Mixing down with guitar effects

[JerryT]

I’ve read through Phil Tipping’s manual and watched the YouTube videos. If the answer to my question is in there somewhere, then I must have missed it. Here goes –

When mixing down, if I want to include the guitar effect block in the mix, do I set the switch to the Rec or Play position? DP-24SD.

 

[Mark Richards]

Welcome to the forum.

"Record" prints the Guitar FX to the track being recorded.

"Play" inserts the Guitar FX into the signal chain (for monitoring) but does not print it to the track being recorded.

When mixing, "Play" prints the Guitar FX to the stereo master.

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

@Phil correct me if I have this wrong, but I think the correct answer is “both”.

That is to say, with the switch in either position, the “guitar” effect will be added to that tracks output as it feeds the stereo mix bus. Which gets recorded when you mixdown or bounce.

But you would use REC position if want the effect recorded on that track when it’s being fed by an input, and use PLAY if you did not (but still wanted to hear the effect in the monitors, for example to give a singer some comfort reverb).

At least I think that’s what I learned from Phil’s videos and the block diagram.

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

Mark, you said it better!

 

[JerryT]

Thanks, got it, and thanks for the welcome.

Follow-up question: What about including guitar effects in bounce mode or when cloning a track – does the Rec/Play switch position matter?

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

Pretty sure that the same logic and routing applies to bounce bus (when a track is selected as bounce source) as to main bus.

 

[Phil Tipping]

That's right, it matters.
As Mark said, when the effect is in Rec mode, the effect is inserted in the signal being recorded onto a track.
When in Play mode, the effect is inserted in the signal coming out of the track... which is either the signal which has already been recorded on that track, or the signal about to be recorded (you need to follow the block diagram to visualise this).
This means when you mixdown or bounce, the effect will be inserted into the source track output (when the effect is set to Play) on its way to the stereo mix or to the bounce mix target track.
In bounce mode, you could also insert the guitar effect into the mix as it gets recorded onto the target track (when the effect is set to Rec).
Cloning is not affected by the effects. It only clones what has been recorded onto that track.

 

[-mjk-]

I recommend using Record mode and printing the Guitar FX to the track so you don't have to use it in Play mode. The reason is, you'd have to keep it on all the time and the effect won't be available for anything else. Plus when it's on it limits the overall processing power of the unit and disables some other effects.

 

[JerryT]

Thanks again for all the advice. I was working on my current project last night and ended up using the Guitar Effect in Play mode on for the source track and bouncing it to the target track. Worked like a charm. Then I cloned the bounced track to another track to have two steel guitar mono tracks with Guitar Effects that I could pan left and right. Appreciate the help available in this forum for a newcomer. Also along the way, last night I learned how to use virtual tracks and engaged the Fader Group function. All in all, a productive evening. And oh yeah, the song sounded pretty good too!

 

[JSchmo_Bass]

Cool. If you feel like it, share some stuff once you get to where you want to be. There’s a spot down the Forum topics for Somgwriters to post links to SoundCloud or similar.