New External FX Plugin

[21seven]

Agree that there is a ton of space for inprovement on this, and that it should be a high priority as hybrid mixing is so common nowadays. Lot of good suggestions here. Definitely there would be amazing:

• dedicated extenal FX plugin
• higher accuracy with time alignment
• automatic time alignment
• mix control for parallel processing
• able to bounce down without real time when external effects are bypassed
• input/output metering

These would change my life. Please Steinberg, please!!

[raylamannasr]

@Funkybot

This was discussed a bit in the General forum, but the External FX process would benefit from an overhaul IMO. The current process only works well if the number of External FX you have doesn’t exceed the number of outputs. If you have a limited number of outputs, a patchbay, or link hardware processors together in the analog domain via a patchbay, the limited External FX process in the current Cubase requires constant attention/tweaking.

What I’d like to see instead:

1. A generic “External FX” plugin
2. This plugin should include the ability to set any input and output directly from the interface (except perhaps those outputs linked to the master out/control room)
3. Adjustable Send and Return gain
4. A polarity flip control
5. Mix knob (how cool would it be to blend a latency compensated dry signal with the wet signal?)
6. Bypass button
7. Display the [compensated] latency in samples
8. Input and Output metering
9. A way to see the incoming waveform to make sure you’re not clipping the converter somewhere along the way
10. Should detect whether the plugin is on a mono or stereo channel and adjust the input/output list accordingly
11. The ability to save presets

The idea would be to use the generic External FX plugins as many times as needed in the mix, and just configure each instance as required. Once you had a setup you know you’d use again, or if you just wanted to mimic the current process, you could save a preset for use in the future.

If you’re familiar with Studio One, this is very similar to how Pipeline works

Please please, please. This would be a godsend.

[albiedamned]

I’m checking in on this topic. I’m still using 10.5 Pro. Were any changes made to how the External Effects plugin works in 11 or 12? I just looked over the documentation and it appears that no changes were made, but can someone confirm that? This may be a dealbreaker for me since I’ve been bashing my head against the External Effects plugin a lot lately. I may choose to switch DAWs rather than upgrade from 10.5.

[Dayz_K]

Did this ever evolve yet through and up to 13?

[Paul_Zaleski]

Sometimes this DAW stuff, with the plug ins, AI etc, just my own really humble opinion can “steer”, " distract" or “inspire us” to " take it to the limit". I’m an old school guy from Memphis who still remembers getting the guys together after a paying session, getting the sound from room placement and microophones, turning on the mono machine and hope like hell we cut a record good enough to sell 1,000-2,000 copies. Sometimes I miss those days, but I’ve been with Cubase since 5.1. I bought every update, all their VSTs, I try to stay away from 3rd party plug-ins. I just spent too much on a package of plug ins that should be able to “clean the barn”. Found out that in the long run, Cubase has what I want “covered” . Only thing I haven’t figued out is how to knock the Bass guitar out of pahse. Doing this really puts the bottom end tighter. But I have to remember that this stuff is to make records that sell, and you don’t need a 400k board to make it sound like you have one. I was lucky to engineer the best musicians of my day who literally taught me how they wanted their instrument to sound, and eventually produce some decent people who knew how to make a record , or " magic". I’ve neever posted anything on these boards. They are really good and I learn a lot from the contributors who know the tech end much better than I do. I’m still looking to keep making a living in an industry where kids could make records on their phones. I love this AI stuff cause I could stem out some tracks from the 70’s and really have fun. I found DEMIX 5 the best so far. Thanks