1. WELCOME
1.1. What is a bus effect?
As far as audio effects are concerned, bus or masterbus effects occupy a place of their
own. These effects are used to polish a more complex, many times composite sound, be it
a group sub-mix or even the final master bus output. Since their main goal is to perfect and
balance the overall sound spectrum (and maybe add some color to it), they are specially
tailored for and tuned to those tasks.
Therefore, their audio circuits are more carefully planned and usually more complex, their
components are chosen with top quality in mind, and more expensive and retro parts are
sometimes used, like real tubes for example.
All in all, the objective is a sound that's richer, fuller and with more body, maybe
supplemented with the kind of saturation you don't usually get in today's pristine audio
chains, where we aim for the cleanest sound possible. And why not add a touch of EQ to
make the sound a bit more transparent and detailed in certain bands?
Traditionally, there are just a few types of these bus effects: Equalizers, compressors
(usually called bus compressors, to differentiate them from the usual channel compressors),
and maybe more complex units with complete audio channels, comprising several modules.
Arturia - User Manual Comp DIODE-609 - WELCOME
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