Let's talk your favourite manual fades

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lysander
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Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by lysander » Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:53 am

I was just remembering doing manual fades on mixes the other day -- are there any that you still think of as being particularly good examples?

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by The Scum » Mon Aug 30, 2021 11:43 am

Any p-funk thing with the fake-out fade. Fades out, almost to nothing, then fades back in for a minute or so!
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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:28 pm

I just did one on a mix from a record of my own stuff that I'm finishing up. It's pretty long. Maybe 30 seconds. I always fight with where the bottom of the fade happens. Even though you can barely hear it it makes a difference.
One of the benefits of having a set of midi faders is being able to do real fades in as close to real time as you can get.

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by digitaldrummer » Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:56 pm

those last couple seconds really do matter - and I spend too much time drawing them. lol
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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by vvv » Mon Aug 30, 2021 1:22 pm

I sometimes like to use fades as another basis for ear candy, e.g., increasing the reverb as the vol reduces, panning, breakdowns, etc.
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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:25 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:56 pm
those last couple seconds really do matter - and I spend too much time drawing them. lol
I sometimes like to use fades as another basis for ear candy, e.g., increasing the reverb as the vol reduces, panning, breakdowns, etc.
My favorite is when something really exciting happens in the last few seconds of a fade. Even better if the take falls apart.

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by standup » Mon Aug 30, 2021 3:30 pm

Funny, I do both of those things. The fade ends right after some fall-apart thing or a stomp on a footpedal or a laugh. And I'm often cranking reverb up as the fadeout commences. Fun stuff.

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by floid » Mon Aug 30, 2021 9:02 pm

Back in my Boss BR8 days, the master fader would get glitchy at the bottom of its travel and do terrible things that were sometimes really cool. But mostly just really terrible.

I've always liked what happens at about the six minute mark on this track
https://youtu.be/PQ2Pw8mNoYM
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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by winky dinglehoffer » Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:42 pm

False fades: Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache ranks high for me. Pavement's Shady Lane is interesting in that it's more a false ending with a fade-up following. And there's a Booker T & the MGs track that I can't remember the name of ("Tic Tac Toe") that has a nice & fairly unsubtle one.
Last edited by winky dinglehoffer on Sat Sep 11, 2021 10:09 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by analogika » Wed Sep 01, 2021 6:56 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 2:25 pm
digitaldrummer wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 12:56 pm
those last couple seconds really do matter - and I spend too much time drawing them. lol
I sometimes like to use fades as another basis for ear candy, e.g., increasing the reverb as the vol reduces, panning, breakdowns, etc.
My favorite is when something really exciting happens in the last few seconds of a fade. Even better if the take falls apart.
YES! Like you're hearing this fairly straight track, but right in the fade, the starts loosening his tie and all hell breaks loose.

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by Zacharia Matilda » Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:52 am

I always thought The Police records had great fades. “Spirits In The Material World” and “Omegaman” come to mind.

This is an example of a fade that I’ve always hated. James Burton is in the middle of blowing you away with one of his trademark solos and the song fades out. It’s like turning off the pope’s mic in the middle of mass. Who does that???

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2oKR9MYYdBM

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by Nick Sevilla » Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:50 pm

I do not remember the actual song, but I do remember learning to do a long manual fade on a console with one of my mentors, Mark Wolfson.

It took us some 45 minutes to get the fade out just right. I learned in practice how loudness does indeed matter to the human ear, as we had to mix down each element differently than the loud mix, to make the fade out feel and sound consistent to the end.

Mix down was to 1/2" ATR 102 tape machine, so we printed a few fade outs as practice to listen to the real effect after the tape, before committing to the final fade out.

It was on Jerry Corbitt's album, "Along for The Ride."
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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by vvv » Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:04 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:
Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:50 pm
I learned in practice how loudness does indeed matter to the human ear, as we had to mix down each element differently than the loud mix, to make the fade out feel and sound consistent to the end.
So it's not just me about that?

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by Colorblind » Wed Sep 01, 2021 6:00 pm

My band put out its 2nd record in 2016 and called it Fades, really for no reason other than the fact that half of the songs had long fade outs. Not sure I’d consider any of them my “favourite”, but hey…

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Re: Let's talk your favourite manual fades

Post by drumsound » Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:22 am

I actually enjoy how the balance changes as the fade out happens.

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