Lots of goofy stuff with automation and power button on Effect Chain in PC

What I was trying to do:
I had a delay on a vocal but I was including the banter before and after the last song of the evening, so I wanted the delay only on the part where she was singing.
 
What I tried:
I dropped a V64 Vocal thingy in the FX Chain on the PC and enabled write. Then I turned on the power for it at the right moment and turned off the power for it at the right moment. The envelope was created. On playback the power button for the FX Chain in the PC lights up and goes dark at the right times, but the effect inside it does not start working.
 
I also tried dragging the effect into the old effect bin and using the effects power button and trying to automate this. I was equally unsuccessful.
 
What I ended up doing:
I used a send and automated the send to go from -inf to 0 and back to -inf at the right points. I sent it to a bus (b/c I'm old school like that) and put the delay on the bus. This worked out for me. I used a Sonitus delay and followed it with a Sonitus Compressor in sidechain mode with a send from the vocal. Now, I could suppress the delay while she was singing.
 
Here's the tune...
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20151222_Susan_27_Something.mp3
 
Here are other tunes from the night...
http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20151222_Susan.html
 
So, the question remains, if you have an item in an Effect Chain that you want to automate (or even just power on and off the effect chain in the PC using automation, how do you do it?