Confused with built-in Channel Strip and DIrect Routing

I’d like to know what the order of Channel Strip is, before inserts or after inserts. I found that the built-in gate insert costs 2ms. But the Channel Strip’s gate is zero latency. That’s why I’d like to use Channel Strip.
I’d like to know what’s diferrence of Sends and Direct Routing. Direct Routing is only avaiable for Cubase Pro/Nuendo. It’s not avaiable for Cubase Artist and below. But you can use Sends with 0 db to route to other track as well. So, what’s the diference?

what is the built in gate insert?

order is from left to right and from top to bottom for pre fader inserts
post fader inserts are at the end of the chain after the fader

Sends have a variable level and can be switched pre or post fader, direct routing not
direct routing is able to route a signal to up to 8 destinations without the need to setup their levels, for quick summing
like the routing in an analog mixing desk.

Good question, and not so clear in the manual when searching for it. Here’s what it looks like to me:

CS pre post

The first circle next to “Strip” changes the position of the channel strip between pre- and post-fader. This is shown visibly by the order that those two tabs appear. In my picture “Inserts” is first, which means that the “Strip” is post-fader.

Then look at the red arrow. It shows the pre-/post-fader line. When you have an insert before that line the insert is pre-fader. This line can be moved.

The channel strip appears to be either at the very top pre-inserts, or if you switch it to post-fader it actually appears to be “first” after that line. So in my image the strip sits where the arrow is, between the bypassed compressor and the compressor in orange that is on. So in a sense you can make it post-fader but still pre-some-inserts (though those would also be post-fader).

And lastly just to note that the cut filters circled toward the bottom right are always at the beginning of the signal chain.

Another thing to note is that the first slot of the Direct Outs is the same as the “regular” output of a track, and that regular output follows pan law. The following 7 don’t.

Sometimes using Direct Routing is more convenient for various reasons, such as setting up templates with fixed stems assigned etc. and sometimes you really need a send, i.e. when you need to change the level of the signal and/or set it to pre-fader.

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what is the built in gate insert?

I mean the gate insert come with Cubase/Nuendo. Here’s an image explain the problem.

Thank you for you explanation. It’s clear now.
Direct routing I’m still confused. Now that send can play all the feature direct routing does, maybe sends is preferred?

We talked about this a while ago:

direct vs. routing vs. sends - Nuendo - Steinberg Forums

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Thank you for this great guide/explanation! :pray:

Thank you all for the explanation.
What about the answer about steinberg gate costs 2ms while channel strip noise gate zero latency?

Where ist the problem? Switch on Live mode, costs no latency.
The Gate plug-in has more parameters.

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Thank you. I see.

@st10ss The channel strip standard compressor costs no latency. But the Steinberg compressor costs two ms. There seems no live mode for it. Is there an alternative with zero latency?

Well, there’s always latency if you process a signal. There is no such thing as truly zero latency. It’s possible (?) that the latency in the strip is accounted for already and simply doesn’t show up because you don’t have an option to deal with it anyway… ?

Zero latency what is mentioned is referred to no latency accounted in the mix console. So I think it’s at least less than 1ms. Strip is accounted as well. Here’s a demo of limitter. The standard limitter costs 2 ms. And the brickwall limitter costs 1 ms.

A couple of caveats to be aware of when routing signals via Sends to groups/buses/outputs:

  1. When exporting multiple tracks with the Master/Groups/Sends (CSPM) option, Cubase/Nuendo must determine the “Master” channel programmatically, since you’ve effectively given your project multiple output paths. I’m not exactly sure what the order of priority is, but I believe Direct Routing comes first; then Routing, and finally, if there’s “no bus,” it follows any established Sends to group channels/outputs. When it comes to Direct Routing and Sends, it appears that the first available path is chosen, top-down. But there’s a bug: I don’t know about Direct Routing, but Cubase/Nuendo will follow the first viable Send path, even if it’s disabled! So, if you don’t want this, you’ll have to temporarily delete that Send.

  2. By default, Cubase/Nuendo’s Sends are pre-panner! This effectively strips your channel’s panning from your Sends - a critical consideration when routing your channel to a group/bus or output. Fortunately, the ‘Link Panners’ option offers a workaround, with the effect of pushing your Sends post-panner, by simply duplicating the channel’s panning at each Send.

  3. Thankfully, you can enable ‘Link Pannners’ for all new tracks in Preferences. Simply navigate to Edit > Preferences… > VST > Activate ‘Link Panners’ for New Tracks.

I hope this is helpful.

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