What is a Mix Bus?

[creativeforge]

I need help understanding these terms as I've been remixing my song to death. I read that using "MIX BUS" could help reduce the number of channels/tracks you have to deal with in the end, applying effects strategically and locally.

Obviously that's something musicians should know. But I don't. Time to learn.

So what is a MIX BUS in Mixcraft (v8.1)? (screenshots welcome).

Thanks!

Andre

[Rolling Estonian]

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/mix-buses-101.html

M

[cactus-head]

In mixcraft, a submix track is probably the term you are looking for. You can group many tracks under one submix track. The idea is to create a mini mix of those tracks. You could put a set of effects on the submix track and all of the tracks would route through those effects.

A bus track or just a bus, is a little different. Its the audio routing of one or more tracks. By default, all tracks route to the master bus out. But if you have other audio outputs, you can route the audio from one or more tracks to that bus track. It's useful for, obviously, sending the audio to different places. You can even use it to route your submix to a single track to be recorded.

[TrevsAudio]

Here's an older video that explains track types and their uses well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U12NZOC ... l=Mixcraft

And here's a screenshot from one of my projects.
In this example, all the guitar and keys parts are grouped together in individual 'busses' AKA Submix tracks. The individual (child) tracks can be balanced separately and then in final mixing stage, the submix tracks (parent) can be balanced against one another.
Minimising the 'child' tracks (by clicking the minus sign on the parent) neatens up the project so only the parent tracks are shown, making it easier to mix.

Submix Tracks.png (271.3 KiB) Viewed 3217 times

[vizionheiry]

I need help understanding these terms as I've been remixing my song to death. I read that using "MIX BUS" could help reduce the number of channels/tracks you have to deal with in the end, applying effects strategically and locally.

Obviously that's something musicians should know. But I don't. Time to learn.

So what is a MIX BUS in Mixcraft (v8.1)? (screenshots welcome).

Thanks!

Andre

Let's say you have three horn players in your funk band. You want them all to get to the same place at the same time so you put them on a bus together. Likewise, if you want all your horn tracks to be processed similarly, you put them on a bus. Here I have a trumpet, saxophone and coronet player.

horns .jpg (9.91 KiB) Viewed 3120 times

Use the Output Bus track selection under New Track, I create a Horns Bus.

output bus.jpg (51.64 KiB) Viewed 3120 times

Then I make sure all my tracks are routed through to the Horns Bus in my Mixer.

horns bus .jpg (72.65 KiB) Viewed 3120 times

Now if I want to EQ or Compress my Horns, I can do them as a group and apply those settings to the Horns Bus. This was in version 9 not 8 but I think the bus function still existed in 8.

[Mark Bliss]

Complicating matters further...

You may be seeing/hearing people using the term "mix bus" or alternatively "two bus" when referring to other daw's, where they are referring to the equivalent of the "main bus" in Mixcraft.
The reason for this terminology use is in part because the the ways some very complicated DAW's can be configured and routed.

I add this point because its possible the OP's question was misunderstood.

[vizionheiry]

Complicating matters further...

You may be seeing/hearing people using the term "mix bus" or alternatively "two bus" when referring to other daw's, where they are referring to the equivalent of the "main bus" in Mixcraft.
The reason for this terminology use is in part because the the ways some very complicated DAW's can be configured and routed.

I add this point because its possible the OP's question was misunderstood.

I'm hoping we can send our output buses back to our master bus like other DAWS when the elusive version 10 drops.

[creativeforge]

Hi all, sorry, I've been off the forum for a while. And found your amazing replies when I came back!

Bonus point to visionheiry for the screenshots! One bus per location...

And for complicating things, Mark Bliss gets a star! Thanks Trevlyns for the video too.

► So if you were to want to use the same reverb on the horn bus, how would you route that?

Thanks a million!

[Mark Bliss]

► So if you were to want to use the same reverb on the horn bus, how would you route that?

Same reverb as...?
I assume the rest of the horn group. You could do this on a group bus, with one reverb on the group bus.
Or...

Generally if you want to use one reverb (even with multiple amounts of that one reverb) on multiple tracks, you are probably wanting a send bus.

The Acoustica tutorials cover it pretty well. I did a tutorial on the subject about a hundred years ago, (MX6 maybe?) I would have to look for the link myself.

But the basic premise is that you create a send track and insert your desired reverb plug-in, and you can send varying amounts of your track signals through it via control knobs in either the mixer view or arranger view.

Two power tips:
1: For most uses you may want to HP filter the input of the reverb. low frequencies can make the reverb sound muddy.
Some reverbs have that option native to the plug in, otherwise you may want to insert an eq before the reverb on the send bus and set a HP filter at about 500hz or so.
2: I usually attenuate the send bus about 12dB just to make the send knobs range of adjustment more useful. It just "feels better" to me to be adjusting the knob somewhere other than "barely on"

[creativeforge]

If you ever have to do it for a project, could you screenshot this for me? I'm wired for visual comprehension much better than worded instructions. Born and aged that way...

[mixyguy2]

I just want to thank the OP and others for spelling it correctly. It is not a "buss."