Drum crush buss

Atkron205

Atkron205

Member
I am trying to figure out the best way to set up a drum buss for parallel compression. what I want to do is route all of my drum tracks to a buss, insert compression on this buss for compression and blend this with the normal drum tracks. What are your thoughts? Thanks!
 
Create an aux track, route a bus to the aux track, insert a compressor on the aux track, route the aux track to the master bus, create a send on each drum track routed to the bus feeding the aux track, turn up all the sends on the drum tracks.

I don't have Pro Tools with me and it's not my main DAW, but I think that will get it done.
 
Atkron205 said:
I am trying to figure out the best way to set up a drum buss for parallel compression. what I want to do is route all of my drum tracks to a buss, insert compression on this buss for compression and blend this with the normal drum tracks. What are your thoughts? Thanks!
Click to expand...
My preferred method is to make two stereo aux tracks: first a Drum Bus stereo aux, then a "crush" bus. The output of all drums and the crush bus go to the input of the Drum bus by choosing an open bus stereo pair of inputs in the input drop down menu of the Drum Bus aux. Right click and rename this bus Drum bus and it will show up as an available output bus in the output drop down of all your audio and aux tracks.

The Output(not Send)of all drums audio tracks and the "crush" aux goes to the "drum bus" input(in their individual output selections).

Then on the "crush" bus input menu choose an open bus(buses in use will be yellow, unused white lettering) and select a stereo pair, then rename "crush".

Next choose which drums will be sent to the "crush bus" ( I usually only do the kick and snare, but add toms if and when that is the sound I am after. I do not recommend adding cymbals or hats ) and create a "Send" on each chosen audio track and route the output of the Send to the "crush" input bus. Each send amount can be individually adjusted to get the level blend correct.

On the crush bus you can put a compressor and some sort of harmonic distortion like the Air Lo fi to get some grit then ride the fader to taste. Remember a little goes a long way and it's best to adjust it while all the instruments are playing to get your balance right.
 
I think what Gtoboy is describing just adds a drums bus (aux track in PT nomenclature) between the drum tracks/crush bus and master track. Use the same process of creating an aux track and using buses to route the output of each track and the output of the crush bus to the drums aux track, and to route the output of the drums aux track to the master track.

The annoying thing about Pro Tools is the use of "track" for what is usually called a bus, and using "bus" to refer to the method of routing signal. What might be traditionally called a "bus" would be an "aux track" that uses a bus to connect signal from the audio tracks and another bus to connect it to the master track.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
I think what Gtoboy is describing just adds a drums bus (aux track in PT nomenclature) between the drum tracks/crush bus and master track. Use the same process of creating an aux track and using buses to route the output of each track and the output of the crush bus to the drums aux track, and to route the output of the drums aux track to the master track.

The annoying thing about Pro Tools is the use of "track" for what is usually called a bus, and using "bus" to refer to the method of routing signal. What might be traditionally called a "bus" would be an "aux track" that uses a bus to connect signal from the audio tracks and another bus to connect it to the master track.
Click to expand...
Okay, maybe. However, Pro Tools tends to be based on analog architecture, for instance an Aux can be a bus, an instrument, a return, a send pretty much anything that does not record to it's own "track". A "track" in PT is the same as one on a tape deck, a mono or stereo pair that records audio from whatever is chosen as an input and plays back on whatever is chosen as and output.
All PT "buses" are just software routing options.
 
In general usage, a "bus" is technically any point where multiple signals are summed into one, or where one signal is available to multiple destinations. In common analog mixer usage, "bus" typically refers to what I'd call a submix group bus. Effects and monitor sends are also technically buses, but they're usually just called sends.

In PT, a "track" (audio, aux or master) is essentially like a channel strip plus effects insert point on a console. The actual connection of audio/aux/master tracks to each other is done using what they refer to as buses. The output of a track can be routed through a bus (via the main track fader), and a send from a track can also be routed through a bus (via a send fader). It's a little confusing because it's different from common analog mixer terminology, but it does kind of make sense.

In PT, clips on the timeline are essentially the equivalent of tracks on tape.

So when talking about buses in Pro Tools, we have to sort out whether that means what Pro Tools calls buses or if it's the more common meaning (subgroup mix bus).
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Create an aux track, route a bus to the aux track, insert a compressor on the aux track, route the aux track to the master bus, create a send on each drum track routed to the bus feeding the aux track, turn up all the sends on the drum tracks.

I don't have Pro Tools with me and it's not my main DAW, but I think that will get it done.
Click to expand...
Thank you sir!
 
Gtoboy said:
My preferred method is to make two stereo aux tracks: first a Drum Bus stereo aux, then a "crush" bus. The output of all drums and the crush bus go to the input of the Drum bus by choosing an open bus stereo pair of inputs in the input drop down menu of the Drum Bus aux. Right click and rename this bus Drum bus and it will show up as an available output bus in the output drop down of all your audio and aux tracks.

The Output(not Send)of all drums audio tracks and the "crush" aux goes to the "drum bus" input(in their individual output selections).

Then on the "crush" bus input menu choose an open bus(buses in use will be yellow, unused white lettering) and select a stereo pair, then rename "crush".

Next choose which drums will be sent to the "crush bus" ( I usually only do the kick and snare, but add toms if and when that is the sound I am after. I do not recommend adding cymbals or hats ) and create a "Send" on each chosen audio track and route the output of the Send to the "crush" input bus. Each send amount can be individually adjusted to get the level blend correct.

On the crush bus you can put a compressor and some sort of harmonic distortion like the Air Lo fi to get some grit then ride the fader to taste. Remember a little goes a long way and it's best to adjust it while all the instruments are playing to get your balance right.
Click to expand...
Awesome, exactly what I was looking for. I knew there was another way other than using a send but couldnt figure it out. Thanks so much!
 
Gtoboy said:
My preferred method is to make two stereo aux tracks: first a Drum Bus stereo aux, then a "crush" bus. The output of all drums and the crush bus go to the input of the Drum bus by choosing an open bus stereo pair of inputs in the input drop down menu of the Drum Bus aux. Right click and rename this bus Drum bus and it will show up as an available output bus in the output drop down of all your audio and aux tracks.

The Output(not Send)of all drums audio tracks and the "crush" aux goes to the "drum bus" input(in their individual output selections).

Then on the "crush" bus input menu choose an open bus(buses in use will be yellow, unused white lettering) and select a stereo pair, then rename "crush".

Next choose which drums will be sent to the "crush bus" ( I usually only do the kick and snare, but add toms if and when that is the sound I am after. I do not recommend adding cymbals or hats ) and create a "Send" on each chosen audio track and route the output of the Send to the "crush" input bus. Each send amount can be individually adjusted to get the level blend correct.

On the crush bus you can put a compressor and some sort of harmonic distortion like the Air Lo fi to get some grit then ride the fader to taste. Remember a little goes a long way and it's best to adjust it while all the instruments are playing to get your balance right.
Click to expand...
Sorry, just to make sure I understand the routing, currently all my tracks are routed to a submix buss, then from the submix bus to the main outs. so I need to route all of the drum tracks to the new drum buss, this will be the normal drum mix, the crush buss is also routed to the drum buss, create a send on the drum tracks I want to go to the crush buss. then route the drum buss as I normally do. Correct? Thanks!
 
Atkron205 said:
Sorry, just to make sure I understand the routing, currently all my tracks are routed to a submix buss, then from the submix bus to the main outs. so I need to route all of the drum tracks to the new drum buss, this will be the normal drum mix, the crush buss is also routed to the drum buss, create a send on the drum tracks I want to go to the crush buss. then route the drum buss as I normally do. Correct? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Yes, and the new Drum Bus' output goes into your "submix" instead of the individual drums and crush bus doing so separately
 
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