Double bussing - why the buss?

[Jeff Hague]

Ive heard quite a bit about double bussing - assigning a vocal (for instance) to 2 busses, compressing one and not compressing the other and mixing them together. I hear it is done in recording quite a bit but some folks do it live as well. Aside from being able to get more gain (which Im not sure why you would need to do it that way - cant you just turn the 1 channel up?), whats the benefit?

Also, why use busses (groups) to do it? Couldnt you get the same thing by splitting a mic to 2 channels?

Just curious...

 

[Ryan Lantzy]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

Ive heard quite a bit about double bussing - assigning a vocal (for instance) to 2 busses, compressing one and not compressing the other and mixing them together. I hear it is done in recording quite a bit but some folks do it live as well. Aside from being able to get more gain (which Im not sure why you would need to do it that way - cant you just turn the 1 channel up?), whats the benefit?

Also, why use busses (groups) to do it? Couldnt you get the same thing by splitting a mic to 2 channels?

Just curious...

You could definitely do this by splitting the mic into two channels. Wasting a bus for this seems silly to me (especially if the compressed bus contains other signals).



The benefits are arguable, but I've never had a problem without it. I think the key is that the second uncompressed channel is adjusted such that on the loudest passages, the signal there equals the compressed signal, and returns some of the bite that the compressor took out.

 

[Ned Ward]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

I'm guessing it comes from a time when you wanted to vary the ''wet mix'' of a usually inline effect, like compression. All of the analog compressors were strictly input output; either you wanted it to sound compressed in the mix or not. By bussing vocals or any input to a compressor and another channel, you had parallel compression, or the ability to vary the wet/dry mix of the compressor.



These days, it's usually easier to twist a knob to vary the amount of compression per track on digital desks, but I'm sure there are other reasons, such as compression on FOH channel and none on the monitor channel, so the singer can hear his/her own dynamics and adjust appropriately.

 

[Evan F. Hunter]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

Last night I had my Vocal Channel Strips uncompressed sent to the Stereo Bus, I also had the Vocals send to a Stereo Subgroup With a pair of linked compressors. I mixed between the two, Would this not be an alternate type of setup? I think using two channel strips is more of a waste then two busses, But usually I need a lot of channels so I guess it would depend on your needs.

 

[Tim Padrick]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

The advantage to comping the bus is that if you are EQing the channel to compensate for the mic's proximity effect, there will be less low frequency-triggered compression as opposed to having the comp in the channel, where it will (usually) be pre-EQ).



Additionally, it saves having to adjust the comp threshold for various songs - the channel fader becomes a combo threshold/makeup gain control.

 

[Evan Kirkendall]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

I don't do that with vocals, but I do like to do it with drums on analog desks.



Drums are gated on individual channels, sent to the L/R, and to a stereo group. Stereo group gets snare and toms, compressed 6:1, about 10dB of GR. Really adds a nice pop to the drums.

Evan

 

[Jeff Hague]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

Very interesting stuff! I have always thought of compression, as Ned put it, as an inline effect so varying the dry / wet mix is a new idea for me.

Whats strange is that I have a TC C300 in my rack that I use on kick and snare. It was was given to me by a drummer & soundman friend when I first started mixing his band. Each channel has a mix knob but I never really thought of it that way. I like what the C300 does on kick and snare but Ive never really been too sure what it really does - it has presets for various things and Ive always been a bit skeptical of it. Im used to having the typical ratio, threshold, attack, release, etc. controls...

 

[Chris Davis]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

Ive heard quite a bit about double bussing - assigning a vocal (for instance) to 2 busses, compressing one and not compressing the other and mixing them together. I hear it is done in recording quite a bit but some folks do it live as well. Aside from being able to get more gain (which Im not sure why you would need to do it that way - cant you just turn the 1 channel up?), whats the benefit?

Also, why use busses (groups) to do it? Couldnt you get the same thing by splitting a mic to 2 channels?

Just curious...

You could definitely do this by splitting the mic into two channels. Wasting a bus for this seems silly to me (especially if the compressed bus contains other signals).



The benefits are arguable, but I've never had a problem without it. I think the key is that the second uncompressed channel is adjusted such that on the loudest passages, the signal there equals the compressed signal, and returns some of the bite that the compressor took out.

In my own words, the floor of the mix can effectively be brought up without sacrificing the dynamic peaks or making the overall mix too loud.



P.S. You don't really need two busses to do this, just two channels.

 

[John Roberts]

Re: Double bussing (busing) - why the buss (bus)?

and i always thought double bussing, meant spelling it (wrong) with double ''ss' es.

The technique of using two strips for one signal is used for sundry reasons, the comp on one of two mult'ed channels is mainly a recording technique, so needs no rational justification. The blurring of lines between recording and live makes it inevitable to show up here. It has been discussed at length on PSW.



I never understood the benefit wrt compression, otherwise it gives you 6dB more fader gain, and more sends with different EQ.



JR

 

[Sean Zurbrick]

Re: Double bussing - why the buss?

I recently went to doing lead vocals in 2 channels and have been experimenting this week with assigning snare to it's own buss (I'm out of channels). I'm doing the vocals that way because I use a VoiceLive2 and often record (board is a Presonus StudioLive). 2 channel vocals let me put harmonies and effects in stereo which improves recording.



For the snare, I've always had some trouble getting the snare over the top with a good crack (Roland E-drums). Adding the buss does the trick and lets me take down the gain on the channel a bit.