DESCRIPTION:
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A video on the function of channel faders and their signal flow in Pro Tools.

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Transcript:

Hey, guys. Eric Tarr here for theproaudiofiles.com, and also algoverb.com.

Here's a video for you about understanding how the channel fader works on different types of Pro Tools tracks. 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 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.

So let me begin with by playing the song back, and then we'll get to looking at specific situations.

[mix playback]

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. It's a volume control. You can turn the volume up, you can turn the volume down.

After 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.

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. We should understand where we're actually changing the level of the signal.

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.

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.

Eventually, 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 let me play it back, and watch on the metering over here, and over here, what happens to the signal.

We can see the gain and how it's getting changed.

[vocals]

So you can see, I still had level going through this plug-in up here on my channel strip. I had level going through, even when I turned the fader down. What does that mean?

That means the fader is post-insert in this case. It's happening after the effects. I also have the signal going over to this reverb. As of right now, when I turn the fader down, it also turns the level down in the reverb.

This means that this fader is happening pre — or before — this send right here. This buss 3-4 send over to my reverb.

Then the output of this track is going over to my music mix. That's my auxiliary track. So when I turn the level of the signal down over here, it's happening before the output over here at buss 21-22.

So I'll play this again, and watch the different metering.

[vocals]

One thing you do have control over as an engineer is whether this channel fader happens before the auxiliary send. Or actually, whether the auxiliary send — you're moving the place in which this is going to occur. So I can change it to be pre.

Now what happens is as I turn this level down, my auxiliary send is still happening before this channel fader.

[vocals]

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?So I think that demonstrates the basic functionality of the channel fader on an audio 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.

Let's think about then a different kind of track. I've got my signal — all of the signals in my mix going over here to this music mix. This is an auxiliary track. It brings a signal in.

We also have an output. I'm going to use this limiter here as an example where we can watch the metering where what's going on in here. Let's say this is just to provide some slight dynamic range control over the total mix.

So I'll play it back, and then I'll move this fader up and down.

[mix]

So in this case, when I change the channel fader on an auxiliary track, I still have the signal going through the plug-in. This is suggesting then, that this fader is happening after the insert up here, or after the effects.

Let's compare that to what would happen if I move this limiter over here to my master fader, and then change the level of this fader right here.

[truncated]