Distortion and Saturation as an FX send

[Daniel Carroll]

Anyone know the correct way to use camelphat3 as an fx send? When I apply it to a send, and have 0 distortion added the master goes up a few decibles even though i havent added ANY distortion/EQ/Compression etc. Is it even advisable to use these as a send effect? When I add just 5% distortion it starts to clip even though im peaking about -10

 

[Adrian-MarQ]

You are just increasing the original signal when the plugins isn't doing anything (about +6 dB). What I would do is either make a copy of the original audio and apply the distortion to that copy (very similar to what you are doing, except without the send) or I would route the send and the original to a bus/group mixer track.

Not everyone uses these type of effects as sends, but you can get a lot more flexible with the use of sends. For example, you can EQ the distortion so that it you don't end of with unnecessary or unpleasant sounds.

 

[steffeeh]

I suppose the reason why the level goes up is because you're blending in the send with a dry signal at 100 % correct phase - that's like stacking a second instance of the sound ontop - the volume will increase. Distortion is more used as an instance in the plugin chain, if you want to use it as a send you better tweak it heavily, or as Adrian pointed out, adding extra processing to the distorted sound itself.

And whenever you add distortion you need to compensate the output gain, as distortion simply make the sound louder.