Vocal Busses

  • Thread starter Thread starter PDP
  • Start date Start date

When do you use a vocal buss

  • Never

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • Two or more (vocal) tracks

    Votes: 4 66.7%

  • Four or more (vocal) tracks

    Votes: 1 16.7%

  • Eight or more (vocal) tracks

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    6
PDP

PDP

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How often do you make a separate buss for vocals.

What settings do you use on the buss and why?

How does it differ from just mixing the tracks as is?
 
I do it when I have doubles of the same part. If there's a replica throughout the song and i want one lower than the other for that thickening effect.
In that case, i treat them just like one vocal and apply the typical comp, eq, verb or delay, maybe a touch of distortion now and then as a send..
Oh and always for my back vox because they are typically panned to either side and i want them to sound even
 
I record multiple vocal tracks. Usually one for the verse, one for the chorus, and then harmonies if needed. So let's say I have 3 vocal tracks. I then EQ each one separately because they may have different ranges and things I want to boost and cut. But then I send them all to a vocal bus. I want a single group of effects to effect all 3 tracks. Compression may be one. But most importantly, I usually want one vocal reverb so they sound like they are all in the same room. Same with delays. Also, now that they are all on the same vocal bus fader, I can boost or cut the volume of all 3 simultaneously so I can get the vocals to sit right in the mix.

There are always exceptions to this. But this is a good "rule of thumb" for me.
 
It depends on the situation. Most of the time I only use a seperate bus if it's someone else's voice on the same song. If it's the same voice, I usually mess with the EQ on the backing vocals.
 
My basic templates already have sub groups for drums, sub drum (for parallel compression mostly), bass, vocal, harmony, and several verb and delay busses.
ShinyOne pretty much laid out some typical uses, but if the project is simple- like just a few vocals, or the processing in the track insert is covering things then that section's bus just sets there zeroed' out, minimized (or taken completely out of the track/bus view.
 
Yep, like mixsit, I have a template setup for Drums, Guitars, lead vocals, bg vocals, synths, strings, and misc.

Anything that I will have more than one track or instance of, gets sent to a bus for global treatment. Bass I leave out, as I only deal with a DI track, not DI and amp. If that were the case, I'd buss 'em.

I usually have my lead vocals broken into sections and placed on separate tracks, so bussing them makes sense for treating them the same.

I also find it to be incredibly valuable when a group needs to be lowered, to just have one fader to deal with, not multiple.

For BG vocals, I compress each separately, and then the whole buss too. This really seems to solidify them as a unit, if that's what you're going for.
 
I always use a vocal buss. there are some effects that i want in the compressor with the vocal. Sometimes i have a separate buss for the barking vocals. it all depends on the song.
 
Subgroup to a dedicated vocal channel even if it's only one vocal. One, I split vocals across channels for various reasons, two, makes stem printing easier.
 
It depends on the number of different voices I have. When there's just 1 singer coming with 1 'sound', one track for the vocals should do it. Every singer/voice basically will need a different type of equalizing or reverb/effects.
 
Unless I am doing a simple acoustic guitar/vocal song, I always use a vocal bus. Lately I have also been experimenting with the parallel compression.
 
Thanks everyone.

Seems like compression and reverb are the larger percentage of cause(s) to use a vocal buss.

Thanks again.
 
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