Groups Processing

Hello everyone,

This is the first video/blog for the list of request you have sent me. I chose this topic as it will be the easiest, as I didn't need to prepare for this topic with the lack of time I had for this week.

When it comes to processing the groups, it all depends on how you organise your projects. Therefore, I will write and talk about how do I set up my project and that way give you an example of how it could be done.

My main idea with the groups/busses is that I really give my best to keep them as lowest possible point, and I try to do less as possible of group processing. In the past, I have been doing massive group processing which was making me a lot of problems after I did some bounces of the sequences, as then I wasn't able to put the same sequences again through those groups. Let's just take an example that you make a lead, and then you make a group processing with a few of the layers on that group, and after that, you create new layers that will go through those groups. This won't work well every time, as if you have the compression on the group, the more channels you add to that group, the threshold of the compressor will need to be adjusted after each channel added, which makes much more work we need to put in. Massive groups processing has the sense to me only if we do it in the mixing section when all the creative work have been finished. I do not enjoy enough making my mixes sound good only on the end, I really like that my track sounds great from the beginning, and I really want to have a great sounding track while I create it. Therefore, I am avoiding complicated group processing, and I am giving my best to process each channel separately.

So, my group processing is super simple, I use 4 different main groups always, 1 for Kick and Bass, the second for the rest of the drums, the third for the single-shot sounds, and the fourth for arps, melodies, and all other sequences that are looped.

The kick and bass group will have Eq sometimes, always a limiter on the post-fader slot, and in some cases, it will have dynamic Eq or Multiband compression, and that is it.

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Drums group, where I put my top end, all the hi-hats and clasp and snares will always have some peak reduction plugin, StandardClip or some kind of saturation or distortion in order to clear out the peaks that are jumping out, and that way I believe that I am glueing all top end to sound like one unit.

Single shots group will always have a low cut on the side only, and that way I want to be sure that all side information under 200hz is mono. I also might add the compression on this group, but I will compress only the mid signal, as with Kick and bass in middle, there is not much space left for anything else, and it is most common that when we have peaked in the middle as there is the most crowded area.

For the leads group, it will be the same as for the single shots, just I might add a lowcut in some cases on the mid and side.

My advice is to avoid compressors on the groups as their effect will change as a track is going forward.

Try to process all the channels separately, and as soon as you get good results, I advise you to bounce/render those channels and that way cut the possibility to go on the no ending adjustment of processing components.

We cannot generalise this topic, so I gave my best to give you advice that I believe is the most important. Also, all I said, it applies to my approach of the production, so take all of that advice as just one of the ways you can approach to, and it might happen that they won't suit you, but I can't go too wide about this topic, as this topic can be no ending story as almost all other topics when it comes to Music Production.

Video will be premiered 13th Jun - 20:00 CET