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My Starting Mix Template In Studio One

chris_shape_drummer

chris_shape_drummer

Member
Just figured i'd provide a write up of my latest mixing template. This has pulled in several different concepts from tutorials and youtube videos i've watched over the years. Anyone who has watched Nolly will recognize the majority of it.

Routing
Drums, Guitars, Bass, Samples/Synths, Vocals each have their own bus.
Guitars Bus has sub busses consisting of rhythm guitars, lead guitars and clean guitars.
Everything except vocals goes to an instrument bus.
Instrument bus and Vocal Bus go to the Mix Bus and that to the Master Bus.

Guitars
1. different amp or cab for the left and right guitars to reduce as much phase cancellation as possible.
2. it goes without saying, but 2 different takes panned L and R.
3. slightly different EQ moves on each side, if one bumps around 1.2k, do a slight dip on the other side.
4. cut out the low junk, the bass is going to fill that in anyways.
5. multiband c4 Andy Sneap trick to manage low end palm mutes.
6. main guitar bus has Soothe for resonances.

Bass
You can use plugins like Parallax to handle both the low end and distortion layer, but i've found it easier to split them and do a high and low pass on each track respectively. This way you can have full control over each. Not to say you can't with Parallax, but i personally like being able to work on them individually. I actually still use parallax for the distortion track because i like the tone i get, but i use a distressor by itself on the low end DI.

Drums
I dont have the luxury of tracking a live kit so I have always used my e-kit with Superior Drummer. I then take that midi and make a drums-only session with a franken-kit using the Studio One multi-instrument feature. This lets me construct a drum sound however i feel fits the song. This has Superior Drummer for a ton of cymbals as well as a couple one-shot samples, and 2 different instances of Ultimate Heavy Drums in Kontakt to stack some shells. I bounce this out to wav files so save on memory/CPU and then bring them into the actual mixing session. Stems will be kick, snare, snare room, toms, toms/kick room, cymbals, hihats, cymbals room. I separate the rooms like this so i have full control of what i can do with compressors. Yes, it's probably considered cheating, but it gets me the results I want.
From here i add Slate Trigger for some added room samples that i trigger depending on the song to give (99% of the time just the snare) the drums some more ambience.

Vocals Bus
have a verse and chorus bus leading to the main Vocal Bus.
each track has eq, an la-2a and 1176 compressor.
the busses have a de-esser and limiter on them to control peaks.
main vocal bus has an EQ and then Soothe to handle resonances.
a few different sends for reverbs and delays, sometimes a distortion bus, but alot of times i usually have decapitator on the track i need it on and utilize the mix knob.

Instrument Bus
I do the typical Nolly top-down style here. SSL style compressor with a fast attack to clamp down when the snare hits and then releases fast. this adds a bunch of impact around the mix for me.

Mix Bus
EQ -> Compressor -> Gullfoss -> Sonnox Inflator

Master Buss
EQ to be surgical
EQ for subtle boosts/dips
FabFilter Saturn for some saturation
Flatline 2 for a mix of clipping and limiting.
 
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That is a great template. Maybe you could share it and then we could modify it. I record and mix a bunch of school bands at the end of each term. I do record everything on the same tracks for each band. I created a great mix template which saves a bunch of time mixing that is for sure.

There are two approaches to templates. One is they are good for quick record and mix setups into a certain genre and type of song. The downside is you can tend to create very similar sounding results though each time you use a template which in some cases is not good. If you are someone who likes creating very different things each time you create music then a very minimal template is actually the go. It just depends on what type you tend to fit into. The other approach is create a series of templates designed for a range of options.

I have a very minimal template with an audio track and an instrument track an no plugins or buses anywhere. I tend to create a heavy metal tune one minute and then an atmospheric ambient electronic piece the next. So predefined templates don't work for me. They hinder me actually. But of course this varies a lot depending on the individual. When you start from nothing you will always create a broader range of genres and sounds.
 
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Yea I can share the template. Ill go through it and get the full list of plugins on it as well so the post will contain everything. Ill try and get to it this weekend
 
Jemusic said:
....There are two approaches to templates. One is they are good for quick record and mix setups into a certain genre and type of song. The downside is you can tend to create very similar sounding results though each time you use a template which in some cases is not good. If you are someone who likes creating very different things each time you create music then a very minimal template is actually the go. It just depends on what type you tend to fit into. The other approach is create a series of templates designed for a range of options.
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Well stated. Something I live by and do not use templates. In this case, chris_shape_drummer has a good handle for his template. As you say, it may well serve others who could benefit from it. Some templates are also best served putting in only generic startup treatments like reducing EQ in places outside the scope of bass guitars, kicks, etc. Or ducking bass on a startup - to be later changed, song depending. Etc, etc.
Call the template Startup Rock Heavy, Startup Indy, Startup Pop, etc.
Happy motoring! ; )
 
I never work without templates for recording, but then the three types of project I always work on (full string sections, quartets/small ensemble, solo, a handful of midi tracks and separate score writing software) never vary that much.
The approach I took (many years ago) was a Darwinistic one. I started with very basic tracks and routing, and then saw how quickly I got bored of repeating the same tasks over and over again before a session was ready. So now there's just enough in them to make the setup quick, but without having to work around or take out anything unnecessary.
 
curranr said:
I never work without templates for recording, but then the three types of project I always work on (full string sections, quartets/small ensemble, solo, a handful of midi tracks and separate score writing software) never vary that much.
The approach I took (many years ago) was a Darwinistic one. I started with very basic tracks and routing, and then saw how quickly I got bored of repeating the same tasks over and over again before a session was ready. So now there's just enough in them to make the setup quick, but without having to work around or take out anything unnecessary.
Click to expand...
I have a similar template for guitar tracking as well. I have about 6 different guitar tones all loaded up. Tracking on 2 different lanes and then do quick tone checks with each of the 2 takes. Ill run take 1 on 3 left versions of the tone and the 2nd on the remaining 3 for the right side. Then once I decide which songs good for the song, I print those takes and import into my normal mixing session.
 
chris_shape_drummer said:
I have a similar template for guitar tracking as well. I have about 6 different guitar tones all loaded up. Tracking on 2 different lanes and then do quick tone checks with each of the 2 takes. Ill run take 1 on 3 left versions of the tone and the 2nd on the remaining 3 for the right side. Then once I decide which songs good for the song, I print those takes and import into my normal mixing session.
Click to expand...
I'm always interested in how other people work, and am never that confident that my approach is the correct one. My sound engineering experience, such as it is, originates from working as a theatre technician 30 years ago. I started as a session player in the pre-digital era, or at least before digital recording became as ubiquitous as it now is. So I set my sessions up as I would do a live sound desk. Seems to work OK though, and since I now work full time as a remote session player everything that goes out of the door is pure unadulterated audio. I understand the fundamentals of parametric EQ and compression, but hardly ever use them, and plugins are restricted to a handful of string libraries and a couple of pianos.
It's a simple life, and I do like to keep it that way :)
When you say you're tracking on two different lanes, is that the same take or two different takes? Do you ever do multiple takes?
 
curranr said:
I'm always interested in how other people work, and am never that confident that my approach is the correct one. My sound engineering experience, such as it is, originates from working as a theatre technician 30 years ago. I started as a session player in the pre-digital era, or at least before digital recording became as ubiquitous as it now is. So I set my sessions up as I would do a live sound desk. Seems to work OK though, and since I now work full time as a remote session player everything that goes out of the door is pure unadulterated audio. I understand the fundamentals of parametric EQ and compression, but hardly ever use them, and plugins are restricted to a handful of string libraries and a couple of pianos.
It's a simple life, and I do like to keep it that way :)
When you say you're tracking on two different lanes, is that the same take or two different takes? Do you ever do multiple takes?
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I always do 2 separate takes. Sometimes I will quad tracking for certain choruses, or do double takes and then 2 octave layers.
 
I have had mix templates setup for all combinations of my work for over a decade now.

But since learning about Track Presets (thanks Joe Gilder!) and using the Files browser (thanks Lukas!) I am using those features instead of my mix templates more and more. It's a faster and less frustrating workflow :)
 
chris_shape_drummer said:
I always do 2 separate takes. Sometimes I will quad tracking for certain choruses, or do double takes and then 2 octave layers.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. For small ensemble stuff I usually do three or four for each instrument, each take might have a slightly different approach in terms of vibrato, note shaping, phrasing etc. Then I choose the take that best fits the vibe, but as a listener rather than a player. It's perhaps a little time consuming but for me it gets the best results.
 
LiveFromPFD said:
I have had mix templates setup for all combinations of my work for over a decade now.

But since learning about Track Presets (thanks Joe Gilder!) and using the Files browser (thanks Lukas!) I am using those features instead of my mix templates more and more. It's a faster and less frustrating workflow :)
Click to expand...
How is it less frustrating than having a template already hooked up?
 
Yes, exactly what @daw_stew said.

Instead of being locked in to my template (and how long since it has been updated) I can mix and match presets from recent or old sessions as needed. I even saved my templates as empty songs so I could easily mix and match.
 
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