Moving faders with all group enabled?

[Question]

If I drop the faders say 3 dB with the all group enabled, does this change the mix or just the volume? Also, I wish you'd get a warning dialog option clicking a fader in an enabled group.

[Mike Tholen]

[img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] are you kidding? [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Question]

Actually I'm not. How about 1 dB? I say it changes the mix but I was assisting in a big studio and the main engineer said to do this when the mix buss was clipping. We were near the end of the mix. In the analog world is this a different scenerio due to the lack of digital math?

[steveG]

One thing for sure is, any channel with a comp on the insert is going to be compressed differently because you're no longer "hitting" those compressors with the same level(amplitude,signal,juice,love, ***** , [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] .
Same goes for any aux sends that are being fed on those channels.The amount of level sent, is subsequently reduced by the fader trim
$.02
good deed for the day

[Borgbilly]

In theory the mix should not change but in reality I believe it does, or at least my ears say it does. When faced with the situation you describe, I have found myself going back and retweaking my mixes after an 'all' group fader move.

As for steveG's reply, I think his statement is inacurate. Channel inserts are pre fader in Protools and are not effected by the position of the fader.

[AE]

Correct -- only Master Fader inserts are post-fader.

[Question]

So how about in analog world? Say you have 16 tracks with no inserts and no sends and a master fader. The levels are all set like you want and you lower all by a little. Different mix? I don't get it yet. Is it the load on the mix bus that changes the sonic quality?
Thanks for the input.

[Borgbilly]

In the analog world on a good console this doesn't happen. I believe it is as you suspected, the undesirable result of the digital math. It may also be the fact that the clip light in a digital system means game over, you broke something. Most studio grade analog components have a degree of headroom above the clip indicator.

[Question]

Thanks Borgbilly.