Sonar X3 Bus Question

Sorry for what may seem like a dummy question but- what is bus?  What are bus assignments?
 
Is it a form of subgrouping?  For example, would you send drums, bass, and rhythm guitar into one bus so you could control the entire rhythm section in one feel swoop, and then send that bus out to the master?  If that isn't it then what is it?
 
Thanks!

Len Rabinowitz
Sorry for what may seem like a dummy question but- what is bus?  What are bus assignments?
 
Is it a form of subgrouping?  For example, would you send drums, bass, and rhythm guitar into one bus so you could control the entire rhythm section in one feel swoop, and then send that bus out to the master?  If that isn't it then what is it?
 
Thanks!

"subgroup" would not be an inaccurate way to describe a bus.  The only reason I hesitate to give a strong yes is because  some software uses the term "subgroup" in a different way.  In simple terms a bus is a mixing path.  It can be used in the way you describe or broken down even further.  One could route all the individual parts of drum kit into a bus. You could go beyond that and route layered kicks into a kick bus and then route that bus into a drums bus.  A bus can also be used to house effects.  Instead of applying reverb directly to each track.  One can apply a reverb to a bus and have various tracks send to that bus. Probably easier to show in action:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7XErke7g4s

I wonder why it's called "bus" (nothing to do with the vehicle, I hope). And I wonder why some posters mistakenly spell it "buss."

I like it. 

dubdisciple
Origin of the term "bus".  It appears to be a shortened version of the term omnibus and evolved from there : http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/omnibus.htm

 
Thanks. That's very informative. I din't know.

Well... nobody knows...
 
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/15867-buss-bus-where-you-learned.html
 
People are blaming the British (not true!).
"Buss" is actually a kiss...
 
I still prefer what was suggested, seabass.

Well I note that the British are actually blaming the British in that thread, which is bl**dy typical! ;).

http://youtu.be/G6D1YI-41ao
 

Could we get back to how it is used?  I could care less about the history of the word.  How do people use the function?  Thanks for the vids- I will check them out later.

The videos were really helpful- Thanks!  So it is basically just a way of grouping and using it more efficiently.  Good to know!

I use buss to differentiate it from something one would take to go some place (a city bus). The first time I came across the term it had the two s's and was describing a personal computer before IBM and Apple jumped into the fray. It was a standard for building small computers. There was no motherboard just a buss that could take cards with various components like the CPU and input and output systems. 
 
I do not think it is a misspelling or a typo. However, I could be very wrong. None the less, I will continue to use the double s spelling.   
 
Now to answer the OPs question.  You have it correctly understood. A buss is a sub group that can be used for grouping like instruments for easy adjustments or for use as auxiliaries with sends and returns. Really, because the busing in Sonar is very flexible it can be used pretty much any way you may wish to.  
 
I like to have a drum buss at the bare minimum.  Then I might use an instrument buss too. I may add a vocal buss or solo buss. And so on. All those will go to the master buss and it will go to the main outs. 
 
 

I'm with Ron. I was always told (by whom I can't remember) that "buss" is the correct spelling for audio busses. I believe it originates from electronics and thus mixing desks and like many terms continues in the digital age.
 
I always thought that it was just one of those Brit/US spelling differentials.

I typically have the following busses:
 
Master
 
Reverb
 
Delay
 
OH
 
Toms
 
Drums (though certain drums havetheir own busses as indicated above, I sum them into another dedicated buss before sending to Master Buss)
 
Drum side chain buss (this will often be heavy compression to mix in with the other drum signal)
 
Acoustics
 
Backups (gives you control over the mix of the background vocals so that you only have to deal with one track).
 
LV (why not just put all the FX and sends on the LV track instead of a buss? Because often there are 5 takes, so that would mean using the same set of FX on all the 5 takes of the lead vocal-thus 5 compressors, eq's, de-essers, etc.
THis may beg the question--why don't you just make one composite track of all the takes? Well, I do that, but even when choosing takes I like to have the processing power availability because you get a good idea what the final is going to sound like. Often a take that sounds weak may be the best take if empowered with a bit of processing.)
 
And if it is a larger project, I will often have bounced down some of my big synth tracks such as Omnisphere, Storm Drum, etc. and group the high synths, low synths, into different busses.
 
 
 

Jlien X
I wonder why it's called "bus" (nothing to do with the vehicle, I hope). And I wonder why some posters mistakenly spell it "buss."

I like to think of it as a vehicle for audio going from one place to another inside of your DAW