Who's Using An Instrument Bus?

**brandondrury** · 10-06-2011, 10:59 AM

Okay, "Instrument" bus is probably a bad label. I actually call it a "Music" bus when I mix, which is even more vague.

For the past month or so I've been sending ALL tracks (except vocals) to a bus, tossing VERY VERY light compression (often 1dB max), and maybe a UAD Pultec for harmonic content set to 0 on everything.

This has been incredibly useful for me to notch out little areas to help the vocals cut through particularly in the 1-2k region, but sometimes in the 3-5k ballpark.

It does take 2 minutes to setup, but I find it worth it in a hurry.

I was curious if anyone else has tried working this way.

Brandon

**m24p** · 10-06-2011, 11:22 AM

It takes 2 minutes to set up? Strange.

Anyway, I'm experimenting with some workflow changes to my mixing, and it involves making a lot of folders (busses). I don't mix much because it's only a hobby, so I have little to report other than it looks promising so far. We'll see after I get several mixes done this way if I like it.

Currently I plan to have 3 top level folders:

Rhythm/Percussion
Musical Instruments
Vocals
(optional) FX

I haven't decided if bass should go in the Rhythm folder or the Instruments folder yet.

**EnSkorSang** · 10-06-2011, 03:04 PM

I've started playing around with sending everything except drums and vox to a group channel after seeing it on pensados place

I've found it really useful for notching out a couple of db in the whole mix to either help the vocals float on top or let a problem drum like a snare or tom to come through more.
I've also played with widening the whole music group (with delay or imagers) to seperate the music a bit more from the vocal.

**LRM** · 10-06-2011, 04:56 PM

I only just started sending things to group busses I didn't even know what a group bus was until the project I'm on now and how much easier things have gotten. I don't have vocals (yet - and may not at all) but I have the group set for them which is separate from the music group which everything else dumps into for just the purpose of touching them up independently of each other. In fact, the drums hit 2 groups before the music group - individual drum types then a drum mix. It makes working so much easier... just wish it would make me better! LOL

**venuestudio** · 10-06-2011, 05:07 PM

Not to a single bus, but I always bus like instruments. Usually it goes drums, bass, gtrs, vox, keys and a couple fx buses. I bring up everything but the vox to get the music to gel then add the vox after the fact.

**garageband** · 10-06-2011, 06:07 PM

I like this for parallel compression and sometimes some "make it sound like a record" EQ. Yes, it takes about 2 minutes to set up... on my console's patchbay! Take that, all you "Oh, analog is so time-consuming..." people. Of course, I will not be discussing how long it took to wire my patchbay to my console and all outboard gear.

**shackman** · 10-07-2011, 12:08 AM

Interesting. Enskor. DO you KEEP the bussed mix for the final mixdown, or is it just a tool to allow notching and is discarded before final mix?

**EnSkorSang** · 10-07-2011, 12:26 AM

Not sure I understand..if I discarded it, I'd lose the EQ I applied??
It stays there all the way. Once I've got the levels of the instruments good relative to each other, then I would group them (or send them to their own buss) so I can control the level of the instruments relative to the drums and vox. EQ on the instrument buss I'd do towards the end and only if it's needed.

**bholst** · 10-07-2011, 02:21 PM

I generally set up as follows:
all Vocals go to a vox bus, all drums and perc to a drum bus, bass to a bass bus, guitars (elec) to guitar bus, all folk instruments (acoustic, fiddle, mand., etc) to folk bus, etc. All those busses go to a '2mix' bus where I apply bus comp and maybe have a mastering eq and limiter for fake master. 2mix goes to a master fader which I keep totally clean. The nice thing about that setup is that I can not only apply effects or whatever to an entire group at once, but I can also mute entire groups during mixing to troubleshoot, etc. (ie, pull out all vox). Can come in handy for some automation too. I just have a template for this so setup is nothing at all. Works fantastic for me.

**chckn8r** · 10-07-2011, 03:47 PM

I've done that / do that. I've sent things to "group busses" (drumz, guitarz, keyz...) and then all non-vocal / solo tracks and busses to a single bus before the final mix bus to "notch" - it's usually a wide, shallow (typically not more than 2-3dB) scoop between 200-1000 (depends on male/female). I've also notched out a bit around 4kHz before if there's some presence in the vox that I want to cut through a bit more...