Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > newbieland

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-08-2017, 11:36 AM   #1
RDBOIS
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: It changes
Posts: 1,425
Default What's in you Auxes and Buses?

What's in you Auxes and Buses?

Very noobish question, but I'm curious to know what you're doing within your workflow.

Note: I've only recently graduated to the world of BUSES (only because I was hitting MAX CPU from overly repeating VST plugins on different tracks when (1) instance could serve multiple), but I'm still a bit perplex as what goes on Auxes...

I recently downloaded an sophisticated mixing template and it has, for example, four tracks dedicated to guitars inside a folder that is slave to a VCA Volume-track. The folder sums the guitar and sends to a reverb Bus and a delay bus. The Guitars_ReverbBus sends to a Guitars_Aux, for which all the various Auxes sum to a VCA_Auxes (summing track volume slider). Anyway, I'm left a bit perplex as to what goes on Auxes, especially if all the effects have been already taken care of elsewhere and that the various instrument folders are slaves to various VCA track (which serve as volume sliders to mix stems?

Do Auxes make more sense when you're sending/receiving a signal out of the DAW to processing hardware?

My template doesn't really matter. What I'm trying to figure out is:

What do you do with your Buses and Auxes?
What effects go where?
Do small projects need Auxes?
RDBOIS is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-08-2017, 11:42 AM   #2
ashcat_lt
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 7,271
Default

Lol. I make tracks and route them to and from each other as necessary.

I also do a lot of stupid things with multichannel routing to avoid making parallel tracks. Then sometimes I realize things would be easier if they were actually parallel, but I'm in too deep already.
ashcat_lt is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-08-2017, 12:29 PM   #3
RDBOIS
Banned
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: It changes
Posts: 1,425
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ashcat_lt View Post
Lol. I make tracks and route them to and from each other as necessary.

I also do a lot of stupid things with multichannel routing to avoid making parallel tracks. Then sometimes I realize things would be easier if they were actually parallel, but I'm in too deep already.
Is it safe to say that using Buses and Auxes in a DAW like Reaper is more about transferring historical legacies, nomanclature, and nostalgia than true necessity? That given the flexibility of Reaper's routing, pins, chanels, etc. one can do very wacky things that have no historical precedence, but perhaps as effective. Yes?
RDBOIS is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-08-2017, 12:52 PM   #4
ashcat_lt
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 7,271
Default

Yes.

Terms like Bus and Aux are convenient ways to communicate. However those are implemented is kind of arbitrary. Everybody pretty much gets the gist of what you're doing when you use these words.

And if course, there are good reasons those types of signal flows became standard, and the concept applies. If I actually sit down after the mix and take inventory I will usually end up with several structures that are basically buses and some that are actually auxes. But I definitely don't let that paradigm constrain my decisions. And I don't start from templates because every mix is different. I'd spend more time reconfiguring the template to actually do what I need than just building it as necessary.
ashcat_lt is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-08-2017, 05:47 PM   #5
Tod
Human being with feelings
 
Tod's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Kalispell
Posts: 14,745
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ashcat_lt View Post
Yes.

Terms like Bus and Aux are convenient ways to communicate. However those are implemented is kind of arbitrary. Everybody pretty much gets the gist of what you're doing when you use these words.
Yeah, in the old days we had Inputs which were the tracks you would plug a mic or quarter inch plug into.

Then we had Tape Sends that we would send to a multi-track tape machine, along with the Tape Returns coming back from the muti-tracks.

Auxiliary or "Aux" also had sends and returns, they were primarily for outboard FX. Back then "outboard" meant FX modules outside of the mixer.

Professional boards also had group faders that were used primarily for mixing, these were often called busses.

Then there were the "Inserts" on the inputs, These were used to send out to a FX or outboard module that would then return back to the input, sometimes with 2 different quarter inch plugins or one stereo quarter inch plugin.

With Reaper there really is no distinction, a track is a track is a track. However as ashcat alludes to, continued use of these terms can can help in understanding things better. The problem is that in the DAW age I don't think there is a standardized use for these terms, at least not with Reaper. Probably because the routing is so flexible.

So it's pretty confusing, because these terms are kind of thrown around quite loosely.

I would love if we could make some of these terms standard especially on this forum.
Tod is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 10:44 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.