Channel routing

Hi

After some quick read up on this I believe the proper name, or term in cubase is FX channel. I’m interested in routing… Lets say I want to have a reverb channel with some compression.

As far as I understand, if I add a FX channel where I put a reverb I can EQ it and massage it with some effects. This way the only thing affected is the reverb(ed) signal. Now my question: What would be the best, or most practical, way of routing this channel such that I can adjust the level of the reverb channel to the dry channel? Is it possible to do this such that if I adjust the level on the dry channel the level of the reverb channel stays the same relative to the dry signal?

Cheers!

The easy concept is sending the channel to the main outs (or group/s that finally get to the main out). The channel sends are post fader by default, so if you lower the channel fader, the fx channel gets less level > your reverb or whatever will be lower in level too.

There’s anything else possible like using prefader sends, changing the level of the fx channel to get more or less fx. There are plugins that react differently to different input levels, so they produce a different sound when they’re driven hot. This could be dealt with by i.e. increasing the preamp gain on the fx channel + lowering the output of the fx plugin or put a gain/compressor plugin behind. Or anything with adjustable gain. Or the fx channel fader. No fix rules as long as it sounds good and as long as you don’t create a mess you can’t deal with anymore :slight_smile:

In my eyes and ears, the best practice for reverbs, delays etc. is to use the sends post fader and in/decrease the send level. For most applications I leave my fx returns untouched at 0 db.

Thanks for the reply!

Does the setup you suggest prevent me from single out the effect channel?

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Thanks for the reply!

Does the setup you suggest prevent me from single out the effect channel?
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What is “single out the effect channel”?

You can send several channels into the fx channel. The fx channel itself will be ‘single out’ or probably stereo, so ‘L/R out’, but just one channel.

Listen to only the effect channel.

If you solo the fx channel the channels that feed it are getting solo’ed as well by default (can be changed in preferences).

Can be very interesting to just hear the fx channel too, easy to do in Cubase with the Control Room & the Listen function.

I think it’s very hard to get good control over effects if I’m not able to hear them solo.

Thanks for the info! I’ll see what I can find in the Preference and Control Room settings.

Ok, now I get what you want - listening to just the fx channel. That was a little unclear in your posts.

The control room setup for the Listening Bus is straightforward (though CR can do much more). Just hit F4, enable Control Room, set your outputs in the CR tab to your mains and now - important! - go to the Output tab and set your outputs to “not connected”.

What’s happening? You’ll hear Cubase just as before, not through the Outputs but instead through the CR now, which makes no difference but you’ll see that the L-button on your channels is now usable. That’s the Listen Bus.

Now check your Control Room mixer. It resides in the right zones of mix console and project window or as a seperate Control Room window.


If you press that L now on a channel, you’ll hear that channel(s) purely (not through the consequent channels/master channel), if you set the Listen Dim bottom right all the way down. This slider enables you to hear the channel in context if you turn it up, in any relation - without changing individual channel levels.

Also you have an easy way to enable and level the Click. Control Room is fantastic :sunglasses: