installation To install the Magic Racks: Mixing & Mastering racks, copy the les to the ‘Audio Effect Rack’ folder of your Ableton user library. The exact location of your library will depend on where you chose to install it, but common locations are: Windows Vista/7: \Users\\ Documents\Ableton\User Library\ Presets\Audio Effects\Audio Effect Rack Mac OS: \\Music\Ableton\User Library\Presets\Audio Effects\Audio Effect Rack For information on how to nd your User Library, go here: www.ableton.com/en/articles/ where-are-my-user-presets-saved/
from the creator... For this second instalment of the racks series I wanted to create intuitive, powerful and versatile mixing and mastering tools for in-the-box producers. Here you’ll nd ve racks for the job: Channel Strip, Drum Strip, Maximizer, Mid-Side Meddler and Master Strip. In the case of the Channel Strip, Drum Strip and Mastering Strip, the racks are designed to be one-stop shops for adding warmth, weight, punchiness and tightness to the bus mix to meet the demands of contemporary dance music. Each rack as eight macro controls which tweak a myriad of under-thehood processing chains designed to make the most of your mix without getting lost in the endless options Ableton affords us. These nely-honed racks distil down the process so you can get tight, fat and punchy mixes with just a few knob tweaks. The Maximizer deals with the modern demand for louder mixes. Using a complex blend of EQ, multi-band compression, parallel processing and stereo-widening effects, Maximizer will supersize any sound instantly.
With the Mid-Side Meddler you get powerful stereo band tool which let’s you separate the mid- and sidebands into individual channels for independent processing — such as gain control, ltering, modulation and spatial effects — which is perfect for everything from leads and pads to vocals and even hi-hats. All the racks can be opened and customised. You can tweak the parameter ranges and even add in your own devices to suit your specic mix needs. It’s my hope that these racks will help your mixing and mastering become quicker, more intuitive and, dare I say, fun. Hedfux
Producer
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Channel Strip
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A workhorse rack to shape and sculpt any sound. Low A simple yet effective low-cut and -boost EQ to remove potentially mix-hogging low frequencies or add weight to a lightweight low-end. Mid Scoop out space in the mix with a midrange cut or enhance mid-range presence by going the other way. High Cut unwanted high-frequencies or boost to given an added sheen to the top-end. Tape Saturate Versatile tool to add vintage-style smoothness and warmth. Can even be used as a de-esser at lower levels for harshsounding vocals. Compress Custom mix compression designed to glue dynamics and increase gain. Use alongside Attack. Attack Fine-control the attack time of the compressor to ensure clean and punchy results. Use alongside Compress.
Presence Custom multi-band compression control to bring out the hi-end frequencies in mix. Distance Add depth and space into the mix with this combo of gain reduction, low-cut ltering, reverb and panning. Truly 3D control over any sound.
Drum Strip
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Punch, power, tightness and brightness for bigger beats. Punch Up-front compression and gain control with a generous 20ms attack to allow kicks and snares to snap through the mix. Tight Custom EQ to lightly roll off the lows and highs whilst also pinching the mids to free up space for melodic elements in the mix. Particularly useful for breakbeats and real drummer recordings. Bright Lifts high frequencies whilst notching the high mids. Great for taking the boxiness out of snares and sharping hi-hats. Thump Applies parallel limiting on the low frequency band which is perfect for beeng up kick drums or added presence to snares. Vintage Custom EQ which simulates the bandwidth of old-style recordings to give drums that slightly dull, lo- sound.
Room Clever reverb control to put your drums in a room of varying size and depth. Dirt Applies a range of tube distortion to add harmonics and inject analogue-style overtones. Grot When dirt isn’t enough, add Grot. Feeds frequency-specic overdrive harmonics for unrivalled drum processing lth.
Mastering Strip
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One-stop shop for mix mastering. More Sub Add all-important low frequencies for serious club response. More Mids Boost the mid frequencies to help mixes cut through on weaker systems. More Highs Add hi- gloss and sheen to make the mix sparkle. Stereo Width Selective EQ boost on the mid and high frequencies gives a perceived enhancement of the stereo width of the mix. Cleaner Bass Tighten abby bass and add denition with controlled gain tweaks and EQ pinch at 200Hz. Master Comp Finely-tune the threshold of this main compressor to ne the sweet spot for a punchier, more dened mix.
Gain Add subtle amounts of gain to boost overall volume. Use sparingly and in conjunction with Master Comp. Mono Mix A slide scale of mono/stereo mix. Perfect for checking the translation of a mix onto a club sound system.
Maximizer
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Inject fullness, fatness and loudness into any sound. Smile Adds a distinctive ‘smile’ EQ curve to cut ultra high, ultra low and core mid frequencies, allowing for more focussed boosting of key frequencies for a hi- mix.
Stereo Bright Uses mid-side EQ to boost the high frequencies in the side-band and reduce the highs slightly in the mid-band, giving an overall brightness and widening effect.
Extra Bass Adds bass weight with a shelving EQ boost below 200Hz, whilst simultaneously converting the low-end frequencies into mono to prevent phase cancellation.
Tube Saturate Adds classic tube-style saturation to bring out additional harmonics. Apply carefully as it can muddy the mix if over-used.
Multi-Band Comp Applies compression to three independent frequency bands - expertly honed to create an instant loudness-boosting effect. Apply with care. Detail Fine-tuning control for the high band of the multi-band compressor to bring out more hiend detail in the mix. Multiband Comp must be enabled for this to work. Glue Comp Applies liberal glue compression to gel the mix together.
Maximize The nal step in the chain, Maximise does what it says on the tin: ramps up the limiter gain whilst also keeping a -0.3dB ceiling to maintain headroom for inter-sample peaks.
Mid-Side Meddler
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Enhance, tame and correct all stereo sounds. Mid Gain Adjusts the gain of the centre channel audio.
Side Filter Applies a high pass lter to the side audio channel to free-up vital mix space.
Mod Filter Applies a low pass lter to the centre channel audio. Use in conjunction with modulation and reverb of the side band and the results are the freeing up of central space whilst enhancing ambience and width.
Side Mod Chorus control to add thickness, warmth and movement. Perfect for lush pads and chords.
Mid Mod Subtle frequency shifting modulation of the centre channel audio with exibility of 100% wet/dry. Ideal for adding detail to everything from leads to hi-hats. Mid Space Apply an ambience-injecting reverb to the centre channel audio with tight control of decay time. Side Gain Adjust the gain of the side channel audio to enhance stereo width.
Side Space Push mix width and depth to the max with a frequency-targeted ping-pong delay on the side channel audio.
