Mixing preparation

PREPARING MIXING

Reminder: we are working on the song Life, an original composition:

What software and hardware do we need to produce this song? What is the instrumentation? How is the project organized?

Here is the list of everything I used to record and mix Life:

- A reasonably powerful computer
- An audio interface
- A preamp (optional if the audio interface already has decent built-in preamps)
- A vocal microphone
- A mic stand
- A pop filter
- Monitoring speakers
- Headphones
- A MIDI controller (master keyboard)
- A guitar
- A bass guitar
- All necessary cables

- A sequencer (DAW)
- Effect plugins (EQ, reverb, compression, saturation, etc.)
- Amp simulation plugins
- Impulse loaders (IR loaders)
- Impulses (IRs)
- Software synths (VSTi)
- Drum software

THE TRACKS

- 4 synth tracks
- 2 clean rhythm electric guitar tracks
- 2 distorted lead electric guitar tracks
- 1 bass track
- 1 vocal track
- 2 backing vocal tracks
- 2 sampled choir tracks (orchestral and choral sound plugin)
- Drums

Each instrument track contains its own plugins. Previously, I used to create buses for every track and place the plugins on those buses, but despite the organizational logic, it made tasks more complicated and significantly slowed down the projects. I now opt for a simpler method.

Don't hesitate to create a blank template containing all the tracks and buses you need; this saves you from rebuilding everything for every new project. I describe the template I use on this page.

One last point: the song has a tempo of 75 BPM.

THE BUSES

For the drums
- Each element will have its own bus (kick, snare, hi-hat, ride, etc.), on which various sound processing plugins will be placed (EQ, compression).
- These buses will be routed to a main drum bus.

Drums

Main group buses
- Each type of instrument is routed to a main bus: the rhythm guitars (2 in this case) are routed to a "Rhythm Guitars" main bus, all synths to a "Synths" main bus, etc.
- Each of these main buses is then routed to the Master bus.

Main buses

The Master Bus
- The "main" buses for each instrument group are routed here: the rhythm guitar bus, the lead guitar bus, the synth bus, the vocal bus, the bass bus, and the drum bus.
- The mastering plugins are placed on the Master bus: a multi-band EQ and a limiter to achieve the final sound.

Master bus

Don't worry if this all seems a bit messy or complicated at first; we'll go through the details step by step—it’s not rocket science at all.

MESSAGES

FromMe
le 13/10/2025 à 12h14

Hello.

So how can I contact LePou?
The latest X64 version of Legion has a bug where the Drive amount jumps when changing from green/red channels. The knob doesn't jump, but you can hear the drive amount jump when tweaking a little bit, so who knows what the default or chosen sound is being used whenever?
Also similar problems with the Engl as well. The old V 1.01 x86 32 bit version of Legion works perfectly however. (but the newer 64 bit version does sound a bit better, sadly).

Has you or anyone else noticed this?
I want to contact him for a way to fix these plugin bugs.

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Hello,
To my knowledge, Lepou has not been active for years in the simulation community. I think he has completely given up by lack of time and motivation. So I doubt he'll be willing to fix any bugs, and I have no idea how to contact him.

Grebz

musicien-bidouilleur
le 07/09/2025 à 17h58

Juste pour t'encourager et te féliciter pour ton travail. Bonne source d'informations.
J'ai écouté en partie ta musique : il y a un monde entre 2008 et 2020, non pas concernant les titres que j'aime bien mais concernant leur réalisation. 2020 >>> 2008 à mon humble avis.
Le travail et la persévérance paient !
Bravo.

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Merci beaucoup, ça me fait très plaisir !
Grebz

ace0fspades
le 25/08/2025 à 05h50

Thanks for the free impulses! Great stuff!

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Thanks for visiting!
Grebz

Jimmy
le 09/12/2021 à 15h16

Hello,
I would like to config my Schuffham S-Gear 2 but I don't know how to do.
I have Logic Pro X.6.2 with S-Gear plugin
I found your website and I ask myself what does it means in the folder Schuffham S-Gear 2.
I don't understand what you have writing like in this exemple : Guitar on the left:
1 impulse of baffle Marshall 1960A (loudspeaker: G12M) through a microphone Neumann U67 in Cap Edge position, at a distance of 2 inches (5 cm). Stereo panning: 100% left.
1 impulse of baffle Marshall 1960A (loudspeaker: G12M) through a microphone Neumann U87 in Cap Edge position, at a distance of 4 inches (10 cm). Stereo panning: 100% left.
How can I find the same sound as you ? How can I do to config my own S-Gear with these parameters ? What does it means ?
Sorry for my English ;) I’m French !
You can answer me directly on my email address.
Thanks in advance.
Jimmy

Labrava
le 29/10/2021 à 13h49

Hi Grebz,
I don't know if you read these... but I was wondering if your Lepou plugins are x32 or x64? Thanks for all the great stuff on here!

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Hello, thanks for visiting my website. They're x64.
Grebz