Tracks and Buses

The foundation of a good mix is organization. If you try to mix a 50-track short film by adjusting the volume of 50 individual faders randomly, you will fail. You must use Tracks and Buses.

Audio Tracks

Tracks are where your actual audio clips live on the timeline. In the Audio Workspace, the timeline dominates the screen.

Oraphim supports several track formats:

• Mono: A single channel of audio. Use this for dialogue (boom mics and lavaliers).
• Stereo: Two channels (Left and Right). Use this for music and environmental soundscapes.
• 5.1 / 7.1 / Atmos: Multi-channel tracks for surround sound mixing.

Workflow Tip: Always group your tracks. Keep Dialogue on Tracks 1-5, Sound Effects (SFX) on Tracks 6-15, and Music on Tracks 16-20. You can change track colors in the track header to visually distinguish them.

Audio Buses

A Bus is a mathematical pathway that combines multiple tracks together into a single master channel.

Imagine you have 5 tracks of dialogue, and you want to lower the volume of all the voices by 3dB so the music is louder. Instead of pulling down 5 faders, you route them to a Bus.

1. Open the Bus Format window (Workspace > Bus Format).
2. Click Add Bus. Name it "Dialogue_Bus".
3. Now, open the Mixer.
4. At the top of the channel strips for Tracks 1-5, you will see a routing dropdown (usually set to Main).
5. Change it to route to Dialogue_Bus.

Now, the audio from all 5 tracks flows into the single Dialogue_Bus. You have one fader to control all the dialogue simultaneously. You can also apply an EQ or Compressor to the Bus, and it will affect all 5 voices at once.

The Main Bus

By default, every track and every sub-bus must eventually route to the Main Bus (usually labeled M1 or Main). The Main Bus is the final output of the software. What comes out of the Main Bus is exactly what will be written to your exported video file.

Use Tracks and Buses in a production project

1. Open Edit / Audio controls and select the intended clip, audio track, or mix context.
2. Establish the correct input state first—timing, media link, layer/node enable state, project settings, or source selection as relevant.
3. Apply or adjust Tracks and Buses with one clear goal. Change the smallest set of controls needed to reach that goal so the result remains understandable and reversible.
4. Review the complete affected range in context. Scrub difficult frames and also play at normal speed when motion or audio is involved.
5. Save a named milestone before moving into another major operation, especially after graph changes, tracking, AI processing, relinking, simulation, or delivery setup.

Practical guidance

Use tracks and buses only where it solves a defined creative or technical problem, and compare the result against the untreated state.

A useful test is a short 5–10 second section containing both an easy case and a difficult case for this feature. Tune against the difficult moment without breaking the easy one. If two approaches are plausible, duplicate/version the project state and compare them rather than stacking both together blindly.

Verify the result

• Listen through the complete affected section and check meters as well as perceived balance.
• Toggle/bypass the operation where possible and make sure the change you intended is actually responsible for the result.
• Check selection, visibility/mute/solo state, node connections, track locks, range, and source identity when the result appears missing.
• Save and reopen before treating a complex setup as reusable.
• If this feature changes final pixels or audio, render a short review and inspect the file outside Oraphim.

Related guides

• Automation
• Dynamics
• Audio Effects
• Equalization