Tips: Busses/Aux (Cool Edit)

So, why would you use a bus? Well, if you want to group multiple tracks to a single volume fader, OR if you want to assign multiple tracks (like several vocals) to one fader AND use one effect for all of them. This allows you to use fewer real-time effects and preserve system resources.

Here's the deal. Assign some tracks to a bus. If you haven't created one, click on the OUT button (on the channel strip at the left hand side) and click on NEW BUS. Give it a name, (or leave it as Bus 'X'), assign the output device, add an effect (like Quickverb or Flanger, Compression or Delay, etc) and click OK. Back in the playback device window, choose the appropriate bus for the track output and click OK. Now, click on OUT for each track that you want to assign to the bus, select the bus and click ok.

Just above Track 1 (in the channel strip) you'll see three tabs...Vol/EQ/Bus. Click on the BUS tab. You will now notice that you have two fields...Wet and Dry. The WET controls the amount of signal that is sent to the bus as processed. So, if you have effects on the bus, this is essentially your 'post' aux send. You can then use the DRY field to increase just the direct signal. This signal is actually routed to the same device output as the bus, but is bypassing the bus itself.

NOTE: Because each of the Wet/Dry fields can be individually set from 0-->100%, balance them carefully to avoid clipping (ie, 80/20, 30/70). You can go even higher, just watch your master output level...

The nice thing about this bus Wet/Dry setting is that you have the ability (in the case of multiple harmony vocals sent to the bus) to adjust the 'send' level on each track, so certain tracks can have more effect than others. If you need more 'direct' sound from a particular track, increase the Dry level.