The Real Deanc2000 wrote:Hello all.
I'm starting to learn about using saturation in mixing, but I was wondering one thing. If you want to use a little bit of saturation on an individual instrument, is it a send effect or is it an insert effect?
If it was a send, I would be able to conserve CPU by just using one saturation plugin, but if it's an insert, then I'd have to instantiate multiple plugins for each instrument.
Thanks.
As long as the effect doesn't induce latency, it should work OK as a send. The problem I have with this approach is that you need two controls for saturation FX, a "drive" and a "level". The drive knob controls the color (and this would be equivalent to the "send" knob when in your example) and the FX Return then becomes the global "level". But what to do if you need more drive on one channel, but that ends up making the saturation effect too loud for that one channel? If you turn down the return, you turn down ALL channels feeding the saturation FX, when then changes the levels you've previously set on those channels. There would be no single setting that would account for all situations unless you just happen to get lucky and are OK with the global level.
The other advantage (over saving CPU) to using a send is getting the saturation to be more subtle by running it in parallel, but there are ways to accomplish that with inserts such as to use an effect that allows this, such as Pulveriser. In that situation, the "drive" is built into the device (Dirt), and the "level" is controlled by the Blend (dry/wet) control.
However, and this is a big one, there is one further consideration. Just as with a compressor on a bus vs individual compressors on each channel, using individual saturation gives a different effect than sending multiple signals to a single saturation or compression device. This is because both processes are non-linear with regards to level, and there is some interaction between the signals in the single device that will not exist in the individual devices. With each, the loudest instrument coming into the single device will set the tone for all. With compression, the loudest instrument will pull the level down on all the rest (a very desirable effect in some cases!), and with saturation the loudest instrument will saturate all instruments more than they would be saturated if feed individually (and there may be intermodulation distortion/saturation as well).
So the answer is that you will get different results with each approach, and the results with a single saturation device on a send will most likely not be the same as with individual saturation devices on each channel. Think of it as the difference between recording to analog multi-track and saturating each track vs sending the entire mix to a two-track recorder and saturating the entire mix. IMO, it's more subtle with the individual approach, and more "obvious" with the global approach - choose wisely, as sometimes you'll prefer the former while others you'll prefer the latter.
I suggest doing an experiment/comparison to train your ears to hear the difference, both with saturation and with compression, so that you'll learn which approach gives you the effect you're looking for in each situation.
Often times, especially with compression, I find I need a little on individual tracks (not all tracks), a little on a sub-mix (bus) especially with drums, and a little on the entire mix - each does something unique, and each can be more subtle (and thus less 'destructive') since you're doing a little bit at multiple stages rather than a lot at one stage. Make sense?