User manual

198
Audio effects
• To use the pan control as a crossfader, determining the
balance between the stereo sides when the stereo send
signal is mixed to mono, route a send from a stereo chan
-
nel to a mono FX channel track.
• To use the surround panner to position the send signal
in the surround image, route a send from a mono or stereo
channel to an FX channel track in surround format.
You set up send panning in the following way:
1. Open the Channel Settings window for the audio
channel.
2. Right-click somewhere in the Channel Settings win-
dow (not the EQ display), to open the context menu and
open the Customize View submenu.
3. From the submenu, select “Send Routing” and “Con-
trol Strip”.
In the Send Routing section of the Channel Settings window, each send
is shown as a small routing diagram showing a pre/post selector to the
right and a pan fader (where applicable). In the Control Strip section, you
can activate the “Send Routing Panners follow Channel Panner” option.
The send panners will then follow the pan for the channel, making the
stereo imaging as clear and true as possible. This behavior can also be
set as default for all channels. The corresponding setting is available in
the Preferences dialog (VST page).
The Sends, Send Routing, and Control Strip sections in the Channel Set-
tings window
4. Click and drag the pan control for the desired send(s)
in the display.
You can reset the pan control to the center position by [Ctrl]/[Com-
mand]-clicking on the pan control.
• If the FX channel is configured in a surround format, the
pan control will be a miniature surround panner, similar to
the one found in the Mixer.
You can click and drag the “ball” in the miniature panner display to posi-
tion the send in the surround field, or double-click in the display to bring
up the surround panner. See the chapter
“Surround sound (Cubase
only)” on page 217 for details.
Ö If both the send (the audio channel) and the FX chan-
nel are in mono, the pan control is not available.
Using the side-chain input
Many VST 3.0 effects feature a side-chain input. Side-
chaining allows you, for example, to lower the music vol
-
ume when someone is speaking (“ducking”) or to use
compression (e.
g. on a bass sound) when the drums are
hit, thereby “harmonizing” the intensity of the two instru-
ments. Another possibility is to use the side-chain signal
as a source for modulation.
The effect types which feature side-chain functionality are
Delay, Dynamics, Modulation, and Filter.
Ö Certain combinations of tracks and side-chain inputs
may lead to feedback loops and added latency. If this is
the case, the side-chain options will not be available.
Creating a Ducking delay
The delay repeats can be silenced by side-chain signals
exceeding a certain threshold.
You can use this feature to create a so-called “ducking
delay” for your vocals. Let’s say you want to add a delay
effect that is audible only when no signal is present on the
vocal track. For this, you need to set up a delay effect
which is deactivated every time the vocals start again.
Proceed as follows:
1. Select the vocal track.
2. On the Project menu, select “Duplicate Tracks”.
Now you can use the vocal events on the second track to silence the de-
lay effect.
Send Routing Panners
follow Channel Panner
!
For detailed descriptions of the plug-ins that feature
side-chaining, see the separate PDF document
“Plug-in Reference”.