There is one element of mixing that will not only improve your workflow but it will make your tracks gel together better. This element is what I like to call group tracks and buses. Group tracks are typically created for mixing purposes.
Group Mixer Tracks
To make things easy Let’s start with a simple example.
Let’s say I want to have the same reverb applied to all of my drum samples. One way to do this would be to go into each individual track on the mixer and load up that same reverb effect. With a group track you can do the same process a lot faster.
Here’s how it works:
You first select an open channel on your mixer to be the group track. Then you route the channels you want included in that group to the group channel. In most production software this is known as a send.
Group Channel Example
In this example we will be routing our same five drum samples to the same group track. Once everything is routed you can then apply the reverb effect to just the group track.
This can be done with any type of effect or processing. One of my favorite applications of this is buss compression. If we go back to the example I used above and put a compressor on the bus track it can really gel the drum samples together.
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Group tracks can be really handy. I like to Group certain elements of my beats for easy mixing.
For example: Having separate groups for your drums, bass, horns, etc. This makes it really easy to do adjustments. If the drums need turned up you can just slide up the fader on the group track instead of having to move each individual drum track. This is a huge time saver.
How To Create Group Tracks In FL Studio
Most DAW software will have a simple method to set this up. I will explain how to do this in FL Studio but it should work similar to most production software.
- In FL Studio you must first make sure that all your channels are being sent to the mixer.
- Next, choose a free channel in the mixer to be your group track.
- Now select the first channel you want to route to the group track by left clicking on it.
- Then find the arrow located under the group track on the mixer and right click on it and choose route to this track only.
This is telling the mixer in FL Studio to send your source tracked through your group track before sending it to the master. Once you have this setup for one channel you can repeat that process for all the tracks you want to go to that same group track.
Now you should know how to use group tracks in FL Studio. These can not only save you time when mixing but they can also help you improve your mixes.
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