Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover how to use plugins and work with the mixing
tools in Tracktion 7.
We’ll cover adding plugins, and how to use some of our basic plugins like equalization
and compression, as well as the tools such as volume and panning.
Before starting this tutorial, just make sure you’ve checked out the previous videos in
this series.
At the most basic level, mixing in Tracktion 7 can be done using the pan and volume controls.
Panning can be done with the horizontal slider at the top left of the mixing panel for that
track.
Just pull it left or right to move the track in stereo.
Below that is the volume slider.
Move it up or down to change the volume level of the track.
To the right of the volume slider we have the number for how much we boost or cut.
If we click on the volume and panning section, we’ll get more accurate controls for that
track in the bottom panel.
This also gives us buttons to reset the volume to 0 and center the panning if we want to
restart.
We’ll need to use plugins if we want more control over our mix.
To add a plugin click and drag the plus button above the track mixing section to the right
of the volume and pan controls.
This will open a dropdown and allow you to choose a plugin from the list.
You’ll also be able to choose from plugins that you’ve added to Tracktion.
The first one we’ll cover is the equalizer.
When you add this to the track, it shows the controls in the bottom panel.
If we click away from the equalizer, the bottom panel updates to whatever else we clicked
on and we lose the controls, but we can get back to them by clicking on the icon that
popped up in the mixing section after adding the plugin.
The equalization plugin in Tracktion 7 is fairly basic.
It allows us to make simple changes to the frequency levels on a track.
All 4 bands have a level control, Q, and a frequency control.
The left and right bands are low and high shelfs, and the two center ones are regular
bands to cut and boost around certain frequencies.
To change the frequency of a band, all we have to do is drag it left or right, with
the low frequencies on the left and the high frequencies on the right.
The red portion in the middle can be clicked and dragged to change the Q, which is basically
the width of that band.
To change the level, click the center square and drag it up or down.
All the values for the frequency, Q, and level are displayed to the right when we select
that band.
The next plugin we’ll cover in this program is the compressor.
Compression is used to adjust the dynamics of a track.
That means that it can control the loud portions of the track and automatically decrease the
volume.
By adjusting the amount of compression and timing, we can smooth out a track, or make
it snap more.
The threshold adjusts the level of at which the compressor enables.
The ratio adjusts how much the level is decreased when the compressor enables.
The attack is how fast the compressor enables when the threshold is reached, and the release
is how fast it disables when the level drops back down below the threshold.
The output is just a makeup gain to increase the level, since compression can decrease
the overall volume of the track.
Compared to some other compressors in other digital audio workstations, this compressor
doesn’t have a hard or soft knee control, so we can’t gradually change the ratio around
the threshold.
One nice feature that it does have is sidechain compression.
Sidechain compression allows the compressor on one track to be controlled by the level
of another track.
To do this, just press the button that says Use Sidechain Trigger and then select the
track from the list that you want to control that compressor with.
The last plugin we’ll cover in this tutorial is the Reverb plugin.
The first control is the Room Size.
Then we have Damping, which adjusts the frequency response.
Wet mix is the amount of reverb we hear, and dry mix is the amount of the original signal
that goes through.
Width sets the stereo width, so we can have a wide reverb, all the way down to a narrow
mono reverb.
To the right of the plugins section, we have the level meter.
This allows us to see how loud our track is and we can monitor it to make sure the track
isn’t clipping, especially after adding plugins like compression and equalization.
Next we have mute and solo buttons.
Mute stops the track from playing.
Solo causes only soloed tracks to play.
If we select the track and go to the bottom panel, we can choose Solo Isolate.
In adding to mixing on individual tracks, we also need to know how to create a submix.
With a submix, we can work on a bunch of tracks, like our drums, and control them all together.
To set this up, the first thing we need to do is select all our tracks that we want in
the submix.
Hold down the control key and click on all the tracks to select them.
Then go to the bottom panel and press the button Create Submix Containing.
To undo this after, we can drag the tracks out of the submix and then delete that submix.
Don’t try to delete the submix with tracks in it, because it will also delete those tracks.
Now that we’ve created a submix, we have controls for panning, volume, mute, solo,
and plugins for all the tracks at once.
We can also create a folder instead of a submix, but this only allows us to adjust the volume,
mute, and solo the track, but we can’t pan or add any plugins to it.
The last thing we need to cover in this video is how to make changes to our master channel.
In the bottom right, we also have panning and volume controls.
Like the tracks, we can also add plugins like compression, equalization, and reverb to the
entire mix by clicking and dragging the plus button onto here.
Thanks for checking out this video on mixing and plugins in Tracktion 7.
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