Well the busses would definitely be going to the Master (related tracks > instrument bus > Master) but I'm not seeing the benefit of having the tracks outputting directly to the Master in addition to that (tracks > instrument bus AND master > instrument bus to master). Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Cheers.

I like to have a master buss a drum buss and often an instrument buss. Sometimes I have more buses for leads and so on. I often have 1 or 2 aux buses too. I have on occasion had tracks out directly to the master buss. 

I create buses depending on the song itself. Its a matter of both convenience and logical order.

Beepster


So for quite a while I have been setting my track outputs to None and then using sends to route out to various instrument and FX busses. Now I'm reconsidering this strategy and might use the track outputs to go to main instrument busses and only using sends to output to FX busses and the like. So I was wondering how everyone approaches this and what their reasoning is. Just looking for the pros/cons of both methods. Cheers.

That makes more sense Beepster to use the faders rather then the send knobs to mix. Generally sends are used to output to shared effects such as reverb and only returning the wet signal of the reverb. 


That being said I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do it. What ever works. Sonars mixer design is loosely based on an analog console. Loosely being the key term.


Side rant:
One thing I never understood about sonars routing is why we can't assign a track to multiple outputs like you can do on an analog console? I know, use sends! But since sonars console design is based on an analog console, including its unneccesary limitations, doesn't make sense you can't do this.  And since I'm off topic a little why no mention mute. We are on how many versions later since automated mute has been added and the code hasn't been patched to make one mute that is has automation like any other console parameter and records the automation from a control surface?

All of my track outs go to busses, then, subsequently to the Master buss, which, in turn goes to the hardware. I always prefer submixing, because it's easier to apply a subtle compressor or peak limiter on, say a drum buss. I usually put my Overheads and hi-hat mics into a separate buss, so those are natural, but have the close-mics go through the aforementioned Drums buss with compression. I also have separate Parallel-Compresson and Reverb busses. 

I will have as many as 12 submix busses if I'm engaged in a loudness war match. there's some neat tricks you can do that way, which will make your recording sound more analog, meanwhile retaining clarity and punch. 

Sending all tracks to a master buss can be a bit overwhelming when you're trying to troubleshoot a mix. 

It is common practice to have busses for groups of instruments, such as "Guitars" or "Vocals" so that you can alter the level of them all together relative to the other "groups.  You can also add gentle bus compression etc. to help them "gel".  For these, you would assign the tracks outputs to the bus.  Using sends for this would be pointless, and not work.
 
For effects busses e.g. reverb, you would use sends.
 
HTH

Hi John/WDI... I think I've decided to use the track outputs for the main output for busses as suggested. I figure it's better than juggling an extra send on each track. This is turning into quite the routing adventure as it is. I currently have about a dozen busses going and will likely be adding a few more for parallel compression and delay. May seem like overkill but after watching/reading a bunch of advanced mixing tuts I think it's really gonna help with the type of stuff I do and make things less complicated once I get my track levels set. Essentially getting all my clones and doubles leveled out then leaving them alone. Then mix with the busses. Makes sense to me anyway. Cheers.

I know a lot of members want more routing options but for me I find the way Sonar routs is as complicated as I can deal with and meets my needs completely. I know they may be very meager as compared to others. 

One more thought, I have found due to the PC I don't use as many aux buses as I once did. ProChannel has caused me to rethink how I go about setting a project up. Having a channel strip on every track and buss has me rethinking the whole idea behind a project. 

After seeing how routing is done in Pro Tools I am very happy with the way things work in Sonar. Sure there could be a little extra flexibility but the PT way just seems crazy/unnecessarily confusing to me. I like having a the very defined and obvious difference between tracks and busses in Sonar. Mind you I've never worked with analog aside from little cassette based multi trackers so I'm assuming PT is a little more similar to how things used to be in older studios.

Although I usually do have instrument submix and aux send busses like most everyone else, John's comment here sums it up best for me:   

I create buses depending on the song itself.

 
I've had occasional songs with no submix busses at all, where all tracks go directly to the master bus.  In those cases I simply had no need for the additional busses, so why bother.    It's not the norm for me, but it has happened...   But most of the time I prefer the ability grab one fader or envelope and adjust a series of related tracks together, same for FX that help glue things together.  
 
 

Right or wrong, here is what I do:
• By default, every track output goes to Master.
• For things I want to control with one fader (like background choir), I mix all the tracks relative to each other and then rather than using a Send, I just set the output of each track to the group bus (like Female Harmonies, or whatever) rather than to Master.
• I personally do not send all drums to a separate bus because I typically like to tweak the individual volumes; however, people who compress or use other master drum effects commonly create a drum bus.
• I currently only use Send for effects like reverb, but in the past have used it to create special mixes for headsets or other things.
• I do not see any advantage to sending every track to a bus and then to Master, but maybe I am missing something.