I can never seem to get on with c strips. I like more surgical eq and the compression on c strips i just never seem to have enough of the sort of compression i often need .They do save cpu power tho. Give me fab 3 and arouser comp over a channel strip .
@Aef a good way to get your signature you’re looking for is to create a few different templates if your DAW of choice supports that. I use Cakewalk Sonar as my main DAW of choice. It allows me to create and save track templates as well as specific instrument templates with effects, volumes, pans, configurations etc. So initially I’ll have good starting points.
For example, I have quite a few drum module templates I can fly in for drummers that may want to use my VDrums kit. Even if they want to change the drum sounds themselves, the template and routing is there and ready to go with effects already in place that I have specifically selected for that drum kit.
There are some things I always use for rock, metal and classic rock. Others things for country, rap, pop etc. From doing this for 100 years, I sort of know what is going to work for a style of music. But that said, just because the stuff comes with the template doesn’t mean I have to use it. But certain things like my UAD compressors on my master bus and guitar bus usually remain because they just work so incredibly well on everything.
One of the cool things with Sonar is, it sort of has its own channel strip on each track and the stock stuff works incredibly well. The Pro Channel Eq and bus compressor are really well done and work great too. It depends on what I’m presented with as well as what the client brings to the table in the talent and equipment areas.
See, if they come in and use all my tried and tested stuff to where I can produce them, my “signature” goes on their project because I’ve used these things a million times. When they bring their own stuff and have specific needs and want to produce themselves, your signature isn’t going to be as apparent.
But there should be nothing stopping you from achieving the signature you’re looking for. I think you trying multiple plugs like you’re doing is a good thing. You’ll find out what works for you and what may not. Just try not to fall down that rabbit hole of plugin experimentation along with buying into the hype and a million plugs. It’s really easy to have something like the waves mercury bundle of your machine to where you may not even see all those plugs in one year.
Certain things can be extremely counter productive if you’re not careful so make sure to keep yourself focused. One thing you can try that may help you…
I try to take one day per week doing what I call lab work. I’ll take some plugs I’ve never used and I’ll learn them and experiment. Or I’ll read about and learn a new recording technique or something hot and exciting that others may be talking about. But, this only happens once per week so I can stay focused and get things done.
If I’m not careful, I too fall down that rabbit hole. It’s YouTube watching videos about the plugs or techniques, then something else that I’m interested in pops up, then something else, and then 2 hours later I end up in that weird place on YouTube and wonder how I ended up there! LMAO!
So if you can keep focused and have one lab day to mess with plugs and experiment, you can stay focused and on point using things you are familiar with all the other days. This way you’re still able to get things done and make a few gains. If you have the time to add another lab day, by all means do it. You’ll find yourself in time and that signature you’re looking for will happen on its own.
Last tip…sometimes a new DAW helps you to find yourself. As much as I love Sonar (I still work for them as a beta tester) I also have Studio One, Reaper, Harrison Mix Bus, Sequoia, Adobe Audition, to name a few. Each one brings something different to the table while doing pretty much the same as the others. But you may find yourself that way. Harrison is $20 last I checked, Sonar is free, reaper is sort of free/nag ware until you decide if you want to support it, so you have some cool options out of the gate that won’t kill your piggy bank.
I think you’d fair better experimenting with a few different DAW possibilities over any channel strip. But try everything. You may end up finding yourself by using a channel strip that accentuates your work flow. I’m actually interested in seeing how you make out with this. Do keep us posted? Good luck!
Thanks for your good advice Danny. I have quite a few years of experience in mixing, but not all that many real hours of solid mixing. I only mix my own music so there’s no pressure in getting stuff finished. I only finish 2 or 3 songs a year… I am quite sure that what I really need is routine, and that’s not going to happen untill I get my pension in just under 3 years from now (but even then I have a book to write first and other plans…). But that’s all OK. I suppose I could use the limited time I spend much more effectively with fewer plugins and a more or less fixed workflow. But let me respond to some of your tips.
I use Reaper and as you probably know Reaper is immensely flexible so setting up different templates is no problem - once you’ve conquered the learning curve…
In fact I have a template for pretty much all the instruments I use. But I also change the template every song I mix. I use Addicitve for drums for instance and tend to output to individual tracks without any treatment (eq, comp) from AD, and treat the tracks individually. But for this individual treatment I tend to try the latest plugin I bought so I never get to know a plugin really well. The Reaper stock plugins are OK. I use ReaEQ quite a lot, but I’m a fan of Nova which I tend to use both as a dynamic and normal EQ, for tonal balance. But then when it comes to character EQ there’s so many to chose from I just pick whatever comes up. I don’t really know those plugins well enough and I probably overuse them (so I can hear the difference they make). Compressors are worse. I have no go-to compressor although I do differentiate between types of compressors (slow/ fast, clean/ coloured). But to be honest: more from what I’ve heard on You tube than from experience… Same with transient designers and other more specialist plugins. I hardly ever use gates, because I don’t record live drums and tend to edit vocal tracks by hand. And then we come to the many delay and reverb plugins which I can’t chose between because they’re all a bit different. I tend to use amp sims for my electric guitars but again, can’t chose. I started out with several free sims and gradually bought into them. I should have just gone for one of them and stick with it, but now I have 3 of them, none complete. Anyway I think my gravitation towards a channel is at least in part the result of too much choice.
The good thing about mixing my own songs is that my scope is limited, I don’t need to know how to mix music that I’m not particularly fond of (like metal and rap) 
Sounds just like my rabbithole…
I feel lucky if I have a full day a week to make music and mix it 
Now that’s an interesting idea I was wondering about myself. I’m working on upgrading my complete setup: new computer, new interface and new speakers. And in fact a new studio as well because we moved house. I just bought a Presonus quantum 2626 interface which comes with Studio 1 Artist. I’ve been hearing good things about Studio one and the integration with the Quantum is supposed to be a bonus. I don’t know yet, it’ll be a couple of months before I get around to building the studio (other work on the house has a higher priority, at least my other half has a strong conviction about this 
). But I will give Studio 1 a try. The learning curve is supposedly a lot less steep than Reaper, but the lack of flexibility might be frustrating.
@Aef you sound like you are exactly where you need to be after reading you here. I think you’ll be fine with whatever you decide. The new PC and interface may really change things for you. It’s amazing how better stuff can improve everything. You may have a few rough spots at first with your new monitors but once you dial everything in, I think you’re going to be fine.
Make sure you check out Cakewalk Sonar if you haven’t. It’s completely free right now and in my opinion, one of the most powerful, under rated and easy to learn DAW’s out there.
I like studio 1 also. But for me I like it a bit more for mastering. I always liked Reaper too. I have a pretty cool custom look that took me forever to create. It’s got some cool features but I never liked the stock plugins. In Cakewalk, the Sonitus plugins and Blue Tubes are really good as well as the stuff in pro channel.
Whatever the case, good luck and I hope your new studio and all your gear turn out to be great for you. When you’re all settled and can spend some time with stuff, stop back here and let us know how things are going. 
I have tried it, but never got round to working out some of the basics that are just a bit different. Actually, Cakewalk was the very first DAW I had (somewhere around 2002 I guess) but I did’nt get far in actual recordings because my interface was prety much useless. From there (with better computer and interface) I ‘progressed’ to Cubase which became ever more expensive. When I read about the open source, free for beginners approach of Reaper I immediatly liked the vibe. It took a while to learn how to use it though… I’m quite at home in Reaper now, but I also know there’s a lot more possible than I actually use.
That’s something I’m very curious about. I bought a set of Focal Alpha’s 6,5 inch to replace my old Samson Rubicons 5 (the ones with the ribbon tweeters). I hope it really is an upgrade… The reviews of the Focals are pretty good, but so were the Rubicons 15 years ago.
Anyway, getting a bit too much off topic here! A channel strip is something to just try, and maybe stick with it for a couple of songs at least until I really know what I want.
I’d call that an advantage rather than a disadvantage.
Do people twist knobs to see what happens? I can understand it if you’ve just got the plugin and you’re trying to ascertain its capabilities, but it shouldn’t be happening on an actual mix.
IMO there’s the temptation to find use for everything on the strip. I don’t, but part of my mixing process is to try a few things to see if they help. They generally get thrown out, but tried.
My ability to hear what something needs is getting better, but I’m not in your league in terms of knowing intuitively what will work.
It’s not?!?! Well I guess I didn’t read the version of the Mixing Bible. 
Personally, I love random surprises in mixes. It’s pretty much what makes it fun for me… Otherwise it becomes just like another soul-sucking assembly line factory job.
Random experiments have been part of my process for a long time. Hell, some of the coolest stuff I’ve discovered happened by mistake and trying stuff out!
It all started when I was mixing a track for a client, and the second verse had no change in textures from the first. I thought: "I wonder what would happen if I took this guitar bit from the first verse, turned it backwards, stretched it out to be twice as long, and then run it through the most outrageous, convoluted FX chain preset I can find in Guitar Rig. Lo & behold, the result was truly strange and wonderful all at the same time… it was just what the track needed, and the band loved it.
… in fact I did that with a whole mix here just to see if it could be done - Throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
“YMMV” as they say 
Fair enough, there are no rules as you rightly point out Andrew. Personally I couldn’t operate that way, it’s difficult enough getting the sound I want without introducing spuriosity into the mix (pun intended). If a mix needs something wacky or different I will already know what that is beforehand through reference tracks, (or just through imagining it beforehand) and I will be concentrating on getting what’s in my head on to tape.
Admittedly on the journey towards getting the required sound/mix something interesting pops up now and again and sometimes I might decide to ‘keep’ it, but that’s very different from knob twiddling with the sole intention of ‘finding’ something.
I think the process I use is what you are describing here, too Andrew:
Here, you’ve already come up with the idea in your head and everything you do from that point is working towards manifesting what’s already in your head. That’s not the same as random knob twiddling in the hope that something will happen that you like.
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But surely you learn from that experience?