If you need a more consistent form of parallel compression, there’s a strong argument for using it pre-fader, so that the amount the compressor is driven remains the same, irrespective of fader level.

Turn the instrument up, therefore, and the compressor works harder. With a post-fade send, the instrument’s level in the mix has a direct relationship on the behaviour of the compressor. This is a good example where both pre- and post-fade setups have their merits. In this example, one or more channels gain access to a ‘heavy handed’ compressor, which is then blended back into the main mix to create varying amounts of body. With a pre-fade headphone mix, the bus send works ahead of the fader, so, irrespective of the fader level in the main mix, the musician will hear their mix at a consistent volume level.Īnother interesting use of buses is the application of effects like compression as send effect – or, in other words, parallel compression. Turning down the instrument in the mix, therefore, will result in correspondingly less reverb being applied. In the example of reverb, the bus sends default to a post-fader application, so that the reverb is applied after the fader level is established. The use of bus sends for headphone mixes highlights the difference between pre-fader and post-fader bus sends. A singer, for example, might need to hear their vocal loudly in the mix, or a piano-heavy mix to help with their intonation, whereas the control room will usually want to hear a more musical balance. First of these is the lost art of dedicated headphone mixes, where musicians hear a distinct and separate version of the track to the monitor mix heard in the control room. Moving beyond the application of reverb, bus sends can perform a range of additional production and mixing tasks. In the case of reverb, for example, the fader almost becomes a means of pushing the instrument further back in the acoustic space – the higher the fader, the further from you the instrument becomes.

Obviously, the Sends on Faders option makes it much easier to fine-tune precise send levels (between -1dB and -1.5dB, for example), but its biggest advantage is the ability to visualise the ratio between instruments. Rather than setting the effect level using the small bus send controls, Logic flips the main faders so that they work as the send levels. One useful feature for setting the amount of effect applied is the Sends on Faders option.

Effects (like reverb or delay) then inserted on this aux channel will be applied to all the instruments using the bus sends, at an amount defined by the bus send level – the greater the bus send level, the greater the amount of effect. When you create a bus send, Logic will create an accompanying aux channel, which becomes the destination point for all the respective bus sends. If you intend to have multiple channels sharing the same reverb, it’s worth shift-clicking the faders so that the bus send is inserted into all the channels at once. Bus sends can be inserted into your mixer using the send slots, found just above the channel’s output assignment.

Mixbus 4 panning channels