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I’m almost halfway through mixing this Matt Wolpe EP. It’s some laid back folky kinda stuff. Lots of acoustic instruments and not much electronic elements at all. So I just wanted to take a second and mention two things that I’m really loving using on this mix. The first is Slate Digital’s Virtual Console plugin. I really like this thing! I’m not sure exactly what it does, but it’s supposed to emulate the sonic qualities of a real console. I work on an SSL board at least 5 days a week, but being a big fan of In The Box mixing, I have to say that I really enjoy this effect! It seems to kind of glue everything together well. I’m using it grouped on the Neve setting. That one is my favorite because it adds a lot of bass. Usually I’ll leave it on the Neve or SSL setting, but grouped so they all change simultaneously, and later on in the mix when I have most or all of the tracks playing, I’ll switch between the modes and see what the others sound like. I also use the Neve setting on the Mixbus plugin. I keep that one separate from the rest of the group and just leave it on Neve. Something about it does it for me….probably the bass!

Another trick I’m doing on this mix is running the bass through the IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX plugin. This plugin is getting kind of old, but I think it still sounds really good. For some reason, it sometimes has a problem where if you re-open the session it won’t play back anything…..like no audio. So what I do is use Audiosuite, and find my amp sound with the preview function, then when I’m satisified, duplicate the playlist and hit process. That way I have a backup unaffected copy on another playlist if I don’t like it! This mix is on Pro Tools 9 with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 by the way.