Thanks to a number of users here , i finally tried out LSP Send/Return in Qtractor and found them to be a very beginner friendly option to achieve an Automation-capable Mixing workflow in Qtractor.
I wrote up a quick little tutorial draft and posted it on linuxmusicians.com
(as usual, do let me know if this post doesn't belong here, I'll be glad to delete, I just wanted to share my little writing :), and any feedback is greatly appreciated)
below is the text for quick reference:
(You already need to know how to add tracks, plugins, achieve automation on tracks, use Aux Sends, manage Bus Connections in Qtractor)
Here's a basic example setup.
You have two synthesizer tracks.
You want to send the audio output of both of them to a Track Group (or a Bus) so you can use one instance of a reverb plugin on both the tracks.
With a regular Audio(or MIDI) Output Bus in Qtractor, you can't directly automate Buses properties (or the parameters of plugins on these Buses) like you can with Tracks. So if you want to automate certain parameters of the reverb plugin on the bus, you need workarounds. Below is one such fix that may work for you. It utilizes the LSP Send and Return plugins (so make sure to have LSP plugins (such as lv2 version) installed ).
You add LSP Send plugin (below synth instrument plugins) on both synthesizer tracks. For each Track, Open the GUI of LSP Send, click the LINK button, type a new name ( LINK name on both plugin instances should be unique)
You add a new Audio Track. Add two LSP Return Plugins in that Track. For each plugin instance, open GUI, click LINK, and select the correct name from drop down.
Now underneath the two LSP Return plugins in this new "Track Group" track, add your desired reverb plugin.
This is now your synth Reverb Bus for practical purposes. (and you can automate all parameters of this reverb plugin)
If you want separate Dry/Wet Bus for the two synth tracks, set the dedicated audio output of the two synth tracks to the same regular Qtractor Audio Output Bus. And set the dedicated audio output of the "Reverb Bus/Track Group" track to a separate regular Qtractor Audio Output Bus. Then use Aux Sends to send from both audio output buses to a final mixdown bus/master bus, for example.
If you only want the signals from the two synth tracks to go to this "Track Group/Reverb Bus" track and then to a mixdown bus, for example, turn down the dedicated audio output bus they are both assigned to (create a dedicated new "dummy" audio output bus for such purposes to avoid messing with other tracks' output bus, and make sure no signal is being forwarded to anywhere from this "dummy" audio output bus).
(Not to mention, you can also easily adjust and automate Input levels, Send/Return levels and Output levels of these LSP Send and Return Plugins. And this is just a basic example setup guide.)
re. another quick little tutorial...
wholly thanks, again
ps. just shortened the topic title a bit :)
Thanks for the "How to"
The possibilities are truly endless now.
I'm going to do it this way.
First, I'd like to say that I've gone back to AuxSends and removed all the Inserts from my buses. They're really easier to work with.
(As for being able to use faders on buses, maybe one day we'll have assignable faders on buses and tracks. That would solve many feature requests... but it's a big, unnecessary development, so... :).
Basically, it would involve assigning any element in plugins to the faders, just as we can assign any element to automation. If CC messages could also be assigned in the case of MIDI tracks, the potential would be enormous. By default, they would be assigned with Pan/Balance and Gain/Volume, but they could be changed at any time.)
Back to the topic.
Currently, the way the buses communicate is with AuxSends.
I already have my template with everything routed.
If I want to automate a bus, I create a track. That houses the LSP_Return and and the plugins moved from the original bus.
I'm deleting AuxSend; it's no longer needed. The original bus now only houses the LSP_Send plugin.
The output of that track will be the original destination of the Bus's AuxSend (most likely the BusMix).
And I'll call that track A_BusName (that is, the automation of the Bus named Name).
That is, I start with:
Tracks > [X-Bus {Effects}] > [Destination Bus]
If I need automation, it becomes:
Tracks > [X-Bus] > [Track A_X-Bus {Effects}] > [Destination Bus]
I just create one more step, so all the original sends from Tracks to X-Bus will continue to work the same, whether direct or via AuxBus.
I'm going to do it this way because this way I can keep my flows and templates intact, and I can create automation tracks on demand.
But of course, there are infinite ways to approach it. I'm just sharing mine.
Thanks for sharing your…
Thanks for sharing your method!
Yes, your method also reduces the number of LSP Send/Return plugin instances needed, which is super useful for actual multi track projects.
Trade off is that the output gain (which goes to synth dry bus, for my example) and send gain (which goes to wet effect bus) can't be separately automated for each individual synth track.
Add new comment