Audio bus tracks

From the View menu, choose Audio Bus Tracks to toggle the display of audio bus tracks at the bottom of the timeline. An audio bus track exists for each bus or assignable effects chain in your project and serves as a timeline representation of each bus or assignable effects chain.

You can use bus tracks to automate volume, panning, and effect parameters using envelopes. For more information, see Audio track automation

The controls in the bus track are duplicated on bus or assignable effects channel strips in the Mixing Console window. Bus Channel Strips and FX send (assignable effects) channel strips

Adding automation to an audio bus track

Adding volume, panning, and effect automation to a bus track is just like adding automation to a standard track.

For more information about track automation, see Audio track automation

Adding effects to a bus track

Click the Bus FX button in the bus track header to add or edit bus effects. If there are no effects on the bus, clicking this button displays the Plug-In Chooser. If an audio bus already has effects assigned, clicking this button displays the Bus FX window. For more information, see Editing audio effects

NOTE If the bus effects chain includes plug-ins with automatable parameters, the Bus FX button is displayed as a .

Muting a track

Click the Mute button to prevent a bus track from being played in the mix. Click the Mute button on additional tracks to add them to the mute group. To unmute a track, click the Mute button again.

Muting or unmuting a bus track

  1. Deselect the Automation Settings button .

  2. Click the Mute button .

    TIP When you have a group of tracks muted, hold Ctrl while clicking the Mute button on an unmuted track to remove all other tracks from the mute group. Hold Ctrl while clicking the Mute button on a muted track to reset all Mutebuttons.

Adjusting mute automation

You can edit mute automation settings by adding a mute envelope to the track or by using the controls in the track header.

  1. Select the Automation Settings button . The Mute button is displayed as .

  2. Click the Mute button to change the bus track's mute automation state.

    The button behaves differently if the track has a mute envelope and when you change the track automation recording mode:

    • When the track automation mode is set to Off, the button mutes the entire track.

    • When the track has a mute envelope and the track automation mode is set to Read, the button changes state to reflect the envelope setting during playback but cannot be adjusted.

    • When the track has a mute envelope and the track automation mode is set to Touch or Latch, the button edits the envelope setting at the cursor position.

Soloing a track

Click the Solo button to solo all selected audio bus tracks. Click the Solo button on additional tracks to add them to the solo group. To remove a track from the solo group, click its Solo button again.

TIP Hold Ctrl while clicking a Solo button to solo a single track and remove all other tracks from the solo group.

Resizing bus tracks

You can drag the horizontal splitter between the track list and bus tracks to increase or decrease the space used to display bus tracks. Perform any of the following actions to resize individual bus tracks:

  • Drag a bus track's bottom border to set its height.

  • Click Minimize to minimize a track vertically.

  • Click Maximize to zoom in vertically so a bus track fills the lower portion of the timeline.

  • After minimizing or maximizing a bus track, click the Minimize or Maximize button again to return a bus track to its previous height.

  • Press Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down Arrow when the bus track area has focus to resize all bus tracks at once.