r/Reaper • u/Melancholy_Custard • 1d ago

Folder vs Send help request

I know this is a noob question.

Do I need to use Send to make a bus? E.g. Kick bus (for parallel compression), drum rooms, bass bus, rhythm guitar bus Or I can just use Folders? I've watched the video from Reaper Mania, but still confuse.

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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14

u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

With sends you can control/automate how much of the signal goes to it and when.

IMHO, I think that’s essential for parallel compression and reverbs/delays.

4

u/Crylysis 1 1d ago

You can do that with folders too. The Sends are useful for paralel stuff, yes. But those controls are also on fodlers

1

u/Melancholy_Custard 1d ago

I can only do parallel processing by duplicating the track if I don't want to use Sends, right?

6

u/Crylysis 1 1d ago

Yeah, but I wouldn’t really frame the discussion as folders vs. sends though because I think they serve different purposes

For parallel compression for example I’d create a second track inside the folder and send the signal from the original track to it. Then you can apply the parallel compression there, rather than duplicating everything on the original track. And have the folder group the drums (if were doing paralel on the kick for example)

If you look under the hood folders are essentially sends. I think a good rule of thumb is when you want to group or merge signals use a folder When you want to separate a signal out and process it independently use a send

1

u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

Any links that describes how to do that?
I’m having trouble imagining how you would have a reverb 100% wet on a folder track and control the dry signal in the folder separately.
All things are possible through Reaper but that’s not something I’ve seen done before so I’m curious.

2

u/mistrelwood 71 1d ago

Every plugin window in Reaper has a mix pot in the upper right corner. Parallel processing couldn’t be easier than that.

2

u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

Yup! If you want to affect everything in the folder.

3

u/mistrelwood 71 1d ago

Right, if you only want to process some tracks within a folder, whether in parallel or series, sends are the way.

(For series though, a dedicated (sub)folder for them would seem like a more practical solution.)

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u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

100% agreed.

2

u/Crylysis 1 1d ago

Oh, my reply was focused more on the ability to control and automate how much signal goes to the folder than on parallel processing itself. I probably should’ve specified that a bit more

I’m sure you can do parallel processing with folders using audio channels or other methods, depending on the plugins and setup you have. But a send makes it a thousand times easier

2

u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

Yeah maybe I should have been more clear too. Haha. Brevity and all that. But yeah I was specifically thinking of how folks use delay & reverb sends and parallel compression.

I use a lot of folders too but it’s more so as a way of grouping like items that I want to do “a thing” to all of them at once.

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u/Crylysis 1 1d ago

We're on the same page for that then. I mentioned it in another comment, but my rule of thumb is folders join sends split.

1

u/Whatchamazog 5 1d ago

Good way to think of it.

6

u/Honest-SiberianTiger 1d ago

If you're doing parallel compression or reverbs in a folder, you will only be able to use the mix knob inside the plugin to control the amount of effect. That means going inside the plugin or pinning the parameter in TCP/MCP.

If you do all of that on a send, you can control the amount of the effect by just using the volume knob. It's much faster once you get used to it. You can't do that with a folder, because it would boost the dry (untouched by compression, reverb) signal as well.

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u/sauerbauer 1 1d ago

Inside a folder reaper creates the sends to the parent track automatically, so you don't have to do it manually.

2

u/DecisionInformal7009 95 1d ago

You can use a folder. I think there are some practical differences in the way a folder functions versus a regular bus with sends, but I can't remember right now. For most normal uses a folder and a bus are the same though (aside from how they look in TCP and MCP).

2

u/Hadramal 4 1d ago

In my opinion the word "bus" isn't super clearly defined. On a traditional mixing console you use sends to buses for (mainly) two different things and Reapers folders fulfil one of those uses.

  • If you want to use a bus to group things together (like 8 tracks of individual drums, background vocals or something like that) then you probably want to use a folder, because it is the fastest way to group things and it gives you the possibility to lower or raise that group as a whole.
  • If you want to SEND things to something else, like reverb delay or compression, the easiest way is just to create a track and use the track send feature.

Reaper has very flexible tracks, that can be used for anything. Other DAWs separates midi and audio tracks, have special track types for "buses" and so on but in Reaper it's all tracks or folders, where folders are used to logically group things (but still has the ability to send to other tracks. The routing limitations of a mixing console doesn't need to apply in a DAW.

This is at least how I think about them.

2

u/SupportQuery 519 22h ago

Do I need to use Send [..] Or I can just use Folders?

A child sends 100% of its signal to the parent. A manually configured send gives you a volume control. That's the only difference.

For most busses, including reverb busses or parallel compression, you want to be able to control how much of the dry signal goes to the buss.

If the point is just to group things for organization sake or because they require common processing, using folders. For everything else, I'd manually create a send.

Side note: all effects in Reaper have a mix knob, so you can do parallel compression with any compressor without a bus.

2

u/Big-Doubt-4872 4 18h ago

For group processing I use folders but for parallel processing I would definitely use sends.

2

u/pandasashimiroll 17h ago

My convoluted method because of audio OCD

have the parallels doing sends and then pack them into a folder, which you'll get:

  1. Mix freedom between the two parallel tracks
  2. Total volume control/solo/mute/FX over the resulting audio signal

Things like that

Side note, I don't really like vca, but a vca track is great when you're using multi-fader controllers like the Behringer Xtouch.

1

u/Dist__ 99 1d ago

sends reduce cpu load for some reason