User manual

242
Audio effects
Using external effects (Cubase only)
Side-chain and Modulation
Side-chain signals bypass the built-in LFO modulation and instead apply modulation
according to the envelope of the side-chain signal. Since each channel will be analyzed
and modulated separately, this allows for creating astonishing spatial modulation
effects. Feel free to experiment with the functions to see what they have to offer!
About drag & drop
When you drag effects from one insert slot to another (on the same channel or
between different channels), the following applies:
- When you move an effect within a channel (e. g. from slot 4 to slot 6), the side-
chain connections will be kept.
- When you drag and drop an effect between two channels, the side-chain
connections will not be kept.
- When copying an effect into another effect slot (for the same or a different
channel), the side-chain connections will not be copied, i.
e. they will be lost.
Using external effects (Cubase only)
Although this program comes with a top selection of VST effect plug-ins, and
although there is a huge range of additional plug-ins available on the market, you may
still have some hardware effect units that you want to use – valve compressors, reverb
units, vintage tape echo machines, etc. By setting up external FX busses you can
make your outboard equipment part of the Cubase virtual studio!
An external FX bus is a combination of outputs (sends) and inputs (returns) on your
audio hardware, along with a few additional settings. All external FX busses you have
created will appear on the effect pop-up menus and can be selected like the internal
effect plug-ins. The difference is that if you select an external effect as an insert effect
for an audio track, the audio will be sent to the corresponding audio output,
processed in your hardware effect (provided that you have connected it properly) and
returned via the specified audio input.
Ö Creating and handling of external effects is described in detail in the chapter “VST
Connections” on page 26.
Editing effects
Double-click the center part of an insert or a send slot to open the control panel for
the loaded plug-in.
The contents, design and layout of the control panel depend on the selected effect.
However, all effect control panels have an On/Off button, a Bypass button,
Read/Write automation buttons (for automating effect parameter changes, see the
chapter
“Automation” on page 279), two buttons for comparing effect settings, a
routing selector, a context menu, a preset selector, and a Preset Management pop-up
menu for saving and loading effect presets. Some plug-ins also feature a side-chain
button, see
“Using the side-chain input” on page 240.
The Rotary
effect control
panel