# What's on your Master Bus (For Orchestral/Cinematic Mockups)



## GingerMaestro (Jul 10, 2020)

I'm trying to get my mixes in the ball park a bit more before they go off to my mixer. I'm happy enough with my sounds and for the most part writing, but would like to give the mixes a more professional sound to the. Some times the turn around on stuff is very fast, so don't have time to get it mixed..If you could show and tell your master bus that would be really helpful..Thank you !


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## Fitz (Jul 10, 2020)

Do you send stems to your mixer? If so, you obviously don't want anything on your master


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## GingerMaestro (Jul 10, 2020)

Fitz said:


> Do you send stems to your mixer? If so, you obviously don't want anything on your master


Hi Fitz..Yes I do send stems to my mixer, but my question is for when I'm not sending stuff to him and I have to mix myself...Thanks


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## blackzeroaudio (Jul 13, 2020)

Usually its something like below however not every plugin is used all the time, depends on the song. 

Gulfoss > Color EQ > Ozone (for Exciter/Width) > Bus Comp > Tape Emulation > Limiter


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## nuyo (Jul 15, 2020)

blackzeroaudio said:


> Gulfoss > Color EQ > Ozone (for Exciter/Width) > Bus Comp > Tape Emulation > Limiter



Do you use Tape only one the Master ?
What Color EQ do you use ?
And if you have Color EQ + Exciter + Tape Emulation you could end up with a harsh mix because of all the harmonic distortion.


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## nuyo (Jul 15, 2020)

I'm only using Ozone on my Master.
Inside Ozone I have
EQ > Vintage EQ for Low/High Cut/Boost > Vintage Limiter (Gentle Limiting) > Maximizer for "safety" and setting the final Db output.


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## blackzeroaudio (Jul 15, 2020)

nuyo said:


> Do you use Tape only one the Master ?
> What Color EQ do you use ?
> And if you have Color EQ + Exciter + Tape Emulation you could end up with a harsh mix because of all the harmonic distortion.



You could possibly have a harsh mix, but it all depends on the song and the sources. The tape emu rounds its out decently well.

A couple things for color: mostly the UAD Pultec but also the Manley Massive Passive and Amek 2000.

Gulfoss actually takes care of a lot of what I was doing before so I'm not using those as much as I used to.


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## Paul Christof (Jul 15, 2020)

Mixing
1. Fabfilter MB (Low-End Control)
2. bx_Townhouse Buss Compressor (Glue)
3. Blackbox HG-2 (Saturation)
4. Clariphonic (Top-End Sheen and Sparkle)
——————-
Mastering
5. Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A (the red one)
6. Amek EQ200 (Final surgical eq cuts of 0.5 or 1dB increments)
7. L3-LL (idk why but I just love how discrete and invisible it is)

For Stems it’s a whole other story...(using sidechain etc.)


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## crossrootsdoc (Jul 16, 2020)

Paul Christof said:


> Mixing
> 1. Fabfilter MB (Low-End Control)
> 2. bx_Townhouse Buss Compressor (Glue)
> 3. Blackbox HG-2 (Saturation)
> ...


Thank you for validating my use of L3-LL😎


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## labornvain (Jul 18, 2020)

So I actually use three different mix buses. Or four if you count the real mix bus. It had occurred to me years ago that the kind of dynamics processing that I like to use on the master bus wasn't really suitable for every kind of instrument. So I got the idea one day just to duplicate my mix bus and then send different instruments to each copy.

When using one compressor on your mix bus, the problem always arises that the low frequencies, like the kick or the bass, will slam the detection circuit in the compressor harder than everything else, thereby affecting the dynamics of all the other tracks. You can hear this phenomenon on hit records going back decades.

Of course various remedies have been used like putting a high pass filter on the detection circuit or sidechaining or whatever. But each of these leave something to be desired and often creates their own problems. Not to mention they're sort of a pain in the ass to set up.

So just on a whim I decided to make copies of the mix bus, using aux buses.

On each of these auxiliary mix buses, I would put the exact same effects that I had on my master bus. But just route different tracks to them.

So for aux mixbus 1, I put pretty much everything in it. Keys guitar vocals Etc.

Then, on aux mixbus 2, I put just the kick and the bass, or any other low-frequency super powerful type sound.

And then on the third, I use that for all percussion, highly transient, instruments.

By dividing it up this way, it immediately solved many of the problems of low frequency compression artifacts and allowed the mix to breathe on its own without being sabotaged by a loud kick drum or bass guitar. It also gives you a lot more Independence.

This is not to be confused with grouping tracks though. I still use many different groups of tracks, strings, acoustic guitars, drum kit, percussion, Etc.

But those groups, depending on what they are, get routed to one of my three auxiliary mix buses.

One could argue that the difference between one of them I "auxiliary mix buses" and any old auxiliary bus is negligible. But it's really just a conceptual framework for me, I guess. I mean to think of it this way.

This is somewhat similar, I would later learn, to Michael brower's multi bus compression technique. It's just not quite as elaborate so I can do it a lot faster. I'm religious about mixing fast. So sometimes I'll actually build my mix in the master bus, normal style, and then only at the end of the mix will I split everything up.

I also still use the master bus for things that I want to apply to the entire mix.

These often include Kramer tape, Zynaptic Intensity in very mild doses, my new all-time favorite stereo widener which comes inside the Waves tg12345 channel strip plugin. I love this plug plugin overall, it's got some of the best distortion algorithm you can get, but the stereo widener is in a league of its own. I have no idea why.

As for my aux mix buses, they all pretty much just have compressors loaded since that is the thing that requires independence.

The compressors vary depending on the track, but it usually includes an SSL type bus compressor, and they all have fabfilter Pro L2 at the end of the chain.

I use the Distressor a lot, especially on the drum bus, a Vari-mu occasionally on the everything bus, and in addition to compressors, on the low frequency bus I often break out breakout a Pulltech emu. 

Lastly, I've recently begun playing around with Andrew scheps technique of putting an 1176 on his everything bus. He uses a similar busing technique where all of his quote "musical instruments" go to one bus and the drums go to another.

So he puts an 1176 on his "everything but the drums bus" in dual mode meaning the detectors are independent.

This is a case where the dynamics of one instrument as triggered by the compressor affect the output of other instruments in a desirable way. It creates this kind of groovy stereo pulsing effect. I really like it.


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## Living Fossil (Jul 18, 2020)

GingerMaestro said:


> Some times the turn around on stuff is very fast, so don't have time to get it mixed..If you could show and tell your master bus that would be really helpful..Thank you !



My first advice would be: Avoid to think there are easy solutions that just work.
Otherwise, one day you wake up with fresh ears, and realize that your masterbus that you have carefully populated with lots of plugins, based on recommendations of people in the internet, has been degrading your music the whole time.
The only valid shortcut is experience, which you have to earn yourself.

To be more precise:
All those sweeteners that "glue things together" and "add warmth" and "add depth" etc. have there place in some situations, but are completely wrong in others.
Most people aren't aware that "Glueing things together" means nothing else than degrading a couple of audio signals in order to give them the appearance of deriving from the same source.

In a proper arrangement usually there is no need for this. 
On the contrary, the whole recording industry was trying for about 100 years to "de-glue" things.
To give more focus to the individual signal.
(compare a historical schellack recording to an actual high end recording of an orchestra and you hear the difference...the sh#ttier the audio quality, the more glue you have)

What "glues" things together in orchestral music is the arrangement that gives each element its right place.


Second:
Use busses for relevant groups.
So you can solve problems inside of a bus rather then on the masterbus, e. g. dealing with the dynamic aspects of percussion etc. (as mentioned by labornvein)
Also: instead of always adding high end, often you can make an element more prominent by rolling of high frequency content of less relevant aspects. 
(which by the way occurs normally when you play at a softer level).

Third:
For the master, there are countless options available.
Asking in a forum such a question will result in a "name every plugin you ever bought".
Before you ask such a question, you should be sure that you really like the outcome (i.e. the productions) of those you ask. 

Fourth:
Nevertheless, there is one general rule to get more warmth, depth, 3D-ness instantly:
Instead of the correct spelling, write the word "bus" with an additional -s.
Basically it's the best kept secret of the recording industry, allthough this secret was all the time in plain sight.

Let me give two examples:

Drum bus -> everything sounds kind of lame
rename it with "drum buss" -> more punch, more crispiness

Masterbus -> flat sound, "2d", sterile sound
add an s:
Masterbuss -> depth, 3d, warmth.

Lately, i'm experimenting with naming my master "masterbusss" or even up to "masterbusssss" (in addition to all available tape plug ins) and with this, i expect to even reach a 4D sound in the near future. But it's still work in progress.


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## Paul Christof (Jul 18, 2020)

Living Fossil said:


> My first advice would be: Avoid to think there are easy solutions that just work.
> Otherwise, one day you wake up with fresh ears, and realize that your masterbus that you have carefully populated with lots of plugins, based on recommendations of people in the internet, has been degrading your music the whole time.
> The only valid shortcut is experience, which you have to earn yourself.
> 
> ...



Those were some very well-articulated insights and valid points (expect for the final bit lol).

I guess it all comes down to learning your tools and knowing when to use them. Personally, even on a well orchestrated/arranged piece of music, I’ll still sometimes use a buss compressor, not because of any assumptions or things I’ve read online, but because my ears tell me this is what is needed to add that extra bit of polish (gain stage and A/B, if you ears say it works, then it works, if not, remove it).

Throwing a bunch of plugins on your master will never solve a problematic mix. Except for the Clariphonic, that thing is magic. Clients love it, I love it, it just works for my kind of music.


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## doctoremmet (Jul 18, 2020)

labornvain said:


> my new all-time favorite stereo widener which comes inside the Waves tg12345 channel strip plugin. I love this plug plugin overall, it's got some of the best distortion algorithm you can get, but the stereo widener is in a league of its own. I have no idea why.


This is TRUTH. Amen.


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## darcvision (Jul 18, 2020)

1. glue compressor (bx townhouse, variety of sounds densitymkIII)
2. any multiband compressor (IK multimedia quad compressor or reaXcomp)
3. EQ, mostly free(pultec (ignite amps PTeq-X), BAX (variety of sound bax EQ 32bit), TDR Slick EQ GE, bx console SSL 4000 G, soundtoys sie-Q)
4. exciter/saturation/tape (magnetite black rooster audio, airwindows tape, caelum audio tape cassete 2, airwindows console7, la petite excite)
5. TDR Limiter GE
sometimes i'm using ozone element assistant for fast mixing


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## blackzeroaudio (Jul 18, 2020)

labornvain said:


> So I actually use three different mix buses. Or four if you count the real mix bus. It had occurred to me years ago that the kind of dynamics processing that I like to use on the master bus wasn't really suitable for every kind of instrument. So I got the idea one day just to duplicate my mix bus and then send different instruments to each copy.



I've had some good results going with the Michael Brauer method of having 4 buses. I only do it on occasion when I feel like mixing it up a bit. 

Have you tried changing the EQs/Compressors to get different colors on each bus?


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## vitocorleone123 (Jul 18, 2020)

I don't do orchestral music (electronic), but my master bus compressor is Kotelnikov GE, after trying many "character" compressors there. I don't believe that the master bus is the time to "add warmth" - that, for my purposes, can be done at the track/instrument level, or the group/bus level. I find it the place for small adjustments and totally, or at least mostly, transparent tools. But everyone has a different style.

Other plugins typically include: Slick EQ M and Pro-L2.


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## labornvain (Jul 18, 2020)

blackzeroaudio said:


> I've had some good results going with the Michael Brauer method of having 4 buses. I only do it on occasion when I feel like mixing it up a bit.
> 
> Have you tried changing the EQs/Compressors to get different colors on each bus?


Yeah, all the time pretty much. Low attention span and all that.

Unless I'm on a deadline, then I pretty much go with what I know will work.

And my trusty Rat pedal.
cheers.


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