Quote:
Originally Posted by albee1952
You're likely to get several opinions on this, so take mine as just that....one opinion 
Do you really need all that routing trickery to get a good mix? I understand that some mixers swear by this method, but many of them are mixing stuff they did not record, so they have developed a method that covers a huge array of circumstances, while you are dealing with your own tracks. With that in mind, I think you could simplify(sometimes the best thing to do  ) and get a good mix going to L&R. I would(and do) add parallel compression to drums with 1 stereo AUX, but that's usually all I do for "extra routing".
Moving to the final mix, I understand the appeal of routing thru a mix bus before the master, but(the big BUT), that is usually tied to trying to MIX and MASTER at the same time, which is not something I like to do. I will do "quick and dirty" mastering for a reference mix, but my final is usually done with the plan that I want the best MIX I can make(and leave the MASTERING for later, or better yet, for a real mastering engineer). When I do need to master my own mixes, I find I get better results if I make the best mixes I can and bounce those out at the session's sample rate and bit depth. Then I import all mixes for a project(assuming an album/CD) into a mastering session and then I can easily work all the songs against each other(which tends to make for better consistency anyway). I do believe in routing thru a MIX aux track, applying mastering plugins there because that processing happens before the master track/fader(master track plugins are all post-fader, so a fadeout can result in inconsistent limiter action).
Re the idea of multiple limiters, I agree and usually run 2(3 if the 2-mix is really soft). As with all this stuff, YMMV  |
First of all, thanks so much!
I must admit that routing all to buses makes my workflow a lot easier right now, I'm a person that loves to have everything organized and this method is working both visually and functionally good for me.
When you talk about L&R mixes, do you mean panning all hard left, center and hard right? I do have a slight idea about panning but I find impossible to give my mixes a surround feel. Any help on this? Also, I think that doing a good EQ is vital so that instruments stand out in their right place and don't mess the spectrum where they shouldn't.
It makes sense to do the mastering in another stage rather than at the same time as mixing. Obviously, as I've got so much to learn, first I want to get my mixes sounding good and then get into mastering little by little.
I would also love to hear to any other ideas from other users!
Thanks!