Ways to process in groups
>Group and bus processing gives you free rein to process multiple things through one output, but what ‘things’ should you lump together? Remember, this is music, so there’s no one strict set of answers, but there are a few ways to think about things, depending on the outcomes you want to achieve. We’ve looked at drum bus processing already, but that’s not the only way to slice your percussion. How about splitting them into low and high percussive elements, or putting the crashes onto the FX bus for processing? What about leaving the kick out altogether?
YOU CAN EASILY BUS ‘WIDE’ AND ‘NARROW’ OR ‘MID’ AND ‘SIDES’ ELEMENTS ON THEIR OWN
Let’s consider vocals now. Whether your track is constituted by vocal effects and chops, or if you’ve got a ream of backing vocals or harmonies, those are two ways to categorise your elements and fit them into busses accordingly. You may choose to process a backing vocal bus a little differently to the lead vocals, for example reducing higher frequencies to clamp down on sibilance or increase intelligibility when multiple takes of the same lyrics are sung.