Aux Sends/Returns On Mixer

[chamelious]

Can anyone give me a brief explanation of what these do?? As i understand it at the moment they send the signal out from a channel if you choose it, you wap that into an fx unit or reverb or whatever, then it comes back into one of the returns and you mix the wet signal with the dry one as you see fit, am i far off??

 

[bennychico11]

nope you got it.
usually aux sends are used for time based effects (Reverb, delays, etc.)
you generally have an Aux send on the channel, an aux master in your master section which control the master send volume (if you have multiple tracks going to it), and then an aux return volume control.

on larger consoles you will also sometimes see people bring them back to two open channels, instead of the aux return. that way you can add eq, more compression, panning effects, etc.

 

[Ed Dixon]

They are also used live for feeding monitor systems, where there is no return, but that's not a recording situation in most cases.

Ed

 

[Robert D]

Yes, there are two ways to apply effects to a channel on a traditional mixer. 1: You take a portion of the signal via an aux send, it goes to a summing amp where it gets summed with other aux send signals, goes out the aux out jack and off to the processor(s), comes back from the processor(s) into the aux return jack or into an available channel, and finally gets summed onto the stereo buss.

or

2: You take the whole signal by interupting the signal path with an insert out, and send it off to a processor(s), then right back into the same channel via the insert in. Most mixers these days combine insert out and insert in into one jack, using a TRS connector as a splitter of the unbalanced signal, and requiring a Y cable to convert it to two 1/4" unbalanced connections (send and return).

Method 1 is usually used for time based effects (as mentioned above) such as reverbs, echos, chorus, flange, etc.
Method 2 is usually used for dynamic processors, such as compressors, limiters, noise gates, expanders, duckers, etc.

Another consideration with aux sends is whether they are pre or post. This refers to whether the signal is taken before or after the channel fader. If it's pre, then moving the fader up or down doesn't affect the signal going off to the effect. So if you pull the fader all the way down on a vocal with an echo on it via a pre aux send, the echo is still there. If it's a post aux send, then the send signal stays relative to the fader.....turn up the fader and you increase the send accordingly. Pull the fader all the way down and you stop the aux send too.

Hope that helps,
RD

 

[mshilarious]

They are also used live for feeding monitor systems, where there is no return, but that's not a recording situation in most cases.

Ed

It's useful for headphone mixes.

 

[Adam P]

My console allows me to set up the cue mix using the Aux sends. You can set it to route Aux 1 to the Left and Aux 2 to the Right on the Cue mix output. It's pretty nice, as you don't have to rig up a cue mix based on something else; you get a dedicated cueing setup.