How do i... apply effects only to clip(s) and not the whole track?

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

I saw this as a roadmap feature for 9.x, but i don’t see any immediate/obvious way to do this. Is it possible? I’d like more info on this.

#2

Open the region properties either

  • select the region and use the property pane at the bottom of the editor
  • double-click the region
  • context-menu (right-click) > Edit in separate Window

Then there is a Region Effects processor box, that operates similar to the one in each Mixer’s Channelstrip.

image

2 Likes
#3

Good this topic didn’t close yet.

I noticed when you group regions together, selecting “edit in separate window” (or double clicking) on any of them brings up the same fx strip for the group, but the effect is only applied to one of the grouped regions.

Also i don’t think this is possible, and would probably be a hassle to implement, but applying these effects after the track effects, for example a delay or flanger on a region/regions, where the track has heavy distortion: you generally want the dry signal directly into the amp/distortion fx, THEN into the delay/flanger/etc.

#4

Also keep in mind that with the standard settings, effects get cut off at the end of the region (so you won’t hear reverb tails for example). Back when I was testing this, I remember it was pretty easy to fix although I can’t recall the procedure now (you probably just need to adjust either the Position or the Length).

#5

I would consider this a bug perhaps. If a transient occurs at the end of a region with a reverb effect applied, that should not get cut off at the end of the region (without needing to extend the region to the decay length). I have not tested region effects yet but will attempt to see if I can recreate this behaviour soon.

#6

The feature is cool, but I also think it still needs some work.

If understood this correctly, the Region effects are rendered into the audio.

This means, anything with a tail beyond the region, is only possible by extending the region. Most daws with a similar feature, have a tail length option in the region fx and/or bounce dialogue.

I would also expect that selecting multiple regions applies the identical region fx to all of them.
If fx exist, Ardour misses a way to handle this. It would be cool to get a dialogue with a choice, to either bounce the existing fx, before applying the new ones or replace the existing fx.

Now here is where I see the biggest problem in the current implementation: it is part of the region properties. These only show the information of a single region. Never the properties of a selection.

For region fx, to become the proper multi selection time saver it is in other daws, they would need to be either decoupled from that individual region dialogue, or the dialogue would have to become a selection property dialogue, learning how to show the information about the selected regions.

Another thing not yet in the region fx: ways to apply normalization and other non realtime audio processes in the region fx chain.