Use a mono External effect on a stereo channel

Cubase
#1

I have a Townsend labs mic. It uses a stereo track. Records the front of the mic on the Left side and the back on the mic on the right side. You then add the Townsend Labs plugin to insert one or (or whatever insert you want). After that it is still stereo but is summed mono (same on the left and the right). Generally I only need mono inserts after this but the track is stereo so I just add stereo inserts if needed. With plugins it is no big deal to add a stereo insert and have a bit more cpu power taken. Now I have external effects I use. Say I want to use a external 1176 or something I only have one of. Check out pg 398 of

https://steinberg.help/cubase_pro_artist/v9.5/en/Cubase_Pro_Artist_9_5_Operation_Manual_en.pdf

The “routing editor” I can route the left ch to the right ch and so on. But how would I mono sum the L and R so I can use a mono plugin?

I still have to think about this (I am not at the studio right now as I am writing this so I may be wrong). Can I set this mono 1176 up as a stereo plugin by hitting F4 and summing it there? Can I use Blucat Patchworks and do something there? I tried bluecat Patchworks in the past and was not able to find where the steinberg/external effect were to load them.

#2

Can’t you just route to a mono group track and insert the mono external effect there?

#3

Yes, I can do that. But I was trying to keep it simple. If I have 10+ vocal tracks that gets sort of messy. But then I guess there would only be one or two that use an external mono comp. That is sort of what I do with guitars. I have a R-121 and a sm57 track then send those to one group and process that as a single entity.

It just seems there should be a simpler way to do this. I am going to NAMM in a few weeks. Greg Ondo who is always there seems to know more about Cubase than anyone I have ever met.


EDIT
The mono external insert would be better if it was added to a insert on the single track. Some times I do add stereo plugins to the vocal track. Like a ADT, Doubler, or MathewLane stereo delta or something like that. So, if I has to send the vocal stereo track to a mono group I would then need to send that to a stereo group after. Which would get really messy quick. There has to be a simple way to do this.

EDIT 2:

Okay, so I just though about this:

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/bx_control_v2.html

I bought this a few months ago for using MS from LR plugins but never actually used it much. I think I could set this up after the mono 1176 external hardware plugin set it to MS and only use the M then output to LR. I am not at the studio to try this right now. But this should work. I will try it tomorrow. That seems to be working this way:

http://oi64.tinypic.com/nofvrq.jpg

#4

@aroomstudios Did you ever figure this out? I’m in the exact same situation… just got a Townsend Labs Sphere, wondering how to use mono external gear with it. :slight_smile:

#5

What about using Mix6to2 after Sphere? Panning left and right channel only to the left. Behind that the external comp, plugin routing to mono & left. Finally another Mix6to2 that re-centers the signal.

Could work, can’t try at the moment. If it works, save a preset to note have to repeat this for all tracks.