So we talked the bass bus, and if you missed it you can read it here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/58v36x/how_to_set_up_your_bass_busgroup_to_bang/
Now, were gonna talk the lead bus, how to make your leads to really stick out in your mix. This is done by understanding where your leads need to be in your mix, in conjunction with your other groups. We cut our bass bus in the last tutorial 30hz -16k. However, we know its really gonna shine 30-350hz. That is where the heart of our bass bus is. Its important we recognize the area 350k+ in the bass bus bc this is our mid-range tie in or the point where the bass blends with the leads. We also want our leads to be very wide, and away from the action in the center of the track like bass and kick. We achieve width with stereo widening tools like the s1, a1, or ozone. When setting up to be wide, think of width like a triangle /. We want the lower frequencies of the leads to be wider than the higher frequencies on our leads. This example i set out here can apply to all genres, chords, or even more single note leads. Heres how to go about it:
LEAD 1: This is often the main lead, the one that inspired you to write the melody. Turn off any reverb and delay. Soft hi pass 120, soft low pass 16k. Dont go crazy on the eq just yet. Its very important you choose sounds that go well together before you get in to all that. Eq-ing takes time and eq-ing 1 sound by itself just seems backwards to me. If you are using chord, i like to go 5 voices tops, 3 or 4, in the higher voice, and 1 an octave below. Open your stereo widening tool like s1, or free a1 and push this guy wide enough so you hear its working, but not so wide its paper thin.
LEAD 2: Now that we have the foundation of the lead, and its being spread wide, we can hear where it needs some beef. Typically i start by finding a good sound to put under the lead i just created. Choose a sound that is different that the original yet meshes well as 1. Turn off the reverb and delay if any. Keep in mind this sound we want a tad bit wider than lead 1, so choose something that isnt very narrow. If we were doing saws like a future bass style track we might consider copying midi from lead 1, erasing the top notes so were left with the lower note, then erasing the lower note from lead 1s midi. So with this lower note, we chose a wide sounding voicy saw that takes up a lot of space. Again we are going to soft hi pass 120, soft low pass 16k. Open the stereo widening tool and push this so you can hear its wider than lead 1.
LEADS 3+: So now we have the foundation of what is to be the lead, now its time to make the lead special. These are the little accent layers that are subtle however make up a great portion of your lead. In a nicky romero style progressive style, it can be the midi of lead 1, but this is going to be an attacky percussive sound, or a square sound that adds attack and click to the melody. In a future bass track, it could be lead 2 midi, but played higher octave than lead 1 midi. In a big room showtek style track it could be a stabby distorted saw sound that isnt wide at all, in this case we would keep it centered so your leads dont sound thin. Its okay to bury these layers so they are barely audible. It is also okay if you sound thin, to add another layer and keep that centered or even mono. Again these layers have more to do with feel than the actual sound, the sound is largely determined by what you chose in leads 1 and 2. We will eq all these leads Soft hi pass 120, soft low pass 16k. Most the stereo widening is done with leads 1 and 2, however if you feel what you added fits the triangle than go for it. The percussive and attacky additions of your leads dont need to be wider. Remember to turn off the reverbs and delays.
GROUP or BUS: Now that you have your leads selected, its time to group them up. Once you have them all grouped, solo the group. This is where i like to do the Eq-ing. I am a big advocate of choosing the right sounds to decrease the amount of time i need to spend eqing. Assuming they already sound pretty good, all were doing is essentially cleaning them up, and giving them some shine. Its important to understand that our leads are all the same family. That means, they have a chunk of the spectrum that is theirs. They can clash, overlap, and they are going to, its okay! bc they are all meant to be this big uniform sound. Each sound we chose has a special part, or why we chose it. This is the part we add, for example, if we have a dirty trap lead, we know 2500k is where this thing shines, so we boost that area until we are satisfied with the sound. Next we determine how far we can hi pass that sound and it still sounds good, this will be where you hi pass it. We do this with all our leads, if you feel lead 2 is a bit to present where you boosted lead 1? subtract a little from lead 2 where you boosted lead 1 (tit for tat). Dont get in the habit of doing the same eq on every lead, that ends up with huge holes in the sound bc nothing is doing its job. Soft hi pass everything so your only taking what you need, if you have a percussive sound? just get to where it sounds good and hi pass everything below that. This is done on all leads. Here is how to set up processing on the lead bus.
EQ . Again this eq is soft hi pass 120, soft low pass 16k. I do most of the eq-ing on the individual tracks since i am producing the track, however you can def add or subract on this eq if you wanted to. Just remember, everything is effected here so a little goes a long way on bus eq.
Reverb: This is a make it or break it part of the lead bus. We do the reverb as an insert on the bus bc we want it to be BEFORE the compression. You can dl my ableton live insert reverb rack here if you use live to see how i set it up: https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/4w0hgo/free_ableton_insert_reverb_rack_for_you_guys/
Here is the basics of the reverb chain. Reverb, Eq (hi pass 120 / lo pass 16k, pull down - the low, and slight boost + to the area you want to feature reverb), sidechain (use your lead bus or your main lead as the source and thresh and rel to get the desired swell) gate (press stop on your track and you will hear your reverb tail, move the thresh on the gate down into the neg - and if you have a massive decay this will stop it. Again test this by pressing stop on the track when playing and listen to where your reverb tail cuts off. Tracks like future bass with very wide chords can use things like short plates with out the sidechain and be good to go off the decay time of the reverb. The sidechain and gate is for when you have a tail on the reverb.
Compression: For trap and big room this is where i will insert an OTT and put it around 30% - 50%. This is what gives you the super smashed lead with the reverb that you put before it just as loud as the sound. After the OTT, i am set up to use izotope ozone and start with a preset like gentle tube, or pop basic. (if you dont have ozone skip to the next step) Adjust the compression down bc they are both too much. We want to utilize the harmonic exciter as well as the stereo imager if we go this route. Yes we stereo again. We are VERY VERY GENTLE with the bus stereo, just add a tiny bit to the top 2 bands, pull the mid low slightly down and the low all the way down. We also keep the limiter on, however you dont want to use this for volume, it should be very loud after you mb compress within ozone.
If we didnt use an OTT: Not everyone has ozone and thats totally fine! We add our stereo widener 1 more time S1 or the free A1 and this time be VERY GENTLE, add just a tiny bit until you hear the difference. Next we use a glue compressor with A 1 or 3, Rel A, Rat 2. Ratio 4 can be used but this can result it flatness of everything like the ott so you would have been better off just using the ott. Hit this thing hard till its compressed how you want it, dont fear over-compressing, they way we set up isnt over compression, this is bus compression for edm, its totally different. If you used an ott before the glue compressor, pull off much less than if you didnt use the OTT. Ott + Glue = less glue // Just Glue = go hard on the glue. Were going to activate the soft clip on our glue, alternatively you can add a saturator and turn on the soft clip. Were going to use the make up gain on the glue to get LOUD as you want. Pull off enough on the thresh so its very compressed and tight, and dont be shy on the make up when you turn it up, make it LOUD. Leave plenty of head room for yourself to work, you can drop your single tracks to around -8, and whatever sounds clean on the group. There is no reason to clip anything here that is unnecessary. We can get all the volume we want out of the make up gain from the glue and with the soft clip we can be very loud at low db like -12, -10, -8.
THE DOUBLE CHECK: Now this thing is set up, it is glued together, reverb is dialed in, everything is sounding good. We want to rule out phasing so we solo the group and put a meter on the master. When you first start doing the double stereo, its easy to go overboard. We know the phasing comes from 3 places so this is how to fix it. Start with the bus stereo, a/b to check if it helps, if it doesn't, the prob is coming from the individual tracks and you simply go and turn down the widening on them until its fixed. The next is the reverb. When your going super wide, you dont need as much reverb, its a fine line between reverb and stereo width. When you set up a bus like this where everything including reverb is sent to a compressor together and turned up, you dont need as much reverb as you typically do on sends, it will be much louder in the mix this way. The result is using less reverb, yet getting a much bigger sound. Within a week you should have a good feel for staying out of phase but its always good to double check. Another thing is check the eqing. Now that the lead bus is all set up, get a feel for the processed version and do some final eqing to dial it in to your preference if necessary. This is how to set up a lead bus on a professional sounding track, HOPE THIS HELPS!
Submitted November 01, 2016 at 12:05AM by TurntReynolds https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5agwd4/how_to_set_up_a_pro_sounding_lead_bus/?utm_source=ifttt