Adding Plug-Ins to a Soft Synth

You can apply standard DirectX or VST audio plug-ins to MIDI tracks by adding effects to the soft synth channel strip where the track is routed.

WARNING

When input monitoring is on during audio recording, audio effects chains that contain non-in-place plug-ins are displayed in yellow () to indicate that automatic plug-in delay compensation is being used. Chains that cannot be used for live monitoring are automatically bypassed and are displayed in red ().

When using Acid software as a ReWire device, any effects chain that includes non-in-place plug-ins is automatically bypassed to prevent synchronization problems with the ReWire mixer application. The effects chain icon is displayed in red (). Apply the plug-ins within the ReWire mixer application.

Add effects to a soft synth Closed

Using the bus track header

  1. Click the Synth FX button on the soft synth bus track. The Plug-in Chooser window appears.

    The Synth FX button is displayed in gray when a soft synth does not have effects assigned.

  2. Select each plug-in you want to add and click the Add button or browse to a packaged effects chain.

    TIP To reorder the plug-ins within the chain, drag a plug-in button to a new location or click the Shift Plug-In Left or Shift Plug in Right buttons.

  3. Once you have added all of the plug-ins and specified the plug-in chain order, click the OK button to close the Plug-In Chooser and display the Audio Plug-In window.

  4. Adjust the settings for the effects. For more information about using specific plug-ins, click the Plug-In Help button .

Using the Mixing Console

You can also use the Insert FX control region in the Mixing Console to edit the effects chain for each soft synth.

For more information, please see "Add or edit soft synth (insert) effects" in Soft Synth Channel Strips.

Edit effects Closed

  1. Click the Synth FX button on a soft synth bus track to open the Audio Plug-In window.

  2. Use the Audio Plug-In window to enable/bypass effects, edit effect parameters, and add/remove effects from a chain. For more information about using specific plug-ins, click the Plug-In Help button .

TIP You can also use the Insert FX control region in the Mixing Console window to edit the effects chain. For more information, please see "Add or edit soft synth (insert) effects" in Soft Synth Channel Strips.

Automate effect parametersClosed

If a plug-in supports automation, you can add envelopes to a soft synth's bus track to automatically adjust effect parameters over time.

For more information about using automation envelopes on tracks, please see Adding Audio Track Envelopes.