How many sends do people really ever use?

[ModuLR]

In the process of reacquanting with c++, I've ported Senderella over from delphi. I made a few adjustments to it (like sound won't get trapped in the buffer and make buzzing noises if you scan across channels while audio is playing thru it, etc.. that made it a tad less efficient tho).

in any case.. then I got to thinking... senderella isn't really practical if you needed a shitload of sends anyway. It would be kinda cool to just create a *simple* send. The way this would work is that it has no channels to select from at all. It simply has a mode... send or receive, and the amount of signal to send. The trick is that it will only talk to dll's with the same name.

So if you copy this simple send and rename it send1.dll, send2.dll, send3.dll etc... you can have a list of labeled sends which will only talk to identically labeled instances. Throw that all in a sends folder in your vstplugins dir and we''re good to go. send1 sender will talk to send1 receiver, etc. You can already do this with Senderella as is, but eliminating the channels would actually make the plug even more efficient.

anyway just throwing that out there for some non groundhogin' discussion..

[AD80]

Thats actually the way I've been doing it for a long time. I have Senderella1, 2, 3, 4, etc. I really only use about 2-3 per project. Everything else is inserts. So if you could eliminate the channels and make it more efficient it would be great for me.

[EnzymeX]

ModuLR,

I typically use 3-4 sends per project in most of my hosts. I think your idea is great!

Note: I'm not yet on the Tracktion bandwagon, but I did evaluate T1 with Senderalla over the summer, and I was very impressed with your plug! Thanks for making it available to all of us!

[AD80]

I'm not yet on the Tracktion bandwagon

Then get outta here you! Scram

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I've used about 6 sends in one project that I was doing a LOT of weird signal manipulation, but it was an experiment (lol). Practically, no more than 5.

[Lunch Money]

I don't use sends at all. <shrug>

Greg

[piaz]

Neither do I, Racks have replaced Senderella for me.

[djsubject]

in the lack of bus sends i think Senderella is great ok so u can do the same to a rack but how long dose it take i played for a bit then downloaded Senderella! dose doing it in a rack insted save CPU? if so then maby ill play with it again but 4 the newbies this is a must have (i think)

all so y copy & rename dll's wen we have presets??
& it's like 10 secs to set it up do i miss somthing big here if so plz point it out

p.s i use 3 to 4 sends per trak

[ModuLR]

well I went back and looked at the code and removing the channels doesn't improve efficiency... so that being said, I'm just gonna finish putting this minor update together and leave the params as is. I think the code executes a lot better in this one.. but I don't think the diff will be noticeable (other than killing the buzz if you switch channels while audio is playing thru.. still won't fix the muting sender buzz tho - but there isn't anything that can be done about that one).


@djsubject -
With regards to Senderella vs. Racks... The racks are more efficient... but what I hate about sends with the racks is the latency (cos I use a 11-20ms buffer most of the time)... so I prefer senderella too. Also, from the sound of it, most folks don't have a ton of sends anyway, and it takes quite a few to start diggin' into cpu.. so I don't worry about it.

BTW, renaming the dll is just another option... the benefit being you can look on a track and visually id what sends are sending to what returns without having to open the plugin to see the channel. Renaming the dll whatever1,2,3... etc will make it such that... that specific dll will only send to another with the same name.

I never thought about using presets actually... yet another good alternate! w00t!

[AD80]

... the benefit being you can look on a track and visually id what sends are sending to what returns without having to open the plugin to see the channel.

Yup. Thats exactly why I do it. Its great.

[rockstar_not]

ModulR,

First off - kudos to you for trying to cover one of the few deficiencies of Tracktion. I haven't personally thanked you before, so here it is:

Thank You! (I would put in some cute emoticon thing, but I don't really have one that works)

I don't currently use sends, since I haven't had the need yet.

I would like to do a simple send of multiple tracks to a single reverb plug, where the amount that I send to the plug is a graphic control. Then the output of the reverb plug shows up in the final output bus.

Everybody says to use racks for this, but it still seems too complicated for someone that has a mixer paradigm to work from. This is the one issue I have with the lack of a proper mixer in T. I've gone through the lessons at ADBE and it still is a little foggy to me when I sit down and try to do it.

I haven't really needed it so far, since what I have been doing is simply putting reverb plugs on whatever tracks I need it on, but probably this isn't so CPU friendly.

If the plug looked like a knob, which would go into the filters, where the knob is the amount of that track one sends to a labelled destination; and the destination was easily visible as another track, then I could actually understand that I think. Is that what you are proposing?

-Scott

[valley]

Everybody says to use racks for this, but it still seems too complicated for someone that has a mixer paradigm to work from. This is the one issue I have with the lack of a proper mixer in T. I've gone through the lessons at ADBE and it still is a little foggy to me when I sit down and try to do it.

I think the trick is not to try and understand how to do things, but to understand what racks do. This is the bit that is hard to visualise 'cos it isn't very visual. You just need to develop an intuitive feel for it.

That said, would it help any if I uploaded a project with some rack presets that show some of the different rack configurations? Maybe if they were pre-built people might find tinkering with them an easier way to learn them?

[ModuLR]

sorta...

basically... if you take the senderella.dll and copy it to send1.dll, send2.dll, send3.dll, etc and place that in a folder you'll have clearly labeled send plugins.

then for example, if you want to send tracks 1-4 to a reverb on track 9...

you'd place send1.dll on tracks 1-4, then make sure "send" mode is selected. Next, you place a send1.dll on track 9, then make sure "receive" mode is selected. Now if you go to tracks 1-4, there is a parameter that's label amount.. and it controls the amount sent from that particular track to the receive track(s).

the send1.dll will only communicate to other send1.dll's ... thus send2.dll will act like a totally seperate send/return unit. This can also be accomplished using the channel parameter in senderella... but you will lose the visual feedback AD80 and I were talking about.

shit, I dunno if that made it clearer or a lot more confusing...

[valley]

btw, late answer mod:

typically I'd use no more than two sends.

Though I tend not to use sends much at all, 'cos SIR has such a huge CPU and latency hit that I bounce more often that anything else.

[gizmo]

I use Senderella ALL THE TIME! It enables me to use GPO and send all the instruments to one instance of Soniformer, Curve EQ, and Ambience or SIR. Zimple but it vurks. Thanks as always ModuLR from someone who couldn't code their way out of a paper bag.