Hello,
My question is this.  I often route certain tracks to their own bus.  On this bus I might add reverb, comp etc.  I do this just by routing the output of the tracks to the bus.  I know also that this same thing can be accomplished by creating a Send form each of those tracks to a bus.  My question is this--How do you decide which method is best?  When would you choose one method over the other?  I appreciate ahead of time for anyone helping me 
understand this.
Thanks,
Mack

Unless you're trying to do something quite unconventional, the best, easiest and most logical way is to always go via a send.

The main problem with going via your outputs is that if you want to lower the amount of reverb via the bus fader, you're also lowering the "dry" signal at the same time, making your mix go out of balance.

Gt your m ix working in terms of levels via their own track faders, then add whatever reverb you want into a bus and set up sends from whatever tracks you think might benefit from it

Compressors/gates etc should, in normal use, be inserted into the Fx bin of the track you want to process.

The only time I route outputs of tracks to busses is for grouping purposes - i.e. I'll have a buss for drums/vocal/guitars etc, so they can be raised or lowered all together with one buss fader.

There is functionally no difference between using a Send versus routing the track's main output to a bus. You can think of the primary track output as the default Send. 

So the question is really: why add a second Send? In reality, you could get by just fine with a DAW that lacked aux sends altogether. 

But you wouldn't be able to set up separate headphone mixes, for example, and all your effects would have to feature wet/dry mix controls in order to control or automate the amount of effect. And that's the main reason for using Sends: setting up parallel signal paths so that effects can be controlled independently of the main path.

The answer to the question really depends on what you are trying to do. As a rough rule of thumb if you want the 'dry' track output use a send, if you don't use the output. That's simplified but generally true.

Bristol_Jonesey


The only time I route outputs of tracks to busses is for grouping purposes - i.e. I'll have a buss for drums/vocal/guitars etc, so they can be raised or lowered all together with one buss fader.

Hi Jonesy
 
Too clarify, does that mean you output all your drums to a stereo buss then set up a send from there to a reverb buss? You don't send from every drum channel to a reverb buss?
 
Thanks
Dean (from a freezing cold Bridgwater)

Also, out of curiosity (and apologies to the op for hyjacking)
 
Is there any rule for sending all instruments to one reverb buss so to give everything the same sense of space or can you use multiple reverb busses for different instruments?
 
Basically loking for tips to glue all the instruments together without the drum soundsing like it was done in a room and then the vocals in a cave. I want them to sound as a unit an not from different session, if you get what I mean?
 
Thanks
Dean

I'm always looking for ways to streamline how I do things to take stress off my CPU. Being a guitar player, I'm very in tune to latency since everything I do is in the box using Guitar Rig 4.

So I've been forcing myself to use Sends now for Reverb and other effects, but there was a time when I would put them on every track.
You start getting up around 10 instances of Sonitus Reverb, and you'll start to see some noticeable latency when trying to track guitar or sing with in the box effects.

So I use one Reverb on a bus, and use Sends now.

I've noticed it on a couple of songs now where I froze the track, bypassed the Reverb send, and I still heard Reverb. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but it turned out to be that somehow I froze the Send Reverb and it was still being applied via the Send. I'm sure there's some logical reason why that I'm not aware of, but bouncing and freezing are some other things to consider in this process as well.

Dean,

your getting into the art, not science.   A lot of the standard methodologies come from the analog world and the fact only the largest studios had unlimited reverbs, compressors, etc.  This way of working (bus or send, fish or bait) was (and is) a good and standarized way of working.

If you need a headphone mix use a send.  That way you can vary the amount of each track sent the headphone(s).  Use a second send to set up a differerent headphone mix.  You can't really alter the amount sent to a bus w/o using a send pot.  The same goes for reverb or any other effect.  If you want a "room" reverb to emulate a band in a room use a send.  that way you can vary the amount of each track that fires the reverb.  Less on drums, less on bass.  More on vocals.  Even more on backing reverbs to make them seem farther back.

Buses are used to treat instrument groups - usually.  Guitars go to the guitar bus.  So not only are the guitars individually treated for vol, compression and eq, but also that treatment on the bus, along w/ a little reverb maybe, so they sound more alike and breath the same way w/ the bus compression.  You might want to shunt the lead guitar to the master to make it sound different.  Vocals, same.  Drums, same.

It is just easier to use different routing to accomplish certain goals.  As to your specific questions - I usually just put a drum reverb on the bus - no need for a send, unless the kick (usually) causes to much bloom in the reverb and mucks up the other sounds.  There are no rules for reverb.  a live rock n roll song or cd often calls for the same reverb blush over the entire thing.  but even here a send is useful for keeping the bloom out of bass instruments.  And the vocal w/ usually have a different reverb treatment, whether it goes to the overall 'verb or not.  So yes and no on "one space."  How you decide what sounds good is the art part - and how you get your sound.  You want the whole thing to cohere, but shaped reverbS can do that, even if you don't have a "room reverb." 

The main thing I do w/ reverbs is turn down the wet.  Most presets are set at 50/50 - I seldom go over 30% for inline work.  If you put a reverb on a send turn it to %100 wet and use the send knob to control how much signal gets wet.

@

deanx

Is there any rule for sending all instruments to one reverb buss so to give everything the same sense of space or can you use multiple reverb busses for different instruments? 
 
Basically loking for tips to glue all the instruments together without the drum soundsing like it was done in a room and then the vocals in a cave. I want them to sound as a unit an not from different session, if you get what I mean?
 
Thanks
Dean

As a general rule, and this is mine, not sure if it's what is widely accepted, I send my Bass dry to the Master bus. I then put a separate Reverb in the FX Bin of the Kick Drum, or more times no Reverb at all. The Kick and Bass can muddy up Reverb, so I keep them separate. Everything else, unless I'm doing a special effect, I use one Reverb in a bus as a Send.


Then I put Reverb on the Master Bus and use that as kind of a glue. Most of the time you can't even hear it, but if you enable/disable it you hear 'something' is different.


So I usually have 3 Reverb's. Kick, all other tracks, and Master. Unless, like I said, I have a special effect I'm doing, then I put it in the FX Bin of the track I'm working with.

deanx

Bristol_Jonesey


The only time I route outputs of tracks to busses is for grouping purposes - i.e. I'll have a buss for drums/vocal/guitars etc, so they can be raised or lowered all together with one buss fader.

Hi Jonesy
 
Too clarify, does that mean you output all your drums to a stereo buss then set up a send from there to a reverb buss? You don't send from every drum channel to a reverb buss?
 
Thanks
Dean (from a freezing cold Bridgwater)

No - I will insert a send from each of the drum tracks that need reverb to the reverb buss.

You can then use the send level to determine exactly how much reverb is added to the composite sound.

Using this scheme, the total dry drum volume can be raised/lowered via the drum buss fader.
The total reverb contribution can be raised/lowered with the reverb buss fader