Group sounds before using a channel strip

Apply a modern take on a channel strip’s modular approach to glue several synth sounds together

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We start with three synth parts, all of which are contributing to a main pluck sequence. Alongside this, there are kick, rim shot and ride cymbal parts. Right now, the synths are all being individually routed to the main output, with nothing ‘tying them together’.

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We change this by grouping the synths to their own auxiliary ‘group’ buss. Here, we set up iZotope’s Neutron plugin and set up EQ as the first module. We roll out a little bass and mid-range before adding some top-end at 5kHz.

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Next, we switch on Compressor 1. This gives 3-band compression. We set up appropriate threshold, ratio, attack and release controls for each band, then use the gain sliders for each to set a balance between frequency zones. The pluck sound is much warmer now.

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We add an exciter next. This lets us choose a ‘character circuit’ for each of the three bands, as well as drive and blend amount. There’s also a parallel treatment control in the main exciter module at the top, where we select 86% as our processing amount.

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From the grouped synth channel, we can still set up auxiliary effects, and we’re adding a delay now. This is set to a dotted 1/8th note, with a ping-pong treatment and filters at either end, to roll out unwanted high and low frequency content.

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Lastly, we add the AKG BX 20 emulation – we’re also using on the rim shot sound. This creates a pleasing, dark cloud of ambience around the synth part. Using one plugin host to craft tone, dynamics and excitation has created one ‘whole’ sound from three disparate ones.