Signal Flow

[Richard TorrieParticipant]

Being a beginner at this stuff, this is an area that is a little confusing to me and I have not found that magic YouTube tutorial that makes it all clear which helps click concepts into place for me.

I get the DI in and placing EQ, Compression (another thing I don't fully understand and just push dials about till I think it sounds good), effects and stuff on the input channel itself.

I use and create them but I don't fully understand the reason for Busses, Sends, Stacks, etc,. Should I copy and paste to double the DI and pan the tracks accordingly or bus and pan the tracks on two separate busses, using a bus for reverb, etc???

I don't dispute that this is maybe not a topic that could be easily summarised in a 5 minute video else I would have found something that made some sense to me by now. I think that this would make a great series of tutorials breaking down the fundamentals of signal flow in general and highlighting good working practices when implementing such stuff within your DAW.

Regards,

Rich

[TobiKeymaster]

Great idea! I think one of the reasons why it can be so confusing, is because different people like to work in different ways. A video that explores the pros and cons of particular methods would be very interesting.

Rich, for what it's worth, something that really helped me was to read the manual of an analogue mixing desk. In particular, I found the signal flow diagram really helpful. People work in a particular way, because that is how their Mixer allowed them to work. And, in turn, manufacturers began building mixers, based upon what mix engineers told them they needed.

The problem with DAWs, is they almost give us too many options. There's no inherent discipline to using them.

I looked at the SSL X-Desk . It's easier to understand, as it's only little 😉

[Richard TorrieParticipant]

Thanks for the reply and the document link which I will take a look at.

Much appreciated,

Rich

[Author]

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