The Ultimate Guide to Using Buses!

[@Therealbackslabbath]

The way Buses were explained to me was; say you have something to tell one person - you tell them directly. Now say you wanted to tell 50 people the same thing. You could spend a lot of time and energy telling them individually, or you could just address them as a group. This is how I got my head around it.

[@bogdanbarbu2827]

I understand the same ... but is right?

[@krash3169]

this is a late comment but this explanation makes sense fashitsho

[@kyleadamsdrums]

or its a bus taking multiple people to the same destination versus multiple trips.

[@jacoblarrinaga4910]

much better than what i've just seen

[@therealdizzydee9915]

Smart

[@karinabyrne5513]

I have been baffled by buses until today. Loved the way you delivered this video too, so many content creators ramble on about irrelevant stuff so it was awesome to just hear the content delivered in a simple, easy to understand way! Thank you!!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Love this! 🙏😎 thanks a bunch!

[@cleopaskipo9699]

Thanks sir

[@tylerbuckner3750]

Try this cool bus effect: Duplicate your vocal track. Reverse one and send it to a reverb bus with 0 dry/100 wet. You'll get a gated, ghosty sound that you'll want to use everywhere.

[@Kinkerii]

If you're using time based effects, I recommend to use post fader send and not a pre fader send. If you're mixing with faders and you have a reverb behind a pre fader send, the changes of your fader will NOT effect the reverb. Therefore you have to make adjustments to the send too. But if you have a post fader send the changes of the fader will also change the level that's going through the send and you don't have to change that separately.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Yes! Thank you for this.

[@TheAnthonyLJ]

Thanks man, just tried it and you are spot on. I would have never figured that out on my own.

[@jayl5941]

This is very helpful - but as a beginner is the pre or post fader an option somewhere you have to select with most daws?

[@Kinkerii]

@@jayl5941 In most DAWs you can select the type of send from the send itself and most DAWs have at least pre fader and post fader sends (not sure about post pan send). General rule of thumb (at least in live situations) is that PRE fader sends are usually used for compressions and distortion etc. POST fader sends are usually used with time based effects. In the end there are no right and wrong way to do anything in DAWs since everything is basically possible in digital world. There is just way that is right for you.

[@jayl5941]

@@Kinkerii awesome thanks so much! As a guitar player this makes sense to me. I'll check Luna for pre and post options.

[@joelh.marcus7558]

Thanks so much! The use of your hands in a very visual fashion made it much more understandable and comprehensible.

[@richardjordan6518]

Man...watching this vid a second time and have been refreshed. I forgot about Sends/Buses and their use! My Mid 2015 had a system overload though I increased the buffer size...(which I brought back down) because I put compression and a few others on EVERY TRACK!! Corrections are being made!! Thank you and God bless!!

[@gwsstudios5342]

Hi Nathan, as a complete newbie to the world of DAW and logic etc, this video was without doubt the single most effective and transparent explanation of buses I have found anywhere on KZbin. A million thanks 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[@DalesBadBug]

I Love to send My vocals, kicks, and snares to output buses. it makes them poke through the Mix a LOT better.

[@gion3250]

Shameless plug for Nathan's course: I've been a musician for 20+ years and Nathan is an absolutely incredible teacher. His Producer Accelerator course is a must buy for anyone looking to speed up their learning process. ***Note: I'm not making a cut from this shout out, I'm just a very satisfied student.**

[@khalifwailinwalter8719]

Great explanation of what Busses are and how to use them. Highly recommend this!!!!!!!!!!

[@santiagovanegas3812]

I've watched a number of videoes explaining the "BUS" concept. This is the best. Thanks for posting it!

[@applegravy5418]

I feel like this was always explained in such over a complicated way every where I’ve looked. You my sir have explained very simple and straight forward, subscribed.

[@cmealha]

The best explanation I've watched. It cleared up so many questions. Thanks

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Awesome!! Love that! Thanks a bunch 🙏🙏

[@suavemusic_official]

Bro you are deadass a GOAT. Knowing that you can chain send buses is probably how mixes sound even better. I been working tf outta my computer but now I know better 😂

[@kalebbauerlein294]

Petition for Nathan to keep the “Hello this is Nathan Larsen....” in this song

[@SeekingRhythmDivine]

Signed! :D :D

[@brettrawalt5968]

Awesome. I tried to learn this from another KZbinr, and watched his (much longer) video twice. All I can say is that he failed, at least with me. This was simple and you explained all the things he did not and now I'm using buses. Thank you!

[@pierreblanc-sahnoun3317]

at last I understand buses, 10 years after beginning home studio. so many thanks. Merci !!!! 🇫🇷

[@plangan]

I thought this was explained very well. You earned a new subscriber from this video alone. This is a somewhat complex tracking topic and this video was explained with visual, easy to understand and concise. Thanks man!

[@nomasskkLNF]

Thank you I was a little confused until you said one plug in vs multiple plugins. Pays to watch all the way through

[@rommie4770]

At last someone has explained what bus do and how they work.Brilliant Tutorial thanks.

[@AtomicArcherGuy]

Thanks my guy. I didn’t even know what busses were before I watched. Now I know how to use them effectively!

[@sicilypoulter3957]

this was such a good explanation, thank you sm. I was so confused why my project with only 25 tracks was having so many issues and now I know it's because I put so many plugins on each track. going to clean it up rn

[@JoJo_Reference2]

I understand, I actually understand it’s so flipping simple but I generally was so lost before thank you

[@Cathedral666]

So simple yet efficent way to explain those stuff ,Keep on coming!

[@frankvet1]

Took a few runs of the video it but I finally realized that you are using the SEND button for the effects and the STEREO OUT button for the "straight line" route to the bus. Thanks again for the channel and your help.

[@AmanSharma-qw4kq]

This is the best explanation on Buses & Sends till now. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and making it so simple for learners. Personally, it helps me a lot.

[@graysonwilson3343]

Man, for years I thought you were stuck having a parallel bus and had to have the dry track alongside. Didn't know you could change the output, thanks for the vid!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Yep! For parallel you'd still want a copy though - if you don't like that workflow, you should check out BabyAudio's parallel aggressor

[@peakeasyprod.9962]

You seriously have improved my art so much I swear if I make it some day, you were my guide to success

[@DigitalWerkstattDE]

I love Reaper for the ability to use every track as bus and hv all funktions of a track. Using busses the right way is audio engineering basic.

[@writewithangel]

Thank you so much Nathan I finally understand what buses are now and how to use them. Now I am going to go to my DAW and try and use it in my first production.

[@Sdbbffsd]

for lead vocal tracks change output to bus 1, then for background vocals change their outputs to another bus say bus 2 it doesnt matter as long as its a new number, then on those busses youll be able to use their send knobs to put effects on all of them as a whole. That'll save time from putting the exact same plug ins on every individually and your computer won't freeze!

[@RobertGavila]

Good job. I’m going to take another look at all my tracks tomorrow and apply effects and output buses. Thanks.

[@Abelitovalle]

Now I understand why my computer kept saying overload while i was recording a drum track. This was extremely helpful !

[@williamcavin709]

Loved this. Very new to recording and this just explained it without all the silly technospeak that wastes time and removes the will to live. Thanks

[@donahvanhollis9652]

Maaan you my kind of teacher. Honest from the heart no bullshit. Great video my brother 🙏🏾I’m subscribing now☝🏾

[@alexbolton1198]

"If I had this at 19 I'd be a millionaire"

[@Zach4332]

Well then why isn’t he rich now that he has it? What did he have at 19 that he doesn’t have now? Annoying ad

[@vibecore]

@@Zach4332 Fr!! Plus the only billionaire in the hip hop industry is Jay Z , so there’s no way the producer in the ad could reach billion

[@MojitoMatt]

@@vibecore that ads just capitalizing on idiots lmao

[@incroyablesessions]

Kkkkkk you made my day😂😂😂😂

[@hadedafx]

💀... 😂

[@helenlockwood1354]

Awesome description. I finally understand. I will sleep peacefully tonight 😂. Thank you 🙏, great video.

[@nickwatland4215]

I’ve just been writing music and not doing this for years . Now it’s time lmao . Thanks !!!

[@cpguitars1]

Thanks Nathan, I am new to Logic and this is really helpful. You provide succinct explanations that even a new learner can comprehend. I am will be exploring your channel which will make me better at using this tool. Stay safe and healthy.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Awesome! Happy to help!

[@jamesholmes9940]

Thank you for the simplicity. The video was quite informative and extremely useful. I look forward to future videos and appreciate very much the time and effort you obviously put in to these productions.

[@kjtheproof]

One of my favorite channels so far for music knowledge, thanks bro!!

[@eemilrouhiainen2165]

Yet again video that opend my mind SOOO much, thank you!

[@davidbrown1251]

Thanks Nathan for taking the time to explain this, hugely appreciated

[@TrisalArchita]

I had been putting off learning about bussing for no good reason and yours is exactly the video I needed! Can't wait for my laptop to not blow up with FX and cutting my production time in half :D

[@alexisjohanson4454]

Thank-You Nathan for clarifying the "Bus" issue! Much appreciated!

[@trillg4rmda444]

This is the first video that I actually learned from and the exact answer to my question

[@tepetti]

Mixing the amount of an effect with the send knob is different than mixing with the aux fader. If you have a reverb, for example, that you send multiple sources to, you should use the sends to adjust how much each source is being sent. The aux fader works as a master fader which is a fast way to adjust overall level of the reverb without messing with the balance of the sends. If you have a send to a compressor or any other input level sensitive processor, adjusting the send will affect how it will react. So if your parallel compressor is set to desired settings, adjusting the send would mess it but the fader won’t. I often use one send to send a single channel to multiple auxes. For example, my typical vocal chain has only one send that sends the signal to parallel compressor, reverb, few different delays etc. You can do this by creating aux channels and assigning the same bus as an input to all of them. Then I mix and automate the effects with the faders.

[@proverbalizer]

weird, I never thought of that

[@raamiah]

This cleared up so so much confusion. Definitely going to try this out. 🙏🏿🙏🏿

[@EZRockman]

Just found you about a month ago. I love your content. I have a much better understanding of busses now, and why to use them. Thanks.

[@nickd.9882]

I've been saying this since I started studying my favorite albums; the true geniuses and heroes of the music we all love are the engineers behind it. *GREAT* video. The science behind music and audio is less intuitive for me than learning the language of music and playing instruments. In short, this sh*t is crazy. haha I just hope I can get at least one piece near completed before it's too late. Thanks, man!

[@ReverendGuyWallis]

great video. i've struggled to figure out how to save time with busses for awhile and now i think i am finally getting it after watching your video. thank you so much!

[@HKMUSICWORLDTV]

The Best Bus Explaination Tuto on KZbin 👊🏾🎵🚀🙏🏾

[@brianosborne6857]

"Does this make sense?" Definitely! Good job.

[@monay.692]

Man, thank you so much. You have no idea I tried to figure some shit about that for the longest time. Your video helped me so much.

[@marydaly8683]

THANK YOU for this video! This was the best presentation and explanation of bussing.

[@headbangerministries]

I'm a show me person so the fist concept was not helpful BUT I did test three tracks and created an FX bus successfully. I also got the understanding of having multiple buses on each channel and did that on my vocals for a delay FX. I'm going to work with these for now before going into parallel busses. I need a tons of processing reduction so hopefully this will eliminate a ton of buffering and latency. I'm going to see if I can reduce my current buffer to a lower one and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

[@arielwadyese7091]

Wow, you make the info so easy to digest, and simplify the complex process in mere sentences.This video is full of Golden Tips. Appreciate you for putting it out there.

[@samswenson3977]

Wish I could thumbs-up this 10 times. Excellent explanation and examples. Thank you.

[@johntsakiris3032]

A great introduction to buses- thanks, Nathan!!

[@GaelPucci]

Dude! Thank you for this video! Always wanted to know what a bus is and now I know why my sessions were crashing.

[@johnnyregalado8928]

Great way of explaining it, other videos go on a tangent and I get lost on what they’re trying to explain

[@Subzero_OfficialUK]

First time here and got to say this tutorial on the bus has been so helpful and you explained it perfectly.

[@JimsMusicJourney]

Thanks for explaining this. I watched a few videos on this topic and this was the clearest explanation.

[@inittechlabs]

Thank you for being the savior , finally got to understand the real deal!!!

[@prodbyguttaskum]

Ahhhhh I was super lost when you got to step 2 but I I understand now, holy crap that’s powerful! I’ve been having issues with my cpu lately when mixing 20+ tracks with 8 of the same plugins running on. This totally makes sense now, thanks for the explanation.

[@ItsBrandiJ]

I kind of get it. But how does that effect my 4 vocal tracks, they are seperate anyway?

[@Chintastaan]

I had already learnt a lot about busses and sends and I thought this would be the same. But I was wrong. I learnt a new thing about using a bus through bus. Thanks a lot man! Amazing!!!

[@eddymoon3671]

Finally understood the Bus world thanx Nathan

[@ronduremusic5972]

perfect video just used it to add some character to my groups and glue my melodies and drums ! Very helpful :)

[@Alexander-hr2oy]

The best explanation I've seen on all of KZbin!

[@coldstreamreiver9870]

Love your videos. You explain everything really well. And the last one with the ten tips was FANTASTIC.

[@diederikvanvleuten8341]

Thanks for your crystal clear explanation Nathan. Once again!

[@georgiareneemusic]

Thank you so very much for this simple understanding! I definitely need to start using busses for my mixing

[@stephenericwalsh]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn’t the proper terminology not to say that you send to a bus with effects on it but that you send a track via a bus to an AUX track where the effects will be placed. The send is the tap, the bus is the pipe and the Aux is the destination where the work is done. Actually makes it slightly easier to understand then because the bus sounds more like an actual bus that gets something to a destination. This is not a knock on this excellent video however.

[@TheArtistTv]

Fantastic info as I’ve been curious on the uses and advantages of these “BUSES”. Thank yoooooooou!

[@KAYDXN]

I can't believe how informative and easy to understand this video is. I needed this. Thank you!

[@jimmyharris5368]

Hi Nathan I am a old school DAW user and had gotten out of recording for a number of years. I heard you say that the bus works on all DAWs I really appreciate your video out viewing other videos yours grab me. Kind regards stay safe Dandy here

[@johnnysnyman6290]

Thanks for all the content bro. I'm learning so much right here.

[@warehouserobotstudio]

Without the busses channels wouldn’t be the same! Really good explanation brou, congrats!!

[@staazdacah3632]

I was having a hard time understanding buses this def made it easier.

[@hsuanhuiwu]

very useful and indeed keep your computer less pressure Thanks man !!!!!

[@DoveSimon]

Simple, concise and logical. This is the best explanation of busses I've seen on YT so far. I've watched a few of your videos, but this one got me to sub. Thank you sir - great explanation!

[@millmoormichael6630]

Thanks for explaining also parallel compression!!

[@reaganbrowneofficialyoutube]

This stuff is Gold for a beginner Logic user like myself! Thank you!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Love hearing that!!

[@lancesheffield3433]

I’ve watched a lot of videos on bussing but this by far is THE most simply put informative video yet! Thanks Nathan! Saves a lot of time. Subscribed 👍🏻

[@FeathersOnFire]

im really sorry........🤧but i lost my frickin shit when i read bussing🤣- no offense intended

[@dustinnickolas1583]

Thank you for this! I recently switched from reaper and wasn't sure how buses worked on logic and most of the other videos I've watched didn't explain them well at all. I'm still a beginner when it comes to recording and mixing in general, so this was very helpful.

[@richardeverett2722]

Awesome explanation of bus sends. Great job!

[@FFAdventureCo]

Wow! I’ve been struggling to really understand what buses do and how to use them. This might sound like a critique at first, but it’s not at all. The buses and bus stops started to confuse me. But I thought “whatever, I’ll stick through and just see if I can learn how to do some new things even if I don’t understand the metaphor.” By the end I understood the metaphor and I’d say the initially confusing metaphor evolved into “HOLY MOLY THIS FINALLY MAKES SENSE!” Even better, this should solve the pesky overload message when I try to play all the tracks because it should significantly reduce the load. Thanks so much for this video! I’m excited to play around with buses more now and see how it can improve my efficiency. Subscribing and excited to see what else I can learn!

[@yungdemo8771]

This actually helped thank you💯

[@BeauSkowron]

Legend! *These* are the sorts of videos I should be saving to go back and reference on an ipad or something separate while I'm playing around. Really straightforward and easy to grasp. Good one mate!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Love it love it!! Thank you! 🙏😎

[@BeauSkowron]

Don't thank me, boss! You're the one taking the time makin' this easier for the rest of us! Wish you the best!

[@philcodeca]

For the past 6 months I’ve been thinking I could only send a track to one bus 😭😂 this has changed my life haha!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Haha! Well I'm glad this helped you out!!

[@schiggy182]

Subscribed awhile ago. Not disappointed I did. Keep them coming

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Yeah yeah!!! Here we goooo!

[@Beckousticstrings]

Very simplified video! Opened a whole new possibilities for me. Thanks a bunch Nathan.

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Awesome love hearing that!

[@James__Gregory]

That was super straighforward and helpful. Thank you!

[@GENEVIVEMUSIC]

i feel a pressure lifted, thankyou . x

[@nichepalace2369]

awesome! Thanks Dude for taking your time explaining how everything works!

[@thevitamindeanshow3303]

Thank you Nathan! Busses are tricky. I've tried to figure it out and have always given up. It's like just one more hoop I have to jump through and I don't find it. lol really appreciate it. Going tro watch it NOW!!!!!!!!

[@NathanJamesLarsen]

Awesome hope it helped you out!!

[@hillel-z1415]

Dude....your videos are awesome! You are an interesting and amaing and practical teacher. Thanks.

[@robn7777777]

Thanks, really helpful and friendly style of delivery.

[@LisaWaterhouse-t8q]

Thankyou for this video!!!! You're a great teacher.

[@fhdyplus880]

super helpful for what is at face value a scary topic (for me anyways). No longer afraid. Txs so much