What is a mixer bus and why do I need them?
News FeedA bus is basically a path in which you can route one or more audio signals to a particular destination. Destinations can include groups, auxiliary sends, stereo mix, foldback or monitor. Commonly busses are used to route channel signals to a master group fader, a multitrack recorder, or the main stereo master fader (or all).
In live sound applications it is favourable to have a number of busses available to use. This is due to the fact that as audio channels can be bussed together and controlled by one group fader, it frees up the hands of the engineer and gives him/her less faders to have to control on the fly. It should be noted that although the master group fader does have control over the level of the summed audio in the group, the individual levels will remain with the offset set on the channel fader.
In Studio applications, busses can be used to group signals together for recording when there are too many channels of audio for them all to be sent to your multitracker/interface/soundcard. Busses are also commonly used to create a foldback headphone mix for the musician(s) to listen to. If you are using a smaller mixing desk for home recording there is not great need for a great number of busses - although it is good to have an auxilliary send and/or in built effects.
If you have any more queries about mixer busses or other mixer functions feel free to contact one of our staff here at Dolphin Music.
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