Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey this is Mattias with Propellerhead Software and in this Reason Sound Design video I'll give you
some tips on using send FX in your music.
So what is a send effect and why would you want to use it? Well, a send effect is an effect that's used
in parallel to the original signal, meaning you mix in the treated sound with the original sound
instead of replacing it. It also means you can send multiple channels of sound to the same effect.
This is traditionally used for reverbs and delays where you might want many sounds to be in the same space.
One of the tips I find most useful with send effects is quite simple, actually: EQ your sends.
Just like with your instruments, the effects also add a sound to your mix.
Making sure this sound sits right is just as important as getting the instrument itself to sit right.
A typical example of this is removing some low end rumble from a reverb.
Here I have a room reverb set up on a drum loop...
As you can hear it adds a nice ambience but the low end is really kind of muddy.
So what I want to do here is insert an EQ after the reverb... so I'm going to create one.
Route it in to the EQ and back to the return... and then I can remove some low end...
Much cleaner, right? Another trick is to use side chain compression on send effects, for example reverbs.
This allows you to make sure the reverb never clashes with, say, a kick drum.
It can be great for making your tracks pump if that's what you're after.
Here I have a synth line set up with quite a big reverb on it...
So to compress this reverb I'm first going to add an M-Class compressor and route it in.
Then as my side chain source I'm just going to take the insert FX output here from my kick drum
into the sidechain IN. Now if I adjust the compressor you can hear the reverb starts ducking for the kick drum...
That's a really useful effect.
There is a lot of talk about parallel processing, especially when it comes to compression and distortion.
This is actually something you can do quite easily with send effects.
I'll start by creating an Etch Red here as a send effect.
And load a patch.
I can now add this sound to my drum loop I've got going here, letting me add a bit of character
to the sound without actually effecting the original signal...
You can do the same with with compression and because it's up to you how much of the effected signal you want to return,
you can be quite extreme in the settings on your compression or distortion or any other effect, for that matter.
A final trick that I've found very useful is to return a send effect not on the effect return but on a separate mix channel.
This means that things like EQ, compression, and gating can be done right on the channel strip
that also controls the level of the send effect.
To set this up just create a send effect as you normally do...
Then create a mix channel. Flip the rack around and instead of going to the effect return
take the send effect and pipe it into the mix channel...
I can now treat this effect, this reverb, on the mix channel and even add insert effects to the send effect...
That's all for this video. Hopefully you got some ideas of how you can use send effects in clever ways to
spice up your tracks or improve your mixes.
If you try these techniques out, don't hesitate to send us an email with your track to productspecialist@propellerheads.se. Until next time.