BroKen_H
Re-member
What I've learned about tracking and mixing.
I have a generic layout that has 60+ channels. It has channels for piano+parallel, other keys (3), bass (2), electric guitars (4), acoustic guitars (4), strings (8), drums (9), percussion (4), vocals (4) and a raft of parallel and bus channels to control different things. Each channel has an assortment of REs for the instrument at hand and the aux buses are loaded with my normal REs. The default mastering suite is attached to the masters. The default rack has EVERYTHING bypassed when I start. If I get a guitar line in my head, I arm one of the guitar tracks and put it "on tape". As I flesh the song out, I'll add lots and lots of things, then pare back what doesn't "add" to the song. Sometimes I'll kick an effect in (un-bypass), sometimes I won't, always based on the song I hear in my head. Sometimes I use parallel processing, sometimes I delete the parallel track. When everything is recorded, and I'm happy with the instrumentation, I start mixing. Faders down, EQ flat, no filters and start with the kit/percussion. Add bass and any other sub-freq I'm using. Then add instruments based on the style and feel of the song. No set in stone there. Un-bypass REs in the sends and sometimes modify what and how much of each instrument goes through them. Kick in and adjust hi/lo pass if necessary, EQ/compress what's necessary, etc. When the mix sounds like I want it, I'll ship it to the MP3 clinic and apply what sounds realistically helpful from the advice there (and sometimes I learn something new!
). Then un-bypass the master section. Usually this sounds good, and all I need to adjust is the threshold on the limiter and tweak the master eq.
I have a generic layout that has 60+ channels. It has channels for piano+parallel, other keys (3), bass (2), electric guitars (4), acoustic guitars (4), strings (8), drums (9), percussion (4), vocals (4) and a raft of parallel and bus channels to control different things. Each channel has an assortment of REs for the instrument at hand and the aux buses are loaded with my normal REs. The default mastering suite is attached to the masters. The default rack has EVERYTHING bypassed when I start. If I get a guitar line in my head, I arm one of the guitar tracks and put it "on tape". As I flesh the song out, I'll add lots and lots of things, then pare back what doesn't "add" to the song. Sometimes I'll kick an effect in (un-bypass), sometimes I won't, always based on the song I hear in my head. Sometimes I use parallel processing, sometimes I delete the parallel track. When everything is recorded, and I'm happy with the instrumentation, I start mixing. Faders down, EQ flat, no filters and start with the kit/percussion. Add bass and any other sub-freq I'm using. Then add instruments based on the style and feel of the song. No set in stone there. Un-bypass REs in the sends and sometimes modify what and how much of each instrument goes through them. Kick in and adjust hi/lo pass if necessary, EQ/compress what's necessary, etc. When the mix sounds like I want it, I'll ship it to the MP3 clinic and apply what sounds realistically helpful from the advice there (and sometimes I learn something new!
). Then un-bypass the master section. Usually this sounds good, and all I need to adjust is the threshold on the limiter and tweak the master eq.