send or insert effects

[janamdo]

If a look at the song in Mulab 3..dream of teh piano it is not at once clear for me (forgive my plain english otherwise i must use a dictionary) what the insert or send effects are in this song

The racks showing only white rounds and there 2 effects in this song
The 3 instruments do have a stereo echo send effect and the piano has a extra muverb effect what acts like insert a effect, but is configured as send effect, but now only works for one instrument

I am not sure if am correct..and that it make sense.
Is it not possible to put a S(end)or a a I(nsert)on the white rounds ?
I like the idea to see what effects working on the instruments
Further what takes more processing power a insert or send effect ?

[Eggu]

http://www.mutools.com/mulab/tutorials/ ... index.html

[janamdo]

Yes thanks, i know this tutorial
About effect routing there is more..information to be found and it seems the type of effect is important to use it as a insert or send effect
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- generally, EQs, filters and dynamics (compressor, gate, etc.). are used as channel insert (if stereo, also as master insert), to use specific settings for each track;
- delays and reverbs are usually used as aux send/return, to spare processing power and/or to make the same effect available on more channels;
- modulation (chorus, flanger, phaser, etc.) and distortion effects can be used in both ways; if they are used as insert, you use the "mix" parameter to adjust the amount of dry and effect signal; otherwise you use the "aux send" to add effected signal to the dry one; note: chorus, flanger etc. usually work best at around 50% dry + 50% effect settings;
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The racks and the master channel altogether function like a mixer

Well it should be handy if the white rounds can be used by the user of mulab3
He or she can mark this white rounds as a insert or master effect
If this can be done by programming ?
- what makes a insert effect : insert in a instrument slot only
- what .....
no too complicated ..let me do it by hand than

[MuTools]

Yes thanks, i know this tutorial
About effect routing there is more..information to be found and it seems the type of effect is important to use it as a insert or send effect
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- generally, EQs, filters and dynamics (compressor, gate, etc.). are used as channel insert (if stereo, also as master insert), to use specific settings for each track;
- delays and reverbs are usually used as aux send/return, to spare processing power and/or to make the same effect available on more channels;
- modulation (chorus, flanger, phaser, etc.) and distortion effects can be used in both ways; if they are used as insert, you use the "mix" parameter to adjust the amount of dry and effect signal; otherwise you use the "aux send" to add effected signal to the dry one; note: chorus, flanger etc. usually work best at around 50% dry + 50% effect settings;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

That sounds good.

Best to use it as a guideline, not as a rule <-> keep your musical freedom

Well it should be handy if the white rounds can be used by the user of mulab3

What do you mean by this?

"The white rounds" are the rack slots when a rack is collapsed, but you can expand (widen) a rack so you effectively see what's in the slots.

[janamdo]

Well it should be handy if the white rounds can be used by the user of mulab3.

What do you mean by this?

"The white rounds" are the rack slots when a rack is collapsed, but you can expand (widen) a rack so you effectively see what's in the slots.

The whole thing for me is to see easy in MULAB3 what a insert or what a send effect is in the serie racks
Now it are all white rounds and i do want see a letter inside : I or S what can be manually be set in the slot by the user

So than i can see the effect routing more overall ..music making on this way is also..controlling and exactly know what to do

[MuTools]

Note that when you hover the mouse over a "white round" MU.LAB shows the name of the module in a tooltip. Maybe that helps?

[janamdo]

Note that when you hover the mouse over a "white round" MU.LAB shows the name of the module in a tooltip. Maybe that helps?

It helps a little bit but is see a lot of "white rounds" with no information
I can open a rack one for one and see the slots or hover the mouse over the rounds , but that information disappear because i don't want to memorize this slotinformation.

Better is to give by the MUlab user a color(to choose) tot the slotrounds for the 2 effecttypes of insert or send
e.g send effects ..green en insert effects ..red as example

[MuTools]

Note you can also choose to keep all racks expanded all the time:

Right-click the collapse/expand button at the top-left of a rack and unselect the "Auto Collapse/Expand" option. Maybe that helps more?

[janamdo]

All what matters are the instrumentracks : what are there the insert or send effects in the slots
Also the master track can have a insert effect

All not-instrument racks are for effect routing
To find a general method to set up effect routing in MUlab 3 that is the goal

[janamdo]

Note you can also choose to keep all racks expanded all the time:

Right-click the collapse/expand button at the top-left of a rack and unselect the "Auto Collapse/Expand" option. Maybe that helps more?

Yes, expanding the racks gives information about the effect routing, but more informative is the situation with a lot of racks to keep them closed and look at the slots color what effect routing is going on

Seems to me that you get more grip on the effect routing

[sorohanro]

My opinion about racks, sends, instruments and effect inserts:
The feature that really make Mu.Lab to stand out of the (quite big) crowd of virtual studios is the very unique way of free routing and modular structure.
If a rack would be just an instrument rack and a mixer strip would be just a mixer strip, then all the concept would be messed.

Also, having more and more visual features I think would clutter the very nice and clean GUI.

For me it's easy if I name each module of what it is (the sends I name just by effect, as you can see in "Dream Of The Piano", the reverb send is named "MuVerb") and the "expand all" option really don't leave any question about "what is what".

However, I sent to Jo another updated version of "Dream Of The Piano" which takes a bit more advantage of routing freedom and I'll kindly ask him to rename the sends as "reverb send" and "delay send" to be more clear.
The intention of these demo tracks is to give you an idea of possibilities of Mu.Lab, so, making those more clear is for the better.

[janamdo]

yes Mulab is indeed a remarkeble music program, but i ask only as user that i do have the freedom to give the white rounds a color

There is no chance in the current GUI at first sight ..a small jump menu withcolors to choose from is enough

[sorohanro]

Well, I would like to have that freedom too... actually not a bad idea...
I would go for freedom of having colored modules/ mixer strips too but I don't know how many resources would take...
Maybe Jo can tell us his opinion over it...

[MuTools]

Something about coloring modules/racks/... is on the whishlist, but it's not for the short future, rather a possible m4 thing. (it's also linked to some other topics on the whishlist)

[janamdo]

Well, I would like to have that freedom too... actually not a bad idea...
I would go for freedom of having colored modules/ mixer strips too but I don't know how many resources would take...
Maybe Jo can tell us his opinion over it...

No problem for the resources i think
In mulab 4 perhaps than a clearer view to see what is going on

Thanks for the song