Why not make a 5.1 Fx channel, then add three Fx plug ins of your choice. Open the routing editor and route the first to LR second to ls Rs third to C Lfe. Make sure you link sends on the source audio track! The only thing though is you’re not going to able to break out the 5.1 output of the 5.1 Fx return.
Tony
Fredo, not quite. Yes you are correct in your image - Audio channel → surround panner - but from here on is where things differ. I want to ignore the 6.0 FX channel - it is of no use to me in this particular context. I want instead to “separate” the 6.0 buss into 3 x stereo channels with stereo FX (not a single 6-channel FX). Maybe think of it as a multicore with a 6-channel loom at one end separating into 3 x stereo pairs (or whatever combination of singles and pairs you like) at the other end into multiple (e.g. 3) separate devices. Protools does this in the I/O setup (buss window), DP in the buss Matrix, Reaper somewhere similar to DP if you know any of these apps. And this example is just the start. With one joystick you can morph through combinations (or discrete as appropriate) of multiple parallel FX. It is the combinations and the moving between them where things get really funky - all with one finger.
Just trying to get this right …
You want to route a stereo track into a 6.0 Group, which has independant/individual stereo plugins in Front/Mid/Rear.
So when you “pan” the stereo track from front to rears, it passes through the different processors.
Is that correct?
Fredo
Right - routing editor. Thanks. Not seen it, did not know about it. Tried to play with it but is always empty for me (probably been looking at it on stereo tracks) Nice, I will follow up on that more as soon as I can. thank you.
But with a 5.1 FX channel do the FX need to be surround variants?
This does not do what I need for this scenario, but I can see some interesting potential for that as well. The inability to break out is still an issue. Basically I _think_all I need is for the functionality as described in the manual to work and we can all go play ball. 
You have it in one. 
EDIT - might help if you know the Korg Wavestation and its vector position “panner” - and all those other synths where the “joystick” is used to morph sound, not change it’s location in the panoramic field. Make sense?
OK Fredo - thank you. I will need a little time to digest this (some other things need my attention) but I will work through the manual sections on the routing with your image as inspiration and see if I can get that happening. If you have a further moment and are able to point me at a specific page(s) in the manual that you think i should focus on as a start that would be awesome thank you.
\m/
Nevermind - got it sussed without the manual. It all appears as soon as you instantiate a plugin. Nice. Helpful and will be effective in some contexts i am sure but does not get around what I need simply because I am limited to the number of outputs (although not locations if I use anymix pro as the final FX channel output panner). Thanks all - this is great to know, very nice, but not yet the simple solution that allows the flexibility required simply because it is all routed within the channel so the bottle neck is (exactly as audiomonkeys suggested) at the channel output.
\m/
Actually, it’s pretty intiutive.
Push the “e” button on your group tack (or any other)
Go to inserts/routings.
Now double click on the routings and a routing editor will appear.
If all channels are connected (in my screenshot I have used stereo plugins) then this means that you are using a VST3 plugin, which automatically adapts itself to the channel configuration.
To change that, open the plugin GUI.
At the right hand top, you will see a dropdown menu, whic allows you to define the plugin channel config.
Set that (in your case) to stereo.
When going back to the routing editor, you will now see that only two channels are used, the others are straight lines. The Routing editor will now allow you to move the stereo channels into place.
HTH
Fredo
thanks Fredo - yup, got all that pretty quickly, as you say very intuitive as soon as you instantiate the plugs first. See my earlier post as to why this (unfortunately) is not the solution we had hoped (although a valuable lesson/insight for me none-the-less).
It is one of the requests that might get into N7.
Currently, right clicking in the output panner of the channel allows you to choose a different panner/convert tool.
The idea is taht we should be able to choose the Mixer Delay plugin. That should do the trick.
Fredo
OK Fredo - thanks. Are you with Steinberg?
In any case - good to know an answer as to what can/can’t be done at the moment. I found the manual to cause me some confusion (see my earlier post re a particular page that suggests what I needed can be done).
I have updated my image to better reflect a potential scenario that better defines the problem. HTH generally.
thanks for all your help good people - appreciated. When i first trawled through this forum I saw a lot of gearslutz rubbish behavior - good to know there is balance.
a quick mockup of a (conceptual) solution. Of course, no idea on the programming challenges, I am just intuiting from the GUI what a potential approach might be. FWIW.
Nope. I am just pretending.
That is easy to do with multiple sends (which you can group, so they behave “in sync”), and to my opinion, it also offers more flexibility.
Fredo
Yes - I can understand why you would say that. There are of course limitless situations where multiple sends are still sensible, but there are also countless contexts where a single VBAP controller offers major creative and workflow advantages. While the routing is of course easily achievable using multiple sends, the gestural control is what makes the (very real) creative difference. Same reason I guess that synth manufacturers put vector controls on synths, and vector panners are used in the digital realm for surround rather than X-pot, Y-pot and level controls for each signal. Regardless, thank you.
\m/
Mattinay,
I have a couple ideas I would like to try.
Since I do not work in Surround, i don’t have the time to setup a test project and/or
write a lengthy list of things to try but…
I have a suggestion, could you post your Nuendo project file (.NPR)
We could all take a stab at getting it to work the way you want and then post
the working version back to this thread?
Thanks,
Brain
Sounds like a great plan. Will do. 
Any ideas? Thoughts? Workarounds?
\m/
I’ll admit that when I saw this post, I had high hopes of thinking through a workaround.
I can only think of 1 and it has it’s own set of issues/need to compromise.
You are correct, there seems to be no way to assign an input to either a group or Fx buss.
I had thought you were mistaken on this, but you were right.
This leaves only 1 option I can think of…
Instead of using group or FX channels, use Audio channels. Audio channels will allow you to have all the inserts/sends/EQ etc AND allow you to set the input of the track from the child busses.
The downside… you have to set the channel monitoring status so you can monitor through the audio channels. When I was using N3 you could have a channel with JUST the monitor button selected and this status would not change when you hit play or record. Now in N6 the monitor status turns off the minute you hit play (a situation that frustrates me Emmensily). So for the way N6 seems to be acting now you would have to put the channel into record ready, the major downside to this is that when you finally want to capture the final mix, you will also be recording audio to the childbuss fed tracks, creating a lot of needless audio files.
If the monitoring issue could be figured out then my idea of using Audio tracks would work fine. I invite anyone to tell me how I can select just the monitor button and have it’s status stay unchanged when you hit play.
Mattinay, I wish I could have found a more elegant solution.
all the best,
Brain
