[Ardour-Users] Signal Flow

[Paul Davis]

On Sat, 2008-10-25 at 14:51 -0700, Kevin Cosgrove wrote:
> I'm having trouble picturing the signal flow through the mixer in
> ardour.  Is this correct:

http://ardour.org/files/manual/sn-tracks-and-busses.html


> I want tone control.  I've added postfader EQ "plugin" to the the
> mixer channels of my choice.  This seems to give me the sound
> I want.  In a hardware mixer, the tone control is a built-in
> insert, isn't it?  Should I be using an insert here instead of a
> plugin?

such controls would normally be pre-fader. yes, they are normally
built-in on a h/w console.

plugins are a special case of an insert - they take the signal from the
track/bus, pass it through the plugin (a purely software object) and put
the result back into the track/bus. there are also "port inserts" which
allow you to do the same thing but with external hardware replacing the
plugin. to make it easier for users, we call "port inserts" just
"inserts" and "plugin inserts" just "plugins".

> I want compression on some tracks.  For this the insert seems to
> be essential.  Once I create the insert, then I can configure
> where to connect it.  But, I can't figure out how to assign the
> insert connections to go through a compressor plugin.  How does
> that work?

you don't normally combine inserts and plugins. you just stick a
compressor plugin in, typically pre-fader. inserts are for using
external h/w, which you might have and want to use.

> For f/x, like reverb, I've been using post fader sends to a bus
> which has a post fader gverb plugin.  Does that seem right?

thats fairly typical, yes.