How does the signal flow works when it comes to track stacks, specifically bussing a track stack?

[KillianJ]

I have layered vocals in a track stack. I tried a plugin in the chain but it's to intense and doesn't have a dry/wet knob, so I figured I'll bus it instead: but when I enable it all the way, it doesn't sound at all like it does when I have it in my chain. The placement in the chain doesn't seem to matter, as long as it's in the chain it sounds (more or less) exactly the same, but when I bus it out, even when I turn the bus all the way up, I can hear something but barely anything at all. I have two other busses with plugins on and those sound exactly the same as they do in the chain.

 

Do any of you have any idea of what could be going on? I assume it got something to do with the signal flow but it really doesn't make any sense to me. Thank you in advance for any help! 

[des99]

By "bus it out", do you mean you set the Output of the track stack to a Bus and therefore new Aux channel strip (a serial routing configuration), or do you mean you create a Send to send it to a Bus and therefore a new Aux channel strip (a parallel routing configuration)?

Or something else?

Edited April 25, 2022 by des99

[KillianJ]

I'm a newbie to sends so to be completely honest I don't really know which of the options you wrote I do, but I think it's the latter. Here's how I do it: 

 

On the main summing stack strip (where every plugin effects every track in the stack) underneath where it says "audio fx" and you put all your plugins in I just press where it says "sends" and then I choose an empty bus and then on that bus I put the plugin I want bussed.

[des99]

Yes, you don't want to do that.

These are very basic mixer routing fundamentals and you need to understand these techniques as they will help you achieve what you want. I know in another thread someone posted some diagrams which may help.

Basically, when you send to a bus, you are leaving the source track going to the main output as normal, and creating a second copy to another aux channel strip, which you can process with plugins, and that processed signal also gets mixed in with the original dry signal and the main output. You essentially get two different channels in parallel, the original dry track, and the second processed track, mixed together.

What you probably want is to set the *output* of the first track, to the bus, and insert your plugins there. (Ie don't use sends at all).

What this does is feed your source track directly to the aux channel strip, through the plugins, and then to the stereo mix, so you are only hearing one signal processed by those plugins (ie, you're not mixing in a second copy of the dry, unprocessed signal).

Edited April 25, 2022 by des99

[KillianJ]

Whoa, I'm so glad I asked the question so I could find out the whole way I went about it was wrong, haha. 

 

Thank you so much for your answer! I don't really get it yet, but I'll study this until I do. Good sign for me to take a deep dive into signal flows. 

 

Thank you again!

[des99]

You're welcome! If you're unsure of anything, you can always ask here and we'll try to help!

[KillianJ]

Thank you! I came up with two questions now straight away regarding this:

 

1. How do I set the output of the first track to a bus?

 

And when you say first track, do you mean the channel strip of the summing stack then? 

 

2. Because this whole signal flow/bussing thing is kind of overwhelming for me now, I figured a temporary solution until I understand how everything works would be to just do my Eq, compression, delay & reverb on the stacks the way I want it, bounce that, then import those files to do the saturation (which is what I had issues with bussing earlier) because then it's not sending a copy of the dry signal that I'll mix in, it's sending a copy of the signal with the right eq, compression etc etc that I want so then it's not an issue that it's a copy of the signal. Am I thinking correctly, like would it make any sense for me to go about it that way now as a temporarily solution/would it be better then how I'm doing it now? 

 

 

[des99]

7 minutes ago, KillianJ said:

1. How do I set the output of the first track to a bus?

Every channel has an output setting. By default they are probably set to "Stereo Out" but you can change this to other outputs, busses, or so on, to route that track somewhere else.

8 minutes ago, KillianJ said:

And when you say first track, do you mean the channel strip of the summing stack then? 

I don't know exactly what you want to achieve, but you need to think in terms of "where is this channel going to" and "where do I want a copy of this channel going to".

Some experiments on a simple test project are probably easier to try out routing and get clear on the concepts, rather than right in the middle of a complex mix. Once you get your head around it, it's pretty straightforward, and you should be fine from there.

[KillianJ]

Thank you SO much again Des!