Effect sends or inserts?

  • Thread starter Thread starter guttapercha
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guttapercha

guttapercha

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Basic question:

When should I use an effect as a send versus an insert? Last night, I made a recording of acoustic guitar plus 3 vocal tracks just using sends (reverb on all, a touch of slow leslie on the guitar) and it came out great. Is there an instance when I'd want to use an "insert"?

Thank you,

JD
 
Inserts are usually used for things like dynamics processing - compressers - where you want the entire signal to be processed, and/or you want settings on the processor unique to that channel. Sends are used more for effects, things like reverb, where you want a blend of wet and dry sounds.

Having said that, if you are CPU limited it is much more efficient to send a bunch of tracks to the same plug in rather than have one instance of each plug in per track.

Hope that helps.
 
Still confused

In cubase, I can choose an effect as either a send or an insert on whatever track I happen to be using, and the end result would seem to be the same. Can you provide a specific example of when an insert is definitely preferable? Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I'm not catching on yet.

Is it that inserts can be added in after all of the initial effects processing? So let's say I have a guitar track with a plate reverb as a send. Then, let's say that I want to EQ it - including the layered on reverb, as opposed to EQing the guitar sound before it hits the reverb. Is this close?

Thanks,

JD
 
guttapercha said:
In cubase, I can choose an effect as either a send or an insert on whatever track I happen to be using, and the end result would seem to be the same. Can you provide a specific example of when an insert is definitely preferable? Sorry to beat a dead horse, but I'm not catching on yet.
Click to expand...

They are not the same. With an insert effect, the entire signal is routed through the effect channel. With a send effect, you can adjust the amount of the signal that gets sent through the effect chain. As stated above, inserts are useful for effects such as compression, distortion, etc. where you want to process the entire signal. Send effects are useful for spacial and time effects (reverb/delay), because you can add a little or a lot, depending on taste.

Is it that inserts can be added in after all of the initial effects processing? So let's say I have a guitar track with a plate reverb as a send. Then, let's say that I want to EQ it - including the layered on reverb, as opposed to EQing the guitar sound before it hits the reverb. Is this close?
Click to expand...

Nope, you have it backwards. Insert effects are generally "pre-fader," meaning the signal is routed through the effect at the beginning of the signal chain, before send effect or master gain. Send effects are generally "post-fader," meaning they occur after the master gain (thus increasing the master gain will increase the amount of effect).

So, in your example, if you used EQ as an insert and Reverb as a send, the EQ changes would take place prior to the signal being routed through the reverb.
 
I think what causes confusion here is that a reverb could also be used as an insert, as the effect itself usually has a variable wet and dry setting.
 
By George

I think I've got it now! So conventionally (back in the days of multitrack analog) guitar effects were essentially inserts, and then the plate reverb or tape delay that got layered on later were basically sends.

Ok, so let's say I want to record a guitar with distortion and chorus and want to have it in the traditional order of guitar-->dist. box ---> chorus box --> direct into board. Am I able to do this by going down the column of insert effects, or does cubase not really care about the order of things?

Thanks again - I'm catching on.

JD
 
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