buss trouble

[DJRecklessRick]

hey this is probs something simple that i dont understand but you guys def know. okay so i have 2 tracks of chorus vocals. i want to bus both tracks to the same bus so i created a bus called "vox"
under sends i checked off "vox" but it won't let me bring up my eq for the vox bus. i want to put compression and reverb on that bus.
and if i didnt send them to a bus, and just put compression and reverb as inserts, whats the difference?

[sparqee]

The advantage of bussing the tracks to an aux and compressing/verb'ing there is that you only need to use one compressor & one reverb. If you put compressors & verb's on the individual tracks then you have multiple instances that you need to spend time tweaking individually. There's also that matter that if you mix (bus) the tracks together and then compress them they will "breath" together (i.e. the compressor will affect them together) rather than two compressors affecting each track in a unique way. If you're unfamiliar with compressors this may be hard to make sense of, I know.

So, there's nothing "wrong" with either approach. Using a bus can save you time and processor power but it can also reduce your flexibility (i.e. compressing each track differently). Reverbs tend to be rather CPU hungry so if you have a lot of them running you're likely to over-tax your computer. Put one on an FX send and use it for multiple track sends.

[tacman7]

When your using a bus like you described, you wouldn't use sends at all, just set the tracks output to the bus. Then click the "e" on the bus in the mixer to put inserts in the bus.

[DJRecklessRick]

okay i figured out how to work my busses and thanks for the info, it actually makes sense. i had so many compressors and inserts my track kept skipping badly.
what about mastering via sending to a bus? i have a limiter insert but not sure how to work it exactly