I often get asked, “Why are you so damn attractive?”.  Which is to be expected.  But what I don’t often get asked is, “What is a cool thing to do with your effect returns?”.  Which is a shame.

So alas, here I shall answer the second question and leave you only to ponder the first.  Such a tease I am.

Today’s Quick Mixing Tip:  Route your effects back into other effects and blow some minds.

Here’s an example:

I have my tune up/down aux return (need a refresher?) which my vocal (or guitar or whatever) is going into.  But what if I want to push that effect back a little in the sonic space of the mix?  Easy, I’ll just route some of that effect back into a different effect.  In this case, it’s going into my super-stereo short delay.  So my vocal hits the tune up/down, then some of that signal also gets sent over to the delay. Both then get sent to my effects return.

Simple.  You can do this with anything and everything.  Delay into reverb, chorus into delay, etc., etc.  Get creative, try everything and see what works and what doesn’t.  It’s a great way for creating more depth in your mixes!