Master Faders...

When we hear the term "master fader", usually people figure that means it's just the last fader of your mix. All your stuff goes down this stereo path and through this master fader to your speakers. Fair enough, but there are a few things you should know about master faders in order to use them best.

I used to use master faders as I just described above. But what would happen is at the end of the song I'd start fading out with the master, and would notice that my mix would start changing. I just thought it was a perception thing, and so I'd go through and automate the vocal level (or whatever was changing) so that it would sound the same through the fade. One day, someone mentioned in passing that master fader inserts are POST fader. This makes all the difference!!!!
What was happening, was as the fader would drop it would change the input levels to whatever compression I was using on the stereo bus. Here's the scenario:



As you can see, the output of the fader feeds the input of the compressor. This explains why my mix would change as I was fading out. The best way around this is to set up an Aux Track as your master fader. Assign all your tracks out a stereo bus output (for example Bus 29-30) and create an aux track with the input Bus 29-30 and output Interface 1-2. Aux track inserts are PRE fader, so you can make your fade without changing your mix. Brilliant!


You can use master faders however you like, but this is a good thing to know...