The Effects Window

Effects Window (Instantiated Effects/Synths)

For specific info, click on the appropriate part of the image (of the retro editor) below:

The Effects window houses Metro's active real-time effects, including VST-compatible Plug-ins and AudioUnits. Use the Effects window to view and modify the parameters of real-time effects and to control the routing of multiple Plug-ins.

Information on routing track multi-outs can be found here.

Hint: A plug-ins editor window can be reset to its default size by holding the shift-key while pressing the edit button.

Modern rack editor:

Right-click on the track bar to bring up the effects input/output menu:

Selecting an item from the inputs or outputs menu will take you to the corresponding window for that item. Sidechain stereo inputs can be selected here for all pairs of stereo inputs to the effect chain. The sidechain audio input will then be fed from the corresponding track.

Right-click on the individual rack item to bring up the individual plug-in contextual menu:

Clear removes the plug-in.

Clear All Automation removes all of this plug-in's automation from the selected track or aux buss.

Record MIDI, if supported by the plug-in, will enable the plug-in for MIDI input. When enabled, a new input will appear in the graphic editor and track window input select popups. Great care should be taken not to create a MIDI feedback loop. This can happen if you record MIDI and then route the MIDI data, via MIDI-thru, back to the plug-in.

Show In Plug-ins will reveal the instantiated plug-in in the plug-ins window.

Rack Color can be specified here and will be associated with the category of plug-in, as specified in the plug-ins window. This allows, for example, all reverbs to be red in the rack.

Set up plugin on a track or an aux buss

To set up an effect, drag a plug-in from the plug-ins window to the effects window or click the downward pointing grey triangle (as shown in the Modern rack editor picture above) to bring up the plug-in menu. The track bar row, at the top of the effects window, is where you select what to view; a track or aux buss. After a VST or AudioUnit plug-in is dragged to this window, it is installed as a real time effect on the selected track or aux buss.

Track or Aux Buss Name Popup

Click on the name of the track or aux buss to bring up a popup menu to change to a different track or aux buss.

View

The generic view contains pan knobs as illustrated above. Click on the pan knob and rotate as you would a real pan knob. If an effect has an editor, there will be an edit button instead of pan knob parameters. Option-drag the plug-in to the effects window to override the editor and display the plug-in in its generic view. Editor views are opened in their own window and that window is added to the window menu.

Note: AudioUnits numeric fields may be edited by clicking and typing a number.

Presets

Pop up windows for each effect allow saving and restoring of presets. Metro automatically scans its folders for preset files that it is aware of. Including its native format, .fxb files and others. Metro (6.0.7 or greater) can be configured so that program changes sent to a plug-in will change the preset (see MIDI Event Filtering).

MIDI Event Filtering

The presence of the MIDI icon indicates that this plug-in accepts MIDI data. Clicking on this icon will bring up the MIDI options dialog for effects where you may specify which events reach the plug-in and which events are filtered.

Setting up an Aux Buss

To set up an aux buss, select Modify Outputs and Busses from the special menu, select 1 for number of busses desired, select the output port and press ok.

If you want multiple outputs from an effect you need to create more than one aux buss. You may then assign the outputs to different aux busses (using the aux bus routing popups described below) and even add more effects.

Set up an AudioUnit Music Effect

If a MusicEffect is used, the only logical place to use it (because it needs both MIDI and Audio) is on an aux buss. To use a music effect follow these steps.

Set up the aux buss as outlined above.
In the effects window, select the aux buss and drag the plug-in from the plug-ins window.
Go to the Instruments Mixer window and make sure it says Main in the popup on the top right of the window.
On the output assigned to an audio track (that you want sent to the Music Effect) pull the volume fader all the way down.
Select Aux 1 from the popup on the right.
Select pre-fader for the output used in step IV and set its fader all the way up.
To send MIDI to the aux buss, create a new track and assign its output to the port corresponding to the effect that was dragged in step II. This can be performed either from the graphic editor or the tracks window.

Selecting Effect and Rearranging the Order of Effects

If you click on the name of an effect it will become selected. Use clear to clear the effect. Control-click (or right-click) on effect or effect rack to bring up a contentual menu with options to clear automation data and more.

The Effects window shows all the real-time Plug-ins assigned to the current track. You can add as many effects to a track as your processor permits, allowing you to add a tremolo effect before a delay, for example. If you have more than one Plug-in assigned to a track, you can rearrange their order by dragging their Name field either up or down. Plug-in effects parameters are directly accessible within the Effect window.

Metro’s real-time effects employ in-line signal routing. Effects are inserted into an audio channel in a series configuration with Send and Return controls for the corresponding Audio channel. Each Audio channel requires its own effect configuration.

Determining the Number of audio Inputs and Output to an Effect

The number of dots to the left of an effect determines the number of mono audio inputs the effect is expecting.

The number of dots to the right of the effect name determines the number of mono audio outputs an effect is outputting. As of version 6.3.6, clicking here will bring up a popup menu(AudioUnit plug-ins only) allowing the user to configure the number of outputs.

Thus for the effect chain, the number of inputs will be the number of inputs the first effect in the chain is expecting and the number of outputs will be the number of outputs that the last effect in the chain is providing. If the effect chain is installed on an aux buss the data may be routed with the aux buss routing popups.

Prior to 6.3.6, If the number of outputs of the effect chain is greater than two and the effect chain is installed on a track, all outputs except the first two will be lost.

Track Multi-Outs

As of 6.3.6 and greater, any plug-in that has more than one output can be configured as a multi-out. Multi-outs are configured by selecting 'configure as multi-out' from any of the track routing popup menus. The track routing popups are located in the same location as the aux buss routing popups, when a track is selected, which is directly to the right of the track/aux buss name popup. Once a track is configured for multi-outs, each effect output can be configured as mono or stereo and assigned to individual mixer faders. To change the mono/stereo configuration of an effect's output, click on the output numbers directly to the right of the thick up-pointing arrow. This will toggle the selected output(s) between mono and stereo. In the picture below, note that the iDrum plug-in is configured as stereo out from effect outputs 1 and 2 to Metro output 'Built-in Aud-1' and then mono out from effect output 3 to 'Built-in Aud-2', and then stereo out from effect outputs 4 and 5 to Metro output 'Built-in Aud-3', etc. Even simple stereo output plug-ins can be configured as two mono outs.

The total number of effects outputs can be configured by clicking on the number of dots to the right of the plug-in name for Audio Unit plug-ins only. If a plug-in has more than 8 outputs, as in the picture below, it will show a numeric value, in this case '16 outs'.

The multi outputs can have their volume and pan automated by setting up a new track, assigning the same output and inserting continuous audio volume or pan data. There is currently a limitation, in that, the first output of a multi-out can only have an automation track if it contains no automation (including effect automation) itself.

Aux Buss Routing

Aux busses may have there output routed either out to the output device or through other aux busses. Each stereo out corresponds to two outputs from the effect chain. Using the above image as an example:

There are 2 stereo outs (4 mono outs) from the DLS/SoundFont2 synthesizer.

These outputs are being routed to aux busses named 'Aux 3' and 'Aux 4' respectively.

Aux 3 is the currently selected aux buss as it appears in the left of the titlebar.

The first two outputs will be routed through the other effects in this effect chain. Namely, the Apple lowpass filter and then WaveArts Trackplug before finally being sent to the Aux-3 fader in the instruments mixer window. The last two outputs will be sent to Aux 4. Any effects installed on Aux 4 will be applied before finally being sent to the Aux-4 fader in the instruments mixer window.

To change the outputs, click on the route names and select a value from the popup menu.

Select a SoundFont Bank

When using a synthesizer that supports banks, such as Apple's DLS/SoundFont2 synthesizer, clicking on the soundbank name will present a dialog allowing you to select the file to use as the instruments sound bank. Any program name lists will automatically be loaded for the corresponding synthesizers port.

Effects terms:

The Send slider determines how much audio signal gets sent to the first effect in the chain.

The Dry signal is mixed with the output of the last effect in the chain and then sent to selected stereo outputs.

The Wet slider determines how much of the last effect in the chain gets mixed with the dry signal before being sent to the stereo outputs.

The Lock Icon, when present, links the movement of the wet slider and dry slider to act as if they were a single control.

The Bypass button, when on, bypasses an effect in the chain.

The Power button, when off, bypasses all effects in the chain.

Note: Real-time effects are very CPU-intensive. Even on the fastest of machines, Metro will be able to handle a limited number of simultaneous effects. For this reason all real-time effects also have the capability to process an Audio Track or selection off-line (non real-time). Access any of the Real-time effects within the Audio submenu for off-line nondestructive processing.