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Tutorial - Monitoring an effect chain with the 'Multi' Series
Tutorial - Monitoring an effect chain with the 'Multi' Series

The 'Multi' analysis plugins series offer the ability to compare the measurements made by several instances within an audio project. In this tutorial you will learn how to use this capability to monitor an effects chain and see the influence of an effect on the audio signal. In this example we will study the effect of Blue Cat's Widening Gain as a stereo widening/narrowing effect. We will use Blue Cat's StereoScope Multi multiple instances analysis plugin for our measurements.

This tutorial uses Steinberg Wavelab as a host application, but you can use any other VST or DirectX compatible host application.

Step By Step

01 - Insert your widening effect between two Stereoscope instances:

Step 01 - Insert your widening effect between two Stereoscope instances

02 - Setup routing in the first StereoScope instance:

Step 02 - Setup routing in the first StereoScope instance

03 - Do the same with the second instance:

Step 03 - Do the same with the second instance

04 - Setup the widening effect (we reduce here the mid gain and increase the side gain for stereo widening):

Step 04 - Setup the widening effect (we reduce here the mid gain and increase the side gain for stereo widening)

05 - Open any StereoScope instance - you can now see the widening effect:

Step 05 - Open any StereoScope instance - you can now see the widening effect

06 - Example with -60 dB side gain - it produces a mono signal:

Step 06 - Example with -60 dB side gain - it produces a mono signal

07 - Another example with -15 dB gain on the mid channel - only the stereo part is really audible:

Step 07 - Another example with -15 dB gain on the mid channel - only the stereo part is really audible

08 - Another approach is to use the diff view to visualize the response curve directly:

Measuring the audio signal before and after the effect and computing the difference gives you the actual response curve of the effect. See the extra steps to achieve this below.

09 - Open the diff view and select the difference between the curves after and before:

Step 09 - Open the diff view and select the difference between the curves after and before

10 - What you see is the actual transfer function of the effect chain (you can see the widening effect here):

Step 10 - What you see is the actual transfer function of the effect chain (you can see the widening effect here)

You have learnt how to use the routing capabilities of the StereoScope Multi plugin to measure how a plugin affects the stereo field.

You can now use the same principle with other audio effects or a more complex effect chain. You can also make similar measurements on the audio spectrum with the Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst Multi spectrum analysis plugin and on the waveforms with Blue Cat's Oscilloscope Multi waveform display plugin . You can now monitor an entire effect chain and see the influence of each effect on the stereo field or the spectrum of your audio signal.

Any questions, comments? You want to submit your own tutorial to win a free license? Please post on our Forum!