In today's in-the-box digital music DAW, it's easy to make mistakes with signal flow. Here are four ways to get your signal flow in order and improve your recording, mixing and production process too.  

Joe is a musician, engineer, and producer in NYC. Over the years, as a small studio operator and freelance engineer, he's made recordings of all types from music & album production to v/o & post. He's also taught all aspects of recording and music technology at several NY audio schools, and has been writing articles for Recording magaz... Read More

Discussion

Wisebaxter442
Great article. I was committing the cardinal sin of inserting the effect on the bus and sending to that. 100% schooled now though
Jurado
"The Aux’s Input is fed from a Bus (any unused Bus will do)."... This confuses me a little, maybe someone can help me to understand it better... So is the Aux not 'fed' from the individual tracks with aux sends set up? Idk so i don't understand what is meant by an 'unused bus'?... Great article! Cheers folks
Joe A
Hi Jurado -

The Aux is indeed fed from the individual tracks—but through a bus. All the tracks you Send to (an effect in) an Aux are summed together into the chosen bus, which is the pathway between those Sends and the Aux/effect. There are many buses available (in a physical console these are actual internal (ribbon) cable connections), and if you have several effects in several Auxes, each one must be fed from its own bus, to insure separation.

For example, if you had Bus 1 feeding a Reverb (say, a Room), and you wanted to set up a second Reverb (say, a Plate), if you accidentally assigned the new Reverb 2 to the used Bus (1) that was already feeding Reverb 1, then all the tracks you meant to feed the Plate would also accidentally be fed to the Room as well. Assigning a different, unused Bus (2) to the new Plate Reverb would keep signals Sent to the Plate Reverb Bus (2) separate from signals Sent to the Room Reverb Bus (1).

Hope that helps (it's easier to explain with visuals)..

Cheers,
Joe

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