I have a similar process, and am not ashamed smile

I try to keep the basic tracks to seven (though I may have four or five vocal tracks) because clutter never works for me.

Then I have separate boards for mixing drums, often use up to 8 tracks for those, and vocals. I use so many VSTS on the vocals and drums it just would not make sense to try and do that on one single board. Then I mix those down with effects.

Once the mixed and processed stems are in the basic mixing board I have no need for CPU hogging stuff and any computer could handle it.

This takes MUCH less time that having a large messy file on one board, and trying to figure out what is going wrong. I would RATHER deal with drums and vocals on different boards so I can see and hear exactly what is going on. Because again, I use A LOT of plugins on those tracks.

The final exported master stem will be treated by whichever plugin will do the best job. Sometimes it will only be audacity, because the sound will already be exactly as I want it and I do not want it "squashed" or too doctored. I choose my plugins in mixing carefully.

I like Ozone, but sometimes it is just too much.

I am astonished, as I said, on just using Neutron 3 and only Neutron 3 on a recent track that had IK's "One" on the output and what a difference it made--and it still sounds like real music, not a blue brick. I hate the overcompressed blue brick sound.

smile

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

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