Hello, all. Hope you have had a good week. So I've decided to delve into the wacky world of bus sends and could use some tips. I have a track folder crammed with lead guitar snippets. I wanted to keep the individual clips separated in their own tracks but wanted to pan each part out so instead of cloning each track I set up a left and right bus so I can pan them there. Now I have group inserted two sends on each track going to the left and right buses. I've set the main output thingy to none so I'm just dealing with the sends (as per scooks advice about a month ago). I'm assuming this is going to work as intended (but if not I'd like to hear suggestions as to other ways to approach this).

My only REAL question at the moment is the little "Post" button. What does that do and how should I be using it? I currently have it on for all tracks (default). Above that if anyone has some creative insights or general thoughts and suggestions about using sends I would be more than appreciative. Any good online resources,  entries in the manuals or the X1 Power Book on this subject would be good too. No rush. I'm just poking away at this. Cheers. :-)

The "Post" means the send is after the track fader. It matters if you are adjusting the track volume and want it to affect the send level.

Ugh... my monkey brain isn't processing that. Sorry. Could you give an example? Cheers.

Okay... the gears are kind of turning. I want the track fader to control what gets sent to the busses. So turn it off?

Post fader send lets you control the level sent to the aux buss when you adjust the track fader. Pre fader send wont do that. 

Leave it on "Post" and the track fader affects the send level. Set it to "Pre" and the track fader does not affect the send level. "Post" is the default and probably what you want in this case.

Okay. Cool. Thanks, guys. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around how that works but I'll read up on it more later. Just want to get this track done because the meatworld beckons. Routing stuff has always messed me up for some reason. Gotta really get my synapses in shape for this type of thing. I didn't even know what the heck busses really were until a a few months ago. Derp. ;-)

Beep you've come a long way in a very short time. 

Sonar's CV is based on a hardware mixer only its not confined by a limitation in the number of routs a signal can take. 

Its not too complicated either. If you understand one track/buss you understand them all. 

Basically:  If you have a "Pre-fader" send, the level going to the send bus won't change when you adjust to track volume.  But a "Post-fader" send will... since it's sent post/after the fader changes the level.  This image might help.  It comes from http://blog.cakewalk.com/an-audio-journey-through-the-signal-path-in-sonar-x1/:

Thanks, John. The help and encouragement from yourself, Mr. scook and the other fine forum denizens have been invaluable. I'm a little thick at times but I find actually just doing something, even if I screw it up, then reviewing the concepts after the fact is my best path to learning. Little backwards but whatever gets ya from a to b, eh?

As far as hardware mixers even though I've worked with tons of them over the years in my live days I always found the Aux's and sends and whatsamawhosits very confusing. Dealing with software versions has helped massively just because there aren't any physical cables and other nonsense in the way.

BTW... I've found my new room. I'll finally have enough space to set things up properly. Can't wait. :-)