We've covered vocals, bass, leads so now lets talk the Fx Buss. What is the Fx bus? Its all the sounds that make your track flow, the sweeps, swooshes, pitched synths, risers, impacts, shouts etc. Its all the little random sounds that sometimes end up being an extra 15+ tracks. So here lets talk the basics on how to simplify fx, make them custom, and make them uniform and loud in your mixes.
Sample Choice: This is everything when it comes to fx. Samples can come from anywhere, you don't need 18 sample packs of sweeps and risers, you need like 3 or 4 good ones and you pick from there. My favorite for white noise sweeps is the audiotent ultimate noise packs. I still use stuff from vengeance too, i just hide it well. Over time take the ones you use a lot and put them in a SPECIAL CUSTOM FOLDER. This saves time, you can use the same noises and swooshes in every track and its not something anyone notices. You need a few long, short, up, down, and whatever else you like that is fx.
Layering: Ive seen people recreate fx over and over instead of bouncing something out the first time. Say you stumbled upon a reverb clap, so you layer it with a down sweep and you love the way it sounds. BOUNCE THIS OUT! Put this in your custom samples folder bc it is now your sample. When doing this, i don't like to eq these too hard or specific. You don't want to eq super specific in case you use it in future tracks. More so just hi pass 100hzish and low pass 16k. This saves you the time you have to spend doing that when you decide to use it. I very rarely eq additive stuff on fx. When you layer anything in fx, get in the habit of bouncing whatever you combined, as audio in to a sample of its own and put it in your custom folder. This is key to simplifying the fx from 20 tracks to 10.
Risers: Stay away from using 100% premade risers, so don't go digging through a vandalism pack, pick an 8 bar riser and throw it on. The riser is like a 60:40 ratio. 60% being the main part of the riser you build, which can be the pitched synth that goes up, and the vocal chop that goes up or faster. The other 40% is the white noise sweeps, parts of the vandalism, or any premade risers you incorporate into your riser. Things like glitch2, effectrix, using the arppegiator, and autopan can add a lot of style to your risers you make with a synth. I love the FREE BASS KLEPH WASH OUT on risers i make. Another tip for live users is freezing the track, this enables you to cut the reverb tail. From there you can flatten and have the audio sample of what you made.
Synth FX: Often slept on, synth fx are a GOLDMINE. Packs like the alonso sound for sylenth and many others have beautiful risers and sweeps you can customize within the synth and add to your tracks. Sometimes the addition of an lfo or arp can really add to the sound and you can use it on your risers, or as a general sweep. These give your track a really unique sound. Its also good practice to BOUNCE these guys to audio after you make them. This enables you to use it on future tracks and cuts down on cpu.
EQing FX: as mentioned earlier i dont typically do any additional eq to premade fx, just soft hi pass on where the sound is no longer needed and low pass around 16k. Sweeps are notorious for having information in the low end that is unnecessary, so by all means filter that out. On the sounds you do make, you can do the necessary additive stuff in addition to the hi pass/low pass.
Sidechaining and synth noise The use of the sidechain is heavy in fx. Majority of the time you can get away with the romero kickstart tool to add some pump or groove on 4 on the floor style tracks. Alternatively you can use the compressor and set the chain yourself and adjust the speed of the pump with the ratio, and how much with the threshold. Synth noise is when you take a white noise patch from a synth like the kshmr pack for sylenth and you copy the midi of your lead or synth and you have the white noise play with the lead. This is another thing that is often slept on. Well why not just add it into the synth? Bc it is much easier to control this way. Sometimes you may only want to use it on the last 8 of the drop for added color. Other times you may want it super buried in the mix and you can eq it exactly where you need it. Added white noise to your leads can be placed in the lead bus however 90% of the time i will add it to the fx bus bc i don't want it going through the stereo processing of the lead bus.
The Bus: I will start with an EQ on this bus hard hi pass 100hz, soft low pass 16k. My preferred method of compression for fx is opto compression, i like the la2a and i like to pull off enough to where the fx sound cohesive and almost flat. That is just my taste. I like them to be a very compressed undertone that i can manipulate vol wise in my track. I think it sounds odd when a track is super compressed and then you have these loud sweeps and effects that are much less compressed than the track. The la2a does a good job at hitting everything at 1 speed, and you can utilize the makeup gain to determine how loud you want to go after. Alternatively you can use a glue compressor A 1, Rel A, Rat 4 and hit it hard until you have a flat sounding under track. Use the makeup gain with the soft clip on to boost as as loud as you want. When you solo the fx it should sound very mastered bc most fx already come heavily processed, this is okay. Use your judgement to determine how compressed you want it to sound.
Hope this helps!
Submitted November 12, 2016 at 07:54PM by TurntReynolds https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5cmyyq/how_to_set_up_the_fx_bus_risers_sweeps_etc/?utm_source=ifttt