Logic Pro 9 Vocal Routing

[twotonbrick]

Quick question (this obviously doesn't just pertain to Logic Pro),

I want to route some of my vocal tracks directly out to a bus (say, bus 1), which has an external compressor on the bus channel (obviously using the I/O utility).

I would also like to add some reverb to the vocal track (not by simply using a reverb on the channel strip, but via a bus so that I can control the amount of reverb on each of the vocal tracks).

Sooo...would you recommend that I take the reverb bus (say, bus 2) and output that into bus 1...then to the main out)?

If I simply route bus 2 (the reverb bus) out to the main out, then I'm going to be leaking some of the vocal track (without compression) to the main output.

I'm aware that there are no 'rules' on how to do this - I'm just looking for some standard routing configurations that are used successfully.

Thanks for your time and help!

[couch11]

External compressor on the insert of buss 1. Create an aux send on buss 1, post fader, and send that to a stereo aux track. Insert a reverb plug on the stereo aux track and set the out of that aux track to the main outs.

[twotonbrick]

Originally Posted by couch11

External compressor on the insert of buss 1. Create an aux send on buss 1, post fader, and send that to a stereo aux track. Insert a reverb plug on the stereo aux track and set the out of that aux track to the main outs.

Thanks for that - but won't that mean that any of the vocal tracks that hit that reverb plug will hit it with the same amount of wet-ness/dry-ness thus not allowing me to control how much reverb I want on each channel?

The only way I can think of routing this is to have the bus 2 (reverb) output directly over to bus 1 (compression)...then to main output.

That will still give me a duplicate signal routed into my compressor (a dry signal, and partially wet signal).

Is that right?

Best,
Tommy

[mcgruff]

I'd just put 100% wet reverb on bus 2 and set up some (post fader) sends direct from each vocal track. Does logic give you a volume control on a send? I expect it does: use that to control the effect depth individually for each track (more reverb and lower dry volume makes the item sound farther away and vice versa). Bus 2 would output straight to the master outs. You can probably just forget about compression on the reverb I/O but a high pass and a low pass on the way in can be very useful to cut out low end mud and excessive high frequencies.

[DistortingJack]

What I do (and it works wonders for me) is I route EVERYTHING to busses.
I've got a standard template with 10 track busses (srums, bass, rhythm electric, lead electric, synths, main vox, backing vox, etc) + 4 reverb/delays.

What I do is route all main vocals to the same buss, which has a send to the reverb. This is the standard amount of reverb the vocals should have.
Then if I need to have one of the vocals with more reverb, I just turn a send to the same reverb on the track itself. It will sum with the buss and that's it.
Easier than just having custom ones for every track btu still customisable!

[twotonbrick]

I think I've come up with a solution (many thanks for the suggestions).

1. Route my vocal outputs to a bus (with compression), then out to main outputs.

2. Setup a send on the vocal track out to another bus (with reveb), the bus that reverb bus to the compressor bus, then out to the main mix.

This will give me a static compressor setting for the vocals being sent to the compressor bus, but will allow me to dial in how much reverb I want sent through the chain.

Does that sound right? Anything I might be missing here?

Best,
Tommy

[twotonbrick]

Originally Posted by DistortingJack

What I do (and it works wonders for me) is I route EVERYTHING to busses.
I've got a standard template with 10 track busses (srums, bass, rhythm electric, lead electric, synths, main vox, backing vox, etc) + 4 reverb/delays.

What I do is route all main vocals to the same buss, which has a send to the reverb. This is the standard amount of reverb the vocals should have.
Then if I need to have one of the vocals with more reverb, I just turn a send to the same reverb on the track itself. It will sum with the buss and that's it.
Easier than just having custom ones for every track btu still customisable!

Very helpful, thanks!

[mcgruff]

I suspect the wet reverb signal will be too low to hit the compression threshold and therefore there's no point in passing it through the compressor.

[twotonbrick]

Originally Posted by DistortingJack

What I do (and it works wonders for me) is I route EVERYTHING to busses.
I've got a standard template with 10 track busses (srums, bass, rhythm electric, lead electric, synths, main vox, backing vox, etc) + 4 reverb/delays.

What I do is route all main vocals to the same buss, which has a send to the reverb. This is the standard amount of reverb the vocals should have.
Then if I need to have one of the vocals with more reverb, I just turn a send to the same reverb on the track itself. It will sum with the buss and that's it.
Easier than just having custom ones for every track btu still customisable!

Hey there - I tried this, but when I send the vocal tracks directly out to a bus, I lose the ability to affect panning.

I realize that I could simply use a send (to the bus), and choose post pan, but my preference would be to send the tracks directly to the bus (while still having pan control).

Thoughts?

[couch11]

Send your vocal tracks to a stereo buss.

[twotonbrick]

Originally Posted by couch11

Send your vocal tracks to a stereo buss.

Ahh...got it..thanks!