{"id":1742,"date":"2021-08-21T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mixxed.com\/blog\/?p=1742"},"modified":"2022-09-22T11:43:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T11:43:35","slug":"what-are-buses-aux-and-send-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.routenote.com\/blog\/what-are-buses-aux-and-send-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Buses, Aux and Send Tracks?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sends vs Buses vs Auxiliery Tracks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the audio tech world<\/strong>, you’ve heard buses<\/strong>, auxes<\/strong>, sends <\/strong>and returns <\/strong>come up in conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People talk about these entities all the time, but what are they? What’s the difference between them<\/strong>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of these processes is about routing audio inside your DAW<\/strong>, but these terms were born before DAWs were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mixxed Mixer Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Noise Floor: What is it?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Do I Measure Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) in My Music?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Difference Between Gain and Volume<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Gain Staging?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top 5 Metering Plugins to Masterfully Improve Your Tracks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group Mixing & Parallel Processing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These are two concepts we’ve discussed extensively in our Explain Compression<\/a><\/strong> series, but how do they work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so you have a snare<\/strong>, kick<\/strong>, and hi-hat <\/strong>on 3 individual channels <\/strong>inside your DAW mixer<\/strong>. To mix them together <\/strong>with the same compression <\/strong>& reverb<\/strong>, you need to create a bus<\/strong>. A drum bus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to parallel compression <\/strong>for your kick & snare<\/strong>, or your vocals or bass<\/strong>, you need to use an auxiliary (aux) track<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All DAWs <\/strong>are modelled <\/strong>after physical mixing consoles<\/strong>, so this holds true for all DAWS<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the Difference Between a Bus and an Auxiliary ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What Are Buses?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A bus <\/strong>is a dedicated channel <\/strong>on your mixer <\/strong>that you have chosen to send multiple signals to<\/strong>. These multiple signals <\/strong>come from other individual channels <\/strong>on your mixer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, your kick<\/strong>, snare<\/strong>, and hi-hat <\/strong>have their own individual channels<\/strong>. Rather than send these signals to the master channel <\/strong>(which is itself a bus<\/strong>, the “master bus<\/strong>“) individually, you want to send them all to another singular channel strip <\/strong>for group processing<\/strong>. From this channel<\/strong>, you then route these signals <\/strong>to the master channel<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Auxiliary (Aux) Tracks?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Commonly referred to as return tracks<\/strong>, aux tracks <\/strong>also accept signals <\/strong>from multiple other channels<\/strong>. However, with an aux track<\/strong>, you also send the same multiple signals to the master bus <\/strong>as well as the aux track<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what differentiates buses & aux tracks<\/strong>, and what makes parallel processing possible<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another major difference <\/strong>between an aux <\/strong>and a bus <\/strong>is that you can’t record audio on an aux track<\/strong>. An aux track <\/strong>is dedicated to receiving duplicated signals <\/strong>for you to add external effects to the signal<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An advantage <\/strong>with this process<\/strong>, over adding effects to the individual channels themselves<\/strong>, is you are leaving the original signal <\/strong>(the dry signal<\/strong>) untouched by the effects<\/strong>. This means you can easily manipulate the dry\/wet parameter <\/strong>of applied effects with the volume fader <\/strong>on the aux channel <\/strong>(the wet signal<\/strong>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a tutorial <\/strong>on parallel processing<\/strong>, check out our parallel compression<\/a><\/strong> tutorial! It’s a one-sto<\/b>p shop<\/strong> to highlight the power <\/strong>in your Mixxed<\/a><\/strong> percussion samples<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Are Sends?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Newbies sometimes get confused about sends <\/strong>(I know I used to). They believe they serve the same function <\/strong>as an aux <\/strong>or a bus<\/strong>, but this is untrue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A send <\/strong>is simply a parameter<\/strong>. It’s the knob <\/strong>that allows you to attenuate the level of the signal <\/strong>being sent to your aux track <\/strong>or bus track<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of a send <\/strong>as a flood gate<\/strong>. The more you open the gate<\/strong>, the more water comes in<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Send Explanation, Source: FL Studio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the image above<\/strong>, you can see that the signal from channel 4 <\/strong>is being sent directly to the master bus<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the master bus<\/strong>, the knob <\/strong>with a green highlight <\/strong>is the send parameter<\/strong>. You can see what would be <\/strong>a green ring <\/strong>is about 80% full<\/strong>. This indicates <\/strong>that the master bus <\/strong>is only letting in 80% <\/strong>of the signal it’s receiving<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you were to send signals <\/strong>from channels 1, 2 & 3 <\/strong>to the master as well<\/strong>, the master channel <\/strong>would still only let in 80% <\/strong>of the signal <\/strong>it’s receiving. That is, of course, if you don’t open the flood gate some more <\/strong>– or close it<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process is exactly the same for all channels<\/strong>. The master bus is only master in name when it comes to buses<\/strong>, auxiliaries <\/strong>& sends<\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sends vs Buses vs Auxiliery Tracks In the audio tech world, you’ve heard buses, auxes, sends and returns come up in conversation. People talk about these entities all the time, but what are they? What’s the difference between them? Each of these processes is about routing audio inside your DAW, but these terms were born before DAWs were. Mixxed Mixer Tips Noise Floor: What is it? How Do I Measure Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) in My Music? Difference Between Gain and Volume What is Gain Staging? Top 5 Metering Plugins to Masterfully Improve Your Tracks Group Mixing & Parallel Processing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,17,323],"tags":[471,473,470,261,469,472],"class_list":["post-1742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-creation-tools","category-music-sampling","category-tutorial","tag-difference-between-aux-sends-and-bus","tag-difference-between-sends-and-buses","tag-how-do-aux-sends-and-returns-work","tag-mixxed-com","tag-sends-vs-buses","tag-what-are-aux-sends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Are Buses, Aux and Send Tracks? - RouteNote Create Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We've broken down what sends, buses & aux tracks are. 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