MODERATOR, PLEASE RESPOND-TRACK FADER VS. MASTER F

[michaux]

I posted this question to everyone and now I am more confused than before.

Should my master fader stay at unity gain to achieve the best resolution during playback? If I have to pull it halfway down to avoid clipping, would I get a better sound if I pulled the track faders down instead? Obviously this is a lot more work since I have automation and outputs of tracks feeding multiple buses to aux inputs with compressors, eq, etc. on 11 songs.

My mistake was mixing with an L1 on the master fader. Now when I take it off to get a mix for the mastering engineer, the output levels clip. I would like to just pull the master down but I am not sure that is the right thing to do.
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[Slim Shady]

The digi moderator is not a tech, and therefore won't be able to answer your question at all. If you haven't gotten a satisfactory answer from the users here, your best bet is to take this question to a more technically minded forum, like The Prosound Rec Pit or maybe The Google Pro Audio discussion board. Also, have you tried the TDM forum? A lot of those guys are a little deeper into the way the software functions, they might give you the answer you're seeking.

[pk_hat]

You may also want to try this forum:

www.tapeop.com


Or reading this book:

Mastering Audio - The Art and Science, by Bob Katz


I think many people have taken a turn at holding your hand regarding this issue (no offense intended), perhaps a broader research on your end will help, as this extends beyond ProTools itself. There are many seasoned engineers at TapeOp, surely someone can nail it once and for all, providing you a good night's sleep.

[AverageJoe]

I didn't read through the entire thread regarding this disuccsion so maybe this has been mentioned, but the issue isn't going to be with "resolution" as you call it, rather there is a theory that moving ANY fader causes more mathematical equations to be done, and therefore hurts sound quality.

There have been lots of tests done on this and to the best of my memory the theory is not very accurate.

Let your ears decide. Not your eyes. Turn down your fader, turn OFF your screen and just listen. And then tell us all what you find, so we can sleep at night too!

[AvidCS]

Adjust your final output level with the master fader.

For more info read this;

http://www.digidesign.com/digizine/a...il03/techtalk/

(excerpt)

".....there is no data, or information, lost while mixing completely in Pro Tools, that no signal is lost when you pull a channel fader down below unity, and that there is no difference between setting all of the channel faders to -30 with the master at unity and setting the master to -30 with the channel faders at unity. As long as you're not clipping the output and are sending the highest possible output signal before clipping, then all is well."

[bzldzl]

Finally the answer, thanks digi. Thanks for bringing this topic up michaux.

Jason