Adjusting panning

When the Automation Settings button is not selected, you can drag the Pan slider to control the position of the bus in the stereo field: dragging to the left will place the bus in the left speaker more than the right, and dragging to the right will place the bus in the right speaker.

You can hold Ctrl while dragging the slider to adjust the setting in finer increments, or double-click the slider to return it to 0.

When the Automation Settings button is selected, the Pan slider handle is displayed as a , and you can use it to edit pan automation on the bus track.

Note: The trim level is added to the pan automation settings so your panning envelope is preserved, but with an offset applied. For example, setting the trim control to 9% left has the same effect as moving every envelope point 9% to the left.

Adjusting volume

When the Automation Settings button is not selected, you can drag the Volume fader to control the overall (trim) volume of the bus.

You can hold Ctrl while dragging the slider to adjust the setting in finer increments, or double-click the slider to return it to 0.

When the Automation Settings button is selected, the Volume fader handle is displayed as a , and you can use it to edit volume automation on the bus track.

Note: The trim level is added to the volume automation settings so your envelope is preserved, but with a boost or cut applied. For example, setting the trim control to -3 dB has the same effect as decreasing every envelope point by 3 dB.

Changing input bus pre/post routing

Insert effects on input busses are always pre fader: the FX chain is not affected by the channel's gain fader.

The Pre/Post Fader Send button allows you to create cue mixes that are not affected by the gain (or mute/pan) stages of the bus or track.

•When Pre Fader Send is selected, your audio signal flows as follows: bus effects — bus send — bus pan — bus volume.

•When Post Fader Send is selected, your audio signal flows as follows: bus effects — bus pan — bus volume — bus send.

Using input busses with hardware-based effects

Plug-ins are great, but there are times when you may want the sound of a specific piece of hardware for your tracks. This topic will show you how to use auxiliary busses and input busses to send a track to an external processor.

1.Connect your effects processor to your audio interface:

a.Connect the input of your effects processor to an output from your sound card (for this example, we'll use LineOut 1).

b.Connect the output of your effects processor to an input on your sound card (for this example, we'll use Inst 1).

2.Add an audio bus to your project. This bus will be used as a destination to send a track to your effects processor.

3.Configure your bus to send its output to your effects processor:

In the I/O control region of the bus's channel strip, click the Output button and choose the output that is connected to your effects processor's input (LineOut 1/LineOut 2 for this example).

This auxiliary bus provides a signal path to your effects processor's input.

172 CHAPTER 10