Reply To: Can we talk about the master bus chain, please?

[Just LisaParticipant]

Warren has brought it up specifically in the last two feedback fridays: it's not important for us because we have a fader... but in the real world, you'll want more volume. But it always sounds like he's just not saying what he really thinks about it to be nice.

So far, I've got two problems. Everything is going great until I try to make it louder (a compressor, an eq, and a limiter (stock)). Or until I export a version to put on Soundcloud (something is getting lost in translation).

I must have been influenced early on in the direction you were, Jason. Four plug ins, each with a specific function. Makes perfect sense. Clearly, I have more work to do getting the levels right before I get there, though.

James: I started working hotter after Richard Furchs, too. I think it's helping. Also finally found the courage to put my fake synth strings into an otherwise analog project, because he said what I've been thinking but afraid to ask: if you made it sound the way you wanted it to start with, do you still need to process it when you mix it? No. Yay. (I wanted to ask Mark Needham, how many compressors in a row do you need? Imagined him replying, "I don't know, how many are there?")
So, you're not really doing anything MORE, just using two plug ins to give a little of the right stuff rather than one big dose of something that might not work so well. And it also makes sense to not have the eq's on til you've done the rest of the work. Engage it as it's needed, right? And in the case of "of this I'm sure" it was completely about the song you were working on.

This is very helpful.

How do you handle volume automation on busses when you are mixing into a compressor on your mixbus? That might be the crux of my problem, now that I think about it.
: )