What's people's workflow with aux sends/returns and project management?

[chagzuki]

I've been using Logic for over a year, but it has some weird issues, and I've always had an attachment to Tracktion. However, for me, the use of standard tracks to create aux busses creates a bad workflow, as one has to manually scroll across tracks to make adjustments to send and return parameters, and this in particular has kept me using Logic instead. Of course, the standard DAW layout is to have linked windows which display connected busses when one selects tracks.

Have I missed something in how Waveform handles this, perhaps in recent updates? Maybe there's a way of using the UI that works well in this regard, which I'm not aware of?

[pough]

You might want to look at the Groups and Tracks tabs of the Browser. It might allow you to more easily show just the tracks you want to see when you're making adjustments. More work to set up, but less scrolling.

[chagzuki]

You might want to look at the Groups and Tracks tabs of the Browser. It might allow you to more easily show just the tracks you want to see when you're making adjustments. More work to set up, but less scrolling.

Ah, interesting. I still use Waveform as if it's Tracktion... old habits.

[chagzuki]

Damn, had no idea how convenient tags were. Would be nice to not be tied to Logic so as to not be tied to Mac OS, and Waveform having a Linux option is handy. I think I'll migrate an unfinished project over and see how it goes.

[Watchful]

I use sends and returns in every single project. I'm also including the ability to re-route tracks from one to another, which is very much a send in a studio sense (just without a quarter-inch cable going from a physical output to a physical input).

Waveform's crazy ability to send/return/re-route audio is a key feature for me.

I. Master tracking/bouncing

1. In every project, I create a track called Master up near the top.
2. Below it, I create a track called Bounce and mute it.
3. I change the input of Bounce to receive audio from Master.
4. I then change the output of all audio tracks I want included in a recording to Master.

Why?

a. Tracks I do NOT want recorded (custom click tracks, audio cues, experimental tracks, etc.) are not send to bounce.
b. Back in the days when you could only put four plugins in the master bus, this allowed me to put as many plugins as I wanted into the Master track.
c. When it's time to finalize a project, I arm Bounce for recording and then record away. Every track routed to Master is then pulled into Bounce, giving me a fully finished audio track with all the desired mastering plugins working away. The tracks listed in item a. don't record, so I'm not worried about conflicts; and best of all, I never experience ANY of the troubles people report here with rendering.
d. When done, I go into the project's Recorded Items folder, and there at the top is the Bounced track, all cleaned up and ready for renaming and test-listening.

II. Vocals

I typically have a few vocal tracks, either layers, pans, double tracks, etc. I will put an Aux Send onto these and send them to a VOX BUS track. On the vox bus, I can put a plate, a delay, hall reverb, etc., and bring those up underneath the main vocal tracks. I often will create multiple Aux Return tracks, each with one effect on it so I can more quickly balance how much delay, how much reverb, etc. The output of these buses, as you expect, go to my Master track.

I may or may not route the backing vocals to this bus--that depends on how they interact with the lead vocals. Frequently backing vocals are sent to their own bus (BVOX) track for separate processing.

III. Orchestral

When working with sampled orchestral sounds, it's imperative to send them all to a common bus so the different sample, different recording conditions, etc., all sound like they're occurring in the same room. I'll send the output of every instrument to a track called ORCH, and on that bus I'll put a room reverb or hall reverb based on the desired size of the space. This glues them neatly together.

IV. Drums

You can send drum sounds all sorts of places. I might, for example, send the kick and snare to a deep reverb track to emphasize the booms and cracks, but keep the other drum parts on something drier...but then send all of those to a room or hall reverb to add glue to them, just as the orchestral sounds.

V. Others

Sometimes I'll do something similar with guitars or pads, as well, in a manner similar to the above.

And remember, ALL of those are ultimately re-routed to Master, which is then pulled into Bounce.

VI. Summing Up...

In conclusion, depending on how you define a send, I'll have a minimum of three sends on a project, but sometimes many, many, many all going at once to glue and tie elements together.

And you can do all of this with racks, too, for the most part, which is a wholly additional explanation!

[nowgad]

... And...

This is one of the best representations of how you can take advantage of Waveform. Thanks!

[Watchful]

You're welcome.

[chagzuki]

I use sends and returns in every single project...

A whole heap of stuff to consider there, that'll keep me going.

[nowgad]

The most interesting thing is that almost all the useful features, moments, things, I am told by TW users.
If @Watchful made some videos with these answers, it would be of great help. But, and so many thanks to him for his patience and clarification.

[dysjoint]

Here's a screenshot of a mockup project to show how I am trying to organise things at the moment.

Learnt the top two tracks from Watchful, the master and the bounce tracks (so handy!)

Underneath I have my bus tracks and any extras (for example the kick trigger here is a sidechain input for Kirchoff eq on the Bass Bus. This is a duplicate of the real kick track, and is muted)

Busses output to the master track. The reason I like to put the master and bus tracks at the top is when you add a new track and go to select the output, the master and the busses will be right at top of the options.

Each group of tracks that output to a bus are foldered together and labelled. So I can close the folder of, say, all the drum tracks and still have the bus right there to make adjustments, solo or mute. There may be mini busses within the folders also, like hats and breaks bussed together and processed within the Drum/Breaks folder, that then go to the main drum bus.

Then I can hide or show tracks and folders from the Tracks section of the browser, which I've only just started doing and it's really useful to keep the screen tidy. Also the 'expand/collapse folder tracks' keyboard shortcut works when you highlight the appropriate folder in the browser_Tracks section.

[Watchful]

That's very similar to my approach, but I use submixes for music tracks. That way I can process groups of instruments with total control (folders don't offer as many features).

Submixes I use for vocals, backing vocals, instrument groups (strings, woodwinds, brass), and anything the project requires.

[Watchful]

Clipboard01.jpg

Here's a mockup of a typical project for me. I've eliminated some guitar tracks and all synth tracks to make it fit on one screen.

1. Master Bus is colored yellow. On this track I put all my mastering tools; also note that I do my fade ins and fadeouts here, as it seems to never screw up the project when I do.

2. Bounce track receives audio from Master and is muted. I arm this track to record when the project is ready to be bounced. I do not use Waveform's built-in rendering and find I have zero troubles doing so.

3. Orchestral sounds are usually racks of different instruments for me, which I've not shown. But in addition to individual compression, I also send these to an orchestral bus ("ORCH").

4. Orchestral Bus is where I put a glue reverb to make all these different instruments sound like they're in one room.

Note 1: I don't use Waveform's stock compressor, but included it here so anyone can understand it.

Oh, the arranger track in red at the top...I used this before Waveform put it in for us; I'll put in notes, reminders, chord markings, whatever as clips so I can keep the project organized. It's just something I do, and frankly Waveform's tools in this regard are probably better but old habits die hard.

Note 2: I don't put orchestral instruments on every project!

5. Guitar, bass, etc.

6. Drums, if treated as individual instruments are in a submix so I can (a) control and compress each individually and (b) treat the overall kit with compression, etc. I also put a send to the DRUMS bus.

7. Drums Bus is where I put bus compression and usually sculpt the sound a bit with EQ or other effects so I have one clean drum sound (Drums track) and one dirty one (Drum Bus) underneath it to add character or emphasize the kick or snare or whatever.

8. Vox is the vocal track, but in reality this is usually a submix of many tracks, parallel tracks, R/L stereo splits, etc. But note it's being sent to the VOX bus.

9. BVOX is a submix of the many, many backing vocals. It's also send in this example to the VOX bus, but it could easily be sent to a BVOX bus for chorusing, separate EQ, etc.

10. Vox Bus is, like the drum bus, where I put bus compression and add reverb and delay effects. This way I can lower the level to zero and bring it up under the vocal and/or backing vocal tracks until I like the blend. Effects here are 100% wet.