When to Activate your MIX BUS Chain? - My Strategy Explained

Could you do a short video on how you’re running your classic Aurora converter? What computer OS are you using? I currently have an aurora 8 (with FW and USB). And I can’t seem to access my ins and outs on either my Mac Studio (compatible with my USB expansion card) or my old MacBook Pro (compatible with my FW card). Any help you can provide would be great. Thanks

Do you ever use tape emulation?

JUST GET TO THE POINT MAN

Do you do any sort of analogue style gain staging before the compressor? I use a traditional VU meter before hardware to make sure I'm in the right ballpark. (PSP Triplemeter) and then adjust the gain to have the signal where I'd have it in the analogue world - ie just clipping the red. I'd then have another Triplemeter after the extremal plugin to put the gain back where I want it in the digital world. (aiming for roughly unity)

In English "MK" stands for "mark" (which is an old fashion word for "version".) So in a spoken voice you would call this "HoRNet AnalogStage mark two" you would never say "Emm Kay two"

Thanks for the helpful tips Chris. Some high latency plugins on the mix bus can be a problem when recording even if those plugins are bypassed. It's possible to use delay compensation to solve this, but I prefer to disable (rather than bypass) high latency mix bus plugins in my template (e.g. Ozone 10). Disabling them removes them from memory and ensures that they are not in the signal chain causing latency for recording. To disable those plugins, hold ALT whilst clicking on the plugin 'Bypass' button. Once recording is done, they can be enabled for the mixing/mastering process.

It's pretty common these days to at least have a limiter in the mix bus that can be engaged from time to time. Helps with determining how transients are going to be handled during masturing.

I left a negative comment on one of this guys videos. My foot is in the mouth for sure. Hard to find good content; you deliver great content.

Hi Chris, I have signed up for your FREE WORKSHOP "How to Build the PERFECT MIX TEMPLATE" 5 times. I never get anything in my gmail account. I have checked the Spam as well. No go! Love your videos!!!!

😖Hey you, i want to unsubscribe from your mixdownonline and get a safety warning when i click your unsubscribe-link. Wtf is this?

So do you static mic then engage the tegeler or right from the jump while faders come up?

Hey Chris wondering if you have a clever work around for a routing issue for those of us without VCA faders.
Here's the scenario, you have your drums individual tom channels routed to a tom group buss, a send from this buss is going to a reverb. The tom group buss is being bussed to the drum group buss (which also has the other kit channels bussed to it).
If you now bring the drum group buss fader down the entire kit will come down in level but the tom's reverb remains. With VCA fader you could simply create a VCA fader and assign the drum group and tom reverb return to it which would allow you to control the level proportionally and route the busses outs to anywhere you want. Any work around without VCA's? Thanks

Nice to hear hornet get a shout out. I like their tape emulation.

it s topdown mixing. a really new concept for

So nice ! Thank you for sharing this.
When you send your mix to a mastering engineer, do you let all your plugin that are in your mix bus (except the limiter) ?

Thank you. 🤞🏽😊🙏🏽

My mix bus chain is tape emulation --> compressor --> EQ --> limiter. I know a lot of people would flip the order of the EQ and the compressor, but this works for me. My favorite plugins for these roles right now are:

1) Waves Kramer Master Tape
2) Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
3) Brainworx Digital v3.
4) Fab Filter Pro-L2

One reason I like using Plugin Alliance plugins like the Shadow Hills and Brainworx is that they have stereo width and monomaker controls built in. I tighten up the low end by making everything under a certain frequency mono. I gently widen the information above that frequency.

As for when I turn these plugins on, I usually have them all on the whole time except for the EQ. I like to turn on the EQ about halfway through a mix, as a special little "treat" to myself. A little boost in the highs and lows can make me excited about the mix again. I never do more than a db or two.

🙂👍

Very instructive Chris! Thank-you. I must have learned these basic techniques from your teaching, I follow these guidelines every day. I almost fell off my chair when you mentioned your tiny boost frequencies, I thought you said 60 and16 Hertz! Earth-Mover Frequency!

Hey bro, I dig your channel. Can you please tell Steinberg Cubase to include Analog Console Emulations within Cubase 13 as native processing . It’s a no brained and makes sense. Thanks!

Wow! Another excellent video. I learned a lot but also really enjoyed it. (as I do with all of your videos) I was going through all my plugins and trying them out while pausing your video. I went through, listened to, and compared a bunch of channel strips, compressors, EQs, etc. And luckily I own many of the same plugins you use in your mixing chain.
So I'm off to create my own mix-bus template now. Again, thanks for the video. They are a joy to watch and hopefully you realize how much you are really helping a lot of us musicians out here!

Hi Chris !
Nice video, i was just wondering if you're using the "Listen Bus" at all ... or do you just use it for SoundID ?

Great video Chris! We have a very similar mix bus chain. I personally love the stereo section of the waves TG mastering channel. If you have that one give it a try, it's really nice. 👍🏻

Awesome! Very interesting as all your tutorials.

Thanks for this video it really means a lot to me

(If you don't have a Tegeler Creme, you can chain together a VCA compressor + Pultec type EQ. Sound on Sound's review (which I consulted) also suggests the Maag Magnum-K which does have a PA plug-in equivalent.)

Hi, could you please (in any video later I guess) add a comparison of the whole Mix Bus Chain ON vs. BYPASSed? I'd love to hear the result of the whole chain, the combination of small changes together.
Great video as usual! :)

Thanks Chris. All super VSTs. And the Mix Buss sounded super.

I hope that you will work on a clip in which we learned .. how to sing on a well-balanced and well-mixed music ... and reach 0 dB ... without diminishing the power of the music