Curious of Your Use of Return Busses

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Currently I use :
1 for bass instruments (no 'verb)
1 for drums (filtering out any bass drum)
1 for synths/guitars/pads/keys
If I'm also tracking vocals, of course that would get a fourth return

what's been working best for you ?
expert only on what it feels like to be me
https://soundcloud.com/mrnatural-1/tracks

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I consider "return busses" to be "AUX Return".

And those are usually my channel strips that hold reverb, delay, chorus, flanger and maybe the occasional distortion device. That can range from 4 aux returns to up to 10 aux returns. Depending on the project. At bar minimum: one reverb, one delay.

Everything else is a "sub group". And you're somewhat talking about sub groups here?
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thanks Compy - sorry if I'm not clear.
In my LIVE session view mixer, say I have a synth set to send to sends A which contains verb and a "channel strip" for color. Geist to sends B containing a different verb, limiter, channel strip. Bass guitar or synth to send C. Then all of those sends to master. This is how I've been working for the last year or so. Occasionally sending an instrument to both the master and the send(I think this is referred to as parallel compression)
I guess they could be called sub-groups . . .

How do you use returns and sub-groups ?
expert only on what it feels like to be me
https://soundcloud.com/mrnatural-1/tracks

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i just pop a return track wherever I want, on rythm lead and some drums
Sincerely,
Zethus, twin son of Zeus

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In the past haven't used subgroups much, but multitrack drums are an obvious and common candidate. Get a drum mix right, then use the subgroup to bring the entire drums up'n'down in the mix. Problem I have is that I'll keep hearing the drum mix itself differently as other tracks are brought up and balanced, so dunno if having the drum sub saves much time or work. It would be a bigger advantage perhaps on live sound reinforcement.

If working routinely with grouped backup vocals or a horn section, then those would be naturals for subgroups. Guitars as well. I'm just too lazy.

I only use sends/returns for shared effects. Usually the only shared effect I use is reverb, but possibly there could be others. I usually avoid individual track reverbs and use one global reverb on a send/return, to help glue everything together and give the audible impression (as much as is possible) that everything was recorded ensemble in the same space at the same time.

I rarely use chorus as a shared effect, though it is a very common default send destination for instance in synthesizers and keyboard workstations.

I inline almost all effects either on individual tracks or the master output bus. Eq, echo, chorus, compression, etc typically get inlined on each track as necessary. I almost always use a peak limiter on the master output bus. Will often put a realtime analyzer plugin on the master, the last thing in the chain. It is a display only effect, doesn't change the sound but is useful to watch the spectral content of the mix.

Sometimes might use a compressor or EQ on the master, but those things should ideally be handled before the audio gets to the master output. Unless things are not fixable sooner, or going for a particular effect. For instance some old rock albums were compressed crazy amounts thru pumpy old leveling amps, the mix pumping and jouncing along. "The Who Sell Out" for example. If going for that sound, a pumpy compressor would go on the master.

I'm fairly minimal on use of plugins overall.

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Mister Natural wrote:How do you use returns and sub-groups ?
As stated earlier:
- my AUX returns are global. I don't limit myself to only send certain instruments to AUX send 1 and other instruments to AUX send 2. I think traditional... I need a reverb for the whole song, I use an AUX send/return for this

Your treatment reminds me of the "Brauerize" mix concept.


- I also barely use Sub groups these days. Before I used it to group instruments together for easier mix adjustments. Like: Drums > Stereo Sub Group, Guitars > Stereo Sub Group, all chorus vocals > Stereo sub Group, etc

Nowadays a quick click of a button and your channels are grouped, so you can treat them as "blocks". There are uses for sub-groups - for example for side chaining, special FX, parallel processing. It really depends on the job.
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Compyfox wrote:
Mister Natural wrote:How do you use returns and sub-groups ?
As stated earlier:
- my AUX returns are global. I don't limit myself to only send certain instruments to AUX send 1 and other instruments to AUX send 2. I think traditional... I need a reverb for the whole song, I use an AUX send/return for this

Your treatment reminds me of the "Brauerize" mix concept.
For anyone else who has not heard of this trademarked term.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov08/a ... brauer.htm

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