Mix Bus Processing with Dead Soul Revival
If you’ve been following my “first single release” journey for my new band deadsoulrevival.com you know I’ve been examining how we recorded, mixed, and promoted our upcoming release. You can download Black Roses and Down for the Last Time at the link above.
Today let’s continue with mix bus processing.
For an in depth look at bus processing pick up a copy of my course The Sound Visualization Method.
What I’m about to describe to you is the way I prefer to treat my mix bus. It is not for everyone so you will need to experiment to see if you like the results.
My mixes are always done through a Dangerous 2 Bus summing unit. This unit allows you to take multiple different subgroups out of your DAW and sums them together in stereo.
For example my drums are sent out as a stereo pair, guitars as a stereo pair, etc.
It then sums or combines these tracks to a single stereo channel. This prevents what some call the “digital bottleneck.”
Basically instead of summing all your tracks “in the box” you allow them to be summed in analog. When I used to mix in the box exclusively I noticed with tons of tracks the fidelity started to go down in my mixes. When I had just a few tracks the fidelity was definitely better. Soon enough I figured out the reason for this: digital summing.
Imagine a pipe that isn’t big enough for all the data you are sending through it. Some say this is bs and can’t hear a difference. I definitely can hear a marked improvement. To each his own.
These days I wouldn’t mix without a 2 Bus or some type of summing device. A high quality mixing console can serve the same function.
From out of my 2 bus I go directly into an SSL stereo bus compressor. This unit provides the “glue” that brings a mix together. If you’ve never mixed through a compressor I highly recommend giving it a shot.
A couple things to note. I prefer a compressor that has a high pass filter. This way I can bypass the very low end from getting compressed. Generally I have this set in the 100 hz area.
On the SSL, a good place to start is 4:1 compression with the threshold mainly just catching the snare peaks by a few db’s. I want the attack just slow enough so the snare doesn’t lose any of its initial transient/high end.
If you’re new to this try the release on auto. It’s a safe bet. As you work more and get used to tweaking the compressor, play with the release to taste. I like the meter to return to 0 db (no compression) before the next snare hit.
You will find you can change the length of the snare as well as get a cool breathing pulse if set just right. Experimentation is key.
When I return to Pro Tools I use a few different plugins on this stereo track. First is a trim plugin so I can adjust the input gain if necessary.
Next is a saturation plugin and last but not least a high quality eq plugin. I will also sometimes have an L2 limiter so I can play clients mixes that sound closer to what the final master will be in volume. It’s usually just catching 2-3 db peaks.
A big part of the magic of this setup is that from the beginning of the mix you are feeding your tracks through these processors. This allows you to use less compression on individual tracks and work faster.
Until next time…
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