To buss or not to buss?!?!?!?

[chevybusa]

Hello everyone. I've been using Logic Pro 9 for quite some time now, and while I wouldn't exactly consider myself a noobie, I definitely have a lot to learn. It finally hit me today due to something I was doing in Logic that I'm wondering if there is any sort of authoritative guide or standard operating procedure on when to buss an effect vs. when to just use it directly in the channel as an insert (especially with regard to how Logic Pro 9 is designed as that's what I'm using). Certain basic principles I'm familiar with, but to be honest a lot of it has been trial an error for me so far as to whether having the effect (whether it be a compressor, EQ, phaser, delay, reverb, flanger, some really crazy effect, or a whole self contained thing like TRacks 3 or Ozone 4 etc. etc.) directly inserted in the channel gives me the best result OR if bussing said effect via a bus send gives the better result. If anyone knows of any written guide on this that is considered the standard on this matter or can offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance for all your help!!!!

[WRGKMC]

Sorry, there is no written guide and even less established reasons since digital came about.

Following a guide is like painting by numbers.

It may be a learning excercise for someone really green could follow to figure out how things work.

But theres zero creativity in that. Its would also be dumb luck if you got something to sound good that way.

 

Think of it this way, When people recorded analog and thay had a few very expensive hardware units at their disposal,

engineers developed busses to feed those effects units. They even built most of the boards and effects themselves, after all,

they were actual electronics engineers who had the ability to design electronic circuits.

Everything recording was a combination of trial and error and extremely well thought out work flows using electronics.

Take Tom Dowd for example who recorded hunderds of bands including Almond brothers, Clapton, all kinds of jazz bands, you name it.

That guy was a nuclear physisist before he got into recording. He had the mind developed before he even got into the recording and

came up with all kinds of ground breaking techniques. Its unlikely most of us will develop truely new techniques that havent been used before

but rediscivering them and applying them to the arrangements is whats truely fun.

 

So back then they had to bus things through effects because they didnt have any other options recording with minimal tracks, often only two or three.

The good part about it is it worked, and worked well.

 

In digital allot of those methods developed carried over to digital. In earley digital computer resources were limited and plugins sucked up most of those resources.

You often bussed things to pass multiple items through a single plugin because the DAW programs and computer system would crash otherwise.

 

With high speed DAWs and huge amounts of hard drive space and memory its becoming less and less an issue.

You do it when its good for the music or to save resources, not for any other reason.

There are plugins and methods of using those plugins that work better in a bus vs running the same plugin with the same settings in separate tracks.

A multiband comp is something that works great on a complete drumset to jell the thing together and sound like a single set --- A reverb on the rythum section may give the

backing band some distance from a solo singer. Things like that can be used creatively, but you got to think creatively to use them.

 

Best thing you can do is study recording history.

Theres a bunch of sites that give engineer stories about how they bussed things together and got a particular sound on a recording.

They can be a gold mine of information. Also think of your plugins as actual hardware units and remind yourself, If I only had one of these how could I use it most effectively.

The answer is obvious. You do specific things through nessesity, theres no magic script. Once you get a good method you then move on to another method if you dont want your sound to get stale.

[chevybusa]

Holy {censored} man!!! Thank you for so much for such a huge amount of info!!! I certainly had no idea about the history, and that definitely makes things "fall into place" so to speak. I will definitely be searching for those sites you mentioned, if you can recall the exact URLs of any offhand I'd appreciate it!

 

I can't tell you how much it clears things up and what a help it is. I had knonw about the reverb, but I tried that multiband comp on a drumset and you weren't kidding, it was great, and it was something I NEVER would have thought of!!! Your guidelines have given me a lot to think about and a whole new approach and I'm sure will in time make my recordings much much better. Thanks again!!!!

[WRGKMC]

Tape ops is a good magazine. http://www.tapeop.com/

 

EQ magazine http://www.eqmag.com/Techniques

 

Mix magazine http://mixonline.com/recording/mixing/

 

Recording magazine http://www.recordingmag.com/

 

Sond on Sound http://www.soundonsound.com/

[chevybusa]

Excellent man, thank you so much, I just got through bookmarking all of them and am about to start going through them. Thank you once again for all your help I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!!!!

[JMR]

I love TapeOp. I've learned a ton of stuff since subscribing. They feature engineers/producers from all across the spectrum of music, from Bob Dylan to the underground punk scene. It's helped me understand the terminology, technology and all that, which I didn't know the first thing about before.