Hi Lee,
first: don’t use “trim” parameter but “1: Gain” - test it with the plugin’s GUI open. If the main fader moves when you push the fader on your controller, you’ve got it…
I actually have THREE layers of interactive volume settings (and fader bindings):
- at the individual rack level (one FreeG instance per rack) to modify one rack’s volume (e.g. raise or lower the level of the string layer) - use faders A-D for this
- next, I have one “MainKeys VolFX rack” which contains a reverb, a delay and a FreeG instance. It has three input ports: Main input, reverb input, delay input. Within a song, I route all racks that contribute to the main/basic keyboard sound to this rack, with additional routes to the delay and reverb inputs where useful. All this together gives me an integrated, pre-mixed sound for my basic sound, say a piano/wurlitzer mix plus strings, seasoned with reverb and delay. I use a separate fader E (which controls the 1: Gain parameter of the FreeG instance in this rack) to raise/lower the volume of this mix overall. This way, I can control this instrument in relation to, say, a lead synth sound that I am playing elsewhere on the keyboard. I usually initialize the level of fader E at the beginning of a song using a trigger that sends a volume value of 64 to this rack, thus setting FreeG to 0 dB. This avoids nasty side effects from previous songs.
- lastly, I have my master rack with master EQ and volume for keyboards and guitar. Another two faders (H and I in this case) control this master volume. This rack has all state behavior turned off, so in preloaded state volume and EQ settings do not get reset on song change. I use these two faders to control my overall volume and EQ on sound check, when I have the feeling that my keys or guitar are overall too loud in the mix or any corrections over the course of the gig.
Your idea of inserting FreeG at the song level would have the consequence of resetting the volume at every song change - plus you would have to pre-load as many instances of FreeG as you have songs. A bit of overhead…
Easy to avoid using FreeG in a master rack.
Cheers,
Torsten