Applying Effects to a certain frequency range

you could set up an EQ, dial it in for Freq and then sidechain that to your saturation plug in.
if you mean something like the saturation on the pro channel im not sure if that's possible but it very well may be.
 
 

EQ the track. More than once if necessary. Print it. ProChannel or process the new track as necessary.
 

Place the Sonitus multiband compressor in front of the effect, set each band for no compression, then solo the band that covers the desired frequency. I use this technique all the time for multiband distortion and multiband processing in general.
 
If I need more bands, I clone the track and solo a different frequency range.

Sanderxpander
Wouldn't this mute all the other bands?

 
Yes, but I thought maybe that's what he wanted because he mentioned shutting off the "dry" sound.
 

Is it possible to mute multiple bands with that comp? In other words, if I want to distort the mid highs only, can I clone the track and on one of them solo the mid highs and on the other one "mute" the mid highs (or solo the other bands)?

Yes, when I do multiband distortion I usually copy the original track 3 or 4 times, set each one to its own range, and distort individually. You can also do this with buses but visually, I like all the copies visible. This is also when you discover a major Sonar advantage...sample accuracy between the original track and the copies. Not all DAWs do that, with the result being phasey-type sounds.

Anderton

Sanderxpander
Wouldn't this mute all the other bands?

 
Yes, but I thought maybe that's what he wanted because he mentioned shutting off the "dry" sound.
 

Is it possible to mute multiple bands with that comp? In other words, if I want to distort the mid highs only, can I clone the track and on one of them solo the mid highs and on the other one "mute" the mid highs (or solo the other bands)?

Yes, when I do multiband distortion I usually copy the original track 3 or 4 times, set each one to its own range, and distort individually. You can also do this with buses but visually, I like all the copies visible. This is also when you discover a major Sonar advantage...sample accuracy between the original track and the copies. Not all DAWs do that, with the result being phasey-type sounds.

I get this but my question was if you can mute/exclude a band - I don't think you can. So if you can only solo you would need to create multiple copies of a track just to get the rest of the clean signal. Let's say you want to distort the mids only, then you will end up with a minimum of three tracks (if you use three bands - low, mid, high).

I appreciate that this is probably as good as it gets with the included tools but it's still kind of a hassle to manage three tracks as opposed to one. Yes, you have more control which can be desirable in some cases, but also creates extra work when all you want is to distort one range. Yay for FF Saturn!

Thank you all for your suggestions. All are good, and can get  the job done, but I was hoping there was a way to handle this in an elegant way (meaning, not having to create duplicate tracks and/or extra buses or buy expensive  plug ins). I have been handling this with buses and only for effects that allow me to shut off the dry side, such as reverb, and thanks to this post I can also do it with duplcate tracks.
 
I feel a bit better now, as I have been searching on my own for sometime to come up with a more general/tidy solution then generating duplicates. If the gurus don't have an elegant solution, that means it's the system, and not me!  Not a big deal, just was hoping I could be rid of the duplicate stuff.
 
Although I had mentioned saturation , and that is definitely one I'd like an elegant solution for, I was really looking for a technique that could be applied in general.
 
Thanks again everyone for giving it a try!
 
 

Sanderxpander
I get this but my question was if you can mute/exclude a band - I don't think you can.

 
You can solo multiple bands. So for example if you want to exclude band 3, solo bands 1, 2, 4, and 5.
 

So if you can only solo you would need to create multiple copies of a track just to get the rest of the clean signal. Let's say you want to distort the mids only, then you will end up with a minimum of three tracks (if you use three bands - low, mid, high).

 
No, just two tracks, assuming you want to process a specific frequency range AND have the remainder of the signal dry (if all you want to do is process a restricted frequency range, that requires only one track and can be done in multiple ways).
 
For example on Track 1 you would set up the multiband to solo the range you want to process, then adjust the range accordingly. Next you would copy this to Track 2 (which of course would retain the multiband settings from track 1) and solo all but the band you processed. Now Track 2 provides the dry sound minus the band you're processing in Track 1.
 
As far as I know, I'm the person who invented multiband distortion (the Quadrafuzz, 30 years ago) so I've used many techniques over the years to get that sound. What I like about having the different bands on different tracks is the ability to add EQ and other effects that are tailored for those tracks. By using a multiband compressor and not adding compression, it's basically serving as a crossover.
 
Also note that with Guitar Rig, you can use the Splitter function to create parallel effects within a single plug-in that inserts in a single track.

scook

Anderton
 
Also note that with Guitar Rig, you can use the Splitter function to create parallel effects within a single plug-in that inserts in a single track.

Now that you mention it, so does TH2 Producer. I would imagine TH2 SONAR does too, it appears to be a basic design element of TH2.

True, but I don't think you can get more than two parallel paths. With Guitar Rig you can split the splits, so if you want for example four bands of parallel distortion, you can do it.

scook
Of course you are right, I had not considered loading multiple splits in Guitar Rig.

I'm glad you pointed out the TH2 parallel path aspect. It's what makes TH2 eminently suitable for bass, where I almost always want to have an effect added "on top of" the bass sound in order to maintain the low end.
 
The "splits within splits" is not something that NI's patches exploit, probably because the crossover is only two-band so it gets complicated to do lots of bands...but it is possible. I have a sort of "Quadrafuzz Construction Kit" Guitar Rig preset that can at least provide a starting point if I want to go the GR route. But most of the time I just copy the track, it seems easiest that way.