Assigning custom effects to clip via automation, but live

[Nirnir]

Hello again <3

The challenge is this (I hope you find the patience to read through):

In my current situation, I have several audio tracks, each with its own set of effects. For example:
- a clean audio track
- an audio track with a reverb send
- an audio track with a distortion effect

Instead of using 3 different EFFECT/SEND-SPECIFIC tracks, I want to have 3 modular tracks, where I can decide (live) which effect/send will by applied to each clip recorded. (This is of course not a problem when it's not live...)

The intuitive solution is using automation - each track will contain all possible effects/sends, and each effect/send in a track will be turned on or off for each recorded clip (all effects/sends in all the tracks are conveniently mapped so I can instantly turn them on and off).

In reality, this doesn't work very well - automation is recorded WHILE the audio clip is being recorded. So I would have to 1) turn on the effect as soon as the clip starts recording, and 2) turn off the effect a moment before it finishes recording.

Not only this is inconvenient, but it creates gaps where the effect is not applied near the 'edges' of the recording.

The question is: Is it possible to force a parameter state (on/off for example) into a clip more conveniently? Or is there a much simpler solution I'm not seeing?

A million thanks <3

[S4racen]

If i'm reading it right i think you should investigate dummy clips... Route your audio to a dummy track which hosts clips (volume turned to zero) with the automation recorded on them...

Obviously you can't place clips in a return track to have automation on those effects...

Cheers
D

[Nirnir]

If i'm reading it right i think you should investigate dummy clips... Route your audio to a dummy track which hosts clips (volume turned to zero) with the automation recorded on them...

Obviously you can't place clips in a return track to have automation on those effects...

Cheers
D

Thanks for the reply!
This way the automation is 'embedded' right into the audio, but like you said, it won't work with send effects... (I automated the effects straight from the input track instead of using a dummy track)
Also, I wish to record sound while the monitor is off (to avoid latency), and this is also not achievable (to my understanding) with the dummy track method..

[bubbleandsquawk]

You CAN use dummy clips with return tracks. Route the audio from the return track to an audio track, and place your effects on that audio track (leave the return channel empty). Now you can control any parameters you like using dummy clips on the audio track.