If you are not already familiar with Camelot, you will benefit by taking a look at these fundamentals of Camelot before reading through this tutorial:

The Basics of Camelot: An Overview

Getting Started: A Camelot Tutorial

Corrective and Creative Effects

Camelot is a powerful environment for routing and processing audio. One of the most common audio tasks is adding effects to signals, and there are two fundamental reasons for doing so. The first is corrective action, that is, to fix a problem or deficiency in the source signal. EQ and dynamics processing (such as compression) are probably the two most common types of effects used for this.

The second reason is creative gesture, which is when the intent is to enhance or transform the signal in some way. This is a hugely broad area that includes chorusing, phasing/flanging, echo, reverb, spatial enhancement, and countless tools like frequency shifters or Leslie speaker emulators for producing indescribable effects that range from subtle to bizarre.

_{Figure 1 – Effects can be used for corrective processing (to deal with problems) or creative processing (to enhance or transform the signal). Of course, sometimes the line can get blurred, but the distinction is generally a useful one.}

Since Camelot can host plugins in all the major plugin formats, all of these possibilities – and many, many more that there isn’t space to mention – are available for use in your Camelot Songs and Scenes. This tutorial will discuss some of those possibilities, from the basics to more sophisticated applications.

Insert and Send Effects

There are two structures in which effects get deployed: as insert effects or as send effects.

_{Figure 2 - The two ways effects are deployed. An insert effect (top) is serial signal path, with the effect inline. A send effect is on its own signal path parallel to the main path. The two paths are combined before being routed to the output.}

Implementing Insert Effects

Insert effects reside in the main Layer signal path, positioned in series (or inline, if you like), so that the signal must always pass through them on its way to the output of the path. Corrective effects like EQ, compression, or gating are nearly always deployed as insert effects, but creative effects intended to be applied only to the signal in that path also are often configured as insert effects. Think of putting a flanger on a guitar, or a chorus on a vocal.

Insert effects are easy to put in place. To add an insert effect to a Layer:

_{Figure 3 - Adding an insert effect is simply adding an Item to a Layer. This image shows the steps laid out below.}

1.    Click the plus sign (+) at the right of a Layer,then click the Post-Processors button in the Add Item panel (In Camelot, audio effects are classified as Post-Processor Items.)

2.    Click the Audio FX Plugins button in the Post-Processors panel, then locate and select the desired effect from the appropriate manufacturer folder.

3.    If you want to reorder the effects in a Layer, click the pencil icon at the top right of the section’s name banner to enter Edit mode, then drag Items to rearrange them into the desired order.

_{Figure 4 - When the Layers view is in Edit mode, effects can be reordered simply by dragging them left or right by their move handles.}

4.    Pay close attention to how the dry/wet mix is set for each effect Item. All downstream Items are affected by this mix.

_{Figure 5 - Post-Processor Items like audio effects have a dry/wet control as their main knob control. In a chain of insert effects, remember that setting the dry/wet mix to all wet means the next effect in line can't process any of the original, dry signal.}

The order effects are in can have a major effect on the sound, as can the dry/wet mix set in each Item. Note that the dry/wet mix can be controlled in real time, if desired, making it easy to fade a note into reverb, for example.

Implementing Send Effects

_{Figure 6 - A send effect implemented in Camelot. Audio Layer Connectors route audio from the two source Layers at top to the effects Layer on the bottom. The source Layers and the effects Layer are all routed to the Main Audio Out, where they get mixed together.}

There are many situations in which it is better if an effect has its own signal path, the input to which may be a mix of signals from one or more sources, and the output of which will usually get mixed back in with those original sources.

Perhaps you have a Camelot Layer with a few SWAM woodwind instruments, one with SWAM brass, and a third with SWAM string instruments, and you want to add the same reverb to all of them to make them sound like they are being played in the same room.

The best way to accomplish that is to be able to send signals from each of those source Layers to another Layer that is dedicated to the reverb, then mix the output of the reverb layer back in with the dry signals from the source Layers to end up with a nice, stereo mix of all of the instruments sitting in a lovely room reverb.

Send effects can be, in many ways, a more powerful tool than insert effects, but they take a bit more work to implement, because a separate signal path must be constructed for them, and sends from multiple Layers to the effects Layer usually need to be implemented. But it’s a pretty straightforward process, the result of which you see in Figure 6 above:

1.    Create a Layer for the effects.

2.    Add effects as Post-Processor Items as described above in Implementing Insert Effects. Add as many effects as you want in the chain, and experiment with their order, if desired.

3.    Add Audio Layer Connector Items to each Layer from which you want to send signal.

4.    Choose an output for the effects Layer. In most cases, the source Layers and the effects Layer will all be assigned to Main Audio Out, but this is not necessary, and there may be situations where it is not desirable.

5.    Adjust the source sends and the effects Layer output level for the desired levels.

6.    Adjust dry/wet mixes in the effects.

On this last point, remember that the source Layers will provide dry signal in the final mix, but it may be desirable to have some dry signal running through most of the effects. Let’s say your effects chain has a delay and a reverb. If you set the output of the delay to be all wet signal, then no dry signal will be reverberated, so you will likely want to have some dry signal included in the delay output. That said, the last effect in the chain commonly will be set fully to wet sound.

In Figure 6 you can see that the EQ and compressor are set to all wet because no parallel processing is needed. The reverb is set to all wet output because the output of the effects Layer will get mixed with dry signal from the source Layers. The delay, however, is set to only 21 percent wet, so that the reverb is getting more dry than delay sound.

Advanced Applications

Parallel Processing

According to audio lore, parallel compression is a technique that first found popularity in the New York studio scene, and, in fact, was often referred to as “NY-style compression.” The general idea was tg mix some heavily compressed audio back with the same audio uncompressed, which improved audibility of lower-level signals while retaining transient response.

_{Figure 7 - Parallel processing was first popularized by "New York-style" compression, in which a compressor is set up as a send effect, and heavily compressed audio gets mixed back with uncompressed audio to yield the improved balance of compressed audio while preserving transients.}

Over time, that idea broadened into the general notion of parallel processing, which is simply combining processed and unprocessed audio. This technique has always been the basis for using creative effects like delay and reverb, but was nearly always accomplished with a send effects structure.

Modern parallel processing is used with equalization and all manner of both corrective and creative processing, and often occurs as an inline structure. In Camelot, parallel processing is usually stupidly easy to accomplish, as most Post-Processor Items feature a main knob that is a dry/wet mix (see Figure 5 above). There you go right there: set dry/wet mix and parallel processing. The desired balance between dry and wet can vary considerably with the application, so experiment and listen closely to determine where the dry/wet knob should be set in a given situation.

For a more sophisticated implementation, such as mixing the dry signal with the output of a whole chain of effects, you may want to employ a send effects architecture, as shown in Figure 6 above, assigning both the dry and effects Layers to the same output, so that they get mixed together. With this setup, the dry/wet balance is determined by the output faders on the Layers.

Submix Processing for Groups, Monitor Mixes, etc.

The send effects architecture is also useful for another common application, which is providing submix or group processing. Let’s say you are performing on guitar and voice in a duo with another musician who is playing keyboards and singing, and you want to mix everything in Camelot. You’ve set up a Layer for each source, but in order to get the most consistent mix, you want to combine the vocals and treat that mix, as well as combine the instruments and treat that mix differently.

In that case, you would simply create a vocal submix Layer and an instrument submix Layer, add Layer Audio Connector Items to each source Layer, and route audio to the appropriate submix Layer. You could add the desired processing to each submix Layer and then route them to the Main Audio Out.

Note that you are no longer making use of the Layer output sections, so you will want to either set each Layer to an output that is not actually being used, or simply set the output level fader all the way to the bottom. This ensures that these signals don’t inadvertently show up in a mix where they are not wanted.

_{Figure 8 - Here, separate submixes have been created for vocals and instruments using Audio Layer Connectors that feed submix Layers. Turning Layer audio outputs to zero ensures that all Layer audio goes to the submix. The submix Layer audio output faders set the balance between the submixes in the final output.}

Another example is creating a submix to feed the monitor system with a separate mix than is going to the main sound system. The configuration is the same as was just described, except for the output assignment of the submix Layer. For this application, you will probably use the Main Audio Out to feed the send to the main sound system, use Layer Audio Connectors to route signals to the monitor mix, and assign the output of the monitor mix Layer to an output that goes to the monitor system.

_{Figure 9 - In this setup, separate house and monitor mixes are created. What is different about this configuration from the submix setup is having two Audio Layer Connector Items in each Layer for the two sends, and the monitor mix Layer being assigned to a different output. Note that this is the “fancy” version; you could simplify this setup by using Camelot’s onboard Master Audio FX instead of the house mix Layer.}

Sidechains

A sidechain is a parallel signal path, but unlike with parallel processing, a sidechain signal is not intended to be heard. Instead, it is used to control processing that is in the audio signal path. The most common example of this is in dynamics processing. A compressor sidechain is the signal path that controls the compressor’s gain element, so inserting processing in that path influences how compression is applied.

One frequent application is inserting a high pass filter in the sidechain to reduce or remove low frequencies, thus lessening the pumping effect that can happen when low frequencies trigger the compressor to act too often. Inserting a filter that boosts the upper midrange, around 5-7 kHz, causes the compressor to work harder when signals contain significant energy in this region – as does sibilant speech. This is, in fact, the basic de-esser architecture.

Another common sidechain application is ducking, in which one signal triggers compression on another signal. You hear this all the time on radio, where background music is ducked by the announcer’s voice, but another common application is for delay or reverb to be ducked by a vocal or instrument.

Keying is when a signal is used to open a gate placed on another signal, such as a kick drum keying gating on a bass guitar so that the attack of the bass is exactly synched with the kick drum.

_{Figure 10 - Two common sidechain applications. At the top, the microphone signal goes to the compressor sidechain on the delay so that delay is ducked when the vocals are active. At the bottom, the kick drum is keying a gate on the bass so that the two instruments hit exactly together.}

Some effects plugins provide sidechains, others do not. Camelot has no control over whether or not a sidechain exists, but if there is one, Camelot makes it accessible. The SideChain Bus setting shows sidechain inputs made available by the plugin, while the SideChain Input setting allows selection of a Camelot audio input as the signal that will feed the SideChain Bus.

_{Figure 11 - These are the Audio & MIDI Settings from a compressor that makes a mono sidechain input available. In this case, the keyboard signal is the sidechain signal that triggers compression.}

Processing External Audio Effects

If you have an external hardware effect you want to use, Camelot can accommodate that, too. It might be a piece of vintage rackmount gear or a guitar stompbox. How you set Camelot up will depend on the scenario you are trying to put in place.

When **Nothing** is All That’s Needed.

If the external effect you want to use occurs entirely out of Camelot’s signal flow, then you just plug it in and go.

For example, say that you are playing guitar and have an overdrive pedal and a chorus pedal you want first in line in your signal path. You will plug your guitar into the overdrive pedal, from there into the chorus pedal, and then on to your audio interface, where the signal enters Camelot. The pedals are simply part of the source feeding Camelot and that is accomplished before the signal ever gets to Camelot, so it is no different than bringing any other external source in, save for possible analog electronics issues like balanced versus unbalanced lines, and appropriate signal levels. Stompboxes, for example, expect to receive instrument-level signals, so a send to a stompbox may need to be set to send a level well below line level. But these aren’t Camelot issues.

_{Figure 12 - Stompbox before Camelot, compressor after. Nothing special to do here! Life is easy.}

Another example: you have a lovely vintage compressor you want last in your signal path. Whatever you are doing in Camelot, the signal eventually finds its way to an audio interface output, which you then plug into your compressor, the output of which feeds your sound system. Again, the only potential issues are interface issues such as level, which will usually be more easily dealt with in the interface than in Camelot.

In sum, if your external effects will be used before or after Camelot, life is easy, save for possibly some level-matching or other interface issues. In fact, interfacing issues exist in all cases where signal is sent to or received from external devices, so we will simply state that interfacing issues exist for all of the scenarios that follow and not continue to cite them.

External Effect as an Insert Effect in Camelot

Let’s say you want that lovely vintage compressor in the middle of the signal chain, so that audio must be sent from Camelot to the compressor, then returned back into Camelot. Audio flows into and out of Camelot through Layers, which are assigned to interface inputs and/or outputs, so employing an external effect as an insert requires the use of two Layers – one to send, one to receive. Since all methods of sending audio out of Camelot involve Post-Processor routing at the end of a Layer signal path, there is no way to insert audio into the middle of a single Layer.

_{Figure 13 - Using this sweet dbx 160VU compressor as an insert on a SWAM Tenor Sax. The sax layer is routed to an output used a send and dbx 160 return comes to an input designated for the return.}

Thus, the process looks like this:

1.    Choose a Layer as the source for the external effect. This could be a Layer with a signal path for a single source, perhaps with some plugins inline, or it could be a Layer acting as a submixer, as described above in Submix Processing for Groups, Monitor Mixes, etc.

2.    Connect the interface output to which this Layer is assigned to the input of the external processor.

3.    Connect the output of the external processor to an interface input.

4.    The simplest way to return external audio into Camelot will be as the audio input to another Layer, but there are other possibilities, when appropriate, such as using the audio inputs to a Hardware Device Item. For all the nitty-gritty of audio input and output to/from Camelot, see Audio Input and Output

5.    Route the Layer output as needed within Camelot.

_{Figure 14 - Using an external device as a send effect. The Layer Audio Connector feeds a Layer that acts as the effects send (shown here with a high pass filter to reduce rumble in the reverb). The external reverb returns to another Layer and is mixed with the source.}

The only real difference between this and the insert effect architecture is that, rather than deriving the send to the external effect from a Layer output, you will use a Layer Audio Connector Item to split the signal in a source Layer, with the Audio Connector feeding a Layer whose output will be connected to the external effect.

As always with send effects, this Layer can submix source signals from several Layers before routing the mix to the interface output and on to the external effect. This allows combining software instruments, hardware instruments, and even microphone inputs before sending them to the external effect, which is jolly nice if you have, say, a juicy old hardware reverb you want splashed on everything.

Returning the external effect is the same as before, except that it will get mixed in some fashion with the dry signal from the source(s). Most often, the sources and external effects return will all simply be assigned to Main Audio Out and we’re done, oh happy day!

Camelot in Full Effect!

As we have seen, Camelot is a powerful and versatile environment for adding audio effects. As it works out, simpler applications fulfill most needs, and little thought is required to implement these. But when fancy is what is called for, Camelot can do all of the necessary dance steps to make complex things happen; you just might need to think things through a little before you build your audio signal paths.