Using Effects in Sonar 6 PE

[David J Sims]

Hey peeps just a coulple questions... When I add effects to a track I normally use the console view and apply them to the mixers channel like this....

[/IMG]

1. When I add effects like this does it chain my effects together in the order that I put them? If not should I use a chainer? I have one called "Xlutop" that I never use. Is this a good one? Are there other chainers or virtual effects racks that are better?

2. I've never used effects busses and don't really understand how to, are there any threads explaining how to or would anyone like to help a brother out?

Dave.

 

[dachay2tnr]

First off, that is not the "console view." You are in the Track View, and the area you have highlighted is called the Track Inspector. The console view would show that view for *all* your tracks, not just the one currently selected. You can launch the console view by clicking the icon in the top row that looks like 3 faders. You can work in either view, and essentially accomplish the same things. It's all a matter of which way you prefer to work.

AFAIK, Sonar applies the effects in the order they are stacked, top to bottom.

There are two types of busses that you can use, a send or a summing bus (not sure if there is another name for this). A send bus is usually used for spatial effects like reverb or delay. In essence a *portion* of the track is sent to the send bus, while another portion of the track is sent to whatever output has been selected for that track. If you put an effect, like reverb, on the bus, then part of the track's signal will be effected by the reverb, while the remainder would be dry. By adjusting the ratio of the two (using the send control on the track), you control the amount of reverb heard (i.e., how wet or dry the track will sound).

A summing bus is just what it sounds like - it sums mutiple tracks together. For example, you might have multiple drum tracks (kick, snare, toms, hat, etc.). You could route all of them to a single bus - called, say, drums (clever, huh ). You would do this by creating the bus, and then assigning the individual track output's to that bus. The reason for doing this is that you now have a single control over the entire kit. It you need to raise or lower the volume of the entire kit, you don't have to adjust the individual volumes of 8 different tracks, but simply the volume control on the bus.

Another reason for a summing bus is to conserve resources when you want to apply the same effect to multiple tracks. Instead of inserting an effect on each individual track, you route them to a summing bus and place the effect on the bus. All the tracks are then treated by the effect. The disadvantage to this is that you have no individual control over how much each track is effected. However, in many cases, that may not matter, and using only one instance of the effect is much less of a resource hog than mutilple instances of the same effect.

That's the basics. Play around with it and you'll get the hang.

 

[punkin]

First off, that is not the "console view." You are in the Track View, and the area you have highlighted is called the Track Inspector. The console view would show that view for *all* your tracks, not just the one currently selected. You can launch the console view by clicking the icon in the top row that looks like 3 faders. You can work in either view, and essentially accomplish the same things. It's all a matter of which way you prefer to work.

AFAIK, Sonar applies the effects in the order they are stacked, top to bottom.

The are two types of busses that you can use, a send or an summing bus (not sure if there is another name for this). A send bus is usually used for spatial effects like reverb or delay. In essence a *portion* of the track is sent to the send bus, while another portion of the track is sent to whatever output has been selected for that track. If you put an effect, like reverb, on the bus, then part of the track's signal will be effected by the reverb, while the remainder would be dry. By adjusting the ratio of the two (using the send control on the track), you control the amount of reverb heard (i.e., how wet or dry the track will sound).

A summing bus is just what it sounds like - it sums mutiple tracks together. For example, you might have multiple drums tracks (kick, snare, toms, hat, etc.). You could route all of them to a single bus - called, say, drums (clever, huh ). You would do this by creating the bus, and then assigning the individual track output's to that bus. The reason for doing this is that you now have a single control over the entire kit. It you need to raise or lower the volume of the entire kit, you don't have to adjust the individual volumes of 8 different tracks, but simply the volume on the bus.

Another reason for a summing bus is to conserve resources when you want to apply the same effect to multiple tracks. Instead of inserting an effect on each individual track, you route them to a summing bus and place the effect on the bus. All the tracks are then treated by the effect. The disadvantage to this is that you have no individual control over how much each track is effected. However, in many cases, that may not matter, and using only one instance of the effect is much less of a resource hog than mutilple instances of the same effect.

That's the basics. Play around with it and you'll get the hang.

NICE Explanation!

 

[dachay2tnr]

NICE Explanation!

Thanks.

I went back and corrected some of the typo's, but they'll still be there for posterity's sake in your post.

 

[dirtythermos]

I made a post about using Sonar's buses on my blog yesterday. It's basically the same thing dachay2tnr said, but it's got more detail and lots of pretty pictures.

Also, Sonar definitely routes the signal through the effects in the order they appear in the bin. So putting an EQ before a compressor is going to give you a different result than putting the compressor first.

 

[David J Sims]

First off, that is not the "console view." You are in the Track View, and the area you have highlighted is called the Track Inspector. The console view would show that view for *all* your tracks, not just the one currently selected. You can launch the console view by clicking the icon in the top row that looks like 3 faders.

I stand erected

You can work in either view, and essentially accomplish the same things. It's all a matter of which way you prefer to work.

AFAIK, Sonar applies the effects in the order they are stacked, top to bottom.

There are two types of busses that you can use, a send or a summing bus (not sure if there is another name for this). A send bus is usually used for spatial effects like reverb or delay. In essence a *portion* of the track is sent to the send bus, while another portion of the track is sent to whatever output has been selected for that track. If you put an effect, like reverb, on the bus, then part of the track's signal will be effected by the reverb, while the remainder would be dry. By adjusting the ratio of the two (using the send control on the track), you control the amount of reverb heard (i.e., how wet or dry the track will sound).

A summing bus is just what it sounds like - it sums mutiple tracks together. For example, you might have multiple drum tracks (kick, snare, toms, hat, etc.). You could route all of them to a single bus - called, say, drums (clever, huh ). You would do this by creating the bus, and then assigning the individual track output's to that bus. The reason for doing this is that you now have a single control over the entire kit. It you need to raise or lower the volume of the entire kit, you don't have to adjust the individual volumes of 8 different tracks, but simply the volume control on the bus.

Another reason for a summing bus is to conserve resources when you want to apply the same effect to multiple tracks. Instead of inserting an effect on each individual track, you route them to a summing bus and place the effect on the bus. All the tracks are then treated by the effect. The disadvantage to this is that you have no individual control over how much each track is effected. However, in many cases, that may not matter, and using only one instance of the effect is much less of a resource hog than mutilple instances of the same effect.

That's the basics. Play around with it and you'll get the hang.

Nicely explained thanx for taking the time to do so. I had a vague idea about how they worked but explaining the difference in the two buses using layman's terms really helps.

 

[David J Sims]

I made a post about using Sonar's buses on my blog yesterday. It's basically the same thing dachay2tnr said, but it's got more detail and lots of pretty pictures.

Also, Sonar definitely routes the signal through the effects in the order they appear in the bin. So putting an EQ before a compressor is going to give you a different result than putting the compressor first.

Hey thanx allot for the link! I should be able to get allot of use from your tutorial using buses. With dachay2ntr and your help I should be able to put this baby to bed.

Thanx!

 

[punkin]

I made a post about using Sonar's buses on my blog yesterday. It's basically the same thing dachay2tnr said, but it's got more detail and lots of pretty pictures.

Also, Sonar definitely routes the signal through the effects in the order they appear in the bin. So putting an EQ before a compressor is going to give you a different result than putting the compressor first.

BAM!!

I'd say this thread is closed. Anything more would be redundant. NICE info gents!

 

[mixmkr]

one thing not mentioned, you can drag the effects in your "effects bin" to allow you to place them in any order that you want. So...if you have some nice delay effects happening, for instance, and you feel the track needs compression, but you want that first... add the compression to the "effects bin" and just drag it up to the top. You can also toggle the effects "on and off" by clicking the little green box next to the effect label, in case you didn't know that either. Either way they can be added in the console view, track inspector.....

 

[David J Sims]

one thing not mentioned, you can drag the effects in your "effects bin" to allow you to place them in any order that you want. So...if you have some nice delay effects happening, for instance, and you feel the track needs compression, but you want that first... add the compression to the "effects bin" and just drag it up to the top. You can also toggle the effects "on and off" by clicking the little green box next to the effect label, in case you didn't know that either. Either way they can be added in the console view, track inspector.....

Nice! Thanx!

 

[visa]

@ dirtythermos

great article man! keep up the good work.