In
audio engineering
Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to:
Sound
*Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound
* Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum
*Digital audio, representation of soun ...
, a bus
(alternate spelling buss, plural busses) is a signal path that can be used to combine (sum) individual audio signal paths together. It is typically used to group several individual
audio tracks which can be then manipulated, as a group, like another track. This can be achieved by routing the signal physically by way of switches or cable patches on a
mixing console
A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for Audio mixing (recorded music), mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals fro ...
, or by manipulating software features on a
digital audio workstation
A digital audio workstation (DAW ) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pr ...
(DAW).
By using buses, an engineer may apply
audio signal processing
Audio signal processing is a subfield of signal processing that is concerned with the electronic manipulation of audio signals. Audio signals are electronic representations of sound waves—longitudinal waves which travel through air, consisting ...
to entire groups of tracks. For example, lead vocals and backup vocals may be mixed and routed through a single compressor, creating a result unique from that reached by compressing each track individually, while reducing the overall amount of hardware or digital memory required for processing. A technique known as
stem mixing and mastering
Stem-mixing is a method of mixing audio material based on creating groups of audio tracks called stems and processing them separately prior to combining them into a final master mix. Stems are also sometimes referred to as submixes, subgrou ...
relies on the use of busses to mix tracks down to stems for processing before mixing down to the stereo bus (also called "master channel" or "2-bus"). This usually reduces the amount of processing applied to the stereo bus and increases the control the engineer has over the dynamics and levels of the overall mix. Busses can also be helpful when working on complicated audio projects with many tracks, where an engineer may wish to apply changes to multiple tracks at once, such as all of the drum mics or all of the vocal mics.
See also
*
Bus (computing)
In computer architecture, a bus (historically also called a data highway or databus) is a communication system that transfers Data (computing), data between components inside a computer or between computers. It encompasses both Computer hardw ...
*
Live sound mixing
Live sound mixing is the blending of multiple sound sources by an audio engineer using a mixing console or software. Sounds that are mixed include those from instruments and voices which are picked up by microphones (for drum kit, lead vocals ...
References
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Audio engineering