Ok, I use Sonar 3. I've NEVER used busses or sends, and immediately delete them from my track so I just have everything going to the Main Outs. If I want an effect like reverb, I just place it in the effects section of the Audio Track. Why do I need to use a Send? Or should I??? What's the point of them anyways?
This is like the Project Studio Forum so I thought I'd post the first official stupid question!!!
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In a word, it's about conservation of resources.
When you use a "native" DAW such as Sonar, you are relying on the computer's CPU power for all the processing. And despite the fact that computers are getting more and more powerful all the time, there's still a finite amount of power available at any given time.
By using aux sends and returns and assigning things like reverbs to them, you can send several different tracks to a single effect or reverb instead of having a individual effect assigned to each individual track, thus reducing the load on your computer's CPU.
Of course, using a seperate effect as an INSERT on a track is just fine too - especially if you're only planning on using that particular plug in for that one instrument. But if you want to effect several things with the same basic effect (such as say, a room reverb), then aux sends and returns can be a more effective and efficient way to accomplish that.
BTW, there's no such thing as a "stupid question".
Well I was going to answer that question, but Phil nailed it.
I would add that Sonar's bussing structure really is aces, because buses can feed buses, and so on. So for example, you could have a reverb bus fed by a tempo-synched delay bus, with some effects getting reverb only, and some getting delay+reverb.
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Craig Anderton *check out my podcast at www.cyberears.com
