Audio bus
A shared route that gathers tracks under one fader or sends copies of them through the same reverb, compressor, or effect.
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What it is
An audio bus is a route that carries one or more signals to a shared destination. Route every dialogue track to a dialogue bus and one fader controls their combined level; put a compressor there and they all pass through the same processing. The master bus is simply the final route everything reaches before the output. The name comes from the busbar, the shared strip of metal in a console that many channels tie onto.
Use a submix bus to group drums, vocals, dialogue, music, or effects. Use a send bus to feed copies of many tracks into one reverb or delay return. DAWs often show the receiving channel as an aux, while the bus is the path feeding it, though everyday studio talk often uses the words for the whole setup.
Gotcha: a fader group or VCA can move several faders without combining their audio, so plugins on it do not process a shared signal. Routing mistakes can also send a track both directly to the master and through the bus, making it unexpectedly louder. Trace every output and send before blaming the compressor.
Ask AI for it
Build a dialogue submix in Logic Pro: set every dialogue track's Output to Bus 1, name the receiving Aux channel DX BUS, insert one shared EQ and compressor on that aux, and route its output to Stereo Out. Keep music and effects on separate buses, confirm no dialogue track also feeds Stereo Out directly, and leave effect sends post-fader so each track can still choose its own reverb amount.