Small things you can do to improve workflow: Plug-in organization

[Sundown]

Hey all,

 

I’m sure most DAWs support this, but having moved to Cubase 12 Pro from 6.5 earlier in the year, being able to create a custom, simplified plug-in selection is new to me, and Boy is it welcome …

 

Whether you own a lot of plug-ins or you’re simply overwhelmed with the bundled, factory choices, being able to create your own folders and only show the ones you really use is a huge workflow improvement. There’s no more diving through sub-menus to find a plug-in you use 90% of the time.

 

You’ll notice on the right-hand side that (in addition to my “Go-Tos” folder) I put Fabfilter’s Pro Q3 equalizer and Klanghelm’s VUMT meter outside of the folders and at the very top of the list. I use them so often that I don’t want to have to menu dive at all. 

 

I did the same type of customizations in Wavelab 11, and Boy it really speeds up workflow and makes mixing/production more enjoyable.

 

Todd

[KuruPrionz]

I have my plugins organized in folders. The top folder is Favorites and has a few gems that I use often. 

There is more I can do and will. A good plugin can work wonders but I try to get the sounds I want with as few as possible.

[Anderton]

32 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

A good plugin can work wonders but I try to get the sounds I want with as few as possible.

 

I'm the same way, which simplifies matters. Studio One has a Favorites folder, and most of what I use fits in that without becoming too unwieldy. I also use the option to hide plugins (e.g., if a program installs mono and stereo versions, and you never use the mono one, or all the trial versions UA installs). That works for me. 

[KuruPrionz]

58 minutes ago, Anderton said:

 

I'm the same way, which simplifies matters. Studio One has a Favorites folder, and most of what I use fits in that without becoming too unwieldy. I also use the option to hide plugins (e.g., if a program installs mono and stereo versions, and you never use the mono one, or all the trial versions UA installs). That works for me. 

As one example, I put a Scorpion 10" into my Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 and if I dial that in correctly and mic it, I won't need any plugins at all for the guitar parts. I usually let acoustic guitars be acoustic guitars and don't use much of anything on basses. If you adjust the pickups correctly you can even out the response, lower them and make the low E side of the pickup even lower. I use EMG P-bass pickups because there are 2 pickups set for 2 strings each so it's easy to get a balanced sound. Vocals, maybe but maybe all I need is  a little reverb on the complete mix. In that case, I run a mix, add it back to the tracks and add reverb to that, blending it in with the rest of the mix. I prefer having clean tracks plus effects instead of effects on what were clean tracks. The difference is small but I hear it. 

[The Real MC]

Almost done organizing plugins.  Have three left on the top.

[David Emm]

"Favorites," heh... I have precious few outboard plugs. Logic is so well-equipped, its never reached the level of needing a separate management utility. I once fretted over that a bit, but came to realize that I can live in a very basic environment and get where I need to go. I'm a big fan of looping sections and addressing EQ issues by hand. Its precise and fun.

 

I've enjoyed using Xfer's Dimension Expander, as well as my Valhalla plugs, but Music Hack's Master Plan is the overall MVP. The sound quality of things today is so high, I don't feel much need for outboard processing. A few basic functions and careful synth tweaking on the fly cover me handsomely. If I was in the mastering engineer's chair more than I am, I'd probably possess a few more tools, but for what I like best, its already a little slice of Heav'n.

[Sundown]

Hey all,

 

My workflow is a bit different. I almost never use the built-in console features in Cubase (e.g. EQ, Compressor, etc). Other than providing a level fader and a pan control, the console is really just a set of insert and send slots for me. 

 

I’m sure there is nothing wrong with the Cubase EQ, but if I’m going to be doing any EQ’ing (and I always will be), it’s just easier for me to use Pro Q3 for consistency. I’m always rolling off anything below 30 Hz (and typically anything above 15-18 KHz) and I’m typically dipping-out mud in the 200-400 Hz range. And usually if I’m stacking multiple parts, I’ll need to carve-out more of the high or low-end to get a nice blend. Reverb and Delay returns also get a Q3 instance (typically with high and low roll-off) right before the reverb or delay plug.

 

The same is true of reverb and delay. The factory ones are probably fine, but I don’t want to go diving through sub-menus and hunting for the instance I want. And if I’m going to use a reverb or delay, I might as well aim for the best quality (which is typically going to be third-party).

 

I always try to fix issues first through the arrangement, then through synth programming, but once I get into mixing I find it easier to just use a consistent set of insert plug-ins that I know really well. I don’t want to stare at the tiny knobs in Cubase.

 

Again, different strokes.

 

Todd

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Sundown said:

I’m always rolling off anything below 30 Hz

 

You might want to check this out - Should You Use Highpass Filters when Mixing? There are some cautions that may apply to you if you use parallel tracks or do acoustic recordings.

[Sundown]

Hi Craig. Good article. Since I read your EQ book, I always use Linear Phase with Pro Q3 for HPF, typically to a “High”. It doesn’t have the slick feature of only doing Linear Phase for the HPF (like Studio One), but even my 11-year-old PC can handle a lot of instances of Pro Q3 with Linear Phase on High. I rarely use “Very High” or “Maximum” as you can’t do Dynamic EQ at those settings. Linear Phase filtering is another reason I don’t typically use the built-in Pre filters on Cubase.

 

I have recorded acoustic instruments or voice at times, but 90% of my work is synths and samplers so the parallel/phase issue is less of an concern. But these synthetic instruments tend to push out a lot of energy at sub-sonic levels, so filtering has become second nature to me.

 

Todd

[Anderton]

14 hours ago, Sundown said:

But these synthetic instruments tend to push out a lot of energy at sub-sonic levels, so filtering has become second nature to me.

 

Yes!!! Especially with sound design. I was going for an intergalactic cosmic explosion sound, and dropped a cymbal sample several octaves. It created a subsonic waveform that almost looked like is was modulating the audio with a tremolo. This totally demolished the available headroom.

[Sundown]

No surprise, you can do the same thing with VST instruments and sort the wheat from the chaff…

 

 

[Stokely]

I haven't checked the latest Logic, but they (IMO) kinda half-assed this.  If anyone ever did wiki markup years ago, it's kinda like that...you make levels ("folders") by typing things like category:pluginname and so on.   I've found it fairly clunky and I'm a sql programmer so I imagine a non-techie user would quickly get frustrated.
 

Logic by default puts all 3rd party plugins (instruments or effects) under one main folder then has a breakdown by manufacturer.  So you always have at least two menu levels to get to anything.   That gets old really quickly if you use a lot of non-Logic stock plugins.

Another thing I need to get into doing, and I suppose most or all DAWs have something similar, is saving the channel strip if say I'm using a combination of plugins often.  For example, a low cut EQ and a favorite channel strip for color (I like the Neve Lindell 80 from plugin alliance on most instruments).   I'm not sure if it saves any sends you may have set up, I'd hope so.   Which leads to a similar thing, an overall template where you can have your fx sends ready to go, maybe drummer tracks in place and so on (and of course you can have different templates for different genres).   One big timesaver is if you use Kontakt multi-outputs routed to individual tracks...only have to do it once and save it in the template.

[Sundown]

3 hours ago, Stokely said:

Another thing I need to get into doing, and I suppose most or all DAWs have something similar, is saving the channel strip if say I'm using a combination of plugins often.

 

I think software is getting better overall in this arena. With the latest version of Cubase you can store presets for inserts, etc. and you can certainly create a starting project that has all of your channel setups in place. I hate having to disable/enable plugin delay compensation (so I don’t like to add a bunch of processors by default), but you can always save your template with the processors turned off and they are just a click away.

 

Todd

 

 

 

 

[Bill Heins]

I have my plugins and instruments sorted by company in Nuendo...next stop is sorting into categories in each folder I've been working like this for a few years now so the next sort might be a while away

 

Bill