Can anyone explain the difference between a Bus and a Send?   I'm comfortable with creating and using Buses, as the means that gets multiple FXs out of the individual Tracks, and handles that processing separately before going to the Master -  but I always thought of Sends as just a way to describe the data flow in/out of the Bus?  Why is Sends a separate function in the Create menu/options, and when do you want to create an "FX Send" rather than a Bus to place the FXs in??    I'm trying to get a better handle on this whole data flow and FX thing, and appreciate any assist or references to tutorials.  I found the CW Knowledgebase and read up on Buses but did not find any clear answer as to whether a "Send" is a whole separate function?    Thanks !      ~ John   

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Mike:  appreciate the feedback,  but now I'm still stumped because I have seen others also here referring to a  "side chain"   but I've never seen that explained clearly either!    My question is still then,  when is it best to select a Track's Out to a Bus,  and when is is best to set up a "Send" and have the Track go Out to that Send?   And what the heck is a side-chain, anyway?    *lol*    I do get what you say about underneath it all, it's all about audio streams,  and yet it must be very important in the Mix, for us to really understand when and how to route those streams to & from, the various Bus and Send options - right?          ~ John

you're asking 2 different questions.  side chaining is a completely separate issue from sends and buses.  side chaining uses sends, but you don't have to use side chaining to use sends.

regarding when to use the output to a bus and when to use a send:

sends can be useful for example if you set up a reverb bus.  you don't want to send the full 100% output of the track to the reverb bus, you typically only want to send a small percentage of it.  that's when you use a send - and you set the send amount in the send options.

however if you want to set up, for example, a bus for all vocals to be able to EQ them all equally (not sure I'd do this, but this is just an example).  you would set all of the outputs of all vocal tracks to the vocal bus, set up an EQ on that bus and that will apply the EQ to all of the vocals at the same time using only 1 instance of EQ.

note:  sends and outputs to buses are not mutually exclusive.  you can set the outputs of the vocal tracks to the EQ bus and also set up sends from each of those vocal tracks to the reverb bus.

regarding side chaining:  that's a subject which takes a lot more than I can really go into here.  I'm not an expert on it myself.  what I would suggest is that you check out some videos on youtube about sidechaining in X1.  Paul russell has a couple which were very helpful to me.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sidechaining+x1&oq=sidechaining+x1&gs_l=youtube.3...1950.5030.0.5490.15.13.0.1.1.0.400.2150.0j8j2j1j1.12.0...0.0...1ac.FKwLW2PZpi8

JD,
Take a look at this posting from a while back, posted here on the forum.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1302521

It really helped me; especially with busses I believe that he gets into the use of sends as well.

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Thanks to all of you!    First, I'm going to leave off on the side-chaining because I can see I'm not ready to get into all of that - and want to stick to the original thread of Bus and Send.    What I didn't realize was that they can be used in parallel and that makes a lot more sense now - Mike, the analogy of the y-cords that splits the signal off - excellent.    I have not noticed HOW or WHERE in a Track's "Out" settings, do I add a Send as well as Out to a Bus?  But I"ll research this and do some tests.   I will follow up on the links that you guys sent here,  thanks.   I think this is finally turning on some lightbulbs, and I can see the advantages to setting this sort of routing up now.    

Del


JD,
Take a look at this posting from a while back, posted here on the forum.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1302521

It really helped me; especially with busses I believe that he gets into the use of sends as well.

Del;  I took a close read at RobertB's  bus and sends posting - complete with great screen captures - whew!   This really is a great piece of work and I'll keep this link handy to refer to more.   There is no way I'd have been able to grasp that several years back - I was still struggling just to figure out how to hit "record" on a track...   but I'm finally at the point where I see how important these are to the mix and how to start really using these controls.  Awesome!   Thanks for the link!  

Another thing you can use a send for is prefader effects.  Usually prefader sends are used to send headphone feeds to artists.  But a prefader SEND will stream the channel sound at the set level to a reverb despite bringing down the channel volume fader to nothing.  So the "ghostly" reverbed sound will continue despite the orginial sound dissappearing.

JD, as far as your question of adding a Send as well as an Out to a bus - yes, that can be done but isn't usual. 

Channel>Bus>Output Bus (which is tied directly to your hardware output)

Channel>Send>Bus>Output Bus (the Send has to be tied to the output bus via a send bus)

Sometimes it is clearer to track back your chain.  If you want to hear it, the sound must be connected to your output Bus/Hardware.  Every track channel must be connected to the Output bus to be heard.  A track channel can go directly to the Output Bus, or to a bus or  via a Send which then goes to a Send bus connected to the Output bus.  (Send buses are automatically created when you insert a Send on a track channel)
 
As long as you make sure something you want to hear is connected to the Output bus, you are good to go.  The rest is gravy.   A send just lets you "tap" off the channel signal before it continues on its merry channel route to the output bus, giving you 2 separate signals (or more if you use more than one send).

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  Commenting on Mikes explanation of the sends. Using one reverb for instance with several sends can save valuable cpu by not running extra reverb plug-ins.

 One other thing that helped me was looking at the rock template already made in X-1. If you trace those feeds and how they work you can learn a lot about using sends.

 Side chaining isn't really as difficult as it seems. One channel simply sends a signal into the side chain effect of another channel and the signal at the side chain input influences the plug-in,lets say a compressor. So a bass track can have a side chain compressor fed by the kick drum track and this can compress the bass every time the kick drum hits leaving room for it in the mix.