Apple Soundtrack Pro - Manual (Page 91)

Chapter 4 Working With Multitrack Projects 91
Busses
Using busses, you can create submixes, letting you adjust volume and pan and add
effects to groups of related tracks. You use busses by adding sends to effects chains in
the Effects tab or the Mixer, then routing audio from each send to a bus.
Each bus has a drag handle, a name, an icon, and a set of controls that appear in the
bus’s header in the Timeline and in its channel strip in the Mixer. Bus controls are the
same as track controls, except that a bus does not have a Record Enable button
(because you can’t record audio to a bus.) The bus controls affect the audio of every
track sent to that bus.
For example, you could route every dialogue track for a particular actor to a bus with
the actor’s name. You could adjust the volume of all the actor’s dialogue using the bus
volume fader, and add an EQ effect that brings out the actor’s voice in the mix. You
could then send (route) the bus to a particular output.
You route audio from a track to a bus by adding a send to the track in the Effects tab or
in the Mixer. When you add a send, the send is assigned to a bus. You can change the
bus to which a send is assigned, and can adjust the volume and pan for the send.
Outputs
Outputs let you route the audio from tracks and busses to physical outputs. If you are
using external audio hardware that supports multiple physical outputs, you can add
outputs to a project and choose the physical output to which each Mixer output sends
its audio. You can also send audio from multiple tracks or busses to a single output,
control volume and pan for all the tracks using the output’s controls, and add effects to
the output.
For example, you could have a bus with the dialogue tracks for each actor, and route all
the dialogue busses to a single output. You could route all sound effects tracks to
another output, and adjust the volume or add effects to each output. For a final stereo
mix, you could route both outputs to the same pair of physical output channels
(channels 1 and 2, for example).