Super simple wet/dry vst?

[ozonepaul]

In one of the kvr "effects" forum posts someone was asking this:
"There are times when it is cumbersome to to set up sends or duplicate tracks for parallel processing when a particular dsp plug lacks a wet/dry mix.
I'm looking for something which provides a simple wet/dry mix knob for such cases."
I never thought using sends/duplicate tracks was a real problem but as I started to think about this I thought a super simple wet/dry plugin would be great. Is there already some melda plugin that could do this? (They mentioned Blue Cat's Patchwork as a solution.)
see the original discussion here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=520357

[DarkStar]

Some DAWs already provide this functionality.

As do many of the individual MeldaProduction FX.

A simple mix plug-in would not be sufficient. You would need two inputs - 1 dry, 1 from the effect(s), so that means duplicate tracks or sends, which you want to avoid. Or, the plug-ins could be loaded inside the Dry/Wet Mix plug-in - hence the suggestion of Patchwork. MeldaProduction's MXXX will also do it, but it does not load third-party plug-ins.

[masitito]

There is a different solution, which involves two plugins. A sender right before the effect, which sends the dry signal to the receiver right after th effect. The receiver will mix the wet signal from the norml signal chain with the signal from the sender.

Sending and receiving works as the measring plugins of Melda and others show. But in this setup the receiver must no the plugin delay introduced by the effect. I'm not sure if is this is possible.

Masi

[sirmonkey]

Out of curiousity, what effects are you using that don't have a wet/dry knob?
There's Melda MRatio, which you could use to do parallel processing, but that would probably be more involved than using sends or busses in your case.

[sirmonkey]

Hey, wait minute....maybe I'm not thinking about this right, but...
I assume the effects are meant to be inserts, and not sends. So, 100% wet, right?
Why not just stick a simple gain knob in front of the effect? Or maybe a gain knob before and after the effect? Wouldn't that work?

[ozonepaul]

...But in this setup the receiver must no the plugin delay introduced by the effect. I'm not sure if is this is possible.

I agree, I also think that the delay introduced by the insert effect plugin is the main problem.
To clarify how I understand the original question, as an example let's call the plugin "XY distortion". Basically a "dry/wet plugin" would have to:
1. split the audio signal into 2 audio signals just before the signal reaches "XY distortion" (and crucially this XY distortion can be made by any plugin company);
2. send the first audio signal through the "XY distortion";
3. send the second signal without any processing to it's own "dry/wet plugin receiver end";
4. where the "dry/wet plugin" also calculates the delay introduced by the "XY distortion";
5. than the "dry/wet plugin" adds the necessary delay amount and merges the 2 signals back together and the mix amount would be controlled by the dry/wet mix knob;
6. (I guess also the delay introduced by the "dry/wet plugin" itself needs to be considered).

It would be great if this could be done with not only a single insert "XY" plugin but also with a chain of "XYZW..." plugins.

I hope the original idea is a bit clearer now.

[MeldaProduction]

Yeah, well, that would mean VST hosting , which is the last resort, and since there's plenty of more interesting things to do, then I'm afraid no luck here. If you can use your DAW and a secondary bus/track/whatever_nomenclature_your_daw_is_using, then MRatio would be a simple solution .

[ozonepaul]

Fair enough!
Thanks for the response though, I understand your point. I've seen this video about MRatio parallel processing:

I think I'm happy to stick with the usual sends/duplicate tracks parallel processing.
Thanks anyway