Author Topic: How do you group your mix busses?  (Read 15110 times)

Villms

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How do you group your mix busses?
« on: April 06, 2016, 09:36:59 pm »
I'm setting up a new template, and I'm trying to decide how many aux busses i'll have. To clarify, all of my tracks are routed to the following aux channel strips, which then go to the master stereo track. Right now, I have:
  • KICK
  • DRUMS
  • BASS
  • LEADS
  • CHORDS
  • PIANO
  • FX
What do you think of my groupings?

Marrow Machines

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2016, 10:02:11 pm »
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.
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FarleyCZ

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #2 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.
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Marrow Machines

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2016, 10:11:12 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 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.
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FarleyCZ

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2016, 10:15:39 pm »
I use reason, so i can't just move all the sliders at once, so i just make that ratio adjustment with the group.
...yeah, that would probably force me to group more too.

The biggest thing is having some form of organization that you understand and can articulate when ever it's needed.
True. I got used to certain order in which I arrange tracks after each other. That way, when I search something, I know where to approximately look at. Probably not so neat, but I guess nicely quick way.
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Villms

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2016, 10:35:29 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!

FarleyCZ

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2016, 11:00:16 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. :)
"Earth is round right? Look at it from right angle and you'll be always on top of the world."
...but don't overdo it, because that's called being a d***k.

Marrow Machines

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2016, 12:32:47 am »
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.

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.

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ZAU

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2016, 12:36:33 am »
I came across a few tutorials which talked about the concept of 'mixing through buses' as well as a Matt Lange AMA where he says he puts every instrument into a designated bus. These tutorials are what shaped the way I work with buses in my productions.

Lydian

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2016, 01:53:44 am »
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.
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bryan

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2016, 02:45:54 am »
Alright, I currently don't use busses for much in Ableton.

Convince me on why I should start?

Marrow Machines

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2016, 03:49:03 am »
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.
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Lydian

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2016, 04:21:11 am »
Alright, I currently don't use busses for much in Ableton.

Convince me on why I should start?

It's easier to move one fader down than it is 13 different faders.
It's easier to glue instruments together through bus compression.
It's easier to balance the mix with buses because you balance all the instruments in each bus FIRST before attempting to mix the buses all together.
With sends you can EQ your reverbs/delay saving you valuable headroom.
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FarleyCZ

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2016, 06:55:34 am »
...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.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2016, 07:02:02 am by FarleyCZ »
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Arktopolis

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Re: How do you group your mix busses?
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2016, 08:57:49 am »
^ good for you dude!

I'm also pretty unorganized... I usually make busses for sidechaining purposes, so often I have one for bass and one for "other stuff". Otherwise I only make a bus when I need to apply something like a filter on multiple instruments. But nowadays I also try to minimize the number of mixer tracks I work with, so all sound design happens in the synth or in Patcher.