Trouble with busses and trying to cut down on CPU usage

[xethicx]

Hey folks, I am running into a really annoying issue and I have somewhat of an idea as to how to fix it but not quite.

I am running a lot of plugins and I have hit the wall of pops and clicks. So I looked up a way to fix this by using busses but they aren't doing much for me, I assume I am doing a few things wrong so could I get a little help?

For starters, I quad track my guitars with two tones, I gathered that I would need a bus per tone so I tried that and I must have done it wrong because they sound really oversaturated and bad. Can someone explain the process or tell me a few ways I could cut way back on the PC usage?

I also believe I am needlessly running too many tracks. Is there a way to run a single stereo track and pan it 70% to each side without needing to duplicate the track and pan them 70/70?

Thanks so much,

[xethicx]

73 plugins and 90% of the CPU... yes, I know I am doing something very wrong.

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by xethicx

Is there a way to run a single stereo track and pan it 70% to each side without needing to duplicate the track and pan them 70/70?

Why yes, yes there is. Right click the pan knob and choose Dual Pan mode. However I'm not sure if this is going to help you. Then you would have two ampsims on one track, that means BOTH those ampsims get processed by the same CPU core. You want things to spread over the cores, so it's better to have one ampsim per track.


Also IMHO, if you do your tones right, there is absolutely no need to quad track. Two guitar tracks should be enough to blow your head off, if done right (paraphrased quote from mr. Anssi Kippo, mix engineer in Finland's Astia Studios, home of a LOT of kickass sounding metal records)!

[Lokasenna]

Amp sims will only work "properly" with hard-panned input signals.

- Make sure the amp sim is actually in stereo mode. Not all of them are, by default.

- Make sure the cab sim is also in stereo mode.

- Pan the guitars 100% going into the bus track.

- Use a stereo width plugin or use the bus track's width knob (right-click the pan knob to change the mode) to narrow them in.

[xethicx]

I started using some AUX tracks for all the tracks that involved the same FXchains and it seemed to work for a second but now, on the tracks that I am sending to the AUX, if you turn the track up, you can hear the clean guitar/bare wav file mixed into the FX tone. Not sure how to combat that. I changed the plugins to stereo, I won't worry about running single tracks and trying to pan inside the track, that seems counter productive but thanks because now I know it's not really a great idea. So the way of the Aux seems ok bus how does that differ from running a bus track for the repeating chains?

[deeb]

If bus==folder then Aux can be pré fading And pós fader. While folders dont.

[xethicx]

Ok.. so here's my remaining problem broken down into steps so I can explain it better maybe.

1. Create a new track, name it G1AUX for example.

2. Apply the FX chain to the Aux track.

3. Send the tracks needing that chain to the AUX.

4. Strip all effects off of those tracks I am sending to the AUX


When I hit play I can hear clean tone coming from everywhere. I solo the aux track and it sounds great but when it's not on solo or when I solo the tracks I am sending to the Aux, there's a mix of the tone from the chain and the bare wav with no effects and the clean tone gets louder as you turn up the fader for the sent tracks.

There has to be something little and silly that I am missing as always.

[deeb]

Maybe thís vídeo can help https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8tgP8UCcd2o

[Stella645]

I guess you didn't untick master send in the track routing.

[Lokasenna]

^ This. You can disable it from the mixer by Alt+clicking on the child track's Route button.

[xethicx]

Ok so, I figured everything out between talking to a buddy and you guys. I was using the bus and aux the wrong way and now I am running at a really low usage. Thanks everyone, as always.