2. Buses and routing
How to group the mix into buses, what processing goes on each one, and the difference between a bus and an effects channel.
A mix with no buses is 30 loose faders. With buses, it’s four groups you can move at once. And processing a whole group makes its tracks sound like one instrument.
The structure
In Studio One, select a group’s tracks and use Add Bus for Selected Channels. They all then output through the new bus.
Bus or effects channel
They look alike and do different things.
Bus: the whole signal passes through
Tracks output through it. What you do on the bus affects the whole group, and its fader moves the whole group. It’s for glue compression and general EQ.
Effects channel: the signal gets copied
Tracks keep going their own way and send a copy via a send. What comes out of the channel gets added to the original. It’s for reverb, delay and parallel compression.
What goes on each bus
It glues the six tracks so they sound like one kit. Too fast an attack eats the hit of the kick and snare.
It brings the low layer and saturated layer together, so they move as one. If you already compressed on the layer, there's no need to repeat it.
Distorted guitars already come compressed, so this is a light touch. The most useful thing on this bus is usually the EQ: what you do here applies to the whole wall at once.
It makes the lead, doubles and harmonies sound like a group, and leaves you a single fader to set all the vocals against the band.
Setting up buses early changes how you balance and saves you adjustments. Adding them at the end doesn't break anything, but you have to recheck the level of the plugins you've already added.
A rhythm bus, optional
If you send drums, bass and guitars to the same bus, with 1 to 2 dB of compression, the vocal stays out of that effect: the foundation moves together and the vocal doesn’t rise and fall with the kick. It’s a finishing touch. If you’re still building the mix, leave it for later.
The Main channel
Everything ends up here. Watch the meter and don’t add the limiter yet: if you saturate, lower the buses, not the Main. Gentle glue compression is optional and best added at the end, when the balance is settled.
Common mistakes
What NOT to chase yet
Quick path: buses
Quick path
- Create buses for drums, bass, guitars and vocals.
- Check that they all output to the Main.
- Create effects channels for reverb and delay.
- Check the balance with the bus faders.
- Add light compression only where it improves something.
- Keep the Main with peaks of −6 dBFS at most.
Expected result
Expected result
A mix you can handle with four faders, with each group sounding like a unit and no punch lost. What comes next is a different way of compressing, which adds density without taking away attack: parallel compression.