I am without AUX send/returns. What do those things do anyway? Do I need a mixer just for those AUX send/returns?

Ok, so here's the nitty-gritty of my question:

I have these newly-recorded dry tracks sitting there in Cool Edit Pro 1.2, begging for effects from my TC Electronic M-ONE, which is linked via S/PDIF I/O to my SBLive! How on earth do I get those effects onto those dry tracks!? Do I send the dry tracks back through the TC Electronic M-ONE via the S/PDIF in and then send the now effect-ed track back out to my SBLive! via the S/PDIF out, where I record the now effect-ed track as a new track?

I've done this before, but when I do it, two things always happen. 1.)The TC Electronic M-ONE often overloads when its digital input setting is any higher than -10dBU, and 2.)when I send the newly effect-ed track back into Cool Edit Pro (which I am now recording on a new track), the new, effect-ed track I'm recording records at a considerably lower volume than the original track, and then I have to normalize the new, effect-ed track which adds unwanted noise. I don't get it! HOW ON EARTH DO I ADD EFFECTS TO MY RECORDED DRY TRACKS (especially without destroying my original sound quality)!?

Please help!

Love,
Joe Bonomo
 
Well, the only way I've found to do it is by using the Aux sends and returns of my mixer, so maybe you *will* need a mixer. :)

The outboard effect is hooked up to the mixer via the mixer Aux Sends and Returns. The soundcard is hooked up to the mixer ins and outs. (Mixer main outs, if I remember correctly - I've only done this once or twice - I'm just getting into this myself.) Then open the dry tracks in Cool Edit and play them through the effects unit until you get the sound you want. Then below the dry tracks in Multitrack View, set up some blank tracks to record. Press record. You're there.

I might be up the spout here, but I think this is how I got outboard reverb added to dry Cool Edit tracks.
 
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