[Solved] Cakewalk Sonar Bus Plugin Sound Difference

[thegaltieribrothers]

Hi,

I have a drum track going to a bus drum track on which I have a reverb, but usually I have the bus drum track picking up the reverb from another bus FX track via a send.

I find that the first scenario produces a better sound than the second, but I would like to know why as I assumed that the second method, which was my usual way of working, would provide the same sound results.

Any ideas on why the sound is different?

Edited Wednesday at 10:00 AM by thegaltieribrothers
problem solved

[Bass Guitar]

That’s obviously why. 
A send to a bus is a totally different signal path than a direct insertion of an effect in the signal path. 
This is why effects like reverb are often put on their own bus. 
The purpose of reverb / delay is to emulate a space like a concert hall. So it’s a common practice to share that space with all the sounds. This puts the listener in that space. 
 

Using a reverb / delay bus allows total control over the balance of wet to dry from all the tracks or sub buses. The effects will be set to max wet. Then we selectively send part of each track or bus to taste. We use this to create the “ space “ around the music. 

Putting reverb or delay directly in the signal path on the track is a different use of those effects. Example this is more common with guitar or snares and Tom’s. 
 

You rarely want reverb on a kick drum. 
 

So it is not common to use a global reverb on the drum bus. We use sends from individual kit pieces to avoid putting reverb on the kick. 
I said it is not common but if you want a certain sound then you might put reverb on the kick but it will need specific processing to avoid a muddy low end from happening. 
 

So the answer to your question is yes sending a track thought any effects pt in a track or bus effects bin results in a 100 % wet processing of the track r bus. Most effects have a wet/ dry mix control to dial in the desired amount.
On a bus it means all tracks coming in will have the same amount of processing applied to the sound. 
 

Using a send to a dedicated effect bus allows each track to have its own wet/ dry mix. 

[David Baay]

11 hours ago, thegaltieribrothers said:

I have a drum track going to a bus drum track on which I have a reverb, but usually I have the bus drum track picking up the reverb from another bus FX track via a send.

What Bass Guitar said about Insert FX vs. Send FX is accurate but it's not clear to me from the above terminology that this is what  you're talking about...?

FX in tracks are always working as Inserts (i.e. the entire signal goes through the FX), but FX on Buses and Aux tracks can be used either way, depending on whether the source track (or bus) is Outputting or Sending to the  aux/bus.

And in all cases the Return of the FX is to the Output of the track or bus it's on, so the description "I have the bus drum track picking up the reverb from another bus FX track via a send" doesn't really make sense.

You might want to have a look at Sonar's Signal Flow chart and re-phrase that.

 

[Bristol_Jonesey]

[thegaltieribrothers]

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply, as I said usually I have the bus drum track sending the signal to a bus FX track to use the reverb on that bus FX track.

Perhaps this was a mistake on my behalf in signal routing, anyway I now have the reverb as an effect on the bus drum track itself and it sounds better.

Hi Bristol,

Thanks for the image of the Signal Flow-Chart, I think I nearly understand it .😉

Best wishes on your future projects.

Paul

[timboalogo]

On 10/29/2025 at 4:06 AM, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Jeez Jonesy, you outdid yourself on this one! So the aux tracks go at the bottom with the busses, right?

[David Baay]

On 10/29/2025 at 3:59 AM, thegaltieribrothers said:

Thanks for your reply, as I said usually I have the bus drum track sending the signal to a bus FX track to use the reverb on that bus FX track.

Perhaps this was a mistake on my behalf in signal routing, anyway I now have the reverb as an effect on the bus drum track itself and it sounds better.

Okay, I guess some of the confusion comes from referring to what is commonly called an 'FX bus' as a "bus FX track".

In any case, sending to an FX bus is the common setup for a Reverb that you want to apply ot multiple tracks - definitely nothing wrong with doing that. If anything I would expect the reverb bus setup to sound "better" because the send adds to the overall level at the Master bus whereas an Insert FX on a track with the Mix level pulled down is essentially 'replacing' part of the dry signal with wet signal which won't add level and may even reduce it.

But if you compensate all the levels properly, it should be possible to make the Send setup sound identical to the Insert setup. And if the signal is panned,, you would want to make sure the Send pan is set to Follow Track Pan.

[sjoens]

It can be confusing as there's many ways to route everything.

Scenario 1:
Drum Track Output goes to Drum Bus
  (makes final mix easier when many drum tracks are present)
Drum Bus Output goes to Master Bus
Drum Track Send goes to FX Bus
  (use Drum Track Send Level knob to control how much FX it will have)
FX Bus Output goes to Master Bus

In this case, the Drum Track signal is sent to the Master Bus thru the Drum Bus Output as a DRY signal, and thru the FX Bus Output as a WET signal, then mixed together at the Master Bus.

Scenario 2:
Put FX on the Drum Track itself
   (useful when it's the only track using that FX)
Drum Track Output goes to Drum Bus if FX are ok for this track
Drum Bus Output goes to Master Bus
-or-
Drum Track Output goes directly to Master Bus if Drum Bus FX are not ok for this track

In this case, the entire Drum Track signal sent to the Master Bus is WET.  WET/DRY levels are controlled by the FX itself.