Help Setting up a Mix Template

[adam79]

I need some advice on setting up a mix template.. creating Audio Tracks, AUX Busses, Submix Busses, Stems, 2bus, etc.

I start my mix with a few stereo and mono audio tracks for vocals, guitars, bass and drums (well, an instrument track for a drum VI). Then I create AUX Busses for each of these tracks, and finally send everything to the 2bus.

Is a Submix and Stem the same thing? Basically sending all the tracks from a specific instrument to a single Stereo bus. Or is that the same thing as an AUX Bus?

If there's a good tutorial on this, a link would be awesome.

Thanks.

[albee1952]

A "stem" is a recorded version of a submix(same thing, but the stem can be exported as an audio file).

Ultimately, its really up to your personal preferences Here's my take(1 of the hundreds of possible methods). As for buses, some use tons, some use none, and I use a handful, but traditionally NOT a mix bus(just my personal preference). My band template has the following(all tracks output to the master)
Drums(12 audio tracks, stereo AUX for drum compression(fed by sends), stereo AUX for drum room(fed by sends) and a VCA master for drums(the AUX tracks are NOT included in the group/VCA as they are all fed by post-fade sends)
Bass-1 audio track and 1 aux track with a bass amp sim plugin(fed by a send from the DI track
Keys-3 stereo instrument tracks with MiniGrand, DB-33 and Kontact, plus a stereo audio track for a Motif es8. If the Motif gets tracked, I usually add a midi track.
Acoustics-2 pairs of audio tracks(I use 2 mics) and a stereo aux track for a reverb plugin.
Electric Guitars-4 audio tracks and 2 mono aux tracks with Dverb(guitars usually get a ribbon and a Shure SM-7)
Master track-FabFilter Pro Q(always sitting open on a 3rd screen) and Waves or Slate SSL bus compressor(its there but rarely moves the meter)
Vocals-4 audio tracks(to start) plus 2 aux tracks(fed by sends) with reverb and delay
talkback-4 aux tracks that feed headphones so all players can converse between the separate rooms(these all have sound Radix Mute-o-matic plugin.

Tracks are all loaded with 6 stereo sends to headphones as well as most any/every plugin I mix with(but any plugin with latency is inactive in the template). For the plugins that are active, the latency is 11 samples for ADC and recording is done at the 64 buffer setting and the headphone mixes are so well-dialed that I rarely make more than 3-4 adjustments for the band(drummers always seem to want more click)

Another odd thing I do is with my click track. I may or may not want to hear it in the CR but don't want to chase my tail with adjustments, AND, I want to be able to kill it everywhere easily. So the track has output set to none and I put a send on it that feeds the main outputs. This way, I can mute the track and its muted everywhere(all those sends are post-fade) and adjust my level independently.

Having said all this, I have the Andrew Schepps mix templates and have watched dozens of tutorials with all manner of bussing and routing, including the popular mix bus(usually with several plugins for "mastering) I also have final mixes from some top mixing engineers and I know exactly what they do(and why), I see the appeal of all that and the logic is totally sound(and yes, I've tried doing it their way). But it just doesn't work for me Maybe its the "old school" in me that involved mixing thru a console, or maybe its that I don't like having WAY TOO MANY OPTIONS So.....my tracking template really IS my mixing template. Once tracking is done, I kill the headphone sends and enable the inactive plugins and am 90% done(except for the hours of editing)

BTW, the reason I skip a "mix" bus is that I prefer to keep "mastering" as a separate process...

[adam79]

Originally Posted by albee1952

BTW, the reason I skip a "mix" bus is that I prefer to keep "mastering" as a separate process...

Mix bus as in the 2 bus.. the Master Track? I usually put the UA Neve 88RS and McDSP Analog Channel. If I was to hand over my mix to be mastered, I would give them a mix with my 2 bus chain and a mix with nothing on the 2 bus.