Plugins being applied 2X???

[MartyMcFly]

I have a question about waves plugins or plugins in general. I use Pro Tools and waves gold package.

Usually when say I do a guitar Ill slap a 6 band eq on it...and a compressor. I put them on as inserts on each individual track. Ill set the compressor to what ever I feel it needs to get my levels hot and consistant. then Ill set the eq so I roll of some lows and tweak it hear and there. Then Ill record the track.

Now can I take the plugins off of my inserts??? Or is the track recorded with the plugins and by leaving them on as inserts Im now giving them another dose of compression and eq??? You know like twice. This has always puzzled me. If Anyone has some wisdom about this...please share...

 

[jake-owa]

Well in DirectX land if you put plugins on the buss or channel inserts it doesn't apply that to the recording destructive style. It is the same as setting up a compressor and eq in the monitor path of the channel you are recording to on a hardware mixer. So no, it won't apply the effects twice.

 

[littledog]

the whole purpose for printing a track which contains plug-ins to a second track, (so that the second track now contains the processed sound), is so that you can remove the real-time plug-ins from the first track and reclaim the DSP horsepower that they were using.

the other reason for printing processing or effects is if you are using a demo version that is about to expire! or if you are working in conjunction with another studio that might not have the same plug-ins you do...

 

[MartyMcFly]

So ok... then if I slap a compressor on a guitar before I record it, Im stil recording the signal dry but Im hearing it with the effect and Ill continue hearing the processed sound untill I take the patch off or process it with that plugin permanantly. Otherwise the signal is always being recorded dry. Did I get it??

 

[jake-owa]

Yes, you got it.

Littledog, I don't think he is printing the effects to a track.

 

[littledog]

i guess i didn't understand the question.

anyway, to sum up: plug-ins process sound in real time. the original audio soundfile is not altered in any destructive way by the plug-in. Each time the track is played, the plug-in performs it's function on the original audio so you hear the processed result.

The advantage is that you can edit plug-in parameters, change or remove plug-ins, or temporarily bypass them - since the original audio file is always intact. The disadvantage is that it uses up DSP horsepower and introduces a very slight (usually, some not so slight) ) delay onto that particular track.