Using Fmod Preset Effects & Chains

/

Hi there, just wanted to share an overview on the FMOD’s preset system and an example on how I personally use it.

About Preset Effects in general

You can save any insert or send values on a preset which is very handy for things that you always want to do in the same way, like for example a high-pass filter.

To do this, just right click on the insert and choose “Convert to Preset”. This will create a new preset that you can find on the Preset browser. Is probably a good idea to name them and organize them in folders. You can also create a new preset from scratch on the Preset Browser.

If you want to then use the same preset somewhere else, you just need to click on add effect, choose “Preset Effect” and choose the preset. Something to keep in mind is that If you then modify the values on the plugin you are modifying the values for ALL the instances.

So generally, don’t use a preset if you think you are going to need to fine tune the values on particular events. Notice that next to the bypass icon there is a preset icon (small arrow) that indicates that this is part of a preset. If you need to modify a certain instance of a preset, you should first do right click, “Detach from Preset”.

Something else to keep in mind is that presets can’t be used on the mixer, only on the events’ process chain. Not sure why this is the case but this could be fixed in the future.

Effects Chains

We can apply the same concept of presets to more than one plugin. This is useful for situations where you have many events of the same type (like footsteps or ambiences) to which you want to apply the same processing. I personally use it a lot for automation curves that use parameters, like custom distance attenuation curves.

To make an effect chain, you can create them on the Preset Browser with right click, "New Preset” and “New Effect Chain”. Then you can add or drag and drop effects from an event,

Keep in mind that the same rules effects presets have, apply here so you should detach from the preset if you want a particular instance to be different.

A great advantage of creating effects chains is that you don’t only save the plugins values but also automation and modulation like envelopes and LOFs. Even parameter usage is saved.

Usage Example

Let’s use an effect chain for our footsteps events. We have two different parameters that affect the footsteps: normalized distance and intensity. Since we want to have a custom distance attenuation curve, we turn distance attenuation off on the spatializer and we create our own curve. Similarly, we want to affect the event level as different intensity values are used.

So we add both parameters to the effect. Now, a normal approach would be to automate the master volume of the event using our two parameters. The problem with this approach is that we won’t be able to save the automation on an effect chain because an event master fader can’t be included in a preset (since it’s not really a plugin).

So to solve this, we are going to create new gain inserts after fader, that we will use to automate the volume. Another advantage of this approach is that we can then keep the master fader as an overall level control that is not affected by any parameters.

We create these two gain inserts and now we just need to automate each of them with our parameters. We could also use a single insert but sometimes I like to have two separate ones to avoid maxing out its headroom, since they can only do +10 dB.

Now that we have our automation curves, we can create a new chain effect preset, and drag and drop our curves there. See how our chain saves everything: modulation curves, parameters used and any other values. Now you just need to add this to all your other footsteps events by using right click > “Add Effect” > “Preset Effect” and choosing your chain.

If you then need to tweak the curves, the changes will affect all your footsteps events, keeping them in sync and saving tons of time, especially on big projects. Of course, if you need to have different curves on a particular footstep event, you can always detach it from the preset.