Signal Flow & Plugins - How To Mix Music (Part 2)

 

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he Essential Guide to Becoming Becoming A Music Mixing Professional is a series to help explain and teach you – musicians, producers, and aspiring mixing engineers engineers – how to mix music . I share our years of 

experience and and insight on mi mixing xing and mastering, our best mixing tips, mastering tricks and music mu sic production strategies. Covering the necessary  necessary  preparations, tools, underlying physics physics and insider tips and tricks to achieve achieve the perfect mix and master. In the first episode (/ (/essential-guide-becoming-m essential-guide-becoming-music-mix usic-mixingingmastering-professional-fundamentals/) I mastering-professional-fundamentals/)  I talked about setting yourself 

 

up to become a great engineer. We covered monitoring, DAWs and plugins, composition, and stem preparing. Make sure you have read it i t befor beforee continuing here. In this second part I will further explain your perfect setup for mixing music, and we go more in-depth on the signal flow and the plugins that you need to use to achieve a well-mixed track. Signal Flow & Plugins

Preparation 3

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The keyword here is ‘organize . To create a good mix – and do this more ’ 

than once – you need to organize o rganize your work using these 6 steps:

  I understand that these steps seem unimportant at first, but after years of   experience we notice that these small things are really what makes the  difference.

Step 1:Name your project properly project properly so that you know exactly which project it is tomorrow, and are able to easily find it 2 years from now. Name your tracks clearly, tracks  clearly, and always use the same name types. For instance: Kick 1, Kick 2, HH 1, HH 2, Snare, Synth 1, Synth 2, Violin, Guitar, Vocal 1, Vocal 2, etc. Pro-Tip: If Pro-Tip:  If you work with the stems of someone else, keep the original names of the stems on the audio files. This way, when that person refers back  to a specific stem, you can easily spot which is the audio file in question. For  your own organization orga nization you can still name and color the corresp corresponding onding track  in your mixer. Step 2: Always 2: Always order your stems in stems in the same structure. For instance: first kicks, then snares, hi-hats, crashes, percussion, p ercussion, bass, synths, instruments,  vocals, then effects. Make sure to keep drums drum s with drums, dru ms, synths with

 

synths, vocals with vocals etc. Find an order that works for you, and consistently use it. Step 3: Always 3: Always color your groups in groups in predetermined colors. For instance: color your drums blue, your synths red, instruments green, vocals yellow, and  your effects grey. These steps makes it a lot easier ea sier for you to navigate through throug h  your project. pro ject. F Find ind colors that work for you, and a nd consistently consis tently use them in your specific order. Step 4: Add markers markers to the different sections of the song. For instance: 3

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intro, verse 1, build up 1, drop, chorus, etc. This allows you to navigate quickly to the parts of the song that you want to listen to.

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(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing Article-Preparation-11.png)  Article-Preparati on-11.png)

Step 5: Always setup your buses in buses in predetermined order. Buses are also referred refer red to as ‘sends’ or ‘‘auxiliary auxiliary channels’. channels’. A good o order rder of buses can be: delay bus, reverb bus, drum reverb bus, snare reverb bus, side chain bus.

 

Don’t forget to name your buses correctly. Find an order that works for you, and consistently use it.  Why can’t I just ju st put reverb and delay plugins on the tracks themselves?The

advantage you get when you use buses for delay and reverb, is that you have more control over volume as they now have a designated fader, you have more control over the frequency spectrum as you can add an equalizer for the reverb or delay specifically, and you save CPU by using one reverb or delay  plugin for multiple channels instead of adding separate reverb or delay  plugins on each channel. 3

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Step 6: Setup the th e signal flow of your your mixer. mixer. This  This is also referred referred to as

 ‘routing’. In your mixer you have your tracks, your buses, and the master  channel. Make sure that the output of all your tracks lead to the master  channel, except for the tracks that you want to side chain to the kick drum,  these tracks should lead to the side chain bus. The buse busess that you would like

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to side chain such as the reverb bus and the delay bus should also lead to the side chain bus. The side chain bus should lead to the master channel.

(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-

 

 Article-Preparation-21.png)  Article-Preparati on-21.png)

DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOU R PROJECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

Pro-Tip:  If you mix often, this one will save you lots of time: create your Pro-Tip: If custom mixing template. template . Look up “templates” “templates” in the manual of your DAW, and learn how to set this up. If you have found a routine way in how   you mix, mi x, line up your you r signal flow, and organize org anize your buses bus es – your own o wn 3

custom template is the professional way to go.

  To help you get started you can grab my Mixing Template Checklist for free:    

Plugins Plugins are great tools to enhance the sounds of your music. The 4 essential plugins that you can find in any DAW are equalizers, compressors, delays, and reverbs. It is very important that you fully understand what each of these plugins exactly does, before you apply them to your tracks.

Equalizing (EQ)  An equalizer gives you control over the frequencies of a so sound. und. You are a re able to cut out frequencies, and make frequencies softer or louder.  An equalizer has a few types of filters. There is a high-pass filter (HPF), filter (HPF), also referred to as low-cut filter, which cuts away frequencies that are lower than the set s et frequency. There is a low-pass filter (LPF), filter (LPF), also referred to as a high-cut filter, which cuts away frequencies higher than the set frequency.

 

Shelf (or shelving) filters, filters, can boost or cut (make louder or softer) all frequencies above or below a set frequency. High shelf filters alter all frequencies above the set frequency. Low shelf filters alter all frequencies  below the set frequency. Bell filters can boost or cut a group of frequencies that surrounds a set frequency. By adjusting the Q-knob, the amount of frequencies in this group can be altered. A higher Q means fewer frequencies in this group – a lower Q means more frequencies in this group. A bell filter with an extreme high Q is called a notch filter. filter. 3

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(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing Article-2-EQ1.png)

Compression (Dynamics)  A compressor compresso r decreases the difference between between loud and soft s oft sounds sounds.. It compresses the louder sounds to be softer. To make sure that there is no loss in volume of the overall sound, it amplifies the signal in the end of its process. The result is that the softer sounds become louder.

 

 A compressor compresso r has generally 6 main mai n knobs that can be adjusted: adjus ted: threshold, ratio, attack, release, knee, and (makeup) gain. The threshold threshold determines  determines how loud a sound has to be to be compressed. By  adjusting the ratio ratio you  you determine how much that sound will be compressed. The higher the ratio the more the sound will be compressed. By adjusting the attack  you  you determine the time it takes before the compressor starts compressing after detecting volume peaks above the threshold. The release release determines  determines the time it takes before the compressor 3

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stops compressing after the peak of a loud sound, when the volume is below  the threshold again.

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knee determines  determines how much the sound above the threshold reacts to the  The knee  compressor. With a ‘soft’ knee the louder sounds will be more compressed  than the less loud sound. With a ‘hard’ knee, all sounds above the threshold 

 will be compressed equally. The signal within a compressor ends at the (makeup) gain. gain. If you compress a sound by 4 decibel, you want to amplify the plugin’s output signal by 4 decibel to make up for the volume loss.

 

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(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-

  Article-Compress  Article-Compressor1.png) or1.png)  

DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOU R PROJECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

Delay  A delay is an a n effect effect plugin that repeats repea ts the signal si gnal it gets a set amount amou nt of times until it fades out. There are a great variety of preset possibilities for delay types. For example, the ping-pong delay nicely creates a wide stereo image, by timing delays differently between between left and right.

Every delay plugin has 3 main controls. The dry/wet dry/wet control  control determines how much you hear the dry signal or the wet signal. With the control on 100% dry, you only hear the original sound without the repetitions – with the

 

control on 100% wet, you only hear the repetitions. The delay time determines time determines the time it takes before the sound will be repeated. The feedback   control control determines how long the sound will keep repeating itself. If the feedback is set to value lower than 1, every repetition will be softer in volume than its predecessor, until the repetitions will be too soft to hear.

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(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing Article-Delay1.png)

Reverbs  A reverb plugin creates an echo of the sound so und that it receives. It creates the reflections of a synthesized space. Most reverb plugins have the following controls: dry/wet, reverb time, predelay, size, and shape.

 

The dry/wet control works the same as with a delay plugin. It determines how much you hear the dry signal or the wet signal. With the control on 100% dry, you only hear the original sound without the echo – with the control on 100% wet, you only hear the echo. The reverb time controls time controls the time it takes until the echo fades out. The pre-delay  determines  determines the time takes before you hear the first reflections of  the echo.  With the size size control  control you determine the size of the synthesised room that 3

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creates the reflections. A larger room creates a larger sounding echo, and vice  versa.

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shape control  control of a reverb plugin adjusts the shape of the synthesised  The shape  room – in other words, how many walls it has. Depending on the reverb  plugin, you can determine if the room has 3 walls, 4, or more. 

(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing Article-Reverb1.png)  Article-Reverb 1.png)

 

Pro-Tip: After Pro-Tip:  After each plugin that you have setup, close your eyes and click the  bypass button  bypass  button a number of times until you do not know anymore if you are listening to the sound with- or without the plugin – then compare which  version sounds s ounds best. A bypass bypas s button makes the signal sig nal pass by the plugin,  you could see s ee it as the on/off button of the plugin.

DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOU R PROJECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

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Signal Flow Now that you know how these plugins work, it is very important to understand in which order you should apply them on your tracks.

 This is a great way to line up your plugins on your individual tracks:  

Equalizer (Possible effect effect plugin such as a distortion di stortion plugin or a phaser) Compressor Equalizer

 With the first equalizer equalizer in  in your signal flow you filter out all the frequencies that you do not want the sound to contain. By filtering out these unnecessary  frequencies you create more space in your mix for other sounds, and you make sure that the compressor does not react to frequencies it does not need to react to. If you want to add an effect plugin such plugin such as a distortion plugin or a phaser,  best is to place these after the first firs t equalizer and before the compressor. compr essor. This  way you make mak e sure that the effect effect plugin does not react to frequencies that it it does not need to react to, while you also ascertain that the compressor compresses the possible volume peaks created by the effect plugin.

 

 After the compressor compressor you  you can add another equalizer equalizer with  with which you can  boost certain certai n frequencies to improve im prove the sound. The reason r eason that you should  boost frequencies only o nly after the compressor is i s because – a ass we discussed discu ssed earlier – a compressor compresses the louder sounds, and makes these softer.

In that regard, if you only boost frequencies after the compressor, you eliminate the high possibility that these frequencies would then be softened again, or over-c over-compressed. ompressed.

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(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing Article-Signal-Flow1.png) If you want to add reverb reverb or  or delay  to  to a sound, you send the signal of your

 

track to your reverb or delay bus. While the output of our track still goes to the master channel, channel, a bus (or send, or auxiliary) takes a copy of the signal and sends it to your designated reverb or delay bus. Pro-tip: On your reverb bus or delay bus you can first add an equalizer to filter out the frequencies that you do not want in your reverb or delay. While the original sound might have frequencies below 250Hz, it often sounds  better to cut these low frequencies out from your reverb and delay in order to prevent a muddy mix.

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 When you use your you r reverb and delay plugins on a separate sepa rate bus, ma make ke sure to set the dry/wet ratio on 100% wet, so that you only hear the reverb and not

 the original sound. The original sound is already sent to the master channel

ou tput of the original orig inal track.   via the output   That concludes concludes this episode epis ode of  The  The Essential Es sential Guide To Becoming Becoming A  

Music Mixing Professional Professional series. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you found anything in this series so far helpful to you, please feel free to share the link to our blog (/blog). We are  just trying to spread s pread the message mes sage a and nd help creators like you improve im prove their sound. Don’t forget to grab my Mixing Template Checklist if you hadn’t already. This  will save you lots of time (that sshould hould be sp spent ent actually improving your you r sound) and will set you up for a professional workflow: I am Tim van Doorne, Doorne, it’s an honour to serve you. Stay motivated to improve your sound, every single day!

 

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Join the discussion Rúni • 3 months ago

I think this will help a lot. Thank you wery much for using your time on us beginners. ☺ • Reply • Share ›

Tim van Doorne > Rúni • 2 months ago

Happy it's helpful! • Reply • Share ›

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Flip Flopped • 3 months ago

Great artic article le very good info and very well well explained. explained. • Reply • Share ›

Tim van Doorne > Flip Flopped • 2 months ago

:) • Reply • Share ›

Ceyhun Özsoylu • a year ago

Hello Tim, Tim, great quality article from fr om you, you, thanks a lot, I have a question, do recording rec ording takes always alw ays have to contain c ontain some hiss and a nd noise noise inside? when when I solo vocal, voca l, bass or gu guitar itar I always alw ays hear little hiss alth although ough my my recording rec ording equipmen equipmentt is i s not inferio inferiorr and a nd surrounding surrounding is very still. Do professionals always use plugins to clean noises? if yes is it on every submix or onl o nlyy on master track? wh which ich plug in is the best in terms te rms of not touching anythin anything g else and only tackle the the noise... nois e... • Reply • Share ›

Tim van Doorne > Ceyhun Özsoylu • a year ago

Hey Ceyhu C eyhun. n. With Wit h recording recor ding you should try to achieve a clean signal s ignal with without out too much noise. Indeed, take note that you are in a quiet environment, use proper  equipment, and use proper microphone placements. I'm not sure what your recording setup is, but you could try increasing the bit depth when you transform your signal to digital, this might lower the noise level. Alternativelyy you could try noise reduction plugins Alternativel plugins such as iZotope RX 5. Hope this helps! • Reply • Share ›

Kwame Badu • a year ago

Great tips thank you but but where where wou would ld you place place a de-esse de-esserr in this chain? • Reply • Share ›

Forester  > Kwame Badu • a year ago

Generally a de-esser de-ess er wouldn' wouldn'tt be needed if you have a bit of low lowpass pass on o n your your track tr ack or EQ bus. You could put a notch where the "ess" sound is, although I'm not sure

   

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