VCA vs. Buses

[BrianJArmstrong]

I wanted to start a discussion about pros and cons of VCAs and busses.

When do you prefer one vs. the other? Do you only use one and not the other?

I do a lot of post production work and always have stems to think about during final output. VCAs are great for certain things, but when it comes time to do a bounce, instead of having to bounce each stem real time, I like to set up busses so I can record all stems at once internally and export regions as files after the fact. Does that pretty much make VCAs redundant?

At the same time, it could be nice not to have to touch the busses and just use VCAs to control overall level. Like I said before, it just seems redundant/unnecessary to have a VCA controlling all the faders that go into a bus.

I'm thinking busses are still my best bet, but am welcoming others' input.

Thanks!!

Brian

[lexaudio]

I use busses mostly in Post because you can put inserts on them.
Most do since all the busses make up the mix, and you can punch them all at the same time.

VCA's can be handy for certain things depending on your workflow.

I use the VCA's for OMF's mostly.

[bad jitter]

I use both. VCAs control channels going into busses.

[fakir_cz]

Originally Posted by bad jitter

I use both. VCAs control channels going into busses.

+1. I use both in the same way. Track groups (dia, sfx, music, etc.) are sent to appropriate busses where any group processing is going on, and the VCA's control level of each group. This way you get rid of the post-fader send problem (i.e. send to a reverb - you lower the Aux level, but post-fader sends are relative to a channel faders, which haven't moved, so the send level remains the same, resulting in too much reverb in the mix), which is good, but introduce another one with dynamics processing on the Aux Input (the level of VCA-controlled tracks is pre-insert on the Aux). So it's good to know about it.

VCA's are also great for soloing or muting different stems/groups. It's quite hard to do it (comfortably) without them.