Advanced master / group bus processing 2020

[dubdub]

I did spent quite a bit of time in the last few months playing around with bus processing and I think it's really made a difference in how my stuff sounds. It's also a topic that came a lot recently so I though it'd be cool to make a thtrad.

Some ideas and techniques I've been playing around with, does anyone else have any others?

Master:

For master bus compression I've been playing around with different compressors. I really like the API 2500 on TrackComp in feedback mode for a driving sound, Sknote A25 is also nice, although they have a bit of a different transient response.

Using Wavesfactory Spectre to specifically saturate certain parts of the spectrum, especially the lower and upper mids. I find that it really helps to adds a bit of 90s-esque dirt, while still keeping separation, which I like. Also cool on groups sometimes.

I've also been playing around with other parallel distortion on the master, Decapitator specifically, although it's not that easy to make work. But it can add nice dynamic crunch and texture without clogging up the mix.

A bit of high frequency limiting with Sknote Cuttertone or TDR Nova, although sometimes I don't like what it does to the kick transient. Sometimes the slew clipping plugins from Airwindows also work well to smooth HF transients.

For wideband saturation I've been digging SGA Phoenix. Some of the modes really crunch high frequency transients, which is a sound I really like. I'm interested in finding a balance between that smashed 90s chhhhrrrr sound on the hats and percussion and a more modern sense of depth and separation. Sometimes grouping drums + kick + bass (so everything except synths) together seems to work well to create a very smashed drum sound while keeping some separation and dynamics on the synths.

Sknote Anytesla on the master and sometimes also busses to create a saturated, compressed, flowing sub range.

For groups:

Routing all the sends to a bus and then applying some parallel compression can really bring out the lower, blooming details. I really like the upwards compression from Abberant DSP Shapeshifter for this. And/or grouping the send bus together with the synths to make the dry and the wet signal dynamically interact and create a sort of ducking sound. Its also nice to saturate the send bus, gives a kind of oldschool saturated dub sound where you had the sound of the console on all the sends.

Compressing kick and bass together. Doesn't always work (can destroy the needed separation) but sometimes it can create a really nice pumping, flowing lowend. Sometimes tape emulation also works.

Short, plate-ish reverb into compression (some kind of VCA generally, I quite like G-Series on Trackcomp for this) on the drum bus to create a kind of unified "room" for the drums.

Sometimes dynamic EQ on synth and drum busses to create some glue and dynamically deal with low or upper mid buildup.

Modulation fx can be cool on synths and drum busses when mixed in in parallel. Creates a kind of psychedelic vibe. Something heard occasionally in 90s records where people would just slap a flanger on the unseparated drum machine output.

Fat mode on Satson/Britson I quite like on group busses, although I find it can easily be too much on the master and kill separation.

Bits of hardware-like dual mono stereo offset with TDR Slick EQ. Doesn't always work, sometimes the image is better centered but it can add nice depth and vibe when it works. For bus EQ in general I like rolling off the super high tops and mixing into that, it just gets me to where I want faster. I also find taking a bit off 4-5k usually makes everything just a bit smoother and more pleasant. EQing drums together can also give them more coherency.

The aptly titled Airwindows Busscolors can be a fun and quick way to get some vibe and colours on busses.

[jordanneke]

When I have some time, I am going to try all of this out.

Thank you.

[Lost to the Void]

I don`t really have any specifics to go in to, not in terms of regular stuff, my two main music projects currently involve going all out experimental and reigning it in to be cohesive.

So in terms of group bus and master bus I have been doing all kinds of shit you are not supposed to do.
I use specific tools to clean up any problems post madness. Usually some compression and EQ will clean it up, or more complicated stuff like multiband transient processing or multiband stereo placement/panning.

I`ve been chaining lots of dirt making stuff on the master bus (don`t advise using decapitator on the master buss, it shits the bed with magnitude response and doesn`t oversample well, and I`ve found it causes problems I have to mop up in mastering), I`m finding I really like the control you get in waveshaping and wavetable based distortion. You can really dial in and fine tune where the breakup and clipping happens, which frequencies are getting emphasised, how the dynamics are hit. When you throw broadband stuff over a master buss, sometimes it`s nice that it hits everything and the strongest signal dominates, but sometimes that just mushes and muddies everything and you need finer control.

I`ve been driving other plugins that have saturation and distortion as part of the architechture but aren`t meant as distortion units. Like delays and compression and stuff. BOth in hardware and software you can find some nice crunch from non-traditionally crunch inducing things.

I like pumping in signals to a buss that contradict each other and then run distortion on that buss so the elements fight each other in the distortion and fade in and out and blend into each other as their respective signal strength or frequency changes. MAybe run a comb filter or something just in from of the distortion so you can further manipulate the frequencies and resonance and emphasis and change the way the distortion reacts to it all.

I`m doing lots of that, making sounds aggressively fight with distortion, finding resonance spots. I use distortion to mash stuff together just as much as I use it to process individual sounds. Same with compression. Or combining the previous technique with compression. So when the compression relaxed the signal hits the distortion harder. So it further creates more organic movement. As the sound pumps, when the compressor locks down it doesn`t hit the distortion after it so hard, but where the compressor lets up, the distortion then takes the dynamic hit.

It`s great for adding movement and texture.

[dubdub]

Thanks! Will give these tips a try. Interesting idea with the waveshaping distortion.

[buffered]

I like pumping in signals to a buss that contradict each other and then run distortion on that buss so the elements fight each other in the distortion and fade in and out and blend into each other as their respective signal strength or frequency changes. MAybe run a comb filter or something just in from of the distortion so you can further manipulate the frequencies and resonance and emphasis and change the way the distortion reacts to it all.

Yeah you get this same effect by running the mix output of a drummachine into a fuzz/dist pedal. If you have an ot, set channel 8 as master and assign filter drive and compressor. Gets you the effect of elements clamouring to be heard before the kick drum beats them back down.

[dubdub]

I`m finding I really like the control you get in waveshaping and wavetable based distortion. You can really dial in and fine tune where the breakup and clipping happens, which frequencies are getting emphasised, how the dynamics are hit. When you throw broadband stuff over a master buss, sometimes it`s nice that it hits everything and the strongest signal dominates, but sometimes that just mushes and muddies everything and you need finer control.

By the way, have you seen this? https://www.vennaudio.com/product/v-clip/

Gives you a ton of fone control over clipping (more than the Audiority one from what I've tried) and lets you set independent ceiling and knee for positive and negative parts of the waveform, which is super useful. It also sounds very good and has great oversampling. It's just lacking dry/wet and env following (although technically, you could achieve the same thing with the M4l env follower and dry/wet can be solved with an Ableton rack).

I'm finding that with clipping baised towards the negative waveform, you can get a lot of crunch that mainly affects topend transients without clipping too much of the body of the track. I was always a bit sceptical when it comes to waveshaping because it naturally feels more appropriate to use one of 2000 analogz modelled saturation plugins or whatever but you're right in that it gives you a lot more control over the crunch. I'm working on a track where I managed to really dial in the crunch nicely with that Venn plugin (plus some M4l en follower hacking to make it more dynamic) so it fits just right.

[Lost to the Void]

By the way, have you seen this? https://www.vennaudio.com/product/v-clip/

Woa, nice find. 25quid too. That's mental.
I use Standardclip a lot in mastering.
Or I clip my converters or use DMG.
But that things nuts. Very useful production tool.
Gonna buy it and install it tonight.
Cheers for that.

[dubdub]

By the way, have you seen this? https://www.vennaudio.com/product/v-clip/

Woa, nice find. 25quid too. That's mental.
I use Standardclip a lot in mastering.
Or I clip my converters or use DMG.
But that things nuts. Very useful production tool.
Gonna buy it and install it tonight.
Cheers for that.

Would be interested to hear your thoughts if you've tried it.

Do you use clipping just for loudness in mastering or also for color?

[Evert]

This is beyond my level of skill/understanding, but it might be interesting to test in the future when my understanding of this has catched up.

[tunez]

I am also interesting in how you guys use clipping plugins in the mix. I know they are used in mastering but I am not a mastering engineer so I am not too concerned with that part. Why use them instead of traditional analog emulation/saturation plugins? Control,less harmonic content and more transparency? Looked at V-clip and StandardClip both seem interesting.