Mix Bus Rack

This rack lives on the Main track (or on a "Mix" group that everything feeds) and does one thing: makes a finished arrangement sound like a record without hiding mix problems. The order is deliberate — subtractive EQ first so the compressor is not fighting mud, Glue Compressor for cohesion, Saturator for density, Multiband Dynamics for tonal control that reacts to the material, Utility for width and low-mono, and a Limiter last so nothing clips. Use it on techno, house, dubstep, DnB, trip-hop — anything with a kick and a sub that needs to translate. Do not use it as a crutch during the first hour of a mix: bypass the whole rack while balancing, enable it when you want to hear "the record", and use A/B compare (Live 12.3) to check that every macro move is actually an improvement rather than just louder.

Layout

How it's built

1. On the Main track (or a group called MIX), drop an Audio Effect Rack. Rename it "Mix Bus". Show the chain list (Cmd+Opt+C on the rack title bar area via the chain list toggle) and keep a single chain called "Main".
2. Add EQ Eight. Band 1: Low Cut, 24 Hz, 12 dB/oct (not 48 — steep master high-passes ring). Band 3: Bell 250 Hz, −1.5 dB, Q 0.8 — a starting point for the typical low-mid pile-up; set it to 0 if the mix is already clean. Band 8: High Shelf 10 kHz, 0 dB (the Air macro drives this). Enable Oversampling in the EQ Eight context menu so the shelf does not cramp near Nyquist.
3. Add Glue Compressor. Ratio 2, Attack 10 ms, Release Auto, Threshold −12 dB, Range −20 dB (caps gain reduction so a loud drop cannot squash itself flat), Soft Clip off, Makeup 0, Dry/Wet 100%. Aim for 1–3 dB of gain reduction on the loudest section at 128 BPM techno; less for ambient.
4. Add Saturator (12.1 redesign). Curve: Soft Sine. Drive 2 dB. Enable Color: Base −3 dB, Frequency 90 Hz, Width 0.5, Depth 0 — this takes a little harmonic weight off the sub so Drive excites the mids more than the kick. Soft Clip on. Dry/Wet 40% so it behaves like parallel saturation.
5. Add Multiband Dynamics. Crossovers: Low/Mid at 120 Hz, Mid/High at 6 kHz. Enable only the Above thresholds: Low −8 dB ratio 1.2, Mid −6 dB ratio 1.5, High −10 dB ratio 1.5. Attack 10 ms, Release 80 ms per band (use the Time control). Amount 50% so the whole device is half-strength. Output 0 dB. This is a soft tonal leash, not a mastering multiband.
6. Add Utility. Gain 0, Width 100%, Bass Mono enabled with frequency 120 Hz. Leave Phase inversion and DC off. Bass Mono sums everything under the set frequency to mono; this is what makes a wide dub chord sit over a centred kick in a club.
7. Add Limiter last. Gain 0 dB, Ceiling −0.8 dB (−1.0 if you deliver for lossy streaming), Lookahead 3 ms, Release Auto, Link L/R (not independent — independent limiting shifts the stereo image on hits). Never put anything after it.
8. Map macros. Click Map on the rack, then click each parameter. Glue → Glue Compressor Threshold min 0 dB max −24 dB, and Glue Compressor Makeup min 0 max +6 dB (both on the same macro so the loudness stays roughly constant while compression deepens).
9. Color → Saturator Drive min 0 max 8 dB and Saturator Dry/Wet min 0% max 60%. Two targets, one knob: at zero the saturator is effectively bypassed.
10. Width → Utility Width min 80% max 130%. Set the macro to its 50% position for 100% width — mark it as the "unity" point. Values above 100% pull mid down and push side up; over 130% starts to sound phasey on mono systems.
11. Air → EQ Eight Band 8 Gain min 0 max +3 dB, and Multiband Dynamics High Above threshold min 0 dB max −12 dB. As Air comes up you add shelf but also compress the highs harder, so hats do not become spiky.
12. Low Mono → Utility Bass Mono Frequency min 60 Hz max 200 Hz. Default around 120 Hz for club, 90 Hz for wide ambient, 160–200 Hz if a reese or wide 808 is smearing the low end.
13. Ceiling → Limiter Gain min 0 max +8 dB and Limiter Ceiling min −0.3 dB max −1.5 dB (inverted range: as you push louder the ceiling drops a bit for safety). Exit Map mode.
14. Set macro defaults: Glue 35, Color 25, Width 64 (unity), Air 20, Low Mono 50, Ceiling 0. Right-click the rack title bar → Save Macro Variation and name it "Reference". Make variations "Club" (Glue 55, Color 40, Low Mono 60, Ceiling 60) and "Stream" (Ceiling 40, Air 35).
15. In the macro randomization settings (the dice button), exclude Ceiling and Low Mono from randomization — you never want a random limiter gain of +8 dB on the master. Randomizing Color and Width is a cheap way to A/B two flavours.
16. Live 12.3: with the rack selected, use A/B compare on the device: capture state A with the rack's current settings, tweak macros, then flip A/B with the device's compare toggle. Match loudness by ear (or with the Ceiling macro at the same value in both states) — louder always sounds "better", which is the one lie a master bus tells you.

Macro map

Signal flow notes

Why EQ before compression: a 250 Hz pile-up or sub-30 Hz rumble triggers the Glue Compressor's detector even though you cannot hear it, so the whole mix pumps to something inaudible. Cutting first means the compressor reacts to what the ear reacts to.

Why Saturator before Multiband Dynamics: saturation adds harmonics above the source; the multiband afterwards catches any new harshness in the high band. If you reverse the order, the saturator re-adds what the multiband tamed.

Why Utility before Limiter: width changes alter the peak level (side boost raises L/R peaks); the limiter has to see the final image. Bass Mono also removes anti-phase sub energy that would otherwise eat limiter headroom for no audible gain.

Variations

Club techno (loud, mono-safe)

Glue ratio 4, attack 3 ms, Low Mono 140 Hz, Saturator curve Analog Clip, Color 45, Limiter ceiling −0.5 dB. Add a second Utility before the Limiter with Gain −0 dB and use it only for mono checks (map a macro to Width 0% if you want a dedicated "Mono" button).

Ambient / dub (wide, dynamic)

Glue ratio 2, attack 30 ms, release 0.4 s, threshold barely touching. Multiband Dynamics off. Width 110%, Low Mono 80 Hz. Replace Saturator with Roar in Mid-Side routing: Mid clean, Side Soft Sine with 2 dB drive — stereo information gets a little heat without the centre losing focus.

Dubstep / 140 (sub-first)

Low crossover at 90 Hz, Low band Above −12 dB ratio 2 so the sub stays flat under the mid growl. Bass Mono 100 Hz. Saturator Color Base −6 dB at 60 Hz. Put a Compressor with external sidechain from the kick before the Glue if the sub and kick overlap (see sidechain & ducking).

Lo-fi / boom bap colour bus

Swap Saturator for Vinyl Distortion (Tracing Model 2 dB, Pinch low) → Saturator Hard Curve 1 dB; EQ Eight add a high cut at 16 kHz 12 dB/oct. Glue with Soft Clip on. Width 90%.

Performance notes

• Push: with the rack selected, Push shows the 6 macros on the first encoder page. Glue and Color are the two you touch live; Ceiling and Low Mono should be set in the studio and left alone. Lock the rack to Push (right-click the device title → Lock to Control Surface) so browsing other tracks does not lose the encoders.
• Macro Variations as sections: "Reference", "Club", "Stream" plus a "Break" variation with Glue 15 and Width 80 — recall it in breakdowns and go back to "Club" on the drop. Variation launch is quantised to the global launch quantisation if you trigger it from a clip envelope; from Push it is immediate, so do it on the bar.
• Automation vs macro: automate the macros, not the device parameters, so later re-mapping does not break the automation. Automating Ceiling is a bad idea; automate Glue and Color instead and keep Limiter settings fixed per master.
• CPU: Hybrid-free and cheap. EQ Eight oversampling and Limiter lookahead add latency (reported in the device's title bar on hover); if you play live instruments through Live, reduce Lookahead to 1 ms or bypass the rack while tracking.
• Checking: set Width macro to 0 for a true mono check, listen on a phone speaker, and watch the Limiter reduction meter: steady 1–2 dB on drops is the target for club techno, under 1 dB for ambient.

Related

• Loudness & limiting
• Compression & glue
• Mid/side & stereo
• EQ strategies
• Mix templates
• Drum bus rack
• Racks & macros
• Roar & saturation