hey, this is Plec post, from UAD forums that i saved some time ago:
"When I start anything, a recording, a mix, a mastering project I will always have my basic framework laid out. I think it's a delicate balance between starting a project totally blank and starting it with a lot of the things that tend to work for you. A preset if you may. If totally relying on your project setup you will not be coming up with anything new and interesting whereas if you start blank every time you will need to basically reinvent the wheel just to do the stuff you know works. Like I had this mixing preset that I used to polish like mad that got to the point where I could almost just put an audio file in its appropriate channel and it would be 90% done. Although it sounded good, mixing almost became like accounting and not very much new stuff came about. So after realizing this I started blank again and came up with a new starting point, a starting point that has worked for many people during a number of decades already... a fresh, reset, large format console. #-o
I create this template console from groups/buses alone and audio channels will only enter once files actually get into the project. The virtual console is made up of 24 stereo buses that kind of would correspond to a 48ch mixing desk. In addition to this there are 6 stereo sub mixes and 2 virtual master buses before actually reaching the main output.
01 - KICK
02 - SNARE
03 - TOMS
04 - OVERHEADS
05 - AMBIANCE
06 - KICK PARALLEL
07 - SNARE PARALLEL
08 - DRUMS MAIN
09 - DRUMS PARALLEL
10 - BASS
11 - RHYTHM GUITARS
12 - DIRTY GUITARS
13 - CLEAN GUITARS
14 - LEAD GUITARS
15 - ACOUSTIC GUITARS
16 - LEAD VOCALS
17 - BACKING VOCALS
18 - XTRA VOCALS
19 - KEYS 1
20 - KEYS 2
21 - FX 1
22 - FX 2
23 - FX 3
24 - FX 4
25 - SUB MIX 1
26 - SUB MIX 2
27 - SUB MIX 3
28 - SUB MIX 4
29 - SUB MIX 5
30 - SUB MIX 6
31 - SUB MSTR 1
32 - SUB MSTR 2
I have also made all logical connections for the setup to even work. Like the parallel drum channels already have auxes routed to them from their "clean" counterparts at the correct levels etc so they work like straight copies. All the drum buses get routed to the DRUMS MAIN bus which then has a parallel bus set up and both of those then go off to SUB MIX 1 along with the BASS bus so that they're already setup for any kind of compression adventures if needed. All guitar buses get sent to SUB MIX 2, all the vocals to SUB MIX 3 and then the KEYS and FX buses to SUB MIX 4 which leaves SUB MIX 5 & 6 open to whatever pleasures you might want to indulge yourself in later on. I will also have 8 aux sends going to FX channels that are routed back to buses 21-24 which also acts as open buses for anything really. The sub mixes then all get sent to SUB MSTR 1 which then is routed to the main output. SUB MSTR 2 can act as a parallel to SM1 or if a further split is needed between the different sub mixes it's all set ready to go.
I think it's important that you don't need to think technical while doing a mix. Like when you suddenly notice you didn't create enough buses or you would just like to try a different routing or mix structure and you're not really setup for that purpose already. Nothing can get rid of inspiration and musical brain activity faster than needing to create new channels and setups and waiting for the computer to get everything in line again. So this setup for me takes care of the most complex projects without the need to change things in the middle of a mix (although the option is there of course, unlike on a real console to add new buses/channels when you run out of them...) or just to be as simple as you want. The work flow kind of acts like the bus matrix is the actual console while all the audio tracks created is the DAW and the two are then routed to the same place that being the main mix bus. No actual audio channels are created until the files hit the project, so from there you can go as complex on the "virtual console" as you may like.
Well, hope you weren't bored to death reading this far.
Cheers!"
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