a couple noobish questions about fl studio

[nmarch92]

lol its pretty funny i have been using fl studio for 7 years and im about to ask these questions but anyways.....

1. how do i link more than 1 instrument to a sidechain? let's say i have 4 instances of massive, a different sound on each one, how can i get all of them to go on one sidechain? or do i have to create several different sidechains for each thing in my song that i want to sidechain?

2. should i have each sound i use on its own mixer channel? or should i name a mixer channel "synths" and assign all my synths to that channel, and have a mixer channel "basses", and assign my basses to that, and so on?

3. what are some must-have plugins that you should always have on your master channel? is there a certain chain i should follow?

4. how would i go about putting a filter on JUST my drums? like a filter that applied to my kick,snare,hi,hats,percussion,etc.. so if i wanted to automate a filter drop off or something like that?

thank you

[Kibb]

I can help with 2, I've gotten into the habit of giving each sound its own mixer channel, and then sending those to four different send channels for drums, basses, sub bass, and other. that way, you can tailor each sound according to its own needs, and still be able to affect groups of similar sounds, which i do when mixing.

[Triphosphate]

lol its pretty funny i have been using fl studio for 7 years and im about to ask these questions but anyways.....

1. how do i link more than 1 instrument to a sidechain? let's say i have 4 instances of massive, a different sound on each one, how can i get all of them to go on one sidechain? or do i have to create several different sidechains for each thing in my song that i want to sidechain?

Have each massive to it's own insert. And route those 4 inserts into another insert, and place your sidechain compressor on that bus.

2. should i have each sound i use on its own mixer channel? or should i name a mixer channel "synths" and assign all my synths to that channel, and have a mixer channel "basses", and assign my basses to that, and so on?

Both. Route each instrument to it's own and then to an appropriate bus.

3. what are some must-have plugins that you should always have on your master channel? is there a certain chain i should follow?

An emergency limiter to save your ears and or monitors from damage. Other than that, no... Mastering should be treated as a seperate process in a new project to save DSP/CPU.

4. how would i go about putting a filter on JUST my drums? like a filter that applied to my kick,snare,hi,hats,percussion,etc.. so if i wanted to automate a filter drop off or something like that?

thank you

Like with the massive busses you make an insert for each drum, then route those inserts into a 'drum bus' that's where you put the filter.

[Brothulhu]

1. either route all the channels to a bus and just put the side chain on that bus or use 1 peak controller to control whatever is being sidechained on all the channels (unselect "remove conflicts" in the remote control settings window that comes up when you click "link to controller..."

2. Make a bus for all your similar instruments and route their individual channels to it if you want to put the same effect on a bunch of tracks, don't put them all on one channel as you wont be able to add effects to them separately

3. Maybe a limiter on the master at 0db with no gain in case a plugin goes crazy and does something that could damage your speakers while you are writing your tune. You shouldn't have anything that colours your sound on it imo. I keep a EQ with a band pass on it while mixing so I can sweep through and check for clashes too but I only turn it on when I need it

4. Route them all to a bus, put the filter effect on the bus and create an automation clip for the sweep. I also tend to use another automation clip to turn the plugin on (right click the green dot next to the effect and click create automation clip) and off again after the part I need it in the track so it doesn't make my drums sound any different when I don't want them filtered

[nmarch92]

Great answers, i love this forum. thank you gentlemen.

@brothulhu.....would you care to elaborate on the process of sweeping through the mix and checking for clashes?

[nmarch92]

im just not too sure what i should be listening for..