Master fader or not?

[bonzerboy]

Does it matter to use a Master fader to bounce a track down to a stereo track before mastering? Is it best to use a MASTER FADER or NOt,, or does it matter?

[bonzerboy]

The reason why I am asking is when I put a master faer on i got the meter going into the red just a few times but when bouncing down with aout a Master Faderno meters on any of the tracks showed any red

[albee1952]

That's the exact reason I now USE a master fader on every project. You need to avoid clipping and its pretty easy to hit clipping on the master. If you don't use a master track, that clipping still exists(you just can't see it).

[waltz mastering]

Even though your individual channels or plug-ins may not be clipping, You may get overs when the channels are summed to your master. If it's just occasional, you can lower the master fader a couple dB which will rectify the problem.

In the future, you can record using lower levels or trim all your channels before mixing if they are hot because there is no real advantage to recording or mixing on a 24 bit platform where any channels or the summed mix is hitting near full scale.

Yellow is the new red.

[FordVan]

Originally Posted by waltz mastering

In the future, you can record using lower levels or trim all your channels before mixing if they are hot because there is no real advantage to recording or mixing on a 24 bit platform where any channels or the summed mix is hitting near full scale.

Yellow is the new red.

I am not sure I totally agree. A great sound to noise ratio is a fundamental aspect of a mix that is deep and transparent. Getting as far over the noise floor as possible is STILL the number one job of the engineer.

[waltz mastering]

Originally Posted by FordVan

I am not sure I totally agree. A great sound to noise ratio is a fundamental aspect of a mix that is deep and transparent. Getting as far over the noise floor as possible is STILL the number one job of the engineer.

With 144 dB of dynamic range in a 24 bit system you have plenty of room to spare when it comes to the noise floor.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by waltz mastering

With 144 dB of dynamic range in a 24 bit system you have plenty of room to spare when it comes to the noise floor.

I'll have to side with waltz on this one. Record at 24 bit and keep that level down, just into the yellow, and all will be fine. I know old habits die hard(they did with me), but we no longer have tape hiss to bury with hot recording levels(something I was reminded of recently when I remixed some old tape transfers)

Consider how audio signals sum and imagine 30-40 hot audio tracks, add a few VI's that are cranked up to blend, and that mix bus is now slamming hot, crunchy and clipped. Personally, if I need to pull the master down more than 4-5db to stop clipping, I will lower all my audio and VI tracks by 3-5db(old gain staging habit)

[Jay_uk]

Interesting thread and once again lots of good info from the members here.
I recently read of someone advocating using 2 Master Faders in their set-up.
Does anyone do this?.... would there be any advantage in doing this?

[Stig Eliassen]

Some use a master fader to control the input of their mix buss aux, but I've never found any reason to do it that way. I use 1 master fader, and it's always sitting at unity gain.

[FordVan]

Originally Posted by waltz mastering

With 144 dB of dynamic range in a 24 bit system you have plenty of room to spare when it comes to the noise floor.

You show me ONE piece of gear on the market with a real life, independently verified sound to noise ratio of 144dB. Also, 24 bit offers the POTENTIAL of 144dB of dynamic range. Not every analog front end does!

While I don't sweat meters at 24 bit like I did at 16 or 20, I am still not going to sign on with being cavalier about not being mindful of good practices in gain staging.