Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Zach Parkscott]

Where on the PSW site can i learn what "busses" are?  In terms of mixers.  4 busses?, 6 busses? Whats a bus?  For whatever reason i can seem to "find the bus"  Or someone could tell if they wanted to.

Thanks again,

Zach

[John Roberts {JR}]

Zach Parkscott wrote on Sun, 15 January 2006 12:56

Where on the PSW site can i learn what "busses" are?  In terms of mixers.  4 busses?, 6 busses? Whats a bus?  For whatever reason i can seem to "find the bus"  Or someone could tell if they wanted to. Thanks again, Zach

Buses relate to the routing capability and organizational structure of consoles. In general when they call a console a 4 bus or 8 bus they are talking about the number of sub groups. Technically all of the auxes and effects are combined via buses as well as the L/R master but even the all inclusive marketing math hasn't gone so far as to add them to that count. An X bus console should have X sub groups.

JR

[andrew gissing]

If JR's not clear enough for you, the purpose of a real bus is to transport many people to the same place using the one vehicle. This saves on having many people each use their own vehicle.

So in an electronics sense, you've got say a 32 ch mixing desk and if you've got one PA system - say a simple stereo one, that's 2 channels. You need to combine all 32 channels down to 2.

In doing so you can call the master left and right as left & right busses.

Another way to look at it, if you opened up your mixing desk (only if you're confident !!) you'll probably see computer-style ribbon connectors joining each of the channels (or groups of channels if it's a pcb board covering say 8 channels).

You could think of the ribbon connector as being an integral part of the buss and at each channel (or group) that's where the signal from the channel joins the bus.

As JR said, the same principle also applies to auxillary sends.

Hope this helps,

andrew

[Mike Chapin]

Think of a bus as a metal rod inside your mixer. Now, you can put a signal on this rod at some point and take it off at another. For example, you can put one or more channel inputs on the rod (effects send), then take them off and send the signal to a processor. Then you can take the signal out of the processor and put it back on another rod (effects return). If you want to handle a particular group of inputs all together, say vocals only, you can put the vocal channels all on their own rod (a sub group). You could then send the signal on that rod to the main or sub-group rod.

Another example would be for monitors. For one monitor mix, you might just put all the vocals on one rod (monitor aux 1, let's say) and send it to the auxiliary 1 out. Certain instruments might go onto another rod then go to auxiliary 2 out. Monitor sends usually do not return to the mixer, they just go out to the monitor amp.

Now just go up and change the word "rod" to "bus."

So an 8-bus mixer has eight different rods you can use to put signal on and take it off. Some for effects sends and returns, some for monitor mixes, some for grouping channels, whatever you want.


On the board itself, these are called auxiliary busses, or "aux." Some boards will have a couple auxes labeled "monitor" and/or a couple labeled "effects." Usually, the monitor channel sends will be situated in the circuit such that the monitor volume is not affected by the channel's volume fader (hence, "pre-fader"). Usually, the effects outputs will follow the volume of the fader ("post-fader"). Most good boards will have at least some of their busses switchable pre- or post-fader.

Clear as mud, right?

[Tom Reid]

Bus isn't a term just related to mixers.
Your computer has a memory bus, an I/O bus, etc.
Big boy electricty have bus bars.
Hell, even when you're through eating, someone busses the tables ...but that's different.

Anytime individual pathways are added together, we can say that they are bussed.

tom  

[John Roberts {JR}]

Tom Reid wrote on Sun, 15 January 2006 21:56

Bus isn't a term just related to mixers. Your computer has a memory bus, an I/O bus, etc. Big boy electricty have bus bars. Hell, even when you're through eating, someone busses the tables ...but that's different. Anytime individual pathways are added together, we can say that they are bussed. tom

Yes, bus is the proper word root. FWIW buss relates to an act of affection between individuals of opposite sex. AFAIK "bussed" is accepted as an alternate spelling for "bused", but is not my preference.

JR