This is a mix template setup guide for anyone looking to have me make mix tweaks on a song. It is for musicians who have a DAW and are thus able to handle their own prep work and editing, enabling me to make tweaks or complete mixes at a significantly reduced price. This document will help streamline the workflow. I prefer posting it on this forum and sending a link (rather than emailing a PDF of it). Please feel free to copy paste any of it to a pdf. and attach to an email if you have questions about specific parts of it.
I can accept sessions from any of the following DAW’s:
Pro Tools
Studio One
Reaper
Ableton Live
Digital Performer
Cubase
Nuendo
Garageband
Logic Pro
- Remove all FX on the master output and reset the master fader to unity
- Marker the sections of the song (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus 2, Chorus 3, Bridge etc…)
(no specific labeling scheme is necessary, just call them whatever… I’ll figure it out) - Arrange channel order in the arrange window from top to bottom and color code them accordingly. If you are not sure exactly which group to place an instrument in, take a guess. I’ll move it if necessary.
- Make sure the region colors, the track channel colors, and the mixer colors all match the groups.
Sound Effects/One shots (Grey)
Drums (Light Blue)
Percussion (Light Brown)
Bass (Orange)
Electric Guitars (Red)
Acoustic Guitars (Brown)
Horns (Yellow)
Keys/Pads/Synth/Piano (Green)
Lead Vocals (Pink)
Background Vocals (Purple)
Global Busses (default color)
Set up eight global busses by creating eight stereo Aux channels. But leave all insert slots blank, and do not route anything to them. Label them as follows:
Room Reverb
Plate Reverb
Long Reverb
Doubler
Crusher
Delay 1
Delay 2
Slap
- If you have specific FX bus chains that you prefer, label FX bus channel according to the source (Example: BackgroundVocDelay, LeadGuitarSoloFX, SnareDrumSlapDelay). Next move these buss channels to the immediate right of the respective group. (Example: If it is a snare reverb, please place it to the right of the light blue drums group. If it is a parallel compression bus on the horns, please place it to the right of the yellow horns group).
Next turn all of your automation ‘off’, but DO NOT DELETE your automation. Just turn it off.
Please autotune all vocals before sending the session using your DAWs native autotuner, Melodyne, Anteres, or Waves Tune.
If you use any version of Slate, Slate Trigger, Fxpansion BFD, Maschine, Arturia Spark, or XLN Addictive, leave drums as-is with the MIDI tracks in MIDI format. I will handle the kit piece routing. If you are using Ez or Superior drummer, please contact me for procedure. If you are using anything other than those eight drum software programs, I need to know.
I will need a complete list of your plugins. If you are using stolen ones, you will need to indicate which ones are stolen because I can not ensure that my legal plugins are compatible.
If you are a Mac user, please save the file and date it before sending it. Please place everything in one folder with the name of the song, the artist, and the date. Make sure the folder contains all the audio files, the session, and any other relevant data.
Please zip the folder by left clicking on it and choosing ‘compress’.
Send me the file over dropbox, weTransfer, Google Drive, Amazon cloud, or your cloud platform of choice. I have a splice account as well.
