7 Steps On How To Setup The Best Online Mixing Template

To have the best online mixing template goes beyond just having the numbers of tracks with the instrument name on it. Templates goes beyond that. Most likely, you have a group of volunteers that spend, at most, 2 hours a week mixing. That is hardly enough time to learn how to mix, shuffle through plugins, and fix issues. You want to create a template with preset plugin settings so the setup is turn on the computer, load the template and go.

This framework is designed to help churches produce high-quality mixes when broadcasting their services on platforms such as YouTube. However, these steps can also be used for mixing recorded audio for singles or albums. Following these steps will drastically improve your mixes, making them sound fuller and wider.

Benefits of using a Mixing template

A mixing template is essential for consistent audio quality. Having a template that already has levels, panning, EQ, and compressor settings dramatically saves time and guesswork while building a mix. It helps maintain a professional standard across each track. Having a saved template also ensures that every level of processing is set correctly, leading to a more polished final mix and more efficient workflow.

Another benefit of using a template for your church or team is that everyone will have the same starting point. Having a template allows your volunteer team to progress in their skills while not being overloaded with building the entire mix, but flexible enough for veterans to add their flavor to the mix.

Let’s get into the 7 steps for building the best online mixing template.

Step 1: Choose Your DAW for the best mixing template

The type of DAW you use to build your online mixing template is more important than the online discourse would have you believe. Choosing a DAW is like choosing your mixing console for Front of House. Each DAW has its pros and cons and some features exist in one DAW that does not exist in the other.

When choosing a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), there are several important factors to consider: features, design, and price. It’s worth noting that DAWs do not come with built-in preamps, so the audio quality remains consistent regardless of the DAW you choose. However, the features offered by a DAW can enhance your mix or degrade it if not used properly.

The design and interface of a DAW are also crucial. Since you’ll be spending a lot of time looking at the screen while mixing, it’s important to select a DAW that is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Lastly, price is an important consideration. While DAW’s are relatively affordable, compared to consoles. The main expense comes from the computer you intend to use. I would recommend using a Mac for content creation and audio mixing. I believe they perform better in this area. That said, a PC can also serve just as well.

Now, let’s briefly discuss the different DAWs available in the market.

Overview of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)

• Logic Pro (Mac Only): I personally recommend using Logic Pro. It is very easy to use and has great features just from their stock plugins. For instance, you can choose from various types of compressors and add saturation from the compressor. Adding saturation to your tracks is an overlooked aspect of mixing, but is very important. And priced at $200 is a steal.
• Pro Tools by Avid: I have a love-hate relationship with Pro Tools. Their stock plugins are quite good and they have a stock stand-alone saturation plugin that is not in Logic Pro. On the other hand, Avid makes it very difficult to integrate different pieces of hardware into your signal flow. Avid, typically, push you to purchase their products or those they recommended; otherwise you will have issues getting hardware to work. The other major downside is their transition to a subscription-based model. Meaning once you stop paying, you lose everything you had. This may be fine if you are a big church with a big budget and producing your own music. For anyone else, I would not recommend Pro Tools. I would suggest getting a Mac and buy Logic Pro.
• Studio One or FL Studio: I am not familiar with these DAW’s so I cannot tell you to purchase one of these. Studio One offers the option to purchase a perpetual license for the current version with a discount option for future upgrades or pay an annual fee and receive free upgrades. FL Studio has four versions from entry-level to full features at different price points. You may want to research these options to see if either of these DAW’s are preferable over Logic Pro. One advantage for these DAW’s is that you can use them on a Mac or PC.
• Reaper: This is a free DAW and it’s not bad for what you get. But you get what you pay for. The stock plugins are not great and the user interface is not very appealing. However, if you are very low on budget, then you can give this DAW a try and follow my posts on Gain Structure: 6 Steps To Get The Best Results, 5 Reasons Why You Need To Use Bus Processing, and my Baseline Series to get the most out of your DAW.

Step 2: setup your best online mixing template***

From this point on, you will want to save your template after every step. That way you won’t get too far ahead without saving and you can always revert back to your most recent save just in case something got messed up.

When creating your best online mixing template, go to start new project in your DAW. We want to change a couple of the settings before starting our template.

• Sample Rate: Change the sample rate to 48khz. There is no need to go higher than this since most playback systems can’t reproduce the higher quality and uses less processing power on your computer.
• Bit Depth: Make sure Bit depth is at 24 or 32 bits. This produces enough digital headroom to reduce the amount of clipping that could occur in audio.
• Buffer: Change the buffer rate to the max you can get. Doing this will help your computer process the audio by using less resources. Read this article by Sweetwater Which Buffer Size Setting Should I Use in My DAW? if you want to know more about buffering

After this step, save your project as a Template. You are now on your way to creating the best online mixing template.

Step 3: Create Tracks

• Next we will be creating tracks for your online mixing template. You will want to create as many tracks as you have for the Front of House console. For instance, if you have a 32 input channel console, then add 32 tracks. If you have 48 channels, then do 48, and so on. We are doing this because it builds consistency in your team. If you can keep a consistent workflow no matter the platform, your audio quality will increase exponentially.
• Now let’s name and color the tracks. I would suggest keeping your track location, naming convention, and colors the same as much as possible. Again, we are building this template and trying to mimic what is at FOH for consistency.
• There is a temptation to go above and beyond. It is easier to add more tracks in a DAW, but for simplicity sake, stick with what you can replicate on your FOH console.
• Don’t forget to change the Input channel to receive audio from your FOH console. Try to make it one-to-one. If your kick is on Input Channel, then make it Track 1 in your DAW.

Step 4: Insert Essential Plugins

• Now that we have all of our tracks numbers, named, and colorized. Let’s add plugins. This is potentially where we start to veer off a little bit. Again, we want to try and mimic what we have on the FOH console as much as possible, but we can make certain changes here. For instance, we can add two compressors for vocalists where as you normally just have one on a budget console.
• Since we are using a DAW, I like to organize my plugins in such a way that the plugin I use is on the same line through my tracks. That way I can quickly scan my tracks and find what I need quickly. When you are mixing live, the faster you can make changes to your mix, the better. If you want to use the same method, this is how I like to layout my plugins:
  • Row 1: Sample or Delay plugin
    • This allows you to time align your tracks so you don’t get phasing issues, especially if you are using Crowed Mics that are away from the stage.
  • Row 2: Open or Gain Plugin
    • I will leave this slot open for any emergency plugin that I need to use. Maybe you need to adjust gain in the middle of a service there is a phasing issue. It is good to have an open slot just in case. Remember that you are probably sharing your gain levels with the FOH console. So having good communication and a standard for gain levels is crucial. Read my post on Gain Structure: 6 Steps To Get The Best Results for more information about this topic.
  • Row 3: Noise Gate
    • This is most commonly used for drums, but you can use it on other tracks such as a guitar that has a loud hum when it is idle.
  • Row 4: EQ
    • This is where I start to shape the tone. I put my EQ early in the chain so that I have a relatively pure sound and I can manipulate it before it touches any other processing.
  • Row 5: Compression
    • Now I glue the track together with a compressor. I like my compressors to be affected by the EQ so that there some saturation happen on the compressor.
• This list above is typical for instrument tracks. I have a different approach to laying out plugins for vocals. Keep following my Baseline Series for my approach.
• This is not something you have to do/ However, an organized template allows you to mix faster.

Step 5: Route Your Signals

In my post on 5 Reasons Why You Need To Use Bus Processing, I talk about the importance of use bus processing. To have the best online mixing template, we will need to utilize this feature. Routing your audio through busses will limit the amount of channels you are looking at and improve your mixing.

In a DAW you will most likely have two options to route your audio. This will either be a Send or an Out.

• Send is essentially a parallel path from the audio source to a Return of another channel. Think of sending your vocal channel to a Reverb bus in a parallel path. That You have a Dry signal, which is vocal with no effects, and you are blending your Wet effects, which is the reverb, with the dry signal. This allows you to have a mixture of processing for a particular channel.
• Out is the main output for that audio source. Which means the final product of that audio is going out somewhere. By default, each input channel is sent to the Stereo Out, which goes to your speakers. You can change any channels output to a bus before the audio goes to the Stereo Out.

After you have created your tracks and added your plugins, I would suggest routing groups of instruments together. For example, Logic Pro allows you to create Track Stacking. This allows you to group many channels together into one group and creates a Bus. You will also be able to expand and collapse the group to minimize what is on your screen. I would suggest grouping your tracks like this:

• Drums
• Bass
• Guitars
• Piano/Synths
• Strings
• Vocals
• Speaking

Simplicity is key to having the best online mixing template.

Step 6: Set Up Levels and Panning

Now is where we get to have fun balancing levels and panning. You might have to experiment to find the best balance. If you have proper gain levels at the start of the chain, then balancing levels should not change drastically from week to week. This may take some time but it will get you the best online mixing template.

Here are some principles when balancing levels:

• Set the fader levels on the input channel for all instruments and vocals. This is generally done during rehearsal where you can get a sense of what each instrument is doing.
• Once the faders are set on the input channel, mix with the bus faders. This minimizes what you are focusing on and you can effectively mix the whole band.
• Ideally, try to mix as close to 0 dB as you can. The input channel fader may be down, but the bus fader should be around 0 dB. This allows for more precise movements in volume adjustments.

I like to hard-pan my instruments, which is commonly known as Left, Center, Right (LCR). Panning on a spectrum, in general, does not make a big difference in clarity and makes your mix wider. There are exceptions when I don’t hard pan, but let me know in the comments if you want details on how I would pan each instrument.

Here are some principles I use for panning:

• Pan from the audience’s perspective. It becomes a distraction when you are watching a performance and the sound you are hearing is not in the same position as the instrument is on stage. Hearing the sound of the guitarist on the left side of the stage going into the right speaker is disorienting. How much a person gets disoriented varies from person to person, but it happens nonetheless.
• Hard-pan Toms and instruments that send stereo audio. These are normally stereo guitars, pianos, synths, etc. Doing this clears the middle for the important elements that need to be heard, such as lyrics, rhythm, and melody.
• Use spectrum panning for mono sources, like an acoustic guitar.

Step 7: Save and Reuse your best online mixing template

You will generally have two options on saving these templates. Save as Project or save as Template. Choose the Template option. Saving it as a template will reduce the amount of storage being used, because saving as a Project creates sub solders for all of the tracks and recorded audio. Saving as a template keeps the session more internal. Plus it is easier to look for a template than a project.

Having a template and a standard on your mixes will help your volunteers to build consistency and great audio quality. Most likely, you do not have many profession audio engineers and you probably also don’t have a lot of time to perfect each instrument so having a template that is consistent and easy to use is crucial.

Conclusion to creating the best online mixing template

To recap the steps to build the best online mixing template:

1. Choose Your DAW: Choose a DAW that suits your needs. Popular options include Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Studio One, and FL Studio. Each has distinct features and pricing. If you want my recommendation, I would suggest purchasing a Mac and buy Logic Pro. You will not be disappointment.
2. Set Up Your Template: Start a new project and choose the sample rate, bit depth, and buffer. Make sure you save your template after every step.
3. Create Tracks: Add the number of tracks matching your FOH console. Consistency in naming and color coding helps team members to move from station to station without having to retrain the team.
4. Insert Essential Plugins: Add necessary plugins for each track that are going to be on and easy to use such as EQ and compression.
5. Route Your Signals: Use bus processing to streamline your mix. This reduces clutter and improves mix management by grouping similar instruments.
6. Set Up Levels and Panning: Balance levels and pan tracks based on audience perspective. Try to mix close to 0 dB and use LCR panning.
7. Save and Reuse Your Template: Save your setup as a template, which simplifies future projects and storage.

Once you have your template, now you have a foundation for future experimentation and allows you to focus on improving your skills instead of recreating a mix from scratch.

Make sure to leave a comment and tell me your thoughts about creating the best online mixing template. what worked and what didn’t work. What do you want me to write about in future posts?

Resources to help build the best online mixing template

• Gain Structure Guide
• My Preferred Input Channel Layout

References

• Gain Structure: 6 Steps To Get The Best Results
• 5 Reasons Why You Need To Use Bus Processing
• Baseline Series