Creative 0404 Chain, Side, Main / Monitor Bus, Aux Section, Pan Fader, SendReturn AmountAmount

4 - The PatchMix DSP Mixer

Mixer Strip Creation

Aux Section

The Auxiliary Sends tap the signal from the channel strips and sum them together before sending the mix to the Auxiliary Effects section. In a traditional mixing console, aux sends are used to send part of the signal to outboard effect devices, then return the effected signal back into the mix using the effect returns. This is called a sidechain routing because the aux signal takes a detour through the effects before being summed back into the main mix. Sidechain effects are usually effects that you might want applied to several channels, such as reverb.

Incidentally, the wet/dry mix of effects in the Aux Sends should normally be set to 100% wet. This is because you will be adjusting the effect amount using the Aux Return control. If you have more than one effect in an Aux Bus, ignore the preceding advice as the wet/dry controls can be used to mix the amounts of your multiple effects.

The Aux 1 & 2 buses can also be used as additional submix output buses just like the main output. Simply drop an ASIO or External Send Insert into the chain and the stereo bus is sent. Turn down the Return Amount if you don’t want the submix to be combined into the main mix.

Aux Send and Return values can also be changed by typing directly into the displays.

Input

Pan Fader

Mute

Sidechain Diagram

(Post-Fader Aux Sends)

SendReturn

AmountAmount

Amt

Amt

	Side
Aux Bus 1	Chain
Send
Amount	Side
Aux Bus 2	Chain

Return

Amount

Main / Monitor Bus Output

Other Uses of the Aux Sends

You can think of the Aux Sends as two extra mixing buses because that’s exactly what they are. These two mixes can be routed anywhere, such as to a physical output or an ASIO pair. You could route one of the Aux buses to the Monitor out to create a monitor mix while sending the main mix off to your audio recording software.

E-MU Digital Audio System 29