So I’ll play it back, and then I’ll move this fader up and down. Let’s say this is just to provide some slight dynamic range control over the total mix. I’m going to use this limiter here as an example where we can watch the metering where what’s going on in here. I’ve got my signal - all of the signals in my mix going over here to this music mix. Let’s think about then a different kind of track. For the most part, it’s going to be post-insert, and then you have the option whether you want it to be pre- or post-send. So I think that demonstrates the basic functionality of the channel fader on an audio track. So as an audio engineer, you can think about in your mix, whether it’s appropriate to have this fader be before your auxiliary send, or whether it’s better to be afterwards, right? Now what happens is as I turn this level down, my auxiliary send is still happening before this channel fader. Or actually, whether the auxiliary send - you’re moving the place in which this is going to occur.
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One thing you do have control over as an engineer is whether this channel fader happens before the auxiliary send. So I’ll play this again, and watch the different metering. So when I turn the level of the signal down over here, it’s happening before the output over here at buss 21-22. Then the output of this track is going over to my music mix.
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This means that this fader is happening pre - or before - this send right here. As of right now, when I turn the fader down, it also turns the level down in the reverb. I also have the signal going over to this reverb. That means the fader is post-insert in this case. I had level going through, even when I turned the fader down. So you can see, I still had level going through this plug-in up here on my channel strip. We can see the gain and how it’s getting changed. So let me play it back, and watch on the metering over here, and over here, what happens to the signal.
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On this lead vocal track - this is a track that stores an audio file - it’s a vocal performance that was recorded, and it stores an audio file, plays it back, and I’m going to also do things like send it through this channel strip, buss it over to reverb, and all of that kinds of stuff.Įventually, it’s going to end up going through my sub mix here on this auxiliary track - the music mix - and then finally end up at this master fader. So I’m going to demonstrate here, starting out with this vocal track, is I’m going to play it back, and we’re going to watch where the signal level changes in terms of the metering and all of that kind of stuff through my signal path. We should understand where we’re actually changing the level of the signal. In the audio track, we can have inserts, we can have sends, we can have panning, we can have all of that kind of stuff. You can turn the volume up, you can turn the volume down.Īfter you understand that, the next question to ask is, “Well, where exactly am I changing this volume?” There’s a lot of things going on on any given track. So the basic purpose, or function of a channel fader, no matter what track it’s on, is to give an engineer the ability to change a signal’s amplitude. So let me begin with by playing the song back, and then we’ll get to looking at specific situations. What I’m going to do in this video is demonstrate some basic functionality and also talk about how you apply that knowledge to using these things inside of a mix. I’ve talked with a lot of audio engineers and heard different ideas - even conflicting opinions about how people think channel fader works on different tracks, like the audio track, auxiliary track, and the master track.
#What is a fader on a mixer pro#
Here’s a video for you about understanding how the channel fader works on different types of Pro Tools tracks.