How to use real-time effects

You can patch effects into tracks and buses in the Track view, Track Inspector and Console view. After you patch one or more effects into an FX Rack, you can reorder the effects, delete them, or add new ones.

A. An FX Rack in a track in the Track view B. An FX Rack in a bus in the Track view

A. An FX Rack in a track in the Console view B. An FX Rack in a bus in the Console view

Here’s how to insert and configure effects:

To do this	Do this
Add a real-time effect to a MIDI track, audio track, synth track or bus.	Right-click in the FX Rack of the track or bus you want to add the effect to, and select an effect from the pop-up menu.
Change the order in which effects are used.	Drag an effect up or down in the FX Rack.
Edit an effect’s parameters.	Click the plug-in in the FX Rack to open the effect’s dialog box.
Move an effect to a different FX Rack.	Drag the effect to another FX Rack.
Copy an effect to a different FX Rack.	Hold down the CTRL key and drag the effect to another FX Rack.
Delete an effect.	Right-click the name of the effect, and choose Delete from the pop-up menu.
Send all keystrokes to a plug-in that has focus.	Enable the Keystroke button in the plug-in’s property page.
Use a preset.	See Presets and property pages for more information.
Give focus to a plug-in without opening its UI.	Hold down the SHIFT key and click the plug-in in an FX Rack.
Open a BitBridge plug-in’s preset window in addition to the plug-in UI.	Hold down the ALT key and click the BitBridge plug-in in an FX Rack.

When you place an effect in an FX Rack, an abbreviated name is used to describe the effect. Sometimes the limited space makes it impossible to identify the effect. If this occurs, simply rest the cursor over the effect for a second or two, and a tooltip will pop up to display the full name of the effect.

Effects in FX Racks display lines that tell you whether the effect is outputting a mono, stereo, or surround signal:

A. Mono indicator

A. Stereo indicator

A. Surround indicator in buses (in 5.1 mode)

If you’re using the 64-bit double-precision audio engine, plug-ins that can send and receive 64-bit data display double lines.

A. Stereo indicator in 64-bit mode

Any plug-in that has ACT focus appears highlighted blue in the FX Rack. For details, see ACT.

Figure 406. Plug-ins with ACT focus are highlighted in the FX Rack.

 

See also:

Using the per-track EQ.

Look-ahead processing at high latencies

Some plug-ins, such as the Sonitus:fx Multiband and other dynamics processors, use a look-ahead buffer mechanism, which results in a short delay being introduced to the output signal when the plug-in is used in real-time. Sonar’s automatic plugin delay compensation (PDC) takes care of any delays, but you may experience some anomalies when using such a plug-in to process the output of a DXi-especially if Sonar is configured to use a high mixing latency. The symptoms include audio that appears to drop out, and/or missed notes (from the MIDI track that is assigned to the DXi). Again, this is more prone to occur with higher latency settings.

This may happen if Sonar doesn't pump ahead enough MIDI data to compensate for PDC. To fix this problem, go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Playback and Recording and increase the Prepare Using [n] Millisecond Buffers value.