installation

To install the Magic Racks: Mixing &

Mastering racks, copy the files to the
Audio Effect Rack folder of your
Ableton user library.
The exact location of your library will
depend on where you chose to install it,
but common locations are:
Windows Vista/7: \Users\<user>\
Documents\Ableton\User Library\
Presets\Audio Effects\Audio Effect
Rack
Mac OS: \<user>\Music\Ableton\User
Library\Presets\Audio Effects\Audio
Effect Rack
For information on how to find your User
Library, go here:
www.ableton.com/en/articles/
where-are-my-user-presets-saved/

from the creator...

For this second instalment of the racks
series I wanted to create intuitive,
powerful and versatile mixing and
mastering tools for in-the-box producers.
Here youll find five racks for the job:
Channel Strip, Drum Strip, Maximizer,
Mid-Side Meddler and Master Strip.
In the case of the Channel Strip, Drum
Strip and Mastering Strip, the racks
are designed to be one-stop shops for
adding warmth, weight, punchiness
and tightness to the bus mix to meet
the demands of contemporary dance
music.
Each rack as eight macro controls
which tweak a myriad of under-thehood processing chains designed to
make the most of your mix without
getting lost in the endless options
Ableton affords us. These finely-honed
racks distil down the process so you can
get tight, fat and punchy mixes with just
a few knob tweaks.
The Maximizer deals with the modern
demand for louder mixes. Using a
complex blend of EQ, multi-band
compression, parallel processing and
stereo-widening effects, Maximizer will
supersize any sound instantly.

With the Mid-Side Meddler you get

powerful stereo band tool which lets
you separate the mid- and sidebands into individual channels for
independent processing such as
gain control, filtering, modulation and
spatial effects which is perfect for
everything from leads and pads to
vocals and even hi-hats.
All the racks can be opened and
customised. You can tweak the
parameter ranges and even add in
your own devices to suit your specific
mix needs.
Its my hope that these racks will help
your mixing and mastering become
quicker, more intuitive and, dare I say,
fun.
Hedflux
Producer

/3

Channel Strip

/5

A workhorse rack to shape and

sculpt any sound.
Low
A simple yet effective low-cut and -boost
EQ to remove potentially mix-hogging low
frequencies or add weight to a lightweight
low-end.
Mid
Scoop out space in the mix with a midrange cut or enhance mid-range presence
by going the other way.
High
Cut unwanted high-frequencies or boost to
given an added sheen to the top-end.
Tape Saturate
Versatile tool to add vintage-style
smoothness and warmth. Can even be
used as a de-esser at lower levels for harshsounding vocals.
Compress
Custom mix compression designed to glue
dynamics and increase gain. Use alongside
Attack.
Attack
Fine-control the attack time of the
compressor to ensure clean and punchy
results. Use alongside Compress.

Presence
Custom multi-band compression control to
bring out the hi-end frequencies in mix.
Distance
Add depth and space into the mix with this
combo of gain reduction, low-cut filtering,
reverb and panning. Truly 3D control over
any sound.

Drum Strip

/7

Punch, power, tightness and

brightness for bigger beats.
Punch
Up-front compression and gain control with
a generous 20ms attack to allow kicks and
snares to snap through the mix.
Tight
Custom EQ to lightly roll off the lows and
highs whilst also pinching the mids to free
up space for melodic elements in the
mix. Particularly useful for breakbeats and
realdrummer recordings.
Bright
Lifts high frequencies whilst notching the high
mids. Great for taking the boxiness out of
snares and sharping hi-hats.
Thump
Applies parallel limiting on the low frequency
band which is perfect for beefing up kick
drums or added presence to snares.
Vintage
Custom EQ which simulates the bandwidth
of old-style recordings to give drums that
slightly dull, lo-fi sound.

Room
Clever reverb control to put your drums in a
room of varying size and depth.
Dirt
Applies a range of tube distortion to add
harmonics and inject analogue-style
overtones.
Grot
When dirt isnt enough, add Grot. Feeds
frequency-specific overdrive harmonics for
unrivalled drum processing filth.

Mastering Strip

/9

One-stop shop for mix mastering.

More Sub
Add all-important low frequencies for serious
club response.
More Mids
Boost the mid frequencies to help mixes cut
through on weaker systems.
More Highs
Add hi-fi gloss and sheen to make the mix
sparkle.
Stereo Width
Selective EQ boost on the mid and
high frequencies gives a perceived
enhancement of the stereo width of the mix.
Cleaner Bass
Tighten flabby bass and add definition with
controlled gain tweaks and EQ pinch at
200Hz.
Master Comp
Finely-tune the threshold of this main
compressor to fine the sweet spot for a
punchier, more defined mix.

Gain
Add subtle amounts of gain to boost overall
volume. Use sparingly and in conjunction
with Master Comp.
Mono Mix
A slide scale of mono/stereo mix. Perfect for
checking the translation of a mix onto a club
sound system.

Maximizer

/11

Inject fullness, fatness and

loudness into any sound.
Smile
Adds a distinctive smile EQ curve to
cut ultra high, ultra low and core mid
frequencies, allowing for more focussed
boosting of key frequencies for a hi-fi mix.

Stereo Bright
Uses mid-side EQ to boost the high
frequencies in the side-band and reduce
the highs slightly in the mid-band, giving an
overall brightness and widening effect.

Extra Bass
Adds bass weight with a shelving EQ
boost below 200Hz, whilst simultaneously
converting the low-end frequencies into
mono to prevent phase cancellation.

Tube Saturate
Adds classic tube-style saturation to bring
out additional harmonics. Apply carefully as
it can muddy the mix if over-used.

Multi-Band Comp
Applies compression to three independent
frequency bands - expertly honed to create
an instant loudness-boosting effect. Apply
with care.
Detail
Fine-tuning control for the high band of the
multi-band compressor to bring out more hiend detail in the mix. Multiband Comp must
be enabled for this to work.
Glue Comp
Applies liberal glue compression to gel the
mix together.

Maximize
The final step in the chain, Maximise does
what it says on the tin: ramps up the limiter
gain whilst also keeping a -0.3dB ceiling to
maintain headroom for inter-samplepeaks.

Mid-Side Meddler

/13

Enhance, tame and correct

all stereo sounds.
Mid Gain
Adjusts the gain of the centre channel
audio.

Side Filter
Applies a high pass filter to the side audio
channel to free-up vital mix space.

Mod Filter
Applies a low pass filter to the centre
channel audio. Use in conjunction with
modulation and reverb of the side band
and the results are the freeing up of central
spacewhilst enhancing ambience and
width.

Side Mod
Chorus control to add thickness, warmth
and movement. Perfect for lush pads and
chords.

Mid Mod
Subtle frequency shifting modulation of
the centre channel audio with flexibility of
100% wet/dry. Ideal for adding detail to
everything from leads to hi-hats.
Mid Space
Apply an ambience-injecting reverb to the
centre channel audio with tight control of
decay time.
Side Gain
Adjust the gain of the side channel audio to
enhance stereo width.

Side Space
Push mix width and depth to the max with a
frequency-targeted ping-pong delay on the
side channel audio.