# Cubase: Can't get Send for FX (Reverb) to work



## gohrev (Oct 26, 2019)

Hi everyone,

I switched to Cubase Pro 10 yesterday, and although the learning curve is quite steep, it also feels very intuitive. No regrets.
Now, the one thing I can't figure out, is how to get the FX track to "work". I inserted Spaces II for a simple little reverb plugin on the "Inserts", selected the respective FX track as a "Send" on my Instrument track, and... nothing.

Tried other plugins, didn't get any of them to work.
They all work like a charm when I insert them directly into the Instrument track.

I must be overlooking something...?


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## I like music (Oct 26, 2019)

berlin87 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I switched to Cubase Pro 10 yesterday, and although the learning curve is quite steep, it also feels very intuitive. No regrets.
> Now, the one thing I can't figure out, is how to get the FX track to "work". I inserted Spaces II for a simple little reverb plugin on the "Inserts", selected the respective FX track as a "Send" on my Instrument track, and... nothing.
> ...



I am a complete noob for what it is worth, but that's the way I do it, and it works.

When you select the Send on your instrument track, is the plugin name 'greyed out'? I think I remember clicking the "on" button and it goes green. Then you know it is working I think. Then you can set the level too. Have you done the 'grey' to 'green'?

T


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## gohrev (Oct 26, 2019)

Thank you for putting the old thinking cap on, @I like music ! I can confirm that the plugin is _not_ greyed out, neither the Insert itself nor the Send. Level is set to 0.0 for now, which should be fine. Not that it made any difference when I set it to 6.0, sadly.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 26, 2019)

To show you how a working setup looks like, the easiest way is:

Select your instrument track
Right Click -> Add Track -> Add FX Track to selected tracks
Then go into the mixer and view the two tracks.
This shows how you setup FX tracks. Of course you can set them up manually too.


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## I like music (Oct 26, 2019)

berlin87 said:


> Thank you for putting the old thinking cap on, @I like music ! I can confirm that the plugin is _not_ greyed out, neither the Insert itself nor the Send. Level is set to 0.0 for now, which should be fine. Not that it made any difference when I set it to 6.0, sadly.



Ah, sorry to hear this. Have you tried doing it via a Group track? Just to see if it works (or as a short term solve while you figure out the core issue?) I was told by someone that there isn't a huge difference between Group and FX tracks, but I might be wrong on that.


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## MarcusD (Oct 27, 2019)

By default Cubase will have routed the selected channel to the FX bus, however you need to activate the send. Expand the "Sends" tab in the mixer on the channel you created a send for. Turn on the listed send in the inserts (it'll be greyed out) and it'll then turn light blue, you can adjust how much of the signal is sent to the fx bus. 

You can also create new sends by clicking on an empty insert in the sends tab. Then selecting where you want the signal to go.


P.s if you click the speaker icon on the send you can change between pre and post.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

MarcusD said:


> By default Cubase will have routed the selected channel to the FX bus, however you need to activate the send. Expand the "Sends" tab in the mixer on the channel you created a send for. Turn on the listed send in the inserts (it'll be greyed out) and it'll then turn light blue, you can adjust how much of the signal is sent to the fx bus.
> 
> You can also create new sends by clicking on an empty insert in the sends tab. Then selecting where you want the signal to go.
> 
> ...



I hope this isn't derailing the thread, but a very quick question slightly related to this. What does pre and post actually refer to? Never even noticed it was there until you mentioned it.

Similarly, if for some reason I'd like to apply a single EQ to take some bottom out from _all_ my tracks simultaneously _before_ the signal reaches the reverb, would there be a way of sticking an EQ in the FX strip before the instance of the reverb? Or should an EQ not be placed in this context (since it would be treated as a Send right?)


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 27, 2019)

I like music said:


> I hope this isn't derailing the thread, but a very quick question slightly related to this. What does pre and post actually refer to? Never even noticed it was there until you mentioned it.


It refers to the point where the send takes the signal from.

Pre-Fader:
The send signal is taken before the channel's fader.
If you pull down the fader the send is still fully active.

Post-Fader:
The send signal is taken after the channel's fader.
If you pull down the fader also the send signal is attenuated accordingly.

I use Post-Fader sends for Reverbs. Because if I pull down the fader also the reverb is attenuated. The send knob then sets the ratio of dry/wet.
This is most logical to me. If I pull down the instrument all the way, I don't want to hear its reverb.

If a Pre-Fader would be used to send to Reverb FX, then you would still here the full reverb, even if the instruments fader is pulled all the way down. In this setup the fader controls the dry instrument volume while the send knob controls the wet Reverb volume of it.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 27, 2019)

I like music said:


> Similarly, if for some reason I'd like to apply a single EQ to take some bottom out from _all_ my tracks simultaneously _before_ the signal reaches the reverb, would there be a way of sticking an EQ in the FX strip before the instance of the reverb? Or should an EQ not be placed in this context (since it would be treated as a Send right?)


Yes you can stick an EQ before the Reverb on your FX track.
That is absolutely fine.
I saw many people rolling off (especially low and high) frequencies on reverbs like this.
Some place the EQ before the Reverb some after, some people even do both.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> Yes you can stick an EQ before the Reverb on your FX track.
> That is absolutely fine.
> I saw many people rolling off (especially low and high) frequencies on reverbs like this.
> Some place the EQ before the Reverb some after, some people even do both.



Thank you so much. For some reason, I had it in my head that if I did this, then there would be an un-EQ'ed signal going to the output + the EQ'd signal going to the output (therefore two competing signals). Not sure where I got the idea from.

By the way, good luck with your BBCSO template RAM usage issue. I hope it resolves as I'm really looking forward to hearing more demos!


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 27, 2019)

I like music said:


> Thank you so much. For some reason, I had it in my head that if I did this, then there would be an un-EQ'ed signal going to the output + the EQ'd signal going to the output (therefore two competing signals). Not sure where I got the idea from.


In principle it is.
A "send" is a signal path parallel to your original track.

If you put the EQ on the FX bus:
The original instrument track goes to the output un-EQ'd.
The send bus with reverb (or whatever you have there) is EQ'd.

If you want your original track also be EQ'd you would have to put the EQ directly on your track as an insert (your tracks in that way can't share a single EQ, you would have to place one on each).
In case you want apply an EQ to multiple tracks you can also create a sub group, route the tracks through it and put the EQ into an insert slot on this group bus.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> In case you want apply an EQ to multiple tracks you can also create a sub group, route the tracks through it and put the EQ into an insert slot on this group bus.



Aha! So this has to be a *Group channel track?*

Is this what you're referring to?






Group Channel Tracks


You can use group channel tracks to create a submix of several audio channels and apply the same effects to them. A group channel track contains no events as such, but displays settings and automation for the corresponding group channel.




steinberg.help


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## MarcusD (Oct 27, 2019)

You can send the direct output of single tracks to a group track to control a "group of tracks" on one fader to. This also gives you the option to apply additional processing using the inserts or channel strips.


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 27, 2019)

I like music said:


> Aha! So this has to be a *Group channel track?*
> 
> Is this what you're referring to?
> 
> ...


It all depends on what you want to affect with your EQ.

If you want to EQ many tracks it is easiest to sum them all in such a group track and put the EQ in an insert there.
If you only want to EQ your send reverb put it into the reverb FX track.
If you only want to EQ a single track, put it onto the track.

Of course this works for other effects as well not only EQ.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> It all depends on what you want to affect with your EQ.
> 
> If you want to EQ many tracks it is easiest to sum them all in such a group track and put the EQ in an insert there.
> If you only want to EQ your send reverb put it into the reverb FX track.
> ...



Thank you! Yes, what I was trying to do was this:

_Before_ my instruments went to the reverb, I wanted to take some bottom end out of them, so that the signal that hit the reverb had this bottom end removed. And I wanted the same EQ settings to apply to all the tracks. So in this scenario, looks like the 1st option will be best. 

From there I guess the group track can be routed through to an FX track where the reverb sits, and we're good!


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

MarcusD said:


> You can send the direct output of single tracks to a group track to control a "group of tracks" on one fader to. This also gives you the option to apply additional processing using the inserts or channel strips.



Yep. I _think_ it all makes sense now. Thanks a lot for your help!


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## Manuel Stumpf (Oct 27, 2019)

I like music said:


> Thank you! Yes, what I was trying to do was this:
> 
> _Before_ my instruments went to the reverb, I wanted to take some bottom end out of them, so that the signal that hit the reverb had this bottom end removed. And I wanted the same EQ settings to apply to all the tracks. So in this scenario, looks like the 1st option will be best.
> 
> From there I guess the group track can be routed through to an FX track where the reverb sits, and we're good!


From this I get: you only want to EQ the signal going into the reverb? Then you could just pop it into the FX channel before the reverb and you're done.
Only if you also want to EQ the signal of the original channel you'd have to do some extra work.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

Manuel Stumpf said:


> From this I get: you only want to EQ the signal going into the reverb? Then you could just pop it into the FX channel before the reverb and you're done.
> Only if you also want to EQ the signal of the original channel you'd have to do some extra work.



I tested both, and I got different results, and now I think I have some more serious reading to do. I think what has also happened here is that when I was balancing my template, for ease and speed I was tweaking section volumes at the fader level in the channel strip. Once I was happy with the volumes, I decided that I'll bring the faders all back up to 0, and instead just transfer the db values to Kontakt's master level.

However, I guess that because now I transfered the 'volume' levels to the start of the chain, they are causing a different reaction in the reverb and on the EQ. Separate issue to the one that you helped solve for me (for which a great deal of thank you!) but I just undid two days of work because now my 'orchestra' sounds very very different :(


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

berlin87 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I switched to Cubase Pro 10 yesterday, and although the learning curve is quite steep, it also feels very intuitive. No regrets.
> Now, the one thing I can't figure out, is how to get the FX track to "work". I inserted Spaces II for a simple little reverb plugin on the "Inserts", selected the respective FX track as a "Send" on my Instrument track, and... nothing.
> ...



Did you manage to resolve it? I'm sorry, I actually completely forgot that this wasn't my thread or my issue. Let us know if you had any progress! I'm sure someone can help.


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## labornvain (Oct 27, 2019)

This might be helpful.


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## I like music (Oct 27, 2019)

labornvain said:


> This might be helpful.




Ah, amazing. Thank you so much!


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## gohrev (Oct 27, 2019)

MarcusD said:


> *By default Cubase will have routed the selected channel to the FX bus, however you need to activate the send. Expand the "Sends" tab in the mixer on the channel you created a send for. Turn on the listed send in the inserts (it'll be greyed out) and it'll then turn light blue, you can adjust how much of the signal is sent to the fx bus.*
> 
> You can also create new sends by clicking on an empty insert in the sends tab. Then selecting where you want the signal to go.
> 
> ...



Lord have mercy.. this was the one thing that I overlooked. Works like a charm now.
Thank you @MarcusD and to all who tried to help me out!!


PS: Can you tell me more about the difference between / benefits of pre and post?


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## JamieLang (Oct 27, 2019)

Yes--if I'm compressing the pee out of a pop vocal, I'm going to send to reverb prefader (and thus pre compressor)...because otherwise, the ambience will be too...lacking dynamics. It will be too loud and I'll have to turn it down more...and then I won't be able to hear it...but, if I send before the compressor--the actual louder sung parts will get "more reverb" than the intimate whispered ones, like intended...the compressor will keep it right focused up front--every syllable audible, while the reverb is way back there until they belt it...which is pretty much how our ears hear ambience anyway.

Similar I would assume if you're riding faders on strings to swell if you make it pre fader, when you push it up louder, it will get drier/closer, and visa versa...where if it's post fader, louder will alos bering more reverb wash.

There's a million reasons...but, that's usually MY big one.


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## gohrev (Oct 28, 2019)

Thank you, @JamieLang —— all clear!


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## I like music (Oct 28, 2019)

berlin87 said:


> Thank you, @JamieLang —— all clear!



Lets hear that reverberating music then!


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## MarcusD (Oct 28, 2019)

berlin87 said:


> Lord have mercy.. this was the one thing that I overlooked. Works like a charm now.
> Thank you @MarcusD and to all who tried to help me out!!
> 
> 
> PS: Can you tell me more about the difference between / benefits of pre and post?



Pre = Signal gets split before your track fader chain and sent to the bus. (Unprocessed track signal)

Post = Signal is split AFTER the track fader chain and sent to the bus. (Processed track signal)

Just depends on how you want to tackle the material. They both work slightly differently as the fader can effectively become gain control for the bus rather than controlling the gain using the send input slider.

I'll update this post later (tricky typing off me phone)


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