Need Help Understanding Sends and Effects

I want to make sure that I'm doing things correctly when using sends.

I create a Pre-fader send on a particular track. Then from there I add the amount of signal to -0.0. Then I go to the send channel and add my Reverb or Delay.
So, now this is where I get confused ...The Wet/Dry signal on the plugins. I usually put the dry signal all the way up and the wet signal down more. Am going in the right direction here?
 
What DAW are you using? Which plug-ins?

The best way is to use the Sends to the plug-ins and then route the output of the plug-in to it's own track so you have fuller control over the mix of the effect.

Your approach also works on adjusting the wet if you're only using that send effect with one instrument. If you used that send for additional instruments (like adding some verb to all your drum channels for a unifed sound) you'd want to adjust the send amount so you could better define how much the effect is effected by the plug-in.

There's no right or wrong answer if it sounds like what you're trying to create! Keep going!!
 
Think of the the send as being similar to a wet/dry. If you put a reverb on a single track as 10% wet, then you have 10% less dry of a signal (because it's now only at 90% dry instead of 100%). Additionally, if you want to adjust the amount or "wetness" of the reverb later, you're going to affect the dry signal as well (doubling the reverb to 20% would also chop off another 10% of the dry signal).

With a send you keep your original track 100% dry all the time, then adjust the reverb on the send to 100% wet and you can adjust the mix by turning the send track up or down in volume. By adjusting the send/reverb track up or down in volume you can adjust the wet signal without affecting the dry signal. This is all very basic send stuff though. The real power is in selecting a reverb, delay, or other effect and routing multiple tracks to it. This way you can have the same effect across multiple tracks without duplicating the effect you're using on each track and killing your computer processor. If you want your drums to be dryer than your keys, no problem. Just send less of a signal, maybe -20, on the drums and send the keys over at -5. It's super handy.

Taking it even another step further, you can process your effect chain without it messing with the raw instrument sound. A common example would be putting some eq on your reverb send so you can thin it out and leave more room in your mix without having to cut frequencies from the dry part of the signal. Most reverb's have this built in so you could do it without a send, but you can be more creative and try putting a phaser, flanger, weird panning, etc. on your reverb send to really mess with things.

Hope that helps, there are a lot of potential ways to improve your effect chains with sends. This is just grazing the surface.
 
When using a buss the general practice is to have the signal 100% wet. The wet/dry is for when you use the FX on an insert on the channel.

If you're using a buss and reduce the Wet-Dry (if it's one knob) you'll be mixing more of that channel back into the mix/master. If you want to reduce the wetness of the FX simply turn down the FX fader.
 
If you're using a buss and reduce the Wet-Dry (if it's one knob) you'll be mixing more of that channel back into the mix/master. If you want to reduce the wetness of the FX simply turn down the FX fader.

Yep. It gets very messy trying to get your levels right if your send FX let some of the dry signal through as they end up contributing to the overall volume of the original track.
 
What DAW are you using? Which plug-ins?

The best way is to use the Sends to the plug-ins and then route the output of the plug-in to it's own track so you have fuller control over the mix of the effect.

Your approach also works on adjusting the wet if you're only using that send effect with one instrument. If you used that send for additional instruments (like adding some verb to all your drum channels for a unifed sound) you'd want to adjust the send amount so you could better define how much the effect is effected by the plug-in.

There's no right or wrong answer if it sounds like what you're trying to create! Keep going!!

Logic Pro X - Any currently using the stock Delay/Reverb Plug-ins. Looking into Waves H-Series Reverbs/delays.

Ok cool, so lets just say I'm adding effects to just my main vocal (e.g. make a send and put an echo or reverb on that particular aux track). When I'm using the plug-in itself do I put the DRY all the way up and then adjust the "wet" control to my liking? I think you pretty much answered that in your reply lol, and that's what I been doing thus far. However, I'm just confused by what where the Dry knob and wet knob. Is the dry knob just essentially like a input/gain control of how much of the send I'm letting into the plug-in?
 
Ok so the screen shot attached is how I would set up my vocal effects. For the vocals I push the send to 0.0 and then keep the dry signal at 100% --- I'm assuming this is correct, or the rule of thumb here?
 
When using a buss the general practice is to have the signal 100% wet. The wet/dry is for when you use the FX on an insert on the channel.

If you're using a buss and reduce the Wet-Dry (if it's one knob) you'll be mixing more of that channel back into the mix/master. If you want to reduce the wetness of the FX simply turn down the FX fader.

thank you for the easy advice!

Hmm.. So I leave the bus send at 100% dry and 100% wetness as well then just use the channel fader the adjust the amount?
 
yes... You might want to adjust the send level. This is how you control the level between the different sounds going to the same reverb. Don't forget to time sync the predelay.

Here's a pro tip. Stick a compressor BEFORE the reverb on the insert, activate the sidechain, trigger the sidechain from the same channel going to the reverb. This is essential for delays on vocals but you might want the comp after the delay, i'm still undecided whats best here.
 
I might be misreading it but you seem a little confused GFunk about the wet/dry. Sorry if I'm just re-explaining it and you already got it.

If you were adding reverb to vocals using a send...
1) on the original track, don't use any reverb at all
2) "send" the track just at 0.0 to make it simple
3) on the send track, put a reverb effect on it and make it 100% wet
-this way you have one totally dry track and one with only reverb and nothing else, solo each one to hear what I mean
4) if you want to turn the reverb down and back off a little DON'T change the wet/dry on the send track, just turn the volume down! (either by "send"ing less of the original track by changing 0.0 to -10 or something, or adjusting the volume directly on the send track itself)

Hope this clarifies a little?
 
Man thank you for explaining that in simple terms! This is starting to make a bit more sense and I feel better now lol.

So this goes for the same for using sends on instruments then? Just use the sends to control how much effects it gets?
 
Thanks guys this has got me going in the right direction and I feel like it opens up a lot of doors now!

With that being said does anyone have any delay/limiters that they can suggest that they love and are easy to use?
 
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