The Big Picture... Show

Stereo Bus Processing

By Charles Dye

The Movie Analogy
I have a number of analogies I use to help me think about different aspects of mixing. We've discussed many of them already, but the one I've not mentioned yet is really my main one. It's the one that helps me think about the mix as a whole. I like to think of a mix like a movie. This is similar to the story analogy from HDL 6 except the story analogy helps me think about how I'm going to approach a mix as I begin. But when a mix is finished it's much more like a movie that unfolds across a large screen. Powerful, inspiring, and bigger than life. Thinking of it like a movie helps me focus on creating a mix that will have all the elements in it that I believe will make it great.

The elements of a great mix (like a movie) are:

• A presentation of all the creative collaborators of the production, with each shown in his or her best possible light.
• Excitement, drama, tension, conflict, elation, and possibly humor.
• Settings (spaces created by reverb and delay), scenes (verse, chorus, bridge), characters (instruments, vocals, special effects), and a star (the artist...duh).
• Transitions that pull the audience from beginning, to climax, to resolution, while keeping their attention at all times.
• Something that brings you into its own world to tell you a story that will hopefully stay with you long after it is over.

If I can accomplish these goals, I know I've done my job well and that I've supported the intention of the song and the artist in the best possible way.

The Creation of Space
When mixing, I never constrain myself by trying to simply re-create what the song would sound like if it were being played live. My goal is much broader. I want to create an imaginary space where the song will live. I try to visualize the artificial space in which the song will "play out." There is, of course, no live performance that would allow one instrument to be only an inch in front of my face, another to be somewhere a thousand yards or more in the distance, and a third that could travel between these two places in less than a fraction of a second. This is a fantasyland.

When we are mixing, we are creating a world for the listener and song to live in for several minutes. Real spaces are cool too, but don't let that limit you. Free yourself from those restrictions. You are creating an artificial world, one that feels both familiar and all new at the same time. That's because you are creating an auralscape that exists only in the time between the song's first and last bars. The juxtaposition of these spaces can create a drama and emotion that simply can't be created when going for a completely "realistic" sound.

The Pro Tools Mix Bus
For me, the key to working with digital recording is understanding what it does and does not do. The soundtrack we all have in our mind's ear that we compare our work to is made up mostly of records made on analog gear. To get comparable results with digital, we have to either add that kind of color going in and/or add it by using saturation plug-ins (DUY DaD Valve and Tape, McDSP Analog Channel, Sony Inflator, or the soon to be released Crane Song Phoenix, for example) as discussed in HDL 5 — Distortion of Reality.

When mixing on Pro Tools the same applies. The Pro Tools mix bus does not add any character or warmth to the mix — and it's not supposed to. Much of what we compare our mixes to were mixed on analog consoles that had that analog punch to them. So when I mix inside Pro Tools, I usually use at least one or more analog-style plugs across the stereo bus.

The first plug-in I use is McDSP's Analog Channel AC1 with either the Console 1 or Console 3 presets as starting points. AC1 emulates solid-state console saturation, and it really helps glue the mix together. But the way I use it might not be exactly what you'd expect. I've found that the key to getting the best out of AC1 on the stereo bus is to place it on the Master Fader at the beginning of the mixing process and essentially mixing "through it," instead of completing the mix and then inserting it.

	Analog Channel AC1 is used across the stereo bus from the beginning of the mix to make it similar to mixing on an analog console

At the end of a mix, if I bypass AC1, the mix often falls completely apart (becoming very wimpy and "lite" sounding. Yekk.). This is because I was driving AC1 so that it colored the mix in a way that influenced my EQ, compression, effects and automation, giving me a very punchy and gelled sound. AC1's saturation kind of "tracks" with the dynamics of your mix — so not only does it add slight distortion to the kick and snare hits, but the distortion is also added to the instruments underneath (in a very analog console way) as it tapers off after those dynamic high points. The sound difference between hearing the mix sent through AC1 and then bypassed (thereby hearing the naked digital bus) is really very dramatic.

For an even more analog type of sound when using AC1 on stereo faders — especially the Master Mix Fader — use it in Multi-Mono instead of Stereo mode. This more closely emulates the way that analog stereo busses work because they are actually two mono busses. The left and right channels each saturate independently and Multi-Mono AC1s emulate that type of saturation.

Listen to samples of the stereo bus
With AC1 | Without AC1

The Record Button...
As in long-playing record. Many engineers have called the SSL main stereo bus compressor's insert button "The Record Button" (emphasis on the first syllable of "record"). Why? Because once inserted, they feel it can make a good mix sound like a record. Ever since I began using the following plug-ins across Pro Tools' main stereo bus at the end of my mix, I've called them the same thing for the same reason. Below, I'll go through each of them. For the exact settings, see the screenshots. You can also download the entire session from DigiStudio. For those readers who don't have DigiStudio access, you may download just the session data without the audio files directly from this page. Here is HDL 11 Crease-Stereo Bus Mac | PC.

As far as stereo bus processing, my first rule is to not do anything to the mix bus that would be considered mastering. I believe very much in giving the mastering engineer enough headroom to do his or her gig. When mixing in Pro Tools, I essentially emulate with plug-ins what I do when mixing on analog consoles. I use an "analog" mix bus > light compression (not limiting) > some slight EQ > a stereo widener > print to 1/2" 2-track — though in a slightly different order.

McDSP Analog Channel AC1
This is the first plug-in across the stereo bus. See above for details.

Waves Renaissance Compressor
With the Master Opto Soft preset as a starting point, I'm kind of going for that "kissing the Tube-Techs sound." I adjust the threshold by ear, usually compressing no more than a dB or two depending on the track. The more open the track is (often slower songs), the less compression I use.

Focusrite d2
I don't always use it, but when I do, it serves two purposes. One is to generally tweak the top-end and contour the low-end after the mix is done. It's a different kind of top-end and low-end than just adding EQ to all the tracks, because it is affecting all the tracks at once, so it has a gelling quality that I like. The second is to compensate for any brightness that may be lost from the tape saturation effect coming next.

DUY DaD Tape
I normally set it to Ideal Tape / 30ips / Noiseless and then adjust the input level to achieve the desired saturation, often in the -2.6 dB area. This plug-in can have a big impact on the sound of the mix. It can really glue the mix together in a very nice way, making things sound more solid. It adds great punch to the snare and an excellent beefiness to the bass and kick drum. But if the track sounds warm enough, I might not use it.

DUY Wide
I really won't do a mix without this across the mix bus — it's one of my favorites. It can be a subtle effect, but from the sweet spot it's pretty incredible. It really manages to throw your mix outside the left and right of your speakers. It also sort of slides each instrument in the stereo spectrum a little further towards the left or right. You have the same number of instruments in the stereo field, but it provides more space and depth between each of them. Because of this, after inserting Wide, I sometimes have to tweak the panning on some instruments if they feel too spaced.

I generally set the Amount somewhere between 17-23% and the Input to -4 dB (to make up for the gain added by the Amount setting). At this stage, some of the above plug-ins have smoothed over the transients and I now have more headroom on the bus than I did originally. So, to optimize the mix output level, I turn up the Input on DUY Wide until the mix peaks at about -0.5 dB using Wide's numerical peak output indicators.

The Wow Factor
The only plug-in I "mix through" is McDSP Analog Channel AC1, but I definitely don't have the other plugs (RenComp, d2, Tape and Wide) across the bus when mixing. It can be very misleading to mix into compressors and saturation plug-ins like DaD Tape, because as you're adding EQ and doing rides — for example, to boost dynamics at a transition — the Compressor and Tape will constantly be pushing backwards against your changes, giving you a very inaccurate representation of what you're really doing. If you pull the plug-ins out, all of a sudden your mix will totally fall apart. It will have absolutely no power or punch. That's why I like to make the mix sound as big and powerful as I can without the plug-ins. Then when you put them in — almost at the end (four-fifths of the way through or so) — the mix will just sound huge.

A couple of extra suggestions. First, because these plugs are so important to my mixing method, I put them in at the beginning of the mix and leave them in bypass to reserve the DSP, and I preset them with my starting point settings. Second, I generally mix at a pretty low level, so whenever I go to play the mix back to the client, I of course turn it up (they always want to hear it much louder than I mix). I also put in all the mix bus plugs — the record button I referred to earlier. And I definitely don't tell the client I just added them. This is key. It creates a real WOW factor on their part because the whole time they've been hearing the mix at such a low level; when they hear it back, not only is it louder, but it is now somehow much bigger than they thought it was.

Listen to samples of The Record Button
Before | After

Grammy-winning Engineer / Mixer / Producer Charles Dye (Jon Bon Jovi, Sammy Hagar, Lauryn Hill, Shakira, Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias, Robi Draco Rosa, Ednita Nazario) is based out of Miami and Los Angeles.

www.charlesdye.com

email: charles@harddisklife.com

©2003 Charles Dye