Plug-in order?

[Goss-stick]

So when you are mixing, whays your chain of command? EQ, compressin, reverb etc? Is it all on preference or is there a certain way?

 

[shorttonpro]

The sound will usually be affected by the order you have your plug-ins. It could be subtle or a very large difference, but does make a difference because each plug-in manipulates the signal somehow, so the next processor reacts to the new signal.

There is no "right" order and for each instance of each instrument it can be very different.

Feeding an EQ into a compressor will allow you to manipulate what frequencies are causing more or less compression. However, after compression, tracks are sometimes colored more, and you might need eq after the compressor to get the sound you want.

As for spacial effects like reverb and delays, it is best to have them on their own aux track and not directly as an insert on the track. However, if you do go the insert path they should usually be last in the chain (delay, then reverb) When using as a send, you could put the reverb first and then eq the verb or compress it to get some special effects.

It really is dependent on the situation and what you are after, but experimenting always helps you realize how to achieve that

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

So when you are mixing, whays your chain of command? EQ, compressin, reverb etc? Is it all on preference or is there a certain way?

Personally, for may types of music, I prefer not to have enough stuff going on to have a "chain"; if I need that much post processing, there's probably something drastically wrong with the tracking.

That said, if there's something I want to sound good and I have to throw a lot of correction on it for whatever reason, its Fix EQ and editing -> Compression -> Tweak EQ -> Reverb/Delay.

"Fix EQ and editing" refers to EQ meant to fix issues with the track; sweeping and notching out resonances and honkers, tackling low-amplitude muck that would otherwise be badly accentuated by the upcoming compression, etc. Fix editing refers to manually knocking down rogue peaks, noise reduction, pop/click elimination, etc.

Then once the track is cleaned up, it's ready for compression (*if* it really needs it), but not before that (IMHO). For me, compressing a track before it's fixed/cleaned up is jumping the gun and compressing the wrong thing.

After the compression, then it's finally time to listen to see what you got and decide if it needs any tweaking to get i to fit in the mix properly or to get the final sound it requires.

Then the track is done and ready to be placed in the reverberation space I want it placed in, and the reverb/delay is added. I rarely actually use aux busses for this myself, because I rarely apply the same thing to multiple tracks, and tend to use verb sparingly, but that's personal taste only.

IMHO YMMV WPA TVA ETC.

G.

 

[moresound]

AND .... what would scooby doo?

 

[Bristol Posse]

I love channel strip plugs simply because you don't have to have a plugin chain, you can do it all on one plug.
Right now I'm into the Waves SSL E series Channel strip (but there are loads of other good ones out there).

I generally have it set up so that the Low and High Pass filters come pre compression and the EQ comes afterward but occasionally may set up to have compression post EQ or even comp first then filters then EQ, it's all dictated by what the track needs. I like the flexibility that these channel strips allow in terms of routing the signal through the processors.

If I want to have some tape type saturation on a track I'll stick Bootsy Ferric TDS in front of the channel strip and then trim down the gain into the channel strip back to line level using the input trim on the plugin

reverbs and delays are sends generally for me and I'll often slap the SSL G Bus comp plugin on my master to give 1-2 dB of compression to "Glue" the mix together. I also use this plug on the Drum bus when it is warranted.

Oh and FX automation is your friend. Static FX sound, well...... static and not really lively in the mix.

 

[FunkDaddy]

Just curious, when you guys are saying reverb/delay effects are sends for you, is that so all your instruments get the same spacial sound?

I ask because this was a common critique on my last tune, that the instruments seemed to have vastly different "room" sounds. Wondering if giving the song a common reverb is a better strategy.

 

[Bristol Posse]

Just curious, when you guys are saying reverb/delay effects are sends for you, is that so all your instruments get the same spacial sound?

I ask because this was a common critique on my last tune, that the instruments seemed to have vastly different "room" sounds. Wondering if giving the song a common reverb is a better strategy.

For me there are several benefits to putting these effects as sends

1) a reverb on every track that needs verb eats tons of processing power and is easy to loose track of what you are doing with all of these verbs
2) sending all the vox for example to the same verb gives you that consistency of the space that you mentioned
3) having the Verbs and Delays on their own bus means you can treat them separately from the track.
4) you can automate changes in the effects much more simply

I don't always have one reverb per song but I'l usually have a main vox verb and maybe a guitar verb and perhaps a stereo verb for synths and other stereo fx etc.

The benefits above just make life simpler. If I have 4 vocals going and I decide the reverb is too muddy I can just eq the mud out of the send vox reverb rather than having to adjust the reverb as an insert on every track;
If I want the guitar reverb to swell and come mainly from the right side at one point in the song I just automate the panning and volume on that one send reverb without having to mess with all of my guitar tracks that are playing at that point, and so on and on.

I like to keep it simple. This way I only have to worry about a couple of reverb sends rather than keeping track of all the reverbs on all the tracks and remembering to change each track's verb if I don't like how it sounds, so editing and automating this way is fast and easy

Just remember to set the verbs to 100% wet if you set them up as sends so all you get is the reverb and none of the original dry track coming back from the effect

 

[RD423]

I normally run mine on Aux tracks in pro tools and in this order:

compression-deesser(when needed)-eq-then whatever else i feel is needed like dverb or delay.