How do you guys set up your sub-mixes?

[Sharmaji]

as always, depends on the tune...

for big dance stuff, pretty much always a drum buss w/ parallel compression, then some eq just to add some 8k, and a limiter to get things nice and loud. The kick(s) may or may not go to the drum bus serially, may just be a send-- That way, the kick going to the stereo bus defines the loudness of the tune, and the drum buss w/ EQ defines how bright the tune is. If you can get the drums as bright as you need to early on, the whole EQ structure of the tune will come together that much faster.

If there's a lot of tracks any 1 kind of element, that'll go to a bus for ease of automation of the whole thing. maybe some dynamics and eq, maybe not. Usually not on a vocal bus as i'm gonna want the lead vocal to stay out front even when the 48 tracks of doubles and stacks come in... though even that is up for grabs.

lately i've been into having a 3rd layer of busses, set up so that i can create some more push and pull between elements; ie, drums & bass go to a bus that's got an 1176 on it (and maybe an EQ) that enhances the low end and makes things pump a bit. Guitars/keys/vox go to another bus that's got a different setup that keeps things bright and forward in the mix. takes a fair bit of calibrating so that nothing makes the compressors go haywire, but once it's dialed in, you tend to get about 3 more db of loudness to play with in a mix.

also generally always keep a compressor or 2, chorus, distortion, and an exciter on a send, as well as a send that goes directly to the master buss with no processing--- that way, if something sounds killer but just needs to be louder, but increasing the volume will change how the dynamics are working, it can just go the 2buss by itself.

(really wish i'd thought of that myself)