I never knew what a bus was....

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fivestarpacheco

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Hey guys,
So today I was doing a research and this whole time didn't know what a bus and effect send was. This whole time I've been mixing by dropping effects in the recorded tracks effects bin and trying to mix it that way. It always sounded like the effects were clashing like the reverb etc. so is this why my mixes aren't sounding the way they should?
Mind you I am new to this.
 
Thats a loaded question. So much can effect "why your mixes aren't sounding the way they should"...


Mics. Mic placements. room treatments, technical skills, on and on.

Start by reading some of the stickies at the top of the forums around here, a wealth of knowledge.

Read some, come back and tell the group what equipment you are using and what exactly you are trying to accomplish and I bet you get a ton of good input.
 
fivestarpacheco said:
Hey guys,
So today I was doing a research and this whole time didn't know what a bus and effect send was. This whole time I've been mixing by dropping effects in the recorded tracks effects bin and trying to mix it that way. It always sounded like the effects were clashing like the reverb etc. so is this why my mixes aren't sounding the way they should?
Mind you I am new to this.
Click to expand...

I use aux tracks and buses a lot less than most of the guys around here, partly through bad habit and party through being spoiled in terms of computer power.
Lately I've started using an aux track for a common reverb though just because it usually suits better for what I'm doing.
It can be great to have everything sounding like it's in the same 'room', and you'll save a ton of resources.
Of course there's no rule. Sometimes tracks call for longer, or just different, reverbs.


You can also use sends and aux tracks simply to have a fader governing a set of tracks.
It's handy to be able to turn up/down all the drums, vocals etc in one go.
 
If you send a track to an aux for a reverb, you retain a better control over the wet/dry relation between the two.
You can get the same sound from using the wet/dry knob on a plug-in but it's not as easy to control.

The concept of using auxes really goes back to analogue desks where you really had no other choice but to send to effects. You couldn't just shove a reverb into the channel without going out and then coming back in somewhere.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I use aux tracks and buses a lot less than most of the guys around here, partly through bad habit and party through being spoiled in terms of computer power.
Lately I've started using an aux track for a common reverb though just because it usually suits better for what I'm doing.
It can be great to have everything sounding like it's in the same 'room', and you'll save a ton of resources.
Of course there's no rule. Sometimes tracks call for longer, or just different, reverbs.


You can also use sends and aux tracks simply to have a fader governing a set of tracks.
It's handy to be able to turn up/down all the drums, vocals etc in one go.
Click to expand...

Exactly I'm trying to get the vocals to come together. I was copy and pasting the effects to all of my dry vocals to make it all sync together and not all over the place. I have a decent set up I have an at4040 with a Scarlett 6i6 interface along with a personus eureka pre amp. As for acoustics I made my own bass traps and two gobos with OC703.
 
I'll let the others answers the questions but the discovery of bus's is a wonderful string to your bow with regards to track count, cpu usage, and helping your mixes. I was a dumb ass for a long time too and not utilizing them.

:thumbs up:
 
fivestarpacheco said:
I have a decent set up I have an at4040 with a Scarlett 6i6 interface along with a personus eureka pre amp. As for acoustics I made my own bass traps and two gobos with OC703.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I remember you! :p
Did you get your signal path sorted OK? <looks for other thread>
 
Mr Clean said:
I'll let the others answers the questions but the discovery of bus's is a wonderful string to your bow with regards to track count, cpu usage, and helping your mixes. I was a dumb ass for a long time too and not utilizing them.

:thumbs up:
Click to expand...

And they're a really useful form of public transport as well.. :thumbs up:;)
 
Steenamaroo said:
Oh yeah, I remember you! :p
Did you get your signal path sorted OK? <looks for other thread>
Click to expand...

Yea man thanks you helped me out a lot it sounds so much better now, but just incase tell me if it looks set up right here's a couple pics
2wcpc04.jpg

330w8s9.jpg
 
I think the second pic is the old setup?
I see a patch cable into line input 3 on the first pic though. ;)
 
It's often nice to eq a reverb and there isn't always any or enough eq built in to the plugin, so it's common to insert a separate eq before or after the reverb plugin. If you try to do that with it inserted on the track it will eq the dry signal as well.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
It's often nice to eq a reverb and there isn't always any or enough eq built in to the plugin, so it's common to insert a separate eq before or after the reverb plugin. If you try to do that with it inserted on the track it will eq the dry signal as well.
Click to expand...

Great point. I almost always eq a reverb bus/effect track. Often low end in the reverb quickly turns to mud in mix.

Not to mention the ability to send a delay track send from vocal track to reverb bus can have unique results as well...

Options, options, options. :)
 
fivestarpacheco said:
Hey guys,
So today I was doing a research and this whole time didn't know what a bus and effect send was. This whole time I've been mixing by dropping effects in the recorded tracks effects bin and trying to mix it that way. It always sounded like the effects were clashing like the reverb etc. so is this why my mixes aren't sounding the way they should?
Mind you I am new to this.
Click to expand...

This is tough one to answer.

This is ONE of the reasons cause your mixes are sounding the way they should, cause I don't personally know you,
but yeah this is also a reason.

Reverbs and delays need to be EQed or compressed too sometimes but just these and only.

If you've got them on same track and want to apply an EQ just for the reverb this is going to affect the whole track,
including the direct signal, and you don't want that
 
jimmys69 said:
Options, options, options. :)
Click to expand...

That's all I use a bus for, and most of the time I don't bother. I rarely have enough tracks that necessitate it from a computing power standpoint, and I feel like I have the granularity I need from just dropping effects in as needed. If that effect needs to be applied to another track, I usually just save it as a FX Chain and apply that FX chain to the other track.

Indeed there are many ways and styles to mixing, and really each song and your configuration determines any number of variations on the general theme. As long as it sounds like you want it to, and it sounds generally good to others, it's working.

The only time you MUST use a bus is when side chaining, which I've only done once.
 
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