Routing busses

The Mixing Console window allows you to create up to 26 (plus the Master) virtual busses that you can route to hardware attached to your computer or to other busses.

By default, all busses are assigned to the Master bus. In this configuration, you can use them for creating subgroups of tracks—for example, you could route all your drum tracks to a bus so you can adjust their levels together without changing their relative levels. When you assign busses to hardware outputs, you can use busses for sending tracks to external effects processors or for mixing on an external mixer.

IMPORTANT When you route busses to hardware outputs, the outputs from those busses will not be included in the mix when you render your project.

Routing a bus to another bus

  1. Add busses to your project. For more information, see Adding audio busses

  2. Click the Playback Device Selector button on the audio bus track and choose a bus from the menu. For more information, see Audio bus tracks

    • The button is displayed as a when a bus is routed to the master bus.

    • The bus letter is displayed (, , and so on) when a bus is routed to another bus.

    • The button is displayed as a when a bus is routed to a hardware output.

NOTE To prevent feedback, you cannot perform circular routing. For example, if your project has two busses and bus A is routed to B, bus B can only be routed to the Master bus.

TIP You can also use the I/O control region in the bus channel strip to route busses. For more information, see Bus Channel Strips

Routing a bus to a hardware output

  1. Verify that you are using Windows classic wave drivers or an ASIO driver:

    1. From the Options menu, choose Preferences and click the Audio Device tab.

    2. From the Audio device type drop-down list, choose Windows Classic Wave Driver or an ASIO driver.

    3. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog.

    NOTE If you have selected Microsoft Sound Mapper in the Audio device type drop-down list on the Audio tab in the Preferences dialog, you will not be able to assign the bus to a different device. For more information, see Audio Tab

  2. Click the Output button in the I/O control region of the bus channel strip and choose another bus from the menu. For more information, see Bus Channel Strips