Difference between sending to Aux track vs stereo bus

[Michael Reynolds]

Just wondering if someone could explain the difference between sending to an aux track vs a stereo bus. 

eg. If I wanted to blend a delayed vocal track with the main vocal, would I be better using a post fader send from the main vocal track to a delay effect on an aux track or stereo bus?

Any help would be appreciated!

[Billy86]

One major difference is that you could record what you’re blending on an aux track, but not a bus. You could then mute/freeze/hide the individual tracks to reduce CPU load and capture some screen real estate and you still have the original source tracks If you need them later to make changes. You can also position an aux track amid the tracks you’re sending to it in the console view, in effect having the convenience of a group bus amid the tracks it controls. Drums, guitars, vocals, etc. Think VCAs. Personally, I find this a lot more convenient than having to hassle with the bus view section, which can consume a bunch of screen space if you have a good number of busses, or you have to keep opening and closing. 

[scook]

7 minutes ago, Billy86 said:

One major difference is that you could record what you’re blending on an aux track, but not a bus. 

Buses may be bounced to a track. This may be much faster than recording an Aux track.

9 minutes ago, Billy86 said:

You could then mute/freeze/hide the individual tracks to reduce CPU load and capture some screen real estate and you still have the original source tracks If you need them later to make changes

Mute does nothing to reduce CPU load or memory use, freeze does though. So does archive and disconnecting synths without the risk of losing data from thawing tracks. 

 

A bounced bus track is an audio track so it exists in the track pane.

 

For the most part Aux tracks and buses may be used the same way. 

It is up to personal preference.

[John Vere]

3 minutes ago, scook said:

For the most part Aux tracks and buses may be used the same way. 

It is up to personal preference.

Exactly!  There's no correct answer to this question. Everybody has a different workflow and Cakewalk gives you a lot of options when it comes to creative routing. 

You try different options until you find the combination that works best for you. 

[azslow3]

I have not checked for a while... but from what I know, if you use (or plan to use) control surfaces, AUX sends is not a good option...

 

[msmcleod]

6 minutes ago, azslow3 said:

I have not checked for a while... but from what I know, if you use (or plan to use) control surfaces, AUX sends is not a good option...

 

I guess this depends... if you're happy having the aux tracks hidden in either the track view or console view, you could hide them in one of those views and set your control surface to take their tracks from the one where the aux tracks are hidden.

[Billy86]

58 minutes ago, scook said:

Buses may be bounced to a track. This may be much faster than recording an Aux track.

Mute does nothing to reduce CPU load or memory use, freeze does though. So does archive and disconnecting synths without the risk of losing data from thawing tracks. 

 

A bounced bus track is an audio track so it exists in the track pane.

 

For the most part Aux tracks and buses may be used the same way. 

It is up to personal preference.

If you don’t mute a frozen track, does it still produce audio? I thought it did, that’s why I freeze/mute if I record to aux track and it produces the audio. 

[scook]

Just now, Billy86 said:

If you don’t mute a frozen track, does it still produce audio? I thought it did, that’s why I freeze/mute if I record to aux track and it produces the audio. 

Yes, frozen tracks will play when the transport is running but muted tracks still stream from disk during playback too. 

Archived tracks are not streamed during playback.

If the goal is to reduce resources and silence the track use archive instead of mute.

 

[Billy86]

8 minutes ago, scook said:

Yes, frozen tracks will play when the transport is running but muted tracks still stream from disk during playback too. 

Archived tracks are not streamed during playback.

If the goal is to reduce resources and silence the track use archive instead of mute.

 

?

[Klaus]

2 hours ago, msmcleod said:

I guess this depends... if you're happy having the aux tracks hidden in either the track view or console view, you could hide them in one of those views and set your control surface to take their tracks from the one where the aux tracks are hidden.

I think the issue with Aux tracks and control surfaces is one can't control a send going to an Aux track from a controller.

Turning a knob on my controller which is mapped/assigned to adjust the volume of the first Send on a track doesn't work if this Send goes to an Aux track.

If the destination of that Send is a bus, the assigned knob on my control surface works fine.

 

[Noel Borthwick]

The main difference between aux tracks and buses is that aux tracks can be recorded in real-time allowing you to capture any signal flow.

See the use cases for patch points on this article.

http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.13.html

The following are a few ideas for how you can use patch points:

Work exclusively in the Track view and have folders of tracks with their Aux tracks adjacent to them. This workflow can be used as an alternative to routing tracks to buses.

Record a vocal track with effects to another track. For details, see To record an audio track that contains effects.

Record two or more background vocal tracks to a single track. Aux tracks can be used instead of buses for busing or effects sends. For details, see To record multiple tracks to a single track.

Record only the effect bus of a vocal track. For details, see To record only the send effects on an audio track.

Record the metronome to an audio track. For details, see To record the metronome to an audio track.

Control multiple audio track volumes with one fader. For details, see Control multiple audio track volumes with one fader.

Capture the performance of guitar effects in real-time. For details, see Capture the performance of guitar effects in real-time.

Control surfaces that don’t support buses can instead control Aux tracks.

Record time-based effects in real-time.

Record plug-in parameter changes that are not automatable.

Record a bus to an audio track.

Record complex reverbs and delays in real-time.

 

 

[msmcleod]

22 hours ago, Klaus said:

I think the issue with Aux tracks and control surfaces is one can't control a send going to an Aux track from a controller.

Turning a knob on my controller which is mapped/assigned to adjust the volume of the first Send on a track doesn't work if this Send goes to an Aux track.

If the destination of that Send is a bus, the assigned knob on my control surface works fine.

 

@Klaus / @azslow3 - This has been fixed and will be available in the main 2021.06 release when it's out of EA.

There was also an issue with the Bus Send Enable labels not being shown... this has also been fixed.

[Klaus]

1 hour ago, msmcleod said:

@Klaus / @azslow3 - This has been fixed and will be available in the main 2021.06 release when it's out of EA.

There was also an issue with the Bus Send Enable labels not being shown... this has also been fixed.

Wow!!
Thank you soo much, I really, really appreciate it!

All the best,
Klaus
 

[Hit Factory NY]

Question: Which method uses less CPU? Sending multiple tracks to a stereo bus, or to an AUX track?

[msmcleod]

20 minutes ago, Hit Factory NY said:

Question: Which method uses less CPU? Sending multiple tracks to a stereo bus, or to an AUX track?

There is no difference in CPU usage either way.

[Divine Monkey]

I had a bit of a eureka moment on my last mix with cakewalk...I saw a send option for a track and sent the kick drum and bass guitar to different busses..there was a huge improvement in the sound quality of the mix ...big sure why but hey now I am experimenting with routing busses and sent vocals to a different bus as well on my current mix ..I guess just  what works and sounds good 

[David Baay]

18 minutes ago, Divine Monkey said:

saw a send option for a track and sent the kick drum and bass guitar to different busses..there was a huge improvement in the sound quality of the mix

Sending a track to a bus with no FX on it simply duplicates the signal. If both the send and bus levels are at the default 0dB, the net result will be 6dB gain in the contribution of that track to the full mix. Louder always sounds better.