Well i use the same mixbus for all the genres i produce, and i work with very oldschool style records and hard hitting modern songs and the only thing that changes is the first plugin on the chain: AA Amethyst it's a good allrounder but i eventually can use AA Cream or Coffee if i want more rock and roll/vintage vibes.

The rest it will be the same forever:

Ozone 11 (eq->multiband compressor->clarity)
SPL Vitalizer
Cytomic Glue
MH Mixhead
Voxengo Elephant

It's good to notice that all of those tools are not working a lot, but a little of each and other scales into the sound i expect, also they are calibrated with my gain structure so it's set and forget (except for the eqs/multiband, which can be fine tuned)

 

That would be impossible. My genere> Fried Mud Fog. My top song / Pushin the Luft from the album Earwax Bog.

 

When it comes to dynamics, what I’ve found with the mixbus (and this is just based on my experience) is that the more you apply small amounts of gain reduction using multiple compressors or limiters, the more glued and controlled the audio will sound. This is especially true if you're using longer release times (somewhere between 200–800ms). It also allows you to push the overall level louder without introducing harshness or noticeable distortion.

On the other hand, if you take a simpler route (something like a standard master chain with compression, limiting, and maybe some distortion, or even just a single hard clipper) the result tends to be a lot less subtle and doesn’t feel nearly as glued together.

The right approach really depends on what you're mixing, sometimes, you might even find that skipping the mixbus altogether works better. But understanding the kind of results you can get from combining these tools is a big part of the art.

 

Lately from the get go on mix buss for progressive trance (124-128bpm), SPL Machine Head, AlexB SSL 9K

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2025 at 10:13 PM

You didn't say Mastering bus which is different - Mix bus:

Lindell 80
UAD Hitsville for center/mid-side EQ control
RESO
Brickwall limiter to -3db - Generally off but turned on if spikes with zero musical contribution detected.
SPAN Pro

Genre - Irrelevant but I use real instruments mostly so that determines my above choices.

I Use the TDR group in mastering (Arbiter, Elliptical, Ultrasonic + Infrasonic), and WEISS EQ+MM1, and in getting the instruments to sound like they are all in the identical space - Accentize Chameleon because its room capture is really good. On the mix bus, it can vary project to project, I may use Soothe 2 instead of RESO and fab Filter ProQ4 in place of Hitsville - depends on each project. Instrument buses vary...
Some projects the Lindell 354 and 902 de-esser if req'd on the main bus, or if the instrument bus is a wide freq range with undesirable areas..

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2025 at 11:11 PM