March Sticky..Everything is a fader!

[drumsound]

In the spirit of last month's "everything is an EQ" thread?This month's topic is

"Everything is a fader!"

Faders are generally thought about as the things that raise or lower the volume of something in the mix. Mixing consoles have them at the bottom of the channel strip nice and close to the engineer. Most DAWs have them too. But there are other ways to make things louder of softer in the mix. If it is decided that there needs to be more bass in the mix you could raise the bass fader(s). Or you could go to your guitars and subtract some low frequency information. If you are already doing this you can adjust the frequency of the cut to a higher point. By making space for the low frequencies in the bass to play through with the guitars also using the section of the spectrum the bass now seems louder as was the goal. This method instead f eating up headroom actually gives you more headroom.

How about drums? Maybe they need more presence and drive in the mix. Maybe you can insert a compressor on the drum group. The peak levels of the drums may be the same, but the drums are perceived as louder because the sustain of the drums is now louder in reference to the transients, plus many compressor will shape the tone of the source.

What if you need the acoustic guitar to jump out of the mix. A nice amount of high shelf EQ will pull out the acoustic nicely without ever touching the fader.

I often think of the EQs as little specialized faders. You can carve out sections of the frequency spectrum from many of the mix elements to let one important thing have its own space.

Effects can really work as a fader. The might add presence and depth or maybe thin things out just enough to help something play nice with the other elements of a mix.

[Bill @ Irie Lab]

The promise of a good thread!

Another simple one - panning.

Get things out of each other's way and the parts appear louder because they're playiong nicely in their own space.

Also things in the center of the field get our attention more, maybe comparable to central Vs. peripheral vision.

OK, let's post some more. Limiting, gain structure, etc.

Tips I wanna hear tips!

Bill

[drumsound]

Panning is a good "Alt fader." Try to put your mix in mono, but move the pan to see where the part speaks best. You'll be surprised that it works. I do it for ear candy stuff a lot.

[jmoose]

I've been looking at this for whatever...a week or two and trying to think of something to add to it, or maybe even just something to say but I'm at a loss for words.

Yeah, everything is a fader & everything is an EQ...ok...maybe...but I don't really think so.

Faders can make things way louder or softer, to the point of turning off entirely. You can't do that with EQ, but you can do it with muting.

So I guess that makes "mute" the ultimate fader huh?

In my book, faders is faders and everything else is an EQ.

Thoughts?



Bueller?

[wiggins]

"the drums are perceived as louder because the sustain of the drums is now louder in reference to the transients"

Just wanted to say thank you for putting that in such simple terms.

I often find myself frustrated saying "like...uhh...its...uh..." and making vague hand gestures when I'm trying to explain how compression makes things more apparently loud to someone who doesn't know anything about it.

I know that's how it works, but now I can express the idea without bustin' out the pen-and-napkin waveform diagrams - those aren't helping me look any less nerdy.

Thanks!

[drumsound]

I use a lot of hand gestures too (I am Italian after all). It's nice to have a simple explanation for the things we do.

[jmoose]

I know that's how it works, but now I can express the idea without bustin' out the pen-and-napkin waveform diagrams - those aren't helping me look any less nerdy.

Thanks!

But those pen & napkin drawings give us cred!

Not everyone can make one without it coming off like the "Stonehenge" drawing from Spinal Tap!