What is the proper way to use bus tracks? (reverb & compression)

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The MH

The MH

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I just started using bus tracks (like yesterday). I have vocal tracks routed to a bus track (changed the output from master to "Bus A") and I put my compressor, exciter, and deEsser on it. My eq is directly on each individual track as well as delay. Now I'm looking to add reverb.

How should I apply my reverb?
A) Add it to the chain on "Bus A"
B) Use the "send" on "Bus A" to add a new bus?
C) Or do I route the output on "Bus A" to a new bus?

I've tried A & C and noticed they work completely different in the mix. So different that it confused me.
Please correct any other errors that I may have made as well.
 
well first I would suggest that you be a little careful with you terms. If your referring to an aux (send) than I would suggest you use pre fader for headphones mix and post fader for timebased processors (reverb & delays). Some daw will set up an aux in the same way you set up a buss which is why I am telling you to be careful about what your asking. If it says send its an aux. In that case for timebase processors select post fader and bring the aux send to nominal level. Then the fader that is on the aux channel strip (return fader), can control your wet to dry ratio. For compression just use a buss. If you set your reverb up this way you can use it on multiple channels without using up much processing power from you cpu. Just adjust how much you send to each channel. But Good Question!

and yes if you add reverb directly to channel it will sound different than if you send it to an aux bc you are adding more signal. These are good things to notice! Also if you use "send it should automatically create an aux track not buss (its want you want tho)
 
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Thanks for the reply.

Sorry for using the wrong terms, I was using them as they applied to what I was seeing in my DAW (Adobe audition). I'm not in front of it right now so I'm speaking from memory. When I go to the "Send" on my mixer it says "add new bus" in the drop down options, which is why I said bus. I looked for the term "Aux" and didn't see it in the send options, and it also named the new track "Bus A". Is it not supposed to say bus? Or is this still an aux even though it says bus? Also when I was adding compression I didn't use the "Send". I put those on a bus/aux (because I'm iffy about my term usage now) and routed the main track to it by changing the outgoing from master to "Bus A".

And then there is the question, how do I apply 2 aux tracks. Do I send the main track to an aux1(compression, which I believe is actually a bus because I don't use "send" for it) then send that aux to aux2(reverb)? I'm sorry this is getting a little confusing but I feel its important I clear things up so I don't adapt bad techniques. Thanks again for the help so far.
 
Bus and Aux can be a little confusing, normally I use a bus when I want individual tracks to be controlled via a single track that is not my master bus. So let's say I have individual drum tracks, 3 of them (kick, snare, hihat). I can make a bus (called DrumBus) and then route all three drum tracks to that bus. Now I can adjust the levels of each drum track using their respective channel faders till the mix gets right. So my drums sound great, but the drums as a whole are just too loud, so I can use the DrumBus fader to bring the drums down as a whole, rather than adjusting each drum track individually. This way I can maintain the level ratio (drum mix) between each track but still increase or decrease volume. That make sense? Also, if I were to put compression on the DrumBus, it would apply to all three drum tracks as a whole. This is different than if you were to put a compressor on each drum track individually, that would mean each tracks compressor is just compressing that sound, whereas the DrumBus compressor is taking into account the kick, the snare, and the hihat and factoring all three into the compression formula. I 'think' this is fairly correct, someone please correct me if I am wrong!
As far as aux(sends) go, they work differently. If you route the kick drum to an aux track, then put a compressor on the aux track, you will effectively have two signals, the dry (kick) track and the compressed kick (wet) track. The aux fader will adjust that ratio depending on if you assigned the aux as pre or post fader... (I think). This method of compression is often called parallel compression or NY compression, it has some AMAZING effects on drums but is more of a special applications type deal. Let's say you have two vocal tracks and you route them to the same aux channel, this aux channel has a reverb on it. Using the aux faders you can effectively adjust the ratio of dry/wet for each vocal track. So using only 1 aux with 1 reverb plugin instance you can get two different kinds of sounds. Vocal track 1 has it's aux fader (the amount of signal you are sending) set to 4 (arbitrary number) and vocal track 2 has its aux fader set to 9. So even though they are both getting routed to the same aux, because the aux faders are in different positions you will hear more reverb on vocal track 2 than vocal track 1. Now if you routed these two vocal tracks to a bus, you would not have the same control, all the signal from each vocal track would hit the reverb. If you increased the reverb amount both vocal track 1 and 2 would be effected.

So to sum it up, bus = all signal to bus. Aux = signal splits into dry/wet. I would say for me more often than not I am using a bus, they help while mixing groups of instruments and when trying to free up CPU usage, because I can have one plugin effect every track that is routed to the bus.
 
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Understood! Thank you both! I needed to save on cpu usage because my DAW has been acting up more than usual from processing issues. I learned something new today :victory:
 
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Drop a Delay and reverb on return (aux) tracks A & B and send however amount you wish to the vocals, drums etc. Compression and eq I find is best used directly on the source tracks or busses.
 
is it possible to send 2 aux tracks to one vocal track. I was having trouble with that and didn't think it was possible. (adobe audition cs5.5) didn't see it in the manual either.
 
I use cubase, you can make multiple sends (aux) in cubase, I think 8 per track. Not sure how to do that in Audition (read manual or google?)
 
I have a question too... Why is there such a thing like post-fader when you could just open your reverb (or whatever) and adjust the amout you wish in the plug-in window?
 
Bobcat said:
I have a question too... Why is there such a thing like post-fader when you could just open your reverb (or whatever) and adjust the amount you wish in the plug-in window?
Click to expand...

Maybe it's late, but I don't quite understand the question.

I'll explain how I go about it in case it helps.

I usually do all sends as pre-fader. This essentially gives me full control over my wet signal, and my dry signal, independently. So I route a snare into a reverb, have it post-fader. And the sends is sort of like doing a mini mix into that send. You send as much or as little as you want so that you have a decent mix within that reverb.

If I was to do post-fader reverb, whenever I lowered the level of the snare in the mix, it will lower the level going into the reverb. I usually want that balance within that reverb, so I don't like messing with that after I have it. Not that I never do, but I generally want those reverbs to stay the same way after I've sent them. Even so, if I want more reverb, I stick with pre-fader so I can have a little more reverb on the snare without having the snare pop out any more than it already is.

For sends, you usually want to keep wet level to 100%. You use the wet/dry knob when using as an insert. If you use it on a send, you will mix the original sound, plus the reverb (wet) plus the original sound (dry). So you end up with dry+(dry+wet). Most DAW's should compensate for latency but there's chance of phase cancellations or other odd things. You leave the plugin reverb at 100% so you have the original sound, plus reverb, and you end up with dry+wet.

Another thing I just thought about. I use pre-fader reverb because it also gives me the option of using a 100% wet signal with no dry. With post fader, once you turn down the level of the fader, your wet signal is gone too. But generally, I'll use a reverb insert if I ever want 100% wet.
 
there are NO rules , do what sounds good , i put reverb on my reverb , and delays on my delays
i send things where ever i feel like, im in cubase and its easy to bus things anywhere
the whole dub sound from jamaica was created by breaking the rules and pushing the gear they had at the time , e.g. delays with feedback set to 100%
experiment , you might come up with a new Technique & sound.
 
I use multi-buss setup. I buss all vox, drums and bass, transient heavy sources, and slow attack sources. Each get compression and gentle eq. To a master buss with compression. When I'm doing my reverb sends I usually like to send more of the bg vox to the reverb than the lead so I use a send on each vocal channel. I only use the buss send to reverb when I'm really happy with the buss mix and I don't want to mess with it. Drums usually get buss sent to the reverb and I filter the reverb to adjust the balance. Same thing with guitars.
 
Ok so I have a few questions since this is my first time using bus/sends in production. I'm in FL and I have my snare and hats going to a reverb send. Now I want to use a compression bus. I route all of the drums to the DrumBus track. I think I have it all set up right (i checked by adding a delay and it affected all drums). Now I notice that when I turn the DrumBus fader all the way down I still hear the original drums.

Okay heres my questions.
Is the sound being duplicated, or is there a wet/dry thing going on? When I move the fader on the bus, what is it controlling? Also i see the little knob on the drum bus that I'm guessing would be the 'wet/dry' knob. Turning it all the way up would remove all the dry sound correct?
 
the fader controls your wet to dry ratio. The knob is the aux send, that is used to set to nominal level which should be zero. not sure how fl studio works but that should universal.
 
Yea, I think AA Doesn't have that option i been looking also. I got studio one and been looking for a way to import my songs in there to mix and keep everything on time
 
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