SHOULD THE MASTER FADER ALWAYS STAY AT UNITY GAIN?

[michaux]

I have heard that the master fader should always stay at unity gain to get the highest resolution possible, regardless of the signal level. Is this true? I have a situation where my track faders are all up too high because I have been mixing with the L1 on the master fader. I pull the L1 off before my final mixdown that I give my mastering engineer. I then have to pull my master fader down about halfway to avoid clipping. Should I then pull down all my track faders and set the master at 0.0? Will this sound better? If so, how do I select all my tracks with volume automation and bring them down together without changing my mix?

MichauX cmc@michauxmusic.com

[RinnyTin]

You can just pull your master fader down until you're not clipping. Alternatively change all track views to "volume", select the "all" edit group, use the horizontal bracket looking tool to pull all the volume automation on all tracks down by 3db or whatever you need to do to not clip the master.

[storm-01]

When working with analog, I always keep the master fader at unity. However, I have noticed that I can crank the master all the way up in Pro Tools and I do no hear ANY audio distortion what so ever. Even through some really nice headphones.


Stormy

[RinnyTin]

Dude. REALLY nice or really NICE headphones?

[bzldzl]

I always keep it a unity gain and put the Q1 plug-in from Waves on the master fader. It has a really cool gain adujustment. When the Q1 is peaked it has a display which tells you by how much, when you click on the display it lowers the level by that amount. Very quick and easy to use. I'm sure other plug-ins do this but I only know about the Waves stuff.

Hope this helps.

[Anthemmusic]

I have found the best sound mixing in PT is not driving the Master Fader so hard. Don't be afraid of not having a hot enough mix - the Mastering Engineer will usually have nice gear to compress and limit and get a nice level.

I would recommend turning down your individual tracks with automation, rather than just turn down the Master fader. You can do this by selecting "all" in the bottom left corner where your Groups are located. Then select "volume" on one track and then, all the tracks will show the volume. Next, highlight all the tracks with your time selector - as far as you want to reduce the levels. Then, use the trim tool, and lower the volume - automation and all - and everything will be proportionately reduced.

Don't forget to click the "all" off again when you're done......

[allstaar]

Yes, keep your master fader at zero gain and preferably, don't insert plugins.

Select all audio tracks so they are highlighted, then command+g to create a new group containing these tracks .

Remove or deactivate all plugins on the master fader. Set the master fader to 0dB gain.

Reduce the level of the audio track group so the master fader meters do not clip throughout the duration of the track.
Beware if you have prefade sends or complex busing. You should be very thoughtfull to ensure you are not upsetting the balance, if neccessary include submixes and effect returns in the aformentioned group. There are as many situations as there are answers here.

Thats the way, (ahh ha ahh ha) I do it..........

Allstaar.

[RinnyTin]

Can someone prove to me that there's a difference between lowering all your track faders to achieve a 3db reduction in peak output vs. lowering the master fader 3db? For the sake of argument, let's say your mixing without any aux busses. And please, no analog analogies, it's not an actual mixer, there's no 'overdriving the mix bus'. IMO, there's no difference. It's two different ways of doing the same math. Talk to me.

[draven]

Just a suggestion. If you have a Mastering Engineer, stop mixing with an L1.

[storm-01]

Dude. REALLY nice or really NICE headphones?

I use Beyerdynamic DT 770 headphones to mix. They are by far not the best headphones to use, but for under $200, they sound really good. They completely isolate everything that is around you and if you close your eyes, you feel like you can reach out and touch each instrument being played.

I have had pretty good success at keeping my master at unity and putting a waves C4 plugin on the master. That or a limiter to boost the signal a little. Be carefull not to add to much dB to the master plugs. Another method you could try is boucing the track down L/R and then opening that in another program such as Sound Forge. Then raise the overall level a little. When I mix, I already have all of the tracks as loud as they can be and still be well balanced and not clipping, so I don't really mess with all of the track's volume automation at the end of the mixing process.

All of the above practices are worthy of trying. Like stated in a post above, there are several ways of getting the overall levels louder.
Stormy