Someone explain aux/sends and busses please?

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DavidStarz

New member
Always been something that never really made too much sense to me. I've tried googling and searching, but I haven't been able to find anything so far that explained it well enough. I'm using Logic Pro 9 and basically trying to not only figure out what they are, but how to use them.

I tried watching this video: Logic Pro 9 Tutorial - Bussing & Auxiliary Tracks Pt. 1 - YouTube which was informative in some ways (as far as basics I guess), but left a lot to be desired since it basically confused the hell out of me even worse at the same time. Can anyone explain or send me a link to read/watch please?
 
I use buses quite allot.

Basically, If I have an effect that I want on most of the tracks I have in the project I'm working on, I'll set up an aux track, and insert whatever effect I have into that track on the mixer, for instance it could be the Space Designer reverb plugin (I use Logic too).

I can then program the AUX track as "bus 1".

This means I don't have to load the Space Designer plugin on every track I want to use it on.
I simply select bus 1 in the inspector window of the track I want to be affected by Space Designer, and it happens.

Space designers pretty CPU intensive, so doing this keeps the workload a bit lower.


Sends and Buses are simply an extra link in the chain, allowing you to have the same processing on every track ,or how ever many you want, without needing to load whatever you want on every single track.
 
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an aux track is essentially a track which a signal passes through while not actually "physically" (in quotes because when dealing with digital, nothing is really "physical") being on it.

For example, if you want to take all your drum tracks or vocal tracks and create a "sub mix" where you can control the processing of them as a whole (rather than individually)... you can output all of them to an aux track and deal with them as a group. You would direct the output of each track you want in the submix to a particular bus (for example "bus 1-2") rather than a physical output. Then you would create an aux track with the input being that same bus (in our case, "bus 1-2") and the output being a physical output (for example "out 1-2")

Or if you want to have an effect, let's say "reverb" for example, and be able to "send" signal to that reverb from various tracks at whatever amount you'd like... you would create an aux track with the input being a bus (for example, "bus 3-4") and you would create a "send" from any tracks to you want reverb applied... that send would go to the same bus as the one you designated as the input to the reverb aux track... a "send" essentially directs an output from your track to wherever you tell it to go (in our case, "bus 3-4")
 
think of it as a way to add effects to multiple tracks at once. Any tracks sent to the AUX or SEND will be affected by the effects in the AUX or SEND channel
 
Va_eL said:
think of it as a way to add effects to multiple tracks at once. Any tracks sent to the AUX or SEND will be affected by the effects in the AUX or SEND channel
Click to expand...

That is just one piece of what an aux is for. To say "think of it as a way to put a single effect on multiple tracks" (which is what I imagine you were trying to say) is selling aux's short.
 
DavidStarz said:
Always been something that never really made too much sense to me. I've tried googling and searching, but I haven't been able to find anything so far that explained it well enough. I'm using Logic Pro 9 and basically trying to not only figure out what they are, but how to use them.

I tried watching this video: Logic Pro 9 Tutorial - Bussing & Auxiliary Tracks Pt. 1 - YouTube which was informative in some ways (as far as basics I guess), but left a lot to be desired since it basically confused the hell out of me even worse at the same time. Can anyone explain or send me a link to read/watch please?
Click to expand...

I just watched the video, what were you confused about?

Everyone here pretty much covered it. In any event, read this if you still aren't clear:

Difference between Aux and Bus track? - Gearslutz.com

Read what Georgia, Apple q and vinlance wrote. For the easiest explanation and very similar to what I was told many years ago, read the very last post in that thread.
 
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Thanks for the answers guy. I read what everyone said and started messing around with it so I think I'm starting to get a hang of it. Just to be clear, when people talk about "parallel compression", bussing basically what they're doing, right?
 
I used to get confused too, but it's actually extremely self explanatory if you think about the actual word.... a bus carries audio to where it's going, just like a real bus carries people to their destinations... (corny, I know.. but if you think about it like that it might help)

A send also is self explanatory... it sends a copy of that track through a bus to it's destination. So if I want my snare to have some reverb, rather than putting a reverb plugin on the snare insert and having to use reverb on every other track I want reverb on (which is very CPU intensive) you can just send a copy of that track to an Aux track with a reverb plug already on it.

That's also helpful because you can control the amount of what you're sending to the reverb (think of it as getting more or less reverb, if you send more of the snare to the reverb you'll get more of the reverb in the mix... i.e. if you want less, send less) which you CAN'T do if you just insert the reverb plugin on the snare track itself (there are a few exceptions... like if your reverb plugin has a "Mix" knob to control the amount of reverb, or if you're using another D.A.W that has a way to control it.. I'm speaking just in Pro Tools. So for the most part, you can't)

Hope that helped

---------- Post added at 06:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:56 PM ----------

And to your question about parallel compression, it's just done using a send to an Aux track like you would for reverb... only instead of a reverb plugin on the Aux you set up a compressor. Also make sure you send your tracks (like drums or vocals or whatever you want to parallel compress) at unity (0 dB) and set the send to prefader .. meaning any volume changes you make to the actual tracks themselves won't affect the amount of signal you're sending to your compressor.
 
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Okay. Makes a lot more sense now. I'll give parallel compressing a try later. Thanks everyone and thanks for the compressing info CityBeats! :cheers:
 
DavidStarz said:
Thanks for the answers guy. I read what everyone said and started messing around with it so I think I'm starting to get a hang of it. Just to be clear, when people talk about "parallel compression", bussing basically what they're doing, right?
Click to expand...

"bussing" is used in "parallel compression" (unless you have a compressor that can mix wet and dry signal)...

You send to an aux with a compressor on it and mix the compressed signal in with the dry signal.

But "bussing" is not all they are doing.
 
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A bus is a term used to describe a collection of data/signal lines that all follow a common signal path .

So for example , you can have 16 seperate data lines that are used to carry data from memory chips to a CPU . This would be called a data bus .

Now in audio terms , a bus is used to describe the collection of signal paths routed in a mixer (even a virtual one) .
Now you can dictate where the bus carries the signal to , and what signals are on this bus .
So you can name a bus "drums" , and then route all drum mic signals to this bus . These signals can all then share a common processing (eg compression plug-in) and thus you have one set on compression to work with that will affect how all the drum sound .

Think of it as a way of organising what goes to where .
 
Best tutorial on Tracks Busses Sends Sidechain.(because I made it lol)
Basic to Advanced. Even if you think you know routing, you might
learn something. Skip to 40 seconds when video starts to ignore
intro blah blah stuff.
Concepts apply to most Multitrack Recording Programs.


 
dvyce said:
an aux track is essentially a track which a signal passes through while not actually "physically" (in quotes because when dealing with digital, nothing is really "physical") being on it.

For example, if you want to take all your drum tracks or vocal tracks and create a "sub mix" where you can control the processing of them as a whole (rather than individually)... you can output all of them to an aux track and deal with them as a group. You would direct the output of each track you want in the submix to a particular bus (for example "bus 1-2") rather than a physical output. Then you would create an aux track with the input being that same bus (in our case, "bus 1-2") and the output being a physical output (for example "out 1-2")

Or if you want to have an effect, let's say "reverb" for example, and be able to "send" signal to that reverb from various tracks at whatever amount you'd like... you would create an aux track with the input being a bus (for example, "bus 3-4") and you would create a "send" from any tracks to you want reverb applied... that send would go to the same bus as the one you designated as the input to the reverb aux track... a "send" essentially directs an output from your track to wherever you tell it to go (in our case, "bus 3-4")
Click to expand...

This ^^^ is the rawest, most accurate explanation there is for this. The rest is learning your interface. And read your manual.
Then read your manual. Take a small break. While you smoke your cigarette, read your manual.

Peace.
 
If you use Live (though this is probably true of other DAWs) you can create the same architecture as send/returns without using the sends/returns. This is potentially useful for different reasons. For example, one limitation with the DAW's natural sends is that they are part of the project, not part of any specific channel. Usually that's kinda the point because they are supposed to be able to take audio from anywhere in the project.

If you right click on any insert effect, group it, then add another empty chain to the group, you have a send/return set up right in the channel. You can set up whatever routing your CPU can handle.

In the case of parallel compression this might be useful. If you want to use parallel compression on a lot of individual channels you probably don't want loads of sends running the DAW. The above way you would have no extra channels. Also, the parallel compression would be built into the channel. You could drag and drop the channel into any other project and the parallel effect would go with it.
 
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