Order Matters

Each of the tracks in your DAW, often referred to as channel strips, will have the option for plug-ins, sends, or both.

There are a few kinds of sends available, but we'll talk about that later, because today I want to talk about plug-ins.

A novice bedroom producer might notice, while building a channel strip, the same two plug-ins with the same parameter values yielding two different sounds, depending on which of them is listed first on the strip. Add more plug-ins, the possibilities increase exponentially.

The reason for this is that only the first plug-in on the strip receives the dry audio. Each subsequent plug-in receives the output of the previous plug-in.

Depending on the specific plug-ins and their specific parameters, their order on the strip can make a difference, as far as the sound of the final output of the strip is concerned, though there are particular cases in which the order does not matter, at least to the listener.

Because of this, I find it useful to have a "channel strip philosophy." It's not that there's a right or wrong way in which to organize a channel strip, but that simply having a general plan for all or most tracks will cut back on a veteran bedroom producer's mix time.

More on this next week.