Emulating Traktor's FX Routing for Dub-Style Echoes in Ableton

[Lanz the joiner]

Introduction
Traktor's FX routing is a bit fancier than I had imagined it would be.

It allows you to perform dub-reggae style techniques with delays and reverb units as inserts rather than as normal sends. Initially this bothered me, but now I think it gets the best of both worlds. Using an insert is simpler - you can just switch it on and off - and I appreciate this when DJing, but typically you would need to use sends rather than inserts to do these dub-style echo techniques.

Here I explain a bit more what I'm talking about, in case you don't know. Then at the bottom I explain how I set this up to work the same way in Ableton. Sorry I word stuff so long-windedly. This is a recurring problem for me in life. Maybe the whole setup is also way more convoluted than it needs to be. Please don't hesitate to let me know!

What I Am Talking About
The dub-reggae technique I'm referring to is when you have a dry signal, a drum loop or guitar riff for example, and you send a short burst of it to an effects unit. The dry drum loop continues as normal, but there is a lingering echo or reverb following the snare (or whichever portion of it you sent to the FX unit) that slowly decays and dies out.

The appeal of being able to perform this with an insert rather than a send is in its intuitive and convenient simplicity. You achieve the same effect with fewer knobs, and less preparation, committing less mental energy, which is better suited to a live DJ set.

Traditionally, when you 'send' a short burst of the signal to the FX unit, the 100% wet echo or reverberation gets added on top of the 100% dry signal, resulting in an overall volume increase. Especially in live DJ sets, where you don't want to spend too much time or mental energy balancing levels, this won't always be desirable.

Using an insert instead, divides the signal into wet and dry, thus maintaining a stable overall volume. You can easily increase the proportion of wet signal to dry signal with one 'wet/dry' knob. This lends itself better to rapidly bringing an effect in and out - much simpler than having to worry about three knobs: the dry level, the return level, and the send amount control.

Most of the time - in Ableton for example - you wouldn't be able to perform these kinds of techniques with an insert. If you try to punch-in and punch-out the effect like you would send to a send effect, the effect will mute as soon as you punch-out. It won't ring out like it does when using a send effect.

In Traktor you can effortlessly set up your wet and dry levels with a single knob, and then use the FX Unit's on/off button to send short bursts of audio to the effects unit. For me this is the simplest and most fun way to use a delay unit while DJing; way better than messing around with three knobs. Maintaining an even volume level makes the effect sound more like part of the track, and lets you focus your attention on the feedback or delay time or other things to tweak.

How I Set It Up In Ableton
The core concept is instead of switching an effect on and off, I switch between two identical audio tracks - tracks 1 and 2. Both of them are set to "sends only" mode, with one going to a first return track, and the other going to another return track. But the second one goes to a return track with an FX unit, while the first gets sent to a completely dry return track. The Sends knobs as shown on my picture, are always set to maximum. When audio track 1 is enabled, audio track 2 is disabled, and vice versa.

My equivalent "FX Unit On" button actually does two things simultaneously: it disables audio track 1, which is routed to a 100% dry return track, and enables audio track 2, which is being sent to a return track that has a delay unit on it. So you see, hitting my FX Unit On button has the effect of muting the level of Send A and enabling the level of Send B.*

And the wet/dry mix is controlled on the FX unit as normal.

Finally, the audio from both return channels is routed back to an audio track so that I can apply effects like filtering and limiting to the sum of both the dry and wet signals.

*Why enable and disable two audio tracks as opposed to flipping the sends A and B knobs up and down? Ableton has a "smoothing" trick that prevents pops and clicks, which seems to apply to audio tracks but not send knobs. Why send the signal to a dry return track? No good reason - it is probably a waste. I just like things to be routed the same sometimes.



So from left to right:
1 - track A dry - this is where the audio signal comes from. It is enabled when your FX unit is off. Its Send A is always set to maximum, and its "Audio To" is set to "Sends Only".

2 - track A wet - this is exactly like track 1, only it goes to Send B, and it is always disabled when track 1 is enabled and vice versa. Its "Audio From" is set to track 1 (track A dry) with "Monitor" set to "In".

3 - track A return - this is the end point, where the wet and dry signals both go for final processing, such as filtering.

Returns A and B - One has the FX Unit, the other doesn't, and both are routed through their "Audio To" into the end point, which is track 3 (track A return).

[djrickdawson]

put the effect in to a rack and set the chain, so they both play, with the dry signal, and the effected signal.
but moving the chain selector allows you to just select the dry its own,or the effected on its own.

[Patch]

Check out the Ableton Tutorial called "The Chain Selectir Rules".

It's great tutorial.

[Lanz the joiner]

Check out the Ableton Tutorial called "The Chain Selectir Rules".

It's great tutorial.

I can't seem to access that tutorial. Every time I find a link to it, I get a "page not found".

Using the effects rack is something I've tried - I know how to get a wet/dry function with the chain selector like in this youtube tutorial. It doesn't achieve Traktor-style effects though; it's just like any other wet/dry knob. That is, once you switch the effect off, the reverb or delay will shut down instantly, instead of ringing out like in Traktor.

This chain selector tutorial maybe offers something different. I'd appreciate a link if you can find one.