FX Channels vs. Individual Track Effects

[dieselmx]

Ok guys... Need alittle help with FX channels and Buffer Size in Cubase LE.

I hear that when you add an Effect (Plug-in) to individual tracks it hogs the CPU up alot? Is this true?

My situation .. Full band recording trying to get around 20 tracks total, I have Compression going to be on the 2 guitars, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 bass and all vocal takes (probably around 4-5 tracks)... So im looking at around 8-10 tracks each with a different compression on them.

Would it be better for my CPU to make an FX Channel and send all those tracks to that channel? Is that even possible? or keep it the way im doing it.

Right now i have the 6 drum tracks, 1 acoustic guitar and 1 bass in each song. So I only have 8 tracks recorded right now with eq on them and the meters seem to delay already on playback, the playback runs fine but im just looking at each individual meter .. witll the FX Channels help? or Is that somthing to do with my Buffer size set to 8 (should it be high or low)?

Thanks for any help!

[uab9253]

Originally Posted by dieselmx

Ok guys... Need alittle help with FX channels and Buffer Size in Cubase LE.

I hear that when you add an Effect (Plug-in) to individual tracks it hogs the CPU up alot? Is this true?

My situation .. Full band recording trying to get around 20 tracks total, I have Compression going to be on the 2 guitars, 1 acoustic guitar, 1 bass and all vocal takes (probably around 4-5 tracks)... So im looking at around 8-10 tracks each with a different compression on them.

Would it be better for my CPU to make an FX Channel and send all those tracks to that channel? Is that even possible? or keep it the way im doing it.

Right now i have the 6 drum tracks, 1 acoustic guitar and 1 bass in each song. So I only have 8 tracks recorded right now with eq on them and the meters seem to delay already on playback, the playback runs fine but im just looking at each individual meter .. witll the FX Channels help? or Is that somthing to do with my Buffer size set to 8 (should it be high or low)?

Thanks for any help!

So many questions - I'll do my best.
Buffer size does affect CPU, get it as big as you can w/o noticeable latency, this will give you more headroom.
You can group tracks that have the same effects and settings, and just insert the effect on the group track.
You can use FX tracks more for send type effects, but all tracks pointed to the FX track will get the same effect.
I don't know if LE can freeze tracks but this can save CPU. Just insert all the effects you want and freeze the track. This basically renders the track as a finished wav file and saves CPU. You can still adjust level and eq after freezing. If you want to change an effect parm you can always unfreeze. I'm not sure how many of these things LE can do.

[sparqee]

Unfortunately Cubase LE does not allow you the Freeze Audio or VSTi tracks. However... the poor man's freeze is to apply your compression to a track, then export it. Disable your original track (to save the CPU overhead of the plugins) then import the new compressed track. Of course, if you decide you need to change your compression then you have to go back to your original, tweak, export, etc., but if you can get it right you can save yourself from running a lot of simultaneous plugins. Get those compressors out of the way and then you've CPU power for your reverb.

Don't get me wrong, buss compression is great. It can really glue a bunch of tracks together (e.g. compression on your drum buss). I personally am a bit compression crazy. I use a little at the track level and then a little more at the submix level and sometimes even a little more on the 2buss. I find that I get a much more subtle effect that way. A sparse arrangement usually doesn't benefit from all that much compression but if I have a lot of tracks going I find that using compression keeps me away from being too heavy handed on EQ. Believe me, I've really wrecked a few mixes trying to use EQ to fix problems better solved with dynamic control. What a great learning experience that was!

[dieselmx]

Thanks guys... that information helped me alot. I figured if i compressed the files then ran mixdown i would have that effect on the track but without actually using the EQ effect. That will work for me to save CPU usage.

Thanks!

[brandondrury]

I hear that when you add an Effect (Plug-in) to individual tracks it hogs the CPU up alot? Is this true?

Yes and no. Regardless of whether you use a given compressor on a track, bus, or aux send that one plugin will use the same amount of resources. One reverb needs X gallons of gas to run regardless of where you put it.

Now, time based effects (delay, reverb, chorus) can be placed on aux and then be fed by multiple sources and still sound good. Compression and EQ won't work so well unless you are going for something specific (like the "glue" mentioned above).

My advice is to use whatever compressors and eqs on individual tracks. Put your delays and reverbs on aux sends. Then keep going and see if you run out of power. The stock plugins in Cubase doesn't use much CPU power.

Also, when you mix crank up the latency to a super high setting. This will free up quite a bit of CPU power.

Brandon

[dieselmx]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Yes and no. Regardless of whether you use a given compressor on a track, bus, or aux send that one plugin will use the same amount of resources. One reverb needs X gallons of gas to run regardless of where you put it.

Now, time based effects (delay, reverb, chorus) can be placed on aux and then be fed by multiple sources and still sound good. Compression and EQ won't work so well unless you are going for something specific (like the "glue" mentioned above).

My advice is to use whatever compressors and eqs on individual tracks. Put your delays and reverbs on aux sends. Then keep going and see if you run out of power. The stock plugins in Cubase doesn't use much CPU power.

Also, when you mix crank up the latency to a super high setting. This will free up quite a bit of CPU power.

Brandon

yeah it makes sense. I have been adding all the eqs then running a mixdown on the audio ... so the new audio track has the effects on them but is only using the power of just a wave audio file without EQs. Sems to be working great.

thanks guys.