automating effects on a drum stem

gatorgrips · 27th April 2009

I'm trying to mix a song right now and I want to put some distortion on the drums, but only at the end of the song (the last 15 seconds or so).

So I made a drum stem and put anteres tube plugin on it. Then I went into the plugin and put the master bypass to automation, but when I tried to draw the automation (on/off) it had no effect. It is constantly on.

Another way I could do this is to make a stereo audio track and record the drums with distortion on them on this secondary track. Then I would have to fade the regular drums out and the dist drums in at the end of the song. But that makes changing the distortion settings a bitch cause I would have to rerecord it every time I want to change the dist settings, so I would prefer to just automate the plugin.

But why the **** won't it listen to teh automation line? it just completely ignores it and i'm getting pretty frustrated. Is master bypass not what I think it is? Am i just ******** and not seeing something here(probably)? Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome.

rcb4t2 · 27th April 2009

Is the track set to "read" automation? Also, what program are you even using??

gatorgrips · 27th April 2009

using PT7 and track is set to 'read'.
I open the plug (on the drum stem) and click the 'auto' button, then put master bypass over on the automation side. then i go to the waveform menu and put it to the master bypass and draw the curve (on/off) where I want it to turn on.

since I couldn't get that to work I ended up making a new stereo audio track and busing the drum stem to it. then i put the distortion plug on the drum stem and recorded the part with distortion on it and faded the normal drums out and the distorted drums in. but every time i want to change some small facet of the distorted drums (more fuzz, less cymbals, whatever) I have to re record it. kind of a pain in the dick.

you can hear a rough version of the song at myspace.com/mcspilly . It's called bang bang. it still has scratch guitars and is in the early stages of mixing, but it's 2 minutes long and you can hear what i am trying to do on the drums at the end.

rcb4t2 · 28th April 2009

Hmm, maybe the master bypass is not the setting you need to automate? What other options are there? I'm not a PT guy but maybe the automation is on the wrong track somehow? Can you set the plugin bypass automation so that it is automating the PT bypass, rather than the plugin's internal bypass?

27th April 2009	#1
gatorgrips Gear interested Joined: Apr 2009 Posts: 9 Thread Starter	automating effects on a drum stem I'm trying to mix a song right now and I want to put some distortion on the drums, but only at the end of the song (the last 15 seconds or so). So I made a drum stem and put anteres tube plugin on it. Then I went into the plugin and put the master bypass to automation, but when I tried to draw the automation (on/off) it had no effect. It is constantly on. Another way I could do this is to make a stereo audio track and record the drums with distortion on them on this secondary track. Then I would have to fade the regular drums out and the dist drums in at the end of the song. But that makes changing the distortion settings a bitch cause I would have to rerecord it every time I want to change the dist settings, so I would prefer to just automate the plugin. But why the ** won't it listen to teh automation line? it just completely ignores it and i'm getting pretty frustrated. Is master bypass not what I think it is? Am i just ****** and not seeing something here(probably)? Any ideas or suggestions would be awesome.

27th April 2009	#3
gatorgrips Gear interested Joined: Apr 2009 Posts: 9 Thread Starter	using PT7 and track is set to 'read'. I open the plug (on the drum stem) and click the 'auto' button, then put master bypass over on the automation side. then i go to the waveform menu and put it to the master bypass and draw the curve (on/off) where I want it to turn on. since I couldn't get that to work I ended up making a new stereo audio track and busing the drum stem to it. then i put the distortion plug on the drum stem and recorded the part with distortion on it and faded the normal drums out and the distorted drums in. but every time i want to change some small facet of the distorted drums (more fuzz, less cymbals, whatever) I have to re record it. kind of a pain in the dick. you can hear a rough version of the song at myspace.com/mcspilly . It's called bang bang. it still has scratch guitars and is in the early stages of mixing, but it's 2 minutes long and you can hear what i am trying to do on the drums at the end. Last edited by gatorgrips; 27th April 2009 at 10:40 PM.. Reason: sp

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27th April 2009	#2
rcb4t2 Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2006 Location: New Orleans, LA Posts: 2,798	Is the track set to "read" automation? Also, what program are you even using??

28th April 2009	#4
rcb4t2 Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2006 Location: New Orleans, LA Posts: 2,798	Hmm, maybe the master bypass is not the setting you need to automate? What other options are there? I'm not a PT guy but maybe the automation is on the wrong track somehow? Can you set the plugin bypass automation so that it is automating the PT bypass, rather than the plugin's internal bypass?