master fader raider

[jc]

okay:

you love yr mix. couple or some hours fiddling, and nuancin the level of every fader, and it sounds great now.

BUT

you are hitting the two track too ass hard. its not lookin pretty.
probably nothing will break or sound tooo effd, but they ARE paying you to not fuck up their record.

Q:
master fader is all the way up at unity of course,
so do you bump the master a lil OR
bump every channel on the board and waste the mix you like?

[Bad Halen]

I'm assuming you're going to tape cuz you mentioned 2 track but i'm not sure.

Also, why do you want to raise the master fader if you're already hitting the two-track too hard?

More details, mang.

[xonlocust]

i'd back down the master myself...

does it sound good in the red? if you've got the tape to spare you could do 2 mixes for safety.

[trodden]

I'm assuming you're going to tape cuz you mentioned 2 track but i'm not sure.

Also, why do you want to raise the master fader if you're already hitting the two-track too hard?

More details, mang.

umm, i'm sure the poster meant bumping the Master Fader down.. since bumping it up would force it more in the red.

Depending on how much your nailing it.. i'd do two passes if you can afford the tape.. one how it is, and then give the MF a little nudge down to where your not hitting as hard... listen, compare, listen, decide. hell send both to mastering and let them decide... but i'm sure you can make a confident decision.

[jc]

so

maybe what i really mean is:

after you bump down the master fader, do you feel like a WUSS?

i do

[Mark Alan Miller]

Bump down the master fader. As long as you're not clipping the L/R buss (the pre-fader summing amp, that is) then you're okay.

[cgarges]

Probably half the mixes I do are with the master fader below unity. It all depends on the console, but to my ears, many of them really develop their "character" when the channels are cooking, although on certain consoles this requires that the master fader get pulled back a bit. The master fader level also determines how hard I'm hitting a stereo buss compressor if I'm using one, so sometimes that requires being back a bit, too. It's also not really a bad thing to have a few dB between your peak and 0dB, especially in high-res (24-bit) land.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Mark Alan Miller]

Yeah - my console has this area of non-linerity on the mix buss that I use sometimes for that 'hot cookin'' sound... and the master fader has to be brought back a touch for it...

[joeysimms]

Also, why do you want to raise the master fader if you're already hitting the two-track too hard?

On many consoles, unity on the master is all the way up. What the poster is asking is where and / or if he should cut some sonic slack.

I would do one or 2 as is, then try lowering the master for a couple. I have found that tweaking the individual faders, especially trying to do it in any uniform fashion, ruins a mix in around 8 seconds!

I do try to pfl everything and adjust trim at least twice: at the beginning, and after any eq changes, but, like cgarges says, sometimes the console doesn't really 'open up' until you're hitting hard. In fact, my soundcraft delta is sort of known for that "choked" sound. I have heard that the power supply can be improved so that more juice is running throughout, but i have no skillz to attempt that myself.