Group channels

[carvedones]

Ok just wondering if anyone groups everything into group channels when mixing.

Like mix the drums how you like then group them, then the bass, then the guitars and group them...so on. so when it comes to getting the actual leaves you only have a few sliders to work with instead of heaps.

Is this a good thing to do or a bad thing?

 

[Cryo114]

I always group things that are generally balanced with each other first. Then once thats done i'll hide the grouped channels just to simplify things. Feels like a good thing for me, made my life easier at least.

 

[colonel kurtz]

it's been pretty common practice for 30+ years now...

 

[greyskull]

i arrange my mix page like mixing desk,
so...
left to right...
individual tracks - master fader - instrument buses - fx

 

[006]

I don't know how I would get by without groups/busses. They are essential to my efficient workflow routine.

I usually bus the toms and overheads to their own stereo bus, and then the rest of the drums and the tom/oh bus go to a drum bus. All guitar tracks go to their own bus, like all JSX tracks go to a bus, all Recto tracks go to their own bus, then both of those busses go to a guitar bus. All bass tracks to a single bass bus. All vocals to a vocal bus. After that I usually get the eq'ing and compression I want on everything and then use the busses to get levels. Makes everything neat and tidy for me. Again, without busses I probably couldn't work as efficiently.

~006

 

[AudioGeekZine]

do you mean automation groups or sub mixes on an aux? I use both in PT.
I group all the guitar tracks and assign them a letter that makes sense like G, drums get D, vocals get V, bass gets B, etc. I usually have an 'all' group too, which is all audio tracks (different than the default all group) so i can pull everything down keeping relative levels.
usually all guitars, drums, vocals, each go to an aux track with a tape saturation plug on it, and use that for the overall level of guitars etc.

It doesn't make any sense not to work like this if you've got multiple tracks of anything that is.

 

[Emdprodukt]

okay I have one question (for cubase sx3):

do you send your tracks with the send effect to the bus or through the "out" of every track or something completely different? I just wonder because when I send it through the send effect to a groupchannel (picture 1) it's much louder. Just as if I copy the track just that one is processed.

Or do I have to set it up as pre-fader? I mean... let's say I take a completely unprocessed drumset and send the toms to a tombus which has reverb on it I still will have the unprocessed toms and the processed ones with reverb. When I just turn down the groupchannels volume the tracks volume still remains. That can't be right. Would mean If i did like AudioGeekZine my mix would get louder with every groupchannel and I have to turn down the tracks volume more and more.

When I'm using the "out" of the track (picture two) to send it to the bus I can't solo the track because the groupchannel will be muted aswell. Makes no sense to me.

What is the deal to do it right? I know this should be basis knowledge... can't find the answer in the manual though
Maybe someone could explain how to do it with guitars for example. Let's say I have 4 guitar tracks, two left, two right and I want to send them to a guitar groupchannel to be able to set the whole guitar volume up and down?

 

[jason poulin]

grouping is great for having control on mulitple tracks at once...


ie: if you have 4 mono guitar signals, you'd probably like to control all of them at once... for volume automation, eq perhaps, effects and even compression.


I group lots of stuff together... works well on many track mixes.






J.

 

[Emdprodukt]

yes, I know, thanks though

I just can't seem to set it up the right way !

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Don't use the send to group channels, send is used to... send

 

[Emdprodukt]

okay, but which one should I use then? Out?

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Yes.

 

[ffaudio]

okay, but which one should I use then? Out?

Yes.

The reason it gets louder if you use a send is because you're just duplicating it. It is going "Out" to the main bus as well as being "Sent" to the different bus.

 

[Emdprodukt]

got it. damn I'm stupid. I don't know what I did wrong all the time. For no reason it works like a charm now. thanks

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Once you get the concept it's easier to correct what's wrong without even thinking about it

 

[006]

I use the method in picture 2. When I solo any of the channels being sent to that group I have no issues like you are describing.

~006

 

[Emdprodukt]

I use the method in picture 2. When I solo any of the channels being sent to that group I have no issues like you are describing.

~006

yup. me too. I don't know why I had them though but now it works and I feel like an idiot.

 

[AdamWathan]

I sort of have those problems when creating buses in Reaper, I guess I'm probably doing it wrong...

What I do is create a new track and name it "Drum Bus" for example, and then go to each drum tracks i/o and "Add New Send" to send it to the Bus, and then disable the send to the Master... The problem is that if I hit the solo button on the snare, it mutes every track except the snare obviously, and that includes the Drum Bus, so since the Drum Bus is the only thing that is actually playing the snare sound, I get no sound whatsoever because the snare is solo'd. I have to solo the bus AND the individual track. I sort of just thought that's the way it was when working with buses, but is there a way to do it in Reaper that doesn't cause this?

 

[PhilR]

F0RBIDDEN; Try holding the alt key when soloing in Reaper.

I use a shitload of groups. I don't know how anyone can work without them. I use at least 5 stereo buses just for drums. (Kick/Snare/Toms/Overheads/Drum Master)

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

You have your kick and your snare in stereo???