Mixing preparation

PREPARING MIXING

Reminder: we are working on the song Life, an original composition:

What software and hardware do we need to produce this song? What is the instrumentation? How is the project organized?

Here is the list of everything I used to record and mix Life:

- A reasonably powerful computer
- An audio interface
- A preamp (optional if the audio interface already has decent built-in preamps)
- A vocal microphone
- A mic stand
- A pop filter
- Monitoring speakers
- Headphones
- A MIDI controller (master keyboard)
- A guitar
- A bass guitar
- All necessary cables

- A sequencer (DAW)
- Effect plugins (EQ, reverb, compression, saturation, etc.)
- Amp simulation plugins
- Impulse loaders (IR loaders)
- Impulses (IRs)
- Software synths (VSTi)
- Drum software

THE TRACKS

- 4 synth tracks
- 2 clean rhythm electric guitar tracks
- 2 distorted lead electric guitar tracks
- 1 bass track
- 1 vocal track
- 2 backing vocal tracks
- 2 sampled choir tracks (orchestral and choral sound plugin)
- Drums

Each instrument track contains its own plugins. Previously, I used to create buses for every track and place the plugins on those buses, but despite the organizational logic, it made tasks more complicated and significantly slowed down the projects. I now opt for a simpler method.

Don't hesitate to create a blank template containing all the tracks and buses you need; this saves you from rebuilding everything for every new project. I describe the template I use on this page.

One last point: the song has a tempo of 75 BPM.

THE BUSES

For the drums
- Each element will have its own bus (kick, snare, hi-hat, ride, etc.), on which various sound processing plugins will be placed (EQ, compression).
- These buses will be routed to a main drum bus.

Drums

Main group buses
- Each type of instrument is routed to a main bus: the rhythm guitars (2 in this case) are routed to a "Rhythm Guitars" main bus, all synths to a "Synths" main bus, etc.
- Each of these main buses is then routed to the Master bus.

Main buses

The Master Bus
- The "main" buses for each instrument group are routed here: the rhythm guitar bus, the lead guitar bus, the synth bus, the vocal bus, the bass bus, and the drum bus.
- The mastering plugins are placed on the Master bus: a multi-band EQ and a limiter to achieve the final sound.

Master bus

Don't worry if this all seems a bit messy or complicated at first; we'll go through the details step by step—it’s not rocket science at all.

MESSAGES

Stanman
le 16/04/2019 à 06h56

Just wanted to thank you for your time organizing this. It took me days to compile all of these in the past! I am switching to a new workstation. This will be very handy.

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You're welcome. I'm sorry to say that I don't have much time anymore to update my website, and some information are getting a bit old. Some day, I'll make new tutorials about mixing a song, with better techniques than currently available at the moment, but they're still valid to some extent. Thanks for your support!

alessandrolima
le 31/01/2019 à 23h24

Dude, thanks a lot for this tutorial. It really helped me a lot. God bless you!

slashburn
le 02/12/2018 à 19h53

Bonjour,
Sur le "jcm 800 mercurial", quelle différence entre la 12ax7eh et la 12ax7rsd ?
Je trouve la rsd plus "grasse" et plus disto, votre avis ?

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Bonjour,
Effectivement, comme ça simule 2 variantes d'une lampe 12ax7, le son change un peu entre les deux, ce qui permet d'étendre les possibilités du simulateur.
La RSD est un peu plus pêchue et un peu plus brillante, alors que la EH met plus les basses en avant.
À choisir en fonction de ce qu'on cherche comme type de son.
Grebz

Manouzot
le 07/08/2018 à 21h58

Salut !
Tout d'abord UN GRAND MERCI pour ton site et tes plugins. Sincèrement, c'est top !
Je suis sur Mac : j'ai téléchargé ignite_amps_nadir_1_0_2_mac et les amp Mac AU.
Bien mis dans le répertoire de mes plugins et components et aucun n'apparaît dans Logic Pro X ?
Quelqu'un sait pourquoi ?
Merci pour l'aide

patvan
le 27/06/2018 à 12h50

Hi, I just stumbled on your website. Very impressed I must say. I'm planning to buy TSE X50 also. I'm currently owning a squire Strat and was wondering how I would get a warm jazz tone out of the guitar. Any idea what settings on the TSE X50 could work ? A tone like here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkW8gKsZiVk

Cheers,
Patrick