Rayzoon Technologies LLC

[andy_camb]

As a matter that might be interesting and informative.
I am
Where do experienced Jamstix users set general output levels, for each kit piece (kick/share etc) when using all 8 outputs, when preparing to mix in their daws.

Are people setting levels all in the Jamstix mixer and just sending a single stereo feed to their daws?

With the LUFS metering system becoming more common, in an attempt to end the loudness wars and YouTube, iTunes, Spotify etc, apparently altering tracks to fix this standard, I just wondered what people's approaches to this were or what they thought was the best method to use for this.

[Azimuth]

I honestly never have any type of a target level. I just get a good balance between all of the kit pieces in Jamstix and then set up a VCA master for it in Reaper. Once that is done I get the Bass to sit somewhere close to where I think it needs to sit for the style. Then Guitars and another VCA master for them. Then whatever instrumentation is left over if any before trying to plant the vocals where they feel right. Basically I just try to get the song to where it sounds right to my ears for the Style/Genre of the piece. Usually I'll use a reference track for comparison.

[andy_camb]

That's interesting.. I am not really up to speed on VCAs or how to use them.
I will look into that idea.

[Azimuth]

VCAs are great because they are like having a separate sub-bus for every group you assign to them. So if all of your Drum tracks are in one group and all of your Guitars in another if you feel the mix needs more of one or the other, just nudge up your VCA for that group and the overall balance within the group is maintained while increasing the gain. Or do the opposite if you feel there is too much of something.

Caveat: I am just a hack Guitarist and not a Mix Engineer by any stretch of the imagination. But this works for me.