Bus vs. folder tracks

[jancivil]

Folder tracks - let you group several tracks visually, to have them in one place & fold them out of view when not editing them; but each track is still - by default - routed to Master

I guess some DAWs must do this and call it 'folder tracks' but what I'm used to seeing are 'Group Tracks', like in Ableton, and with those, the output of each track inside the group is route to the Group track, not the Master. They are, in effect, identical to routing all those tracks to one bus, but much easier to configure from a UI / workflow standpoint.

well, in Cubase they don't route or do anything but be a folder, for tracks. You can't make it alter routing of the things.

folder trx.jpg

With it in focus, Record will record onto everything inside, you can lock/mute/solo everything inside, like that.

[THE INTRANCER]

I've used Folder Tracks mainly for drums and percussion elements, just so I have more room. Using a Buss is a rare occurrence, it's really only on highly complex tracks where I need to conserve CPU resources. A Buss for effects sends.. It's been a few years since I used them.

[apoclypse]

Folder tracks - let you group several tracks visually, to have them in one place & fold them out of view when not editing them; but each track is still - by default - routed to Master[/list]

I guess some DAWs must do this and call it 'folder tracks' but what I'm used to seeing are 'Group Tracks', like in Ableton, and with those, the output of each track inside the group is route to the Group track, not the Master. They are, in effect, identical to routing all those tracks to one bus, but much easier to configure from a UI / workflow standpoint.

There is really nothing stopping your from routing all you tracks to Master even when inside a group in Ableton. It just conveniently by default routes it all to the group bus since Ableton doesn't have traditional busses. You can create one by just routing all your tracks to another audio track and calling it a bus.

[pixel85]

I'm using folders mostly to arrange the session. It can be to keep all vocals together or eg. all layers of one sound effect together, same external synth + routing type together etc. In >100 tracks sessions, folders are really helpful.
Sometimes tracks in the folders are going to the same bus, sometimes to different buses. It depends. I keep buses for processing so if particular sound doesn't need to be processed with the others in the same folder, it's going to master out or other bus.
Thus I'm glad that in Cubase, folders and buses can be kept separately.

Ps. In Cubase, it's possible to create a folder and group for selected tracks within a one mouse click (two actually). It's one of default macros