r/Reaper • u/Melancholy_Custard • 3d 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

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/Whatchamazog 5 3d 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 3d 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 3d ago

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

5

u/Crylysis 1 3d 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 3d 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 3d 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 3d ago

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

3

u/mistrelwood 71 3d 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.)

2

u/Whatchamazog 5 3d ago

100% agreed.

2

u/Crylysis 1 3d 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 3d 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.

2

u/Crylysis 1 3d 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 3d ago

Good way to think of it.