I tried to emulate an SSL listen mic compressor on a stereo drum file without the SSL LMC+ plugin, and did a pretty poor job of it, but accidentally discovered a sidechain compression technique in the process. The technique added a huge crack to the snare, punch to the kick, and life to the whole kit, beyond what typical parallel compression might offer. This wasn't my aim, but it was the result. It didn't quite add the same amount of grit and character that the LMC+ does (and so my experiment failed), but I liked the result quite a bit better anyway. I'd like to share the technique. I have a screenshot with all the settings, levels, and parameters shown, but I'm not sure how to share an image here. The gist is (with a lot of details left out) I had the same stereo drum track duplicated, or routed out to 2 sends-- just make a copy of it in some manner. Pull the fader down on the copy and have it feed the sidechain of an SSL G Bus compressor (pre-fader, 0dB) with with attack around 30 and release at 0.3, aiming for 4 to 8dB gain reduction, and have that copy HPF'd so that your kicks hit around 4dB and snares at 6 to 8. Here's where it gets funky. On the copy, first create a custom reverb that sounds kind of like a control room, mixed maybe 35 - 40%. Then add another reverb that simulates a live room, mixed 65-85%. (these are out of order, my first mistake). Your shorter tail should precede the longer one. Now it gets funkier (and this is where I deviated from the experiment and just got creative with it). Slap on a distressor at 6 to 1 hitting the yellow and adjust the release until the snare starts to really crack hard. Then follow up with a dbx160 and pull back on the threshold a bit, and the compression too, until you hit about 10dB reduction. Adjust the makeup as needed (on the dbx) so that the G Bus comp is hitting that mark again. Mix the G bus compressor anywhere from 50-80% until you coax as much power out of the snare as you'd like. Adjust your makeup on the faux LMC until it's back to level.

I’m stuck on this part of the 101 course. This video shows how to balance the volume of each track, but I didn’t understand one thing. In the previous video, you already did the gain staging and set everything to -10 dB, so why is he trying to set it to -10 dB again if that was already done? Also, I didn’t understand where you’re supposed to check the volume—at which part of the song should you start?”I mean when you do the gain staging and the balance of the volume

I was just noticing Logic automatically assigns a myriad of plugins to their session players. For example: Session Bass uses 9 plugins. Seems like a lot to me. Right? The one I use often is Session Drummer. When you use the producer packs the tracks are separated which is what I want so a drum kit is around 14-16 instruments plus rooms plus sub groups plus fx returns. In total it's about 24 tracks. No problem with the tracks but the plugins? 46! Wow! Am I wrong? And the routing? 32 sends! I mean it sounds okay but creates a chore for me. I have no trust of other people making that many decisions for me. I have to touch it all and evaluate it. Brings to mind another thread where a user was having CPU issues with Logic. Session players were my first thought. I have noticed things play fine unless and until you flip the widget to display all the individual tracks and / or try to edit midi if you have converted to midi which I eventually always do. The work around is to only make edits while the drums are in solo when the whole mix won't play without CPU problems. My ultimate workaround is to use a laptop as a midi player and offload the entire task to a 2nd computer. I bring the audio back via Danté using Danté Virtual Soundcard.

Hello to all, I am a new member and am very excited to be part of this group. I am 69 years old and have been play music all my life. Mostly local bands as well as every band though my 12 years of school. I have always been interested in mixing and editing music ever since my first studio experience some 40 years ago. Now That I have reached retirement age I thought now or never.