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11. Stacking sends for creative processing ideas

1 Let’s kick off by exploring how to make a series of wicked variations on any sound by stacking up tons of creative plugins on different returns in any DAW, before sending the same signal to them and seeing what variations come out the other end. After loading our DnB parts (from the Tutorial Files) into a 174bpm project, add four blank aux send/returns. 3 Now we’ll get some signal going to our auxes by setting up a 0dB send from our Bass channel to each of the four aux sends. Having four sends’ worth of effects layered up over our original dry signal sounds rather messy, so we’ll print the aux sends to audio, then mute them so that the audio is playing alone. 2 First, we’ll select plugins to place on each send. Feel free to use whatever plugins you like – we’ve gone for Sugar Bytes’ WOW2 on our first send, Sound-Toys Little Plate and Filter-Freak on the second, Rob Papen’s RP-Distort CM on the third and Eurydice CM on the final send. Next, open each plugin and select a preset of your choosing. 4 We can listen to each bounced aux send individually and choose the best parts of each to complement or replace the dry bass signal, allowing us to quickly and easily make our bass part more interesting. This technique can work equally well on any other parts of your track, of course – give it a try!