Helping you to get your music made
This is the first of three videos looking at the use of sends in mixing a song. It covers the classic use of sends for effects channels, whereby the signal from multiple tracks is routed to a single effect on its own channel. This allows the effect to “glue” the tracks together and reduces the processing demand on the computer from multiple instances of the same effects plugin, as well as making it simpler, as only one plugin needs adjusting to change the mix, rather than several.
This is my [re]mix of an old hymn recorded by Joe Gilder for his new album, “Help Of The Helpless”, a collection of hymns reworked in a more modern style.
Momentary Max: -9.6 LUFS, Integrated: -15.7 LUFS, Range: 7.9 LU, True Peak: -0.2dB
Inserts are the most straightforward way of adding effects to your mix, but aren’t necessarily the most effective way and can add considerably to the drain on your CPU resources. This video looks at what inserts effects are, how to add them in your DAW and breaks down a finished song to look at what effects were used in the mmix and where they were used.
This mix of “Ava’s Song” by Sean Hebert was done using only the stock plug-ins in Cubase 7, as I got to grips with the new MixConsole and other features. I didn’t run it into a compressor when I mixed it, instead opting to keep the levels well below 0dB at the output, so it has a wide dynamic range. One of the features in Cubase 7 is an EBU-complaint loudness meter and, for those interested, I’ve posted the loudness details below.
Momentary Max: -11.4 LUFS, Integrated: -17.2 LUFS, Range: 18.5 LU, True Peak: -1.8dB
A touch on the quiet side, perhaps, but as the man said, you can always turn it up.
Added another video looking at routing in Cubase 6 and Cubase 7, including using the Q-Link switch in the Cubase 7 MixConsole to re-route multiple channels with a single click.
I’ve added a new video to my YouTube channel, looking at importing audio files into a session template and preparing them for mixing. I cover moving tracks into folders and stripping out the silent part of tracks to give a better visual representation of the arrangement.