5 Minutes To A Better Mix III: The Mix Buss Half Rule

Part 4 of 31 – The mix buss (or master fader) is both your friend and your enemy. With a single plugin you can easily spruce up your entire mix. At the same time you can just as easily destroy it if you aren’t careful.

Cut Your Processing In Half

Here’s the idea: whatever processing you want to do on your mix buss, cut it in half and learn to live with it. As you start dialing in some compression, eq, or saturation, when you finally start hearing the effect you’ve likely gone a bit too far. Cut the amount of processing in half and you’ll be just fine.