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Quickly Fix Muddy Drums | Chain by Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj Producer/Mixer

Oct 29, 2020 | 10,940 Views

Watch how the StudioRack chain preset ‘Tab Fix My Mix’ by producer/mixer Chris Tabron (Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Mary J. Blige) can transform muddy-sounding drum sub-mixes into powerful, hard-hitting grooves.

'Tab Fix My Mix' is included in the StudioRack plugin chainer as an Artist Preset. Download StudioRack free now, and try it in your next top-down drum mix.

A quick way to get muddy multitrack drum mixes to feel more focused and detailed is to start your processing journey on a sub-mix. You do this by creating an auxiliary track, into which all the separate drum elements feed via a bus. This approach is known as top-down mixing, which involves processing stereo buses before diving into working on individual tracks.

Chris Tabron’s StudioRack chain preset, shown in this video, helps you take this approach in a quick and easy way. The chain features the H-EQ, SSL G-Master Buss Compressor, V-Comp, Q10 Equalizer and Scheps 73 plugins, combining their controls into quick-access EQ and compression macros.

Chris Tabron about the 'Tab Fix My Mix’ StudioRack Chain

"I came up with my StudioRack chain presets when I was mixing some records, finding sounds that made me go: ‘Oh, THIS is a thing; this chain is a handy starting point I can call on again and again in the future.’”

“The macros in this particular chain preset are called Tidy Up, De-Muddy, Clarity, and Density – which hopefully gives you a good sense of what this preset can do. It can enhance drums from a creative standpoint, but it’s also useful in addressing technical processing issues."

CT-SR-Drum

CT-SR-Drum

‘Tab Fix My Mix’ – Macro Controls

  • Tidy Up: H-EQ high-pass filter (18 Hz to 35 Hz rolloff)
  • Booty: 60 Hz boost (0 dB to +6 dB)
  • De-Muddy: 300 Hz cut (0 dB to –6 dB)
  • Clarity: 3 kHz boost (0 dB to +6 dB)
  • Glue: Lowers threshold + raises makeup gain in SSL comp
  • Density: Parallel rack output level for V-Comp, Q10 crush bus
  • Glisten: Scheps 73: 12 kHz boost (0 dB to +3.5 dB)

Check out our other StudioRack Unchained episodes featuring Chris Tabron’s StudioRack chain presets:

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