Old 08-19-2017, 01:00 AM   #1
Marquez
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Default General Discussion: VCA´s

Hi Reapers,

just curious how many of you guys are working with VCA´s.

It is a very powerful tool indeed, but to be honest I´m not sure if it really is such a great gain over just selecting tracks and use them as a temporary group?

And there is one drawback too: Say, I have my drums in a folder and apply a compressor to the folder - when working with a VCA fader for the drums, it will affect how hard I hit the compressor on the folder. So ultimately I´ll have to revisit the compressor (or any FX) on the folder (just as I would have to do when just working with selected tracks as a temp group).

So, VCA´s can´t just be set up to be a one time set & forget fader, right?

What´s your thought on that? What´s your prefered way of gain staging/ working with Folders, Aux Busses, VCA´s...?

And - did VCA´s enhance your workflow?

Feel free to chime in and share your thoughts :-)

Cheers,

Marquez
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Old 08-19-2017, 01:59 AM   #2
Krisena
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I use VCAs myself on all my FX tracks (reverbs, delays etc.) so that when I mute/solo/adjust the level of the master FX track, all its slaves will be affected. It lets me control all my FX tracks together regardless of where in the project they're located.

If the fader levels are too high across the board, usually a once-per project situation at most, I will just select all the instrument tracks and drag all their faders down in one swipe... no VCA needed.
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Old 08-19-2017, 02:23 AM   #3
Marquez
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Hi Krisena,

thanks for sharing, and actually that´s a great idea. Why haven´t I thought about that?

That actually solves the problem of a track fader affecting the dry/wet ratio when using a pre-fader send to another track, right?
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Old 08-19-2017, 02:54 AM   #4
Krisena
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Yeah, I think VCAs could do that, depending on what kind of processing you're doing on the FX track. However, my system wouldn't do that very well.

You'd probably want to set the instrument track as VCA Master and its pre-fader FX track as slave. This way, when you adjust the level of the instrument track, the FX track will also be adjusted post-FX.
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Old 08-20-2017, 03:00 PM   #5
planetnine
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VCAs are just a different animal to busses/folders.

Don't think of it as an either/or choice, use folders for buss compression, and VCAs for fader/automation control.



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Old 08-20-2017, 03:12 PM   #6
timboid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marquez View Post
And - did VCA´s enhance your workflow?
Yes.
I use a controller and set up 8 VCA faders on top of the project. I then set those eight faders such that all tracks in the session follow one or another VCA. So those 8 VCA are my main points for writing automation for the whole project, I have pretty much everything under my fingers all the time.
Indeed, VCAs are not working the same as folders, but that setup forced me to use simpler routing and now I almost not using folders at all. Previously I would have folders within folders, and it quickly became very ugly.
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Old 08-21-2017, 02:40 AM   #7
Marquez
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timboid View Post
Yes.
I use a controller and set up 8 VCA faders on top of the project. I then set those eight faders such that all tracks in the session follow one or another VCA. So those 8 VCA are my main points for writing automation for the whole project, I have pretty much everything under my fingers all the time.
Indeed, VCAs are not working the same as folders, but that setup forced me to use simpler routing and now I almost not using folders at all. Previously I would have folders within folders, and it quickly became very ugly.
Hi timboid,

thanks for joining and for the input. And you got a point here, folders within folders really are ugly.
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Old 08-21-2017, 02:42 AM   #8
Marquez
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Quote:
Originally Posted by planetnine View Post
VCAs are just a different animal to busses/folders.

Don't think of it as an either/or choice, use folders for buss compression, and VCAs for fader/automation control.



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Thanks planetnine :-)

I think I´ll go that route actually.
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Old 08-21-2017, 02:44 AM   #9
Marquez
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Thank you all for sharing, folks :-)

VCA´s do make much more sense to me now - thanks.
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Old 08-21-2017, 03:41 AM   #10
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I don't think they are practical with nested folders though. I just duplicate famine all the child folders and have no busses in that case.
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