Old 05-20-2019, 07:40 PM   #1
sjs94704
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Default Question about BUSSING tracks together

Hey, ALL;

Yes, I know that in mixing there are tons of ways to go about so many things, so I'm not looking for an absolute here....

I was watching a video on YouTube by Warren Hunt and it was about 10 things that he says that mixers do on almost every mix.

One of the items he mentions is about BUSING tracks together in order to as he says to give more control. He mentioned that in the case of guitars, they don't all automatically get bused together and it depends on the TYPE of guitars they are..

Here are all the instruments in my current song:

Track:

1. DRUMS (since it is pre-recorded music, the drums come all on one track)
2. Tamboreene
3. BASS Guitar
4. Acoustic Guitar (mono)
5. Acoustic Guitar (Stereo)
6. Electric Guitar
7. Distorted Electric Guitar
8. Lead Electric Guitar
9. Rhythm Electric Guitar (Arpegio)
10. Electric Piano
11. Strings

So, if you were going to BUSS these tracks, how would YOU do it?
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Old 05-21-2019, 03:49 AM   #2
Coachz
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Busses

DRUMS (since it is pre-recorded music, the drums come all on one track)

Misc
.. Tambourine

BASS Guitar

Ac Guitars
.. Acoustic Guitar (mono)
.. Acoustic Guitar (Stereo)

El Guitars
.. Electric Guitar
.. Distorted Electric Guitar
.. Lead Electric Guitar
.. Rhythm Electric Guitar (Arpegio)

Keys
.. Electric Piano
.. Strings

If you find a buss needs a very different treatment like say for a lead guitar or strings just pull the track out of the buss
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Old 05-21-2019, 01:28 PM   #3
Greg Savage
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Similar how Coachz has above


However, I'd take it one step further and have a bus for different sections of the song

For an example: If the song is ABA (verse hook, verse)

I'll have a bus for each section

A SECTION

DRUMS (since it is pre-recorded music, the drums come all on one track)

Misc
.. Tambourine

BASS Guitar

Ac Guitars
.. Acoustic Guitar (mono)
.. Acoustic Guitar (Stereo)

El Guitars
.. Electric Guitar
.. Distorted Electric Guitar
.. Lead Electric Guitar
.. Rhythm Electric Guitar (Arpegio)

Keys
.. Electric Piano
.. Strings

B SECTION

DRUMS (since it is pre-recorded music, the drums come all on one track)

Misc
.. Tambourine

BASS Guitar

Ac Guitars
.. Acoustic Guitar (mono)
.. Acoustic Guitar (Stereo)

El Guitars
.. Electric Guitar
.. Distorted Electric Guitar
.. Lead Electric Guitar
.. Rhythm Electric Guitar (Arpegio)

Keys
.. Electric Piano
.. Strings


This allows me to control the energy of the track per section

Last edited by Greg Savage; 05-21-2019 at 01:38 PM.
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Old 05-21-2019, 02:00 PM   #4
serr
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It's all about ease of control.

Example:
Let's say you have a guitar part that is performed in two or more layers (ie double tracked).

First, you get the balance between those two tracks.

Later in the mix process, you want to treat that guitar part as a single entity. (It's "the guitar part" in your head. It isn't "the separate components that make that guitar part" or some such.) You want to grab a single fader and work the volume of that "guitar part" without fussing over the balance between the raw components of it.

So, you assign those tracks to a bus and then work the level of the bus track.

The idea is you intuitively grab the faders to adjust the levels to what you want to hear. Busing is all about making that easy and intuitive.


In contrast, a simple recording might be more intuitive and easy to adjust right from the raw tracks because there isn't anything else going on.

You could do it either way and the resulting mix would be identical. Busing is a workflow tool.

I was using volume level in that example.
It can get complex too.
Adding compression to a bus for example.
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