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 effects bin, you can reorder the effects, delete them, or add new ones.

A. An effects bin in a track in the Track view B. An effects bin in a bus in the Track view

A. An effects bin in a track in the Console view B. An effects bin in a bus in the Console view

Here’s how to insert and configure effects:

Table 165.  

To do this	Do this
Add a real-time effect to a MIDI track, audio track, synth track or bus.	Right-click in the effects bin 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 effects bin.
Edit an effect’s parameters.	Double-click on the effect to open the effect’s dialog box.
Move an effect to a different bin.	Drag the effect to another effects bin.
Copy an effect to a different bin.	Hold down the CTRL key and drag the effect to another effects bin.
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.

When you place an effect in an effects bin, 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 effects bins display “ticks” that tell you whether the effect is outputting a mono, stereo, or surround signal:

A. Mono indicator

A. Stereo indicator

A. Surround indicator (in 5.1 mode)

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

A. Stereo indicator in 64-bit mode

See also:

Using the per-track EQ (Studio and Essential only).

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 delay compensation (ADC) 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 ADC. To fix this problem, go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Playback and Recording and increase the Prepare Using [n] Millisecond Buffers value.