Ableton Forum

I'll try to add this post without confusing anyone, or myself

I'm starting to delve a bit deeper into how i arrange my tracks.

Currently i'm working on each element separately.

For instance i'll have each individual drum hit running on a separate track. Each track is sent to a drum bus channel where i've been applying compression/limiter etc.

Bass elements to a bass bus, compression, limiter. Synths and so on.

I gather i'm heading in the right direction doing this? but how far should i go?

I've had some sessions where i've had hats bussed, kicks bussed, tops etc. Then routed to another drum bus. my session becomes bus city, It seems messy by this point!

Not too mention the fact that using limiters/compression here and there can't be very healthy. My space isn't fantastic acoustically, so often i can't really here the benefits or negatives once i start to build busy drum/synth patterns etc.

After i've bussed all the parts, i've been routing all these channels to a main bus channel for compression etc, which is routed to my master channel.

I Then use the initial bus channels to send audio to my return channels for more compression, verb, delays etc.

Should i be routing the return effects back into my main bus for slight compression etc? or leaving running to the master?

Sorry if your brain hurts

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. I know it's all about trial and error and i love figuring stuff out myself ..I also hate dead ends, especially ones that take ages to reach! P.s i produce deep/tech house.

....I started going down the same road a few years back, same time i started diving deeper into the audio engineering side of things. It led me to a point were i just needed to make the deception to switch to Logic. Under The Hood Logic just seems more of a professional approach- Mono/Non Destructive working etc etc etc etc ........when you do a pan sweep in logic you can here a difference..... its just smooth. More going on under the Hood. (more and less can be said on this subject....but this isnt the thread)

But Logic lacks that flow/ and free feeling that ableton has...... so after a few months Im back.

The point for me righting that: .....After really hammering down and trying to get to a comfortable point between sound design and producing/engineering so i could maybe finish a project(in Logic), I needed to get accustomed to logic's "Bounce in place" feature (which is amazing and 'Logical') ......Ive also had (well established) producers on my back saying "add effects/layer etc., Bounce/Move on" rather than leaving effects in place/routings in place for future idea's (hope i explained that right)

So my tip would be: Have a set of bus's/aux's for stage 1 (midi/Audio creation/ ruff arrangement) Bounce/render things you work on as you move...... Do all the cool routing you need to do but dont think of it as the Final Bus/Aux think of it as cleaning/layering/designing etc. ...Only once everything has been processed and the track is done, Then setup a quick final Bus mix: use returns as Bus's/or have a template with Channels setup as Aux In's and use those as bus's - Route all bus's to 1 Final Bus Name it MasterFader or Print track.

With Returns as your BUS click the 'send' on the return hit "enable" send each return bus to 1 Final Return Bus (should be the last send available now) Label This as MASTER..... apply the tiny bit of eq/compression/limiting you may need. ....things should already be fine so you wont need much at all. .......


There are many other things Ived learned in logic that make me see ableton differently now, but this one imperticular came to mind after reading your post.

Anyway..... Hoped that helped:)

also dont "Consolidate" find a work around. Ableton automatically Normalizes Anything you consolidate.... and you cant change that. 1 of the main reasons i left...... that says alot about whats going on under the hood (or whats not)..... also the whole Mono thing....says alot.