Hi,

I have been using Pro Tools (recent purchase) and have a question about Sub Bus/s.

If for example I have a group of guitars that I have placed into a group and they all have different pan settings, if I then add a sub bus for the guitars where does the panning of the sub bus go to. Is it the center, or another pan setting.
I realize that every mix has it's own life so to speak, but I just need a little guidance as I'm now totally brain dead after reading about mixing and mastering.

Please help if you can.

Regards
George

George,

What type of amplifier are you using to power the sub speaker? If the sub speaker has a built-in amplifier where are the amplifier audio inputs coming from?

Every sub system I've seen use a low frequency monophonic audio signal either created in the amplifier/mixer or the sub itself.

Hi George - good to hear from you. If your sub bus is stereo (probably is) your subgroup should retain it's panning. Just bounce the subgroup to a blank track and listen.

This might be better answered on the Avid forums.


Regards,

Bob

Yes, In Sonar all tracks retain their pan settings in the sub busses. When you add the sub buss it shows up as a new STEREO buss.

The main purpose for the busses I use is to easily control the volume of like kind groups and drop effects into them that hit everything in that group. Pan and levels from the tracks are passed through transparently.

Jim, this is not talking about sub speakers. This is a whole other thing entirely.

Sub busses are another layer of tracks (in stereo) that us folks who use a full feature DAW such as Sonar or PT, can use to send the tracks of like kind things... like vocals or guitars, or strings, into. The benefit is that all those tracks then are easy to control with volume as a group. It is also much easier to place reverb or any other effect, ONE TIME into the buss rather than to place a different instance of that reverb into 5 different vocal tracks...for example.

With a buss on vocals and lets say 6 tracks.... if you use a buss you can drop in a reverb and compressor, and a widener... 3 plugs, into the buss. You have 3 FX running. If you don't use a buss or the DAW doesn't support busses, to accomplish the same thing would require 18 plugs.... 3 per track times 6 tracks and that's just the vocals..... The processor starts to get very busy if you are not using busses.

Hi Jim,

It's not help for an amplifier but help with a software item within a DAW.

But, thank you for responding.

Regards
George

Hi Bob, would you believe I never thought to do that.

Thanks for the heads up.

Regards
George

Hi Guitarhacker,

Thank you for that information.
Having never used a sub bus/group before and seeing that the sub bus has panning assigned to it I was confused whether if I panned the sub bus to the center would all the sub bus group then be panned to the center.
As Bob also explained - there is an easy way to find out - just bounce the sub bus to a new track.

Now I need to find out using the rule RTFM how to bounce one track alone with the sub bus group.

Wish me luck.

Regards
George

George, I have read that different DAWs handle bus tracks differently so advice from a Sonar or Cubase owner for example may not be useful. You should post this question on the PT forums.

Hi Mario,

You are absolutely right.

Realband, Reaper, Harrison Mixbus etc etc etc will all handle things differently.

Just need to try try and try again.

Please Note: I am having fun whilst learning, just need to plug the brain drains senior moments.

Regards
George

If you learn how to do this PLEASE let me know!

OR..... punch the SOLO button on the buss.

I would think even PT would be able to solo a buss.

George,

I must have had speakers on my mind and misread your original post. Sorry for the incorrect advice.

Jim,
Your not alone....I've been pricing powered subs and clicked on this thread with an elevated heart rate.

Always glad to learn something new which may come in handy some day.

Check out the JBL powered subs. We are using a single 18"/500 watt, and it kicks!


Regards,

Bob