I've always read that sending the effect from an aux send instead of an insert will be to your advantage. BUT what about the FX a synthesizer has? (VST, not dealing with hardware yet.)
Say, NI Massive's delay or reverb fx, instead of a aux send delay or reverb for that track?

I guess my overall question would be, can you still get that depth and room feel with a synthesizer's fx?

 

Whatever works to mold your particular sound/patch. However, when it comes to mixing, I'd rather certain 3rd party FX over the default FX on most of these plugins.

 

Synth fx can be just as good or bad as any dedicated VST plugin. The "disadvantage" of them is that they aren't always flexible. For example, in Sylenth, the routing of the fx cannot be changed. Massive has some routing options, but it's not as flexible creating your own chain with external fx. But I've learned to actually like these limitations because they help me get things done and not waste time going through the 10+ reverb plugins that I own.

Also, synth fx as well as, insert fx can make mixing difficult sometimes. In mixing organic/natural sounding music such as orchestral, when using instruments from different sample libraries which all have different room reverbs it's very difficult to get the sounds to gel together and sound as if they were actually played in one room/hall. Using an aux reverb, however helps to unify the mix.

Lastly, using aux help decrease CPU usage. Why use the same reverb as 3 different inserts if you can just have 1 aux reverb?

In the end, each has its advantages and disadvantages. Think about the sound and your end goal for it in the mix, do what you think is best for the mix. If it does't work, you can switch between, synth fx's, inserts, and aux.'s.

 

I really like some Fx from VSTi's. For example Kontakt's convolution plate reverbs. I do not own any other insert FX that sounds the same.
Or the Korg Legacy or M1, these sound really wide and spacious to me. If u asked me straight up, whats better. I wouldn't know.

I have often exported all my tracks dry and mono so i could throw on FX from my UAD card or some other VST's.
But lately i've been exporting wet tracks straight from the VSTi's. Just because in my mind i couldn't get the same FX with other plugs.
IMHO, only hardware would be better. VST or VSTi FX are all about the same, some a little better than others.

In the case of inserts i would be carefull. The internal routing of the plug can really mess things up. I only trust Oxford and UAD as inserts.
The rest i put on send channels. The advantage of having send channels is the original sound doesn't change it just adds a wet channel.
And you can export and re-import that wet channel to save CPU.

And yes you can really get depth from VSTi's FX. Some are even highly tweakable. (predelay, eq and stuff)

 

To add ton Pimpdrop good response, we can also consider the "workflow".

Having Insert-FX from the Synth, or using Plugin as Insert on the DAW Mixer, could make things a little more complicated later during the mix.
By using Plugins in the mixer, you can have a direct view and access to them when you're mixing, you don't have to dig into the Synth edition.

So, from my point of view, I like to use embedded Synth FX to create and build a sound, make it my own... while I use Insert Plugin to treat the track... and of course Aux for FX I want to group to glue some tracks together (such Reverb, Drums Comp, etc...). But that's just my way to work and anyone is different and there's not really any "rules". It's pretty much how you want it and how you like it and it works for you.

I hope it helps...

 

Dependz.

Plugins built into a synth are convenient and may save rack space. OTOH, bulitin FX like reverb and chorus may use up more CPU because they may be unoptimized (EQ is usually fine, that's relatively simple to implement iirc).

External FX may give you more control and less CPU usage depending on implementation, but uses up more rack space.

I haven't had much experience with massive, but I had a quick look at kontakt (which I beileve still applies) and OMG the amount of FX it offers is enough for a DAW in itself.