Using Clip Gain/Using Raw Clips In Effects Tracks

Mixing
1

Loving your approach of using audio tracks and copying and pasting raw clips and processing them from scratch and using clip gain to determine level. Two questions:

  1. If you’re using clip gain, dont the effects respond drastically differently to the source audio going into them? If you bring a clip down 10db, it’s not hitting Soothe as hard and Soothe won’t push down peaks as hard; likewise, if you bring down to clip gain, you will hit Sansamp less hard and get less distortion. Is this something that you appreciate about this workflow or do you have a way of working around the issue that if you change the clip gain to change the level of the track, the effects are going to respond differently?

  2. Don’t you ever want the exact lead vocal track to go to effects after it has been processed? I’m really intrigued by the drag and drop method and working with things raw. It seems like you achieve the important goal of leaving the treble and fundamental ranges open for the lead vocal this way. But don’t you ever want to use the lead track that has been shaped with eq and specific compression? What about auto tune? If the lead is being tuned a bit by auto tune, do you run into phase/pitch issues when the delay, chorus, and reverb tracks don’t have autotune on them? Or do you put the same auto tune on everything?

Thank you in advance!

2 Likes
2

hey rob

  1. yes your right they do respond drastically differently. it is very much intentional especially as i dont want my fx stuff to mask the vocal or compete in the same freq areas as the vocal…also i might clip gain regions up 10db to drive more into an amp sim or other fx…my point in the drag/drop is for workflow benefits and sheer speed of operation clip gaining is wayyy faster than fiddling around with busses and setting up aux returns

  2. more than likely i will be sending vocal to some more generic reverbs and other fx from the main vox channel using traditional aux sends which will have any comp/EQ i have used
    but even when i was on the VR i would EQ those sends to remove lo/hi freq info so they would’nt obscure or cloud the original signal.or id crank the EQ mid range to get that seperation between vocal and any fx im running…
    regarding auto tune yes im going to copy the settings for exactly the reasons you mention…
    hope this was helpful
    tom

3

Amazing, thank you Tom. Very helpful. I think the biggest thing is clearing out the highs and lows of the effects so nothing is competing with the lead. It’s so tempting to let those highs sing out on reverbs and things because the effects sound nice but it leaves you with a less professional sounding mix. Thanks for taking the time!