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How To Mix Music (Part 2): Signal Flow &

Plugins
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he Essential Guide to Becoming A Music Mixing Professional is a

T series to help explain and teach you musicians, producers, and

aspiring mixing engineers how to mix music . I share our years of
experience and insight on mixing and mastering, our best mixing tips,
mastering tricks and music production strategies. Covering the necessary
preparations, tools, underlying physics and insider tips and tricks to achieve
the perfect mix and master.

In the first episode (/essential-guide-becoming-music-mixing-

mastering-professional-fundamentals/) I talked about setting yourself
 up to become a great engineer. We covered monitoring, DAWs and plugins,
composition, and stem preparing. Make sure you have read it before
continuing here.

In this second part I will further explain your perfect setup for mixing music,
and we go more in-depth on the signal flow and the plugins that you need to
use to achieve a well-mixed track.
Signal Flow & Plugins

Preparation
3
The keyword here is organize. To create a good mix and do this more


than once you need to organize your work using these 6 steps:


I understand that these steps seem unimportant at first, but after years of

 experience we notice that these small things are really what makes the
 difference.

Step 1:Name your project properly so that you know exactly which project
it is tomorrow, and are able to easily find it 2 years from now. Name your
tracks clearly, and always use the same name types. For instance: Kick 1,
Kick 2, HH 1, HH 2, Snare, Synth 1, Synth 2, Violin, Guitar, Vocal 1, Vocal 2,
etc.

Pro-Tip: If you work with the stems of someone else, keep the original
names of the stems on the audio files. This way, when that person refers back
to a specific stem, you can easily spot which is the audio file in question. For
your own organization you can still name and color the corresponding track
in your mixer.

Step 2: Always order your stems in the same structure. For instance: first
kicks, then snares, hi-hats, crashes, percussion, bass, synths, instruments,
vocals, then effects. Make sure to keep drums with drums, synths with
 synths, vocals with vocals etc. Find an order that works for you, and
consistently use it.

Step 3: Always color your groups in predetermined colors. For instance:

color your drums blue, your synths red, instruments green, vocals yellow, and
your effects grey. These steps makes it a lot easier for you to navigate through
your project. Find colors that work for you, and consistently use them in your
specific order.

Step 4: Add markers to the different sections of the song. For instance:
intro, verse 1, build up 1, drop, chorus, etc. This allows you to navigate
3
quickly to the parts of the song that you want to listen to.








(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
Article-Preparation-11.png)

Step 5: Always setup your buses in predetermined order. Buses are also
referred to as sends or auxiliary channels. A good order of buses can be:
delay bus, reverb bus, drum reverb bus, snare reverb bus, side chain bus.
 Dont forget to name your buses correctly. Find an order that works for you,
and consistently use it.

Why cant I just put reverb and delay plugins on the tracks themselves?The
advantage you get when you use buses for delay and reverb, is that you have
more control over volume as they now have a designated fader, you have
more control over the frequency spectrum as you can add an equalizer for the
reverb or delay specifically, and you save CPU by using one reverb or delay
plugin for multiple channels instead of adding separate reverb or delay
plugins on each channel.

3


Step 6: Setup the signal flow of your mixer. This is also referred to as

 routing. In your mixer you have your tracks, your buses, and the master
 channel. Make sure that the output of all your tracks lead to the master
 channel, except for the tracks that you want to side chain to the kick drum,
 these tracks should lead to the side chain bus. The buses that you would like

to side chain such as the reverb bus and the delay bus should also lead to the
side chain bus. The side chain bus should lead to the master channel.

(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
 Article-Preparation-21.png)

DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOUR PRO JECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

Pro-Tip: If you mix often, this one will save you lots of time: create your
custom mixing template. Look up templates in the manual of your
DAW, and learn how to set this up. If you have found a routine way in how
you mix, line up your signal flow, and organize your buses your own
3 custom template is the professional way to go.


 To help you get started you can grab my Mixing Template Checklist for free:



Plugins
 Plugins are great tools to enhance the sounds of your music. The 4 essential
plugins that you can find in any DAW are equalizers, compressors, delays,
and reverbs. It is very important that you fully understand what each of these
plugins exactly does, before you apply them to your tracks.

Equalizing (EQ)
An equalizer gives you control over the frequencies of a sound. You are able to
cut out frequencies, and make frequencies softer or louder.

An equalizer has a few types of filters. There is a high-pass filter (HPF),

also referred to as low-cut filter, which cuts away frequencies that are lower
than the set frequency.

There is a low-pass filter (LPF), also referred to as a high-cut filter, which

cuts away frequencies higher than the set frequency.
 Shelf (or shelving) filters, can boost or cut (make louder or softer) all
frequencies above or below a set frequency. High shelf filters alter all
frequencies above the set frequency. Low shelf filters alter all frequencies
below the set frequency.

Bell filters can boost or cut a group of frequencies that surrounds a set
frequency. By adjusting the Q-knob, the amount of frequencies in this group
can be altered. A higher Q means fewer frequencies in this group a lower Q
means more frequencies in this group. A bell filter with an extreme high Q is
called a notch filter.

3








(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
Article-2-EQ1.png)

Compression (Dynamics)
A compressor decreases the difference between loud and soft sounds. It
compresses the louder sounds to be softer. To make sure that there is no loss
in volume of the overall sound, it amplifies the signal in the end of its
process. The result is that the softer sounds become louder.
 A compressor has generally 6 main knobs that can be adjusted: threshold,
ratio, attack, release, knee, and (makeup) gain.

The threshold determines how loud a sound has to be to be compressed. By

adjusting the ratio you determine how much that sound will be compressed.
The higher the ratio the more the sound will be compressed.

By adjusting the attack you determine the time it takes before the
compressor starts compressing after detecting volume peaks above the
threshold. The release determines the time it takes before the compressor
stops compressing after the peak of a loud sound, when the volume is below
3
the threshold again.



 The knee determines how much the sound above the threshold reacts to the
 compressor. With a soft knee the louder sounds will be more compressed
 than the less loud sound. With a hard knee, all sounds above the threshold

will be compressed equally.

The signal within a compressor ends at the (makeup) gain. If you compress
a sound by 4 decibel, you want to amplify the plugins output signal by 4
decibel to make up for the volume loss.
3




(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-

Article-Compressor1.png)



DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOUR PRO JECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

Delay
A delay is an effect plugin that repeats the signal it gets a set amount of times
until it fades out.

There are a great variety of preset possibilities for delay types. For example,
the ping-pong delay nicely creates a wide stereo image, by timing delays
differently between left and right.

Every delay plugin has 3 main controls. The dry/wet control determines
how much you hear the dry signal or the wet signal. With the control on 100%
dry, you only hear the original sound without the repetitions with the
 control on 100% wet, you only hear the repetitions.

The delay time determines the time it takes before the sound will be
repeated.

The feedback control determines how long the sound will keep repeating
itself. If the feedback is set to value lower than 1, every repetition will be softer
in volume than its predecessor, until the repetitions will be too soft to hear.

3








(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
Article-Delay1.png)

Reverbs
A reverb plugin creates an echo of the sound that it receives. It creates the
reflections of a synthesized space.

Most reverb plugins have the following controls: dry/wet, reverb time,
predelay, size, and shape.
 The dry/wet control works the same as with a delay plugin. It determines
how much you hear the dry signal or the wet signal. With the control on 100%
dry, you only hear the original sound without the echo with the control on
100% wet, you only hear the echo.

The reverb time controls the time it takes until the echo fades out. The
pre-delay determines the time takes before you hear the first reflections of
the echo.

With the size control you determine the size of the synthesised room that
creates the reflections. A larger room creates a larger sounding echo, and vice
3
versa.



 The shape control of a reverb plugin adjusts the shape of the synthesised
 room in other words, how many walls it has. Depending on the reverb
 plugin, you can determine if the room has 3 walls, 4, or more.


(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
Article-Reverb1.png)
 Pro-Tip: After each plugin that you have setup, close your eyes and click the
bypass button a number of times until you do not know anymore if you are
listening to the sound with- or without the plugin then compare which
version sounds best. A bypass button makes the signal pass by the plugin,
you could see it as the on/off button of the plugin.

DOWNLOAD: ORGANIZE YOUR PRO JECT LIKE A PRO AND MIXING TEMPLATE SETUP

3 Signal Flow


Now that you know how these plugins work, it is very important to

understand in which order you should apply them on your tracks.


This is a great way to line up your plugins on your individual tracks:


Equalizer
(Possible effect plugin such as a distortion plugin or a phaser)
Compressor
Equalizer

With the first equalizer in your signal flow you filter out all the frequencies
that you do not want the sound to contain. By filtering out these unnecessary
frequencies you create more space in your mix for other sounds, and you
make sure that the compressor does not react to frequencies it does not need
to react to.

If you want to add an effect plugin such as a distortion plugin or a phaser,

best is to place these after the first equalizer and before the compressor. This
way you make sure that the effect plugin does not react to frequencies that it
does not need to react to, while you also ascertain that the compressor
compresses the possible volume peaks created by the effect plugin.
 After the compressor you can add another equalizer with which you can
boost certain frequencies to improve the sound. The reason that you should
boost frequencies only after the compressor is because as we discussed
earlier a compressor compresses the louder sounds, and makes these
softer.

In that regard, if you only boost frequencies after the compressor, you
eliminate the high possibility that these frequencies would then be softened
again, or over-compressed.

3








(https://heroic.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/09/Mixing-
Article-Signal-Flow1.png)

If you want to add reverb or delay to a sound, you send the signal of your
 track to your reverb or delay bus. While the output of our track still goes to
the master channel, a bus (or send, or auxiliary) takes a copy of the signal
and sends it to your designated reverb or delay bus.

Pro-tip: On your reverb bus or delay bus you can first add an equalizer to
filter out the frequencies that you do not want in your reverb or delay. While
the original sound might have frequencies below 250Hz, it often sounds
better to cut these low frequencies out from your reverb and delay in order to
prevent a muddy mix.

When you use your reverb and delay plugins on a separate bus, make sure to
3
set the dry/wet ratio on 100% wet, so that you only hear the reverb and not


 the original sound. The original sound is already sent to the master channel
 via the output of the original track.

 That concludes this episode of The Essential Guide To Becoming A

Music Mixing Professional series.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you found anything in this series so far
helpful to you, please feel free to share the link to our blog (/blog). We are
just trying to spread the message and help creators like you improve their
sound.

Dont forget to grab my Mixing Template Checklist if you hadnt already. This
will save you lots of time (that should be spent actually improving your
sound) and will set you up for a professional workflow:

I am Tim van Doorne, its an honour to serve you. Stay motivated to

improve your sound, every single day!
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 19 Comments Heroic Academy
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Join the discussion

Rni 3 months ago

I think this will help a lot. Thank you wery much for using your time on us beginners.
Reply Share

Tim van Doorne > Rni 2 months ago

Happy it's helpful!
Reply Share

Flip Flopped 3 months ago

3
Great article very good info and very well explained.

Reply Share


Tim van Doorne > Flip Flopped 2 months ago
 :)
 Reply Share


Ceyhun zsoylu a year ago

Hello Tim, great quality article from you, thanks a lot, I have a question, do recording takes
always have to contain some hiss and noise inside? when I solo vocal, bass or guitar I
always hear little hiss although my recording equipment is not inferior and surrounding is
very still. Do professionals always use plugins to clean noises? if yes is it on every submix
or only on master track? which plug in is the best in terms of not touching anything else and
only tackle the noise...
Reply Share

Tim van Doorne > Ceyhun zsoylu a year ago

Hey Ceyhun. With recording you should try to achieve a clean signal without too
much noise. Indeed, take note that you are in a quiet environment, use proper
equipment, and use proper microphone placements.
I'm not sure what your recording setup is, but you could try increasing the bit depth
when you transform your signal to digital, this might lower the noise level.
Alternatively you could try noise reduction plugins such as iZotope RX 5.
Hope this helps!
Reply Share

Kwame Badu a year ago

Great tips thank you but where would you place a de-esser in this chain?
Reply Share

Forester > Kwame Badu a year ago

Generally a de-esser wouldn't be needed if you have a bit of lowpass on your track
or EQ bus. You could put a notch where the "ess" sound is, although I'm not sure
what that would do to the other frequencies.
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