> Step by step

9. Setting up the Super Separator routing in any DAW

1 Solo the two parts in question, and mute any other returns. Pan both parts hard, in the opposite direction to your mix panning, and flip the polarity for just one part. Bounce this out as a stereo file, then reset your panning, turn off solo, and don’t forget to flip the out-of-phase part back in phase again. 2 Import the bounced file back into your session on a fresh stereo track, and load a suitable stereo delay plugin. FabFilter Volcano provides 50ms of delay for each filter (more than enough for our purposes), and we can apply low- and high-pass filtering in the same plugin. 3 Try setting the SS channel to about -3dB as a starting point. Hit the mono button on your master. Now tune the delay time carefully, starting as low as 1ms or even less, and listen carefully to the way the guitars fit around one another, and the way they sit in the mix. 4 If one guitar seems to get inappropriately bassy while the other sounds too thin (quite likely with shorter delay times), then high-pass filter the delay, to flatten out the low end of the frequency response, and concentrate the comb filtering ripples in the critical midrange area. 5 Listen out for settings that sound good, and improve the clarity of both parts, and for settings that sound bad and turn the mix into mush. Flip the phase of the delay to invert the comb filter’s frequency response. Whichever part you inverted before bouncing will now be in phase again, while the other will be flipped instead. 6 When you find a delay time that works well in mono for both parts, switch back to listening in stereo again, and toggle mute for the SS channel to hear the difference. You may want to adjust the level of the SS channel at this point, as too much can sometimes make the parts in question seem overly wide and unfocused.