Volume faders and busses/aux inputs

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Dark Imagery

Dark Imagery

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Ok... I think I have a grasp on how sends, busses, and aux inputs work. But I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the volume faders.

Say I have a snare drum routed through a send to a post fader bus. The bus is routed to an aux input (effect return? - I'm using protools) which has a reverb plugin on an insert. Tell me if I'm right - The volume fader on the bus determines the amount of the snare signal that routes to the bus. Essentially a wet/dry knob since the reverb plugin on the aux input is 100% wet. Right? Where I get confused is that there's also a volume fader on the aux input and I'm having trouble seeing how it fits in. Is it the volume of the actual effect? If I had the snare's bus turned very low and the aux input turned high would I get a very audible yet dryish reverb on the snare? Hope I'm not asking this like a 'tard bag.
Could somebody explain to me in a simple fashion the relationship between the volume faders on the busses vs aux inputs? Maybe an example of an end result having high bus volume/ low aux input and low bus volume/ high aux input volume.
Thanks guys!
 
The buss fader is the overall level for the bus.

The individual Aux faders are for Aux send levels per channel/track...since you can send more than one track to the same bus.
 
Yeah, you can but each send has its own volume fader... maybe I left that out in my original post.
 
I don't use PT...so I'm not seeing what you're seeing...
...but maybe the Aux Input fader is there for when you don't use a bus to feed it....?

IOW...what if you just send a single track to it...you would then need the fader on the AUX input...right?

With the bus feeding it...you have two.
 
Dark Imagery said:
Ok... I think I have a grasp on how sends, busses, and aux inputs work. But I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around the volume faders.

Say I have a snare drum routed through a send to a post fader bus. The bus is routed to an aux input (effect return? - I'm using protools) which has a reverb plugin on an insert. Tell me if I'm right - The volume fader on the bus determines the amount of the snare signal that routes to the bus. Essentially a wet/dry knob since the reverb plugin on the aux input is 100% wet. Right? Where I get confused is that there's also a volume fader on the aux input and I'm having trouble seeing how it fits in. Is it the volume of the actual effect? If I had the snare's bus turned very low and the aux input turned high would I get a very audible yet dryish reverb on the snare? Hope I'm not asking this like a 'tard bag.
Could somebody explain to me in a simple fashion the relationship between the volume faders on the busses vs aux inputs? Maybe an example of an end result having high bus volume/ low aux input and low bus volume/ high aux input volume.
Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

my 2cents, i have protool also

i leave my aux track (with the reverb inserted on it) at unity or 0.

then i use the send fader to determine the amount of signal i'm sending to the aux track :D
 
If you turn up the track volume fader, the volume of the track goes up and so does the level going to the bus (because it's post fader), relatively.

Then, you can use the individual tracks bus send to send MORE/LESS of that signal to the bus.

THEN, you can set up a master fader, and change the I/O to the Bus (let's say Bus 1-2), and use that fader to turn up/down the input level of that bus, affecting EVERYTHING on that bus. So if you had a snare, kick, and guitar all sent to bus 1-2 and then bus 1-2 going to the reverb, you could turn down the bus' master fader as opposed to turning down every send individually.

THENNNNN, you have your aux return tracks, and you know how they work. Lots of control :)

Once you use it more and more, and get into more complicated routing situations, you'll see why it's handy.

For example, when mixing a track, I might only have two reverbs set up (two stereo aux tracks, and a reverb on each - let's say, hall and plate). This saves on processing, and makes things sound like they're all in the same space (which might or mightn't be what you're after). Instead of turning up/down the return, which turns up/down the overall reverb level for EVERYTHING, I'll use the individual send faders on the tracks to get the right level of dry/wet mix for every element, and then all I gotta worry about is how loud I want the track to be. If I turn any track up or down, the level sent to the reverbs are relative (assuming it's post fader) and I keep my dry/wet mix the same, and I can change it whenever I want by adjusting the send fader.

If I want to turn up the overall level of the reverb on everything then, I just turn up the aux fader. Perfect! ;)
 
AH. Thanks Phil for explaining that in a mixing situation. Makes perfect sense now.
 
can someone explain what busses and aux sends in mixing is for?

I've seen the options in my adobe audition 3 program but I never have used either one.


I have not quit understood what they are for and I'm sure it's useful...:cool:


if anybody knows of an article on here that would explain and can direct me to it that would help Ive been searching but can find the basic explanation of what they are intended for
 
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In a traditional analog setup a buss is used to route a channel signal or a group of channel signals out of the board on one or more busses.

Say you are micing up a drum kit using seven channels (mics) to an eight track tape machine. To avoid bouncing all of those tracks down to two tracks, you will submix those seven channels for a good balance and route those seven channels to two of the busses and recorded the two busses onto two tracks of your machine. Busses typically connect to the inputs of a tape machine...but not always.

If you have a 24 channel desk and a 24 track tape machine, you can use direct outs from each channel to the tape machine and mix the drums from the tape. That's when you have enough tape tracks to work with. The busses can then be used for monitor mixes for the performers.

A send splits off the signal from the main channel path and routes it to another out that you can use for effects, a monitor mix, or anything else you can think of. If used for an effects out, you can route the out of the effects box back into the send return, or to another channel on the board. You could even use it to record to a second machine or DAW.

You can set up most sends to be pre- or post fader. For effects, most are set up post fader so the level of effect follows the fader.
 
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