It might work for you, it might work for you.

Here's mine
Drums,Bass,Leads,Effects and Fills, all being routed to a pre master channel.

those are my groups and i use them mostly for organization purposes (quick section mutes), and volume balance.

I find that, the more things you have to augment, the more you have to consider. I try to keep things bare bones and simple.

It's easy to get lost in detail.

I go even further on the simple note. I do Basses, Drums, sometimes FX. Everything else I mix ungroupped straight to the master.

I use to have all my channels straight into the master, then my friend convinced me that you have a little more flexibility in organizing.

I use reason, so i can't just move all the sliders at once, so i just make that ratio adjustment with the group.

The biggest thing is having some form of organization that you understand and can articulate when ever it's needed.

I go even further on the simple note. I do Basses, Drums, sometimes FX. Everything else I mix ungroupped straight to the master.

I used to do something similar to this, but I think that's just too many stereo tracks to work with. Having that structure and consistency might be worth considering!

Quote from: FarleyCZ on April 06, 2016, 10:06:03 pm

I go even further on the simple note. I do Basses, Drums, sometimes FX. Everything else I mix ungroupped straight to the master.

I used to do something similar to this, but I think that's just too many stereo tracks to work with. Having that structure and consistency might be worth considering!

You still have to sift through the stereo imaging of the tracks regardless. i leave my groups WIDE ass open, but my inputs are tamed.

Quote from: Villms on April 06, 2016, 10:35:29 pm

Quote from: FarleyCZ on April 06, 2016, 10:06:03 pm

I go even further on the simple note. I do Basses, Drums, sometimes FX. Everything else I mix ungroupped straight to the master.

I used to do something similar to this, but I think that's just too many stereo tracks to work with. Having that structure and consistency might be worth considering!

Dunno, man. I don't like the idea of having to "sort" everything just for the purpose of grouping it somewhere. Sometimes I even do bass layers out of the bass group solely just because they have more high frequency content than basses themselfs. ... so they are eventually leads, right? ...but wouldn't it clash with the actual leads? ...and so the train thought goes on and on, carrying the inspiration away.

I do overcomplicate stuff like this, so I think it wouldn't be beneficial in my case. But yeah. For anyone at least a little bit sane it makes perfect sense.

nah you have a point, you just gotta know what works for you. But making a bass sound out of the entire bass group and recording it, seems way gnarly and a great thing to consider. And another point to maybe use groups.

It seems you're easily lead down the rabbit hole though....and you know this lol.


The whole idea is that, eventually you will be doing things technically the same as every one else, because you will HAVE to do those things if you wish to control the tracks you make. I mean, every mix engineer literally is doing work in the physical space, so there will be some similarities when it comes to basic principles of sound manipulation.

Your organization helps with the work flow that you do.

And i will say this from a math, problem solving, and business perspective (pop is an MBA; and i am majoring in mechanical engineering) that, the less things you have to deal with, the easier it is to deal with things.

Just choose the level of stuff you want to mess with, and if you need to reorganize or overly complicate things, go ahead! lol.

Marrow is actually the one who got me hooked on mixing through busses. I was just sort of figuring it out myself until he really stressed the importance of it.

Mixing through buses makes it so much easier to get a good balance IMO. Although it can make certain workflows harder.

Here's what my buses look like recently.

Bass
Drums
Leads
FX
Ambience.

Leads generally take up most of the mid section.
Drums obviously take up lows,mids, and highs.
Bass takes up the lows
FX & Ambience can take up whatever tf they wanna take up.

At least thats how I go about it.

Alright, I currently don't use busses for much in Ableton.

Convince me on why I should start?

Organization. "Oh i need to quickly check out quite a few things to see if they sit right with this other few things and gauge it off of another few things"
"so instead of me individually selecting things i can just throw what is sonically similar and then mute that section"

"oh wow, i did all that work in that short amount of time? i must be  PRO!"

better organization leads to more efficient workflow which leads to a better creative process which leads to more work being done which leads to getting better which leads to droppin panties and bro collabs.

It really shines if you have a template as discussed above, and you basically go from there, routing any thing related to that section from the start.

I am stressing this to my little brother as he makes tunes on fruity loops, but he's learning other life organizational skills as a teenager ATM.

it's not like it's going to hurt any thing, and it might give you a better picture because it compartmentalizes the mixing and creative process.

...though it doesn't work in my case too much, I have to admit it makes things easier. I was lucky enough to exchange some stems with tyDi the other day, and he too used quite strict groups. It was strings, piano, bass, drums, synths, fx and vocals.