stupid question

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MemoGtr

MemoGtr

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hey sorry for the question its just that im kinda confused.
in a mixer, whats a "bus"??
what is it for?
 
MemoGtr said:
hey sorry for the question its just that im kinda confused.
in a mixer, whats a "bus"??
what is it for?

bus- One or more electrical conductors used for transmitting signals or power from one or more sources to one or more destinations. Often used to distinguish between a single computer system (connected together by a bus) and multi-computer systems connected together by a network.

Pro Audio Reference Dictionary
 
A path for electrical signals.

If that's not simple enough for you, then just call it "magic."
 
In a mixer, a bus is where one or more channels is assigned or "Bussed" to. In a stereo mixer you have the left and right busses. Then there are sub groups as in an 8 buss mixer which are busses besides the main left/right busses used for sub grouping things like drums.
 
Its that big thing you get on when you don't own a car.... ok you knew that was coming...
just kidding.

In really simple terms.... bus is just combining a bunch of tracks on your mixer so that you can send them all to one place using one fader. For example:

I have a 32 track 8 bus mixer.
That means I can plug 32 different things into it. And I can group them up into 8 different buses if I wanted to. So all of my drum tracks would be mixed using the individual faders and then sent to bus 1. Now bus 1 will control the volume of all 7 or 8 of my drum tracks. You can have however many channels you want on a bus.

Hope that explains it a little. Its a subgroup pretty much. In fact I think it is labelled subgroup on my mixer.
 
yeah, i though it'd be something like that.
so, it helps you not to get confused with so many channels, i suppose.
 
so, it helps you not to get confused with so many channels, i suppose

No... if anything, it adds to any inherent confusion...

It's so you can route groups of signals together and then treat the grouped signals as a stereo pair.

For example, if you had six parts you wanted to treat with reverb, you might route each channel's signal out its effects send to a separate reverb -- or, you might group the six tracks to a stereo bus and run the effects send of the stereo bus to a single stereo reverb...

Having busses allows you to do things like that and many more...
 
aaaaahhh
ok
you also solved another question (how can i add effects to certain channles) hehe
thanks
 
AlChuck said:

It's so you can route groups of signals together and then treat the grouped signals as a stereo pair.

most busses, at least in mixers not specifically designed for recording studios, are mono.
so you wouldn't put all your drum tracks on buss 1, unless you wanted mono drums.

on the other hand with pretty much every mixer i've worked with though, the buttons for sending individual channels to busses are linked like they will be treated as a stereo pair... i.e. there is a button for sending to busses 1-2, another for 3-4, etc.
then you pan the channel either left or right depending on which buss you want it sent to (1 or 2), or leave it in the centre for both equally. Then, you can use busses 1 and 2 like they were L and R in a stereo pair. they each have individual mono outputs.

also, the master stereo fader is basically just another pair of busses linked together on one fader (or on larger mixers, often split into two, giving it no distinction from busses other than a different name.) you're also usually able to route more things to the master fader, like tape-in and every aux bus and matrix. but that's the only difference.
 
how much threads will have been here titled 'stupid question' already?
 
hehe i dunno
there are a lot of kids with "stupid questions" (including me). just hope all get answers hehe
 
bus

Busses are good for mixing. Remember, an audio bus is a lot like the bus you take to work or school. You can put a lot of stuff on it. So, you could mix and blance all the vocals and send them on one bus, same with guitars, drums or what-have-you. Then you mix the busses, 4 channels instead of a gazillion.
At least, thats how I understand it.
Probably too simplistic.
 
At least, thats how I understand it.
Probably too simplistic.

Yup...

Bus is one of those words in English, like "gas," that has several meanings with the same spelling of the word.

You are trying to describe a mixer's bus using the wrong dictionary definition of bus. I suppose the analogy sort of works in a way, and it sounds somewhat convincing, but to me it it's more confusing than the real explanation.
 
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