Pro Tools = Inserts VS Bus?

U

Unknown Child

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This may sound ridiculous as it did to an old friend (who I no longer speak with or I'd probably ask him) but I have a quick question.

I can be quite stubborn and up until now I've been doing the most CPU demanding style of mixing ever... I utilize inserts to a fault. I am decent at my EQing, my compression... using my ear to find the sound I'm looking for. Problem is, I drop my EQ's into inserts rather than sending the track to a bus. Meaning, if I have 2 vocal tracks that may utilize the same compression settings, I'll just duplicate the plug-in from the first vocal onto the second ones insert section. The reason being is because when I place it directly onto the track via insert it sounds like it directly affects the track. Whereas if I try and run it through a bus I find it doesn't affect the track in the same way, and when I turn up the BUS volume to get it to compress more, it seems it turns up the volume of the track to the point of clipping, rather than giving me the same "compressed sound" I get when I place it directly into an insert.

Why is this? What is it I'm doing wrong? Up until know I reserved my BUSSES strictly for delay's and such. Perhaps I'm just stupid, but can anyone quickly explain how to get the same effect by running it thru a bus rather than placing a compressor on an insert sucking away my CPU processing ability? I hope I've explained this right. Thanks.
 
I think you're doing the right thing but with one error.

With delay/reverb effects, you do as above, and you make sure the effect is set to 100% wet.

The reason for this is that you can hear the dry original track, and the bused effect track also, so you control wet/dry by turning up/down the bus send.

With a compressor or eq, you probably don't want to hear a blend of dry/wet so,

Instead of using a send, change the tracks main outbus to your comp bus.
 
Ohhhh so what you're sayin is that instead of sending it thru a SEND, simply switch the tracks output to the BUS rather than straight out "Analog 1" etc? Why in the world wouldn't I have thought to do that when I'm playing around? I feel like I lost my keys and the whole time they were in my pocket lol. Thanks so much man.
 
No sweat dude.

I'm just thinking, you can do it the way described but that limits you to one output per track.

If you want several you could use sends, but make sure they're set to prefader, and set main track output to none.

The advantage of this is you can have more than one independent send, each with it's own volume fader.
 
On an analog board a submix group bus and an aux send bus are differently configured, hardwired signal paths. In Pro Tools a "bus" is generic and becomes one or the other based on how you get signal to it. So if you use a send it's an aux bus and if you assign the channel output it's a group bus.

Generally speaking, you will put eqs and compressors (that alter the signal itself) directly on a channel insert or sometimes on a group bus, while reverbs and echoes (that add to the signal) are done with aux sends.
 
i have pro tools LE 8 that i record my vocals on and i use FL Studio thats i make my beats with i know i can use the both with the plug-in rewire insert, but when i bring FL up into play it plays no sound and my key board wont play any tracks help me please thanks
 
Sounds like the question you posted to ask has been well answered- Steenmaroo is one of the good guys, here, and also one of the more knowledgeable and thoughtful. I hope you will allow me to stick my nose in where it may have no place... to wit, you say:
Unknown Child said:
This may sound ridiculous as it did to an old friend (who I no longer speak with or I'd probably ask him) but I have a quick question...
Click to expand...

I don't want to know what happened, but I feel compelled to tell you that old friends are very good to have, and much more rare and valuable than we can sometimes see. You might want to take the first step towards reconciliation. It's been my personal experience that both my friend and I are glad one of us stepped up. You needn't elaborate or respond to this post if you don't want to.
 
are you sending to the bus Pre-Fader? I realized this makes it a ton easier for me because i can adjust the send level and aux buses accordingly to get the desired amount of effect. This also works great when bussing out the other outputs to create individual headphones mixes and monitor mixes. That would save ya a lot of CPU. I also own the UAD2, and the plugins sound great are wont tax your CPU at all because they run off the cards. hope that helps bud.
 
The Flame said:
are you sending to the bus Pre-Fader? I realized this makes it a ton easier for me because i can adjust the send level and aux buses accordingly to get the desired amount of effect.
Click to expand...

Except most people want the effect to stay in proportion to the channel. Post fader sends are the usual way to do that. That way if you adjust a channel and bus effect adjusts with it. If you use pre fader sends and then adjust the channel it throws off the balance of dry to effect.
 
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