Expagorate the difference between a bus channel and an FX channel?

[Mercurian Aspirations]

In PreSonus Studio One DAW what is the difference between a bus channel and an FX channel?

 

[Tebandeke]

Effect channels are worthless and only limit you. Only use a bus channel.

 

[Xochipilli]

A bus (or buss) is normally useful to group various mixer channels together. For instance, a drum kit (i.e., the kick, snare, toms, cymbals, percussion, etc) including guitars, vocals, and so on whilst an FX channel is useful for stuff like reverberation and delay audio software plugins.

 

[Kokopelli]

Bus channels have sends, effect channels don't.

 

[Ptah]

Bus channels have sends, effect channels don't.

Nope... FX channels have sends now too.

 

[Chwa]

I'd say use fx channels Only when you want them as "last in the chain" and busses when you want, or might want to bus/send them further on, or if you might use them as sidechains for stuff on other channels.

I pretty much only use fx channels for some of my delays and reverbs. Busses can be used the same as FX channels though, but I think it Might make for lower latency in songs, if fx sends that go last in the chain are kept on FX channels, they will be handled last by the computer. Just my personal guess.

 

[Genghis Khan]

Nope... FX channels have sends now too.

Yes, in PreSonus Studio One version 6 they're basically the same except that an FX channel is solo safe by default and it is categorized differently in the channel filters (you can opt to see only track channels, bus channels of FX channels). This filtering makes it easier to sort your tracks and see them easier especially on higher track count projects. One thing that you can also do is pin the FX channels to the very end of the mixer so you can easily find all of them there.

 

[Nakibinge]

In short, the best way to really internalize the differences is to pick one and use it. And then pick the other type and use it. and you will learn the differences better than listening to a bunch of us here!

 

[Kokopelli]

Nope... FX channels have sends now too.

So they lifted that restriction?

 

[Ptah]

So they lifted that restriction?

Yup, PreSonus Audio Electronics got rid of that restriction because that used to be the case in older versions of Studio One.

 

[Jemba]

They are the exact same, although PreSonus Studio One names them differently. Generally speaking, a bus is a channel that receives audio signals from other channels, if you insert an FX on the bus it's an FX channel, if you insert a compressor you get parallel compression. Your main or master fader is a Bus, it's the main (left and right) stereo output.