[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by idris

Note to self, always check you've listed all the caveats.

subbasshead & Frank, I take your point entirely, and wasn't suggesting editing / mixing by numbers, I was just curious to know whether there was a nominal value which was commonly used as a starting point and then qualitative judgements made from there.

It raises another issue though, and that's the demarkation of the editor's and mixer's work : (in a massively over simplified example) I could put a 2 or 3 frame crossfade in that sounds fine with the roungh mix I do in a cutting room, but when the mixer chooses to push the traffic sfx over the seawash, the crossfade may need to be adjusted.

3 frames sounds like a very long fade for a hard scene change. Personally I prefer hard changes to come in tight and precise but this doesn´t mean I like them "slappy" and harsh. 3 frames in my world is quite long, which doesn´t mean I never use 3 frame fades.
As you can see any starting point could be right or wrong. Find your own. This can´t be developed in theory. I´d say for a hard scene change 1/2 frame crossfade (1/4 incoming 1/4 outgoig) is a good starting point.
I´ve never worked or heard of mixers who dictate fade parameters. Sounds rather silly to me. It´s as if I would tell the mixer that +3dB@6kHz has to be appiled to all dialog tracks regardless of the content.

Frank.