I’ve been thinking about effects on the mixbus. I see that for many people it’s a philosophy, starting a project by applying effects to the mixbus then mixing your tracks into it. Please share if this is what you do, and have you tried the Scheps Omni for it?
I realized that the Omni is thin on mixbus presets. I stumbled upon the CLA Mixdown and I thought that the Omni would be a perfect tool to reproduce the concept.
I give you my mixbus preset:
Simple, as most good things are. I’ll share the thinking so you can reproduce it but also play with the idea for each individual mix.
1. Compressor goes first, so the EQ and saturation can be applied cleanly to the output. The compressor is in OPT to keep it clean. Aiming for 2-3db of gain reduction. I’m using 3:1 ratio (3ms, 100ms).
Optional: If your mix is heavy on the kick, use the internal sidechain to highpass the kick, so it doesn't pump the compressor at this stage.
2. EQ boost only on the Tone knob set to 3.5kz, 2db of gain. Scheps recommends the Tone knob for coloring a track because of the way it’s implemented.
3. Add a low boost by activating the Thump 2db gain. This plus the previous mid boost gives you a kind of subtle smiley-face thing without the shimmer.
4. Activate the pass filters (HP, LP) at 20 and 20k, at the minimum rate of 6db. This tames the unruly edges of the mix making it feel a bit cleaner.
5. Saturation adds thickness and color to the whole thing, and glues the mix together. I recommend about 15 points, but honestly I can easily go 20+ on an anemic mix. Try switching the saturation models to hear what best suits your mix.
That’s it. 2db touchups here and there and you have a powerful difference that is very easy to hear and sounds thick and refreshing on most mixes. Plays very well with anything else you put before it. Now I just have to get used to adding this at the start of my mixes. If you like it, send the cost of CLA Mixdown to my bitcoin account
