Speed up mixing workflow - please share tips!

Cubase
1

I write and produce / mix my own songs, and typically do each song in a separate C12 pro project to save cpu and have a fresh mindset for the track. but at the mixing stage this is problematic because I want to have a unified mix across all tracks of course (having used different VSTs, plugins etc across the projects for each song). Does anyone have any tips or can recommend a workflow for how to make writing songs and mixing them across multiple projects more cpu efficient, or for making one single project more cpu efficient if it contains multiple songs?

Thank you

2

This I don’t quite get - if you use different VSTis etc per song, it will probably sound differently and must be treated as such. Or do you mean that you always use the same sounds. e.g. drums, bass, Rhodes etc. and now want them to sound coherent across all songs?

You could do the mix in one project, of course, but inevitably, the more plugins you use, the more the CPU will be used, there is no way around that. If your recordings were a live recording from one session (or say a concert) , this might be the way to go, though.

Else, you could mix one song in one project until you are happy, and the use that as a template for all the other songs (either really save that as a template, or import just the tracks you need - without events - from that project into the other projects. Maybe track presets/FX chain presets could also help.

3

It’s been a while since I mixed an album in Nuendo. But anyway;

I think a lot of plugins can use very little CPU when they are not in use, so if you string out your songs on the timeline all the tracks that are not playing back should use less processing / CPU.

Also agree with Fese of course to save/import track archives or save insert chains or whatever. Last album I mixed that’s what I did. Very convenient to get for example a consistent drum kit sound throughout the album.

And lastly, I think some of this gets solved in mastering. Just rebalancing and massaging dynamic range and loudness helps a lot, and doing that as a separate stage might help you.

4

I certainly hope you do it that way. Do any users these days keep communal files? I may be misunderstanding you. And I don’t understand how this saves CPU? You mention CPU many times.

In the old fashioned days, the lines were more divided.
Writing: maybe first on piano/guitar. Then composing…writing all the parts.
Tracking
Mixing
Mastering

Producer comes in somewhere between writing and tracking.

Mixing: My opinion of a good mix engineer is one who is able to use words to convey descriptions of sounds so everyone is on the same page. That is a skill, and too many times I think both client and engineer are bluffing with each other in communications. To this day, I have a difficult time communicating words to represent sound, mood, etc

A good mix engineer goes far beyond what most prosumers on a DAW believe they do. For example they obtains the majority of dB’s that are often wrongly blamed on the ME. And they go beyond typical methods of compression/limiting. They, as well as the producer, know fusion. What instruments or sounds work together so 1+1=3, as well as 1+1=-3 that causes problems.

The mix engineeer/ME relationship should be an experienced relationship. At mastering, the ME can then focus on cohesiveness with tracks, slight volume adjustments, fresh ears, in a sonically built environment, and any technical errors overlooked.

So you are asking for workflow that imitates this process?

Doing pop, I have a master DAW template, that is quite large. I keep songs in different folder stages ranging from ideas/concepts, building, and finalizing. Somewhere in the building stage, 95% of my template is deleted as it’s not needed. If I didn’t do that, eventually because of adding stuff, I would choke my PC.

Since you mention CPU so often, I will stop. CPU should not be in the equation of workflow at all. Sure you can choke it by improperly used plugs. I’m confident you can further elaborate.

5

Unless you are currently getting close to consuming all your cpu resources, I wouldn’t spend much (as in any) time being concerned about this. I’m always surprised at how much effort some folks will spend to “save” some cpu cycles that were never going to get used in the first place.

If you are close to running out of processing power on Projects then that is something to seriously address. But if that’s not a concern, don’t waste your energy on a non-problem.

6

What exactly does “unified” imply? Are we talking about levels and general EQing only?
In this case I would create stems or, if possible, only a stereo file for each project and place them behind each other in a new, album mastering project.

7

Don’t try and find a shortcut, you’re on the right track already.

Make sure you don’t have any final ‘mastering’ style EQ and limiting on the master bus of each track.

Export a mix of each track and import the mixes into a new project. You can now put your mixes into an album running order and play through the album / skip from track to track / skip between random tracks, and get a real good feel as to how all the tracks sit next to each.

Make notes - track 1 is too bass heavy, track 2 is light on the vocals, track 3 is too reverby…

Go into the original projects and make your adjustments, re-export the mixes and bring them back into your master project.

Repeat, repeat, repeat..!

You will end up with a very cohesive set of mixes which will require very little effort in the mastering stage.