Monitorizer: How is it supposed to be used

HI,
 
I had forgotten about it but finally give it a good today.
 
What is the goal of it? Is it meant to be turned on when listening
thru headphones? etc., etc.
 
As you can see I have no clue what to do with it
 
Note: The A/B switch mutes the track when the light is off (expected behavior?)
 
Thanks for any information.
 
Mario
 

Firstly, it is important to understand that it is a send effect. This means the results are meant to be mixed with a clean signal. So when you hit the A/B button it should mute. That is by design.

Next, you can open each effect in the effect chain (thanks Craig) and see what values change when you adjust the controls. Control clicking the effects allows you to open more than one at a time.

Set the controls for the heart of the sun and you are good to go.

I have experimented some with the effect and learned some things along the way. I would take an example where I had to make an edit after trying it in a different listening environment and try to replicate the problem. For example hearing the mix 150 feet from the speakers, or in a car, or in a crowded room...

I found I often needed more EQ adjustments than Craig built into the effect. I believe you can customize the chain and make copies that suit your needs, right Craig? Then you can have those copies on the shelf for when you have to do hurried work.

Largely, the effect makes it easy to mix in a slightly delayed version which has a little of the inverted phase left channel in the right ear and vice versa. This is an attempt at hearing what different room reflections might do to your mix.

I can't remember, is there a verb too? Maybe it's a delay? Might be. The EQ is largely a low pass filter.

I want to add that I love this effect chain not because Craig made it perfectly. I love it because he has shown us all what to do. This isn't small. It is huge. From this vista, we can see where we need to go and how to get there. There is no perfect when it comes to environment emulators for headphone mixes. You have to choose where you want it to sound awesome... MP3 players, bars, department stores, elevators, movies, on-hold music, ring tones, living rooms... Then mix for that, and balance for the others.

Since you're just sending a copy the audio from the Master track, to the Monitorizer track, you do not need to remove the plugin during mixdown.  The monitorizer track is separate track, and is being sent directly out to your interface for listening only, if configured as described.
 

sjd
Hi
While we are on the subject!
Having completed a mix I presume the Monitorizer should be switched off/bypassed before actually exporting the mix? As you don't want the Monitorizer effect part of the mix?
 
Got my stupid head on today and just need clarification :)
 
Thanks in advance.

gswitz
I want to add that I love this effect chain not because Craig made it perfectly. I love it because he has shown us all what to do. This isn't small. It is huge. From this vista, we can see where we need to go and how to get there. There is no perfect when it comes to environment emulators for headphone mixes. You have to choose where you want it to sound awesome... MP3 players, bars, department stores, elevators, movies, on-hold music, ring tones, living rooms... Then mix for that, and balance for the others.

You totally get it! These are all about tools, and how you apply them is what matters. Thanks for the kind words.
 
(P.S. - I know you wish you could peer inside the CA-X amp sims  but aside from my using techniques which were developed for Gibson, trust me on this - those settings are a house of cards. Change just one thing, and it all falls apart. There's one CA-X amp with 24 stages of EQ and if you bypass just one of them, or change its frequency, the amp sounds pretty bad. It took me a long time to get the settings just right and I truly think that you'll derive no benefit from trying to alter them. However...I have thought about creating an "amp construction kit" where playing with the parameters customizes the sound instead of destroys it, so you can basically create your own CA-X-type amps. We'll see what TH3 brings to party.)