Curves AQ MixSense: The Smartest Way to Get Better Track Separation

Published May 07, 2025

MixSense is a powerful feature within Waves Curves AQ that goes far beyond the typical sidechain capabilities found in most plugins. It offers a smarter, more musical way to create space in your mix — not by reducing volume, but by adaptively reshaping tone where it matters most.

Read Time: 10 minutes

Curves AQ MixSense: The Smartest Way to Get Better Track Separation

Brief Summary: MixSense intelligently carves out space in your mix by reducing overlapping frequencies from any other audio it listens to, via side-chain, allowing for competing sounds to sit together better and more clearly in context.

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What Is Curves AQ?

Waves Curves AQ is a next-generation intelligent EQ that reimagines how tonal shaping should work. Rather than relying on static EQ bands and manual tweaks, AQ uses AI-assisted learning to analyze your audio, understand its character and create custom tonal curves that bring out the best in your sound.

Once AQ learns the audio, whether it’s a vocal, drum mix, bassline, or full mix, AQ then suggests five tailored Target Curves. These curves can be applied instantly, delivering a range of balanced and musically appropriate tones in seconds. With extra features like Dynamic/Static EQ blending, Tilt, Precision Controls and Spectral Ducking, AQ offers both speed and depth, making it one of the most advanced EQs available.

Read more: 12 Ways to Try Curves AQ in Your Mixing Workflow.

What Is MixSense in Curves AQ?

Waves Curves AQ MixSense feature

MixSense has two controls. Click MixSene to Bypass/Engage it, the other is a dial that sets strength

MixSense is Curves AQ’s sidechain-based spectral ducking engine. Unlike traditional sidechain EQ or sidechain compression, MixSense doesn’t just duck volume, it listens to a secondary signal (via sidechain input), analyzes the tonal content of that signal and intelligently reduces only the overlapping clashing frequencies between the tracks you need to balance.

While Equator performs a similar process by learning the side-chain audio and averaging it into a custom threshold curve, AQ works constantly, and in real time, without the need to learn the side-chain audio, adjusting to both the main track and the sidechain source continuously. That means instead of simply making one sound quieter to make room for another, MixSense carves space frequency-by-frequency, so competing elements can sit together more naturally and musically.

What Is a Sidechain and What Does It Unlock?

Sidechain dropdown menu found in most EQ and Dynamics plugins

Sidechain can be selected from the top right of plugins within Logic and will appear in different locations in different DAWs.

In audio production, a sidechain lets a plugin process one signal based on information coming in from another. It is commonly used in compression, for example, ducking a bassline every time a kick hits.

Watch: What Is Sidechain Compression? 5 Top Production Sidechaining Tips.

But, in modern plugins like AQ, the sidechain becomes a way more powerful asset. It makes context-aware decisions, unlocking smarter ways to reduce masking, increase clarity and enhance separation between elements.

Why Would You Use MixSense?

Why use MixSense in Curves AQ?

LEFT: AQ on Beat RIGHT: AQ on Bass Track with MixSense enabled. MixSense processing is displayed in the green curve with the Bass Track instance.

When two tracks share similar frequency content, they often end up competing for space in the mix. Think about vocals sitting over a synth pad, or a guitar layered with a bass line — masking is a common problem in these situations. MixSense is designed to fix exactly that. It listens for those frequency clashes and gently ducks only the overlapping areas, leaving the rest of the signal untouched and natural sounding.

This results in cleaner mixes with more natural separation and is a far more elegant solution to trying to carve out space manually with EQ every time two sounds collide.

For example, with MixSense, a lead vocal can sit on top of a busy instrumental without sounding forced or overly scooped. Or a kick drum can punch through a bassline with more presence without destroying the impact of the bass.

Unlike static EQ moves, MixSense adapts continuously as both tracks evolve. If the vocal gets brighter or the synth changes timbre, the spectral ducking responds in real-time. It’s a subtle as you want it to be, musical and fast.

How To Use MixSense in Curves AQ

To use MixSense, first insert Curves AQ on the track you want to adjust — for example, a synth or bass. Then route the audio you wish to make room for, such as a drum beat, into AQ’s sidechain input from your DAW. Once the sidechain is active, simply adjust the MixSense knob until you’re happy with the reduction, which will be displayed as a green outline.

Setting up sidechain in Waves Curves AQ for MixSense to work

RIGHT: Selecting sidechain Beat Track to Bass Track AQ

No Threshold, Speed or Ratio settings need adjusting here — just intelligent frequency-aware ducking that will do the heavy lifting for you.

Examples: Working With Curves AQ MixSense

Let’s put MixSense into action using a simple four-bar loop. The session includes an electronic drum beat, a synth bass, a synth pad, a tight chordal synth pattern and some classic “hey” group vocals. We’ll work from the bottom up — balancing each element in the mix using AQ’s Target Curves and carving out space using MixSense where appropriate.

Disclaimer: In these examples, MixSense has been pushed aggressively to clearly demonstrate the results.

Step 1: Synth Bass vs. Kick Drum

Let’s start by inserting Curves AQ on both synth bass and drum beat channels. We’ll hit Learn for both and choose a Target Curve to make each track sound more polished. We adjusted the Target Curve slightly on the beat to give it slightly more impact and power.

Next, let’s route the beat channel to AQ’s sidechain input on the synth bass, then enable MixSense and adjust the strength.

Now the synth bass channel will respond to clashing frequencies from the beat, gently suppressing overlapping content in the synth bass while still following its assigned Target Curve. The result is a clearer, more defined groove as MixSense subtly carves space in the synth bass without reducing its power or vibe.

As you can hear, MixSense gives subtle control over the low-end relationship between these two foundational elements. Next, let’s move onto getting the synths sitting better with our freshly mixed rhythm section.

Step 2: Synth Pads and Chords vs. Rhythm Section

Let’s load Curves AQ onto both synth pad and synth chord tracks, again letting both plugins Learn the tracks so we can apply Target Curves to get better tone shaping going.

As the tight synth chord track has a fairly light character in its sound, we’re going to keep this with just its AQ Targe Curve. The larger sounding synth pad on the other hand, this has a fuller tonal impact with lots of movement. It feels like it’s competing with our synth bass – No problem, MixSesne will fix that.

Let’s assign the synth bass as the sidechain input on the synth pad, and like before, activate MixSense and dial in the strength. AQ will start attenuating any frequencies in the synth pad track that are clashing with the bass.

Using MixSense here has helped the beat and bass remain punchy and present while the synth pad track sits further back behind them without sounding scooped or washed out. You’ll still hear the full pad texture, but it won’t fight for space where we've already got the rhythm section sounding great.

Step 3: Vocals vs. Everything Else

Finally, let’s turn our attention to the vocal track by inserting Curves AQ on it. Let’s get a Target Curve working, then we’ll assign the synth pad channel to the vocal AQ sidechain input. I would like this vocal to feel a lot further back behind the synth pad, so I’m going to use a heavy amount of MixSense to achieve this.

This approach is especially useful for gang-style vocals or layered backing vocals as these often get buried in dense electronic mixes. Rather than pushing them louder, MixSense clears the path by subtly ducking the overlapping content from everything around them — automatically and only where needed.

Step 4: Adding Final Mastering EQ

Now that you have a better understanding of how MixSense in Curves AQ works, let’s take this project one step further by placing an instance of AQ across the master bus. This time, instead of choosing Instrument in the Learn menu, we’re going to select Mix.

Listen closely to how AQ applies subtle lifts and dips across the spectrum, much like a skilled mastering engineer might. Using the central Main Knob along with the Boost and Cut sliders on either side, you can easily push the tonal shaping further or dial it back for a more subtle finish..

Before and After Example of MixSense

Let’s zoom out now and take a listen to the before and after of this, with and without the final mastering AQ

Recap of the MixSense Workflow

We’ve covered a lot in this article, but if you’d like to try the AQ MixSense workflow for yourself, the step-by-step guide below outlines exactly how we achieved these results.

  1. On the synth bass > Set sidechain listen to beat > Adjust MixSense strength to taste
  2. On the synth pad > Set sidechain listen to synth bass > Adjust MixSense strength to taste
  3. On the vocal track > Set sidechain listen to synth pad > Adjust MixSense strength to taste

As you can see, this mix approach moves systematically through the project from the ground up. It starts with the relationship between the beat and bass, then moves on to the midrange elements and how they interact with the overall groove and finally focuses on the vocals. Of course, this is just one way to use MixSense and we encourage you to adapt this method to fit your own workflow.

In some mixes, you may find that MixSense only needs to be applied sparingly. In others, you may need to rely on it heavily in specific areas to create better separation. Only your music and your ears can guide those decisions. Fortunately, MixSense is incredibly easy to set up, so there’s no reason not to try it when you’re struggling to make two or more elements sit well together.

Bonus Tip: Sending Multiple Tracks to the Sidechain for MixSense

So far, we’ve shown how Curves AQ can use MixSense to respond to one track at a time via the sidechain input. But what if you want AQ to instead react to a full instrumental mix? For example, maybe your instrumental already sounds balanced, but you want the vocal to sit in it more naturally without reworking the EQ on every track. That’s where this technique comes in.

The exact setup will vary slightly depending on the DAW you are using, but the general idea is the same.

  1. Create a new bus and route your main instruments, such as drums, bass, guitars, synths, or pads, into it.
  2. Use that bus as the sidechain input for the instance of Curves AQ on your vocal track. When MixSense is activated, AQ will listen for any frequency clashes between the vocal and the combined mix
  3. Adjust the vocal’s MixSense amount to fit it in the mix more cleanly.

Try Curves AQ MixSense Today

MixSense isn’t just another sidechain feature to gloss over. It offers a smarter, more musical solution to one of mixing’s oldest challenges — getting competing sounds to sit together naturally. Try Curves AQ in your next session to hear how much clearer and more balanced your mix can feel, often with just a few clicks.

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