User guide

Chapter 10 Working With Instruments and Effects 243
Learning About Effect Routings
There are two ways of sending audio to effects: via an insert, or via an aux send.
Insert Effects
When a plug-in is inserted directly into a channel, it is termed an insert effect. All of the
signal is processed, or put another way, 100% of the signal flows through the effect.
This one hundred percent behavior is suitable for equalizers or dynamic effects, such as
compressors.
If you have enough processing capacity, you can use up to 15 insert effects on each
channel strip.
By default, only two Insert slots are shown on channel strips. An extra blank Insert slot
is automatically created, as soon as all of the currently displayed Insert slots are used,
up to the maximum allowed.
Put another way, if you insert an effect plug-in into Insert slot 2, a third slot will be
shown automatically. If you insert a plug-in into slot 3, a fourth will be shown, and so
on.
Send Effects
When you use send effects, a controlled amount of the signal is sent to the effect.
Sends are typically used for effects that you want to apply to several signals at the
same time.
Send effects are also called bus effects, bus send or bus returns, auxiliary send or
auxiliary returns, or simply send or returns.
In Logic Express, the send effect is placed in an Insert slot of an aux channel. The
signals of the individual channels that you want to process are sent to this aux channel,
using a bus. The amount of signal is controlled by a Send knob on each channel. The
audio is processed by the effect inserted in the aux channel, and is mixed with the
stereo output.
The primary advantage of this approach, over inserting effects on tracks, is efficiency.
This method allows multiple channels to be processed by one inserted effect, which
saves vast amounts of processing power (and your time) when compared with the
alternative of inserting the same effect directly into multiple channels.
Another bonus is that you can quickly switch between wet and dry versions of all
channels that are sent to an aux channel, by simply bypassing the effect on the aux.
Similarly, you can completely change the effects configuration for multiple sent
channels by choosing different effects for the aux channel.