Use buses to expand your mixing options

OBJECTIVE: Route tracks to buses to create submixes.

BACKGROUND: Buses are often used to route the audio from various channels to send effects, but they can also serve as submix buses so the bus’s level control could, for example, raise or lower the level of multiple tracks simultaneously. A default Acid Pro project routes all tracks to the master bus, so to create submixes, you need to assign track outputs to buses instead. Here’s how to do this.

1 In the toolbar at the top of the Mixing Console, click on the Insert Bus button.

2 In the Mixer View Pane, click on Audio Busses (outlined in red) to display buses in the console. You’ll also see any buses in the Channel List pane (outlined in blue).

3 For tracks that you want to assign to a submix bus instead of directly to the master bus, ctrl-click on the track number in each track’s header. The track headers become highlighted; here, tracks 4 and 6 are selected.

4 Click on the Bus icon for any of the selected tracks, then choose the desired bus destination (in this example, Bus A).

5 Assuming I/O is selected in the Mixer View Pane, check that the submix bus output is assigned to Master so that the bus output can be mixed in with the other, individual tracks.

Tips

• To name the bus, double-click on the name at the bottom of the bus in the mixing console, then type in a new name.

• To add automation to a bus, go Views > Show Bus Tracks. You can add Volume, Pan, Mute, and FX automation to a bus track as you would to a conventional audio track.