Master Faders in Pro Tools
The master fader is one of those overlooked, yet very helpful, devices in pro tools. Most people use a master fader only on the main output, then they often slap a 2 bus limiter (like the Massey L2007 or Waves L2), maybe a meter plug in and then route it to their stereo aux track.
But the master fader can really be much more useful than that.
If you mix in the box or if you simply use aux tracks to sum any number of tracks, a master fader can solve a lot of headaches caused by bus overload.
A few things to consider about master faders
- They do not feature delay compensation. Therefore, any plug in you put on a master fader should be also put on any other master fader you have open if you want to maintain phase coherence.
- Master faders don’t consume any DSP. You can have as many master faders as you want and it will not add any extra drain on your processor (in theory at least)
- Master fader inserts are post fader. Any time you put a plug in on a master fader channel (say a bus compressor) the input to that plug-in is controlled by the master fader itself. Thus, if you have a bus compressor on a master fader, and then automate a fade out, you will in effect be lowering the input to the compressor and your track will be less and less compressed as you fade out. This may not be so desirable. Because of this, it is usually most desirable to use master fader channels simply as a trim control for a bus or hardware output.
Tricks for master fader
- possibly the most useful trick for a master fader comes when you mix a lot of stems. For example, you could have 8 stereo aux tracks on to which you bus drums (aux 1-2) bass (aux 3) vocal (aux 4) stereo guitars (aux 5-6) and effects (aux 7-8). All of these auxes feed a single master fader. If you start to experience an overload on the guitar bus ( whose input is aux 5-6), turn down the master fader for bus 5-6.
- Group master faders for the stems. In the above example, it is sometimes even more useful to create a group of master faders, so that if you pull down one level you can also pull down the others at the same time, thereby eliminating the need to adjust all your aux channels to compensate for your trim.
- Use a master fader to control the input to your bus compressor.
Hello, thanks for the information on the “Master Fader.” I see that you have mastered, the Master Fader!!? Lol!! Also, to my knowledge, I guess your trying to state Master Fading can eliminate distortion problems? I’m a Pro-Tools newbie and I have “Pro-Tools LE 8 MBOX.” (Once again, MBOX WHO, LE WHAT, M POWERED WHERE, HD HOW? AND YOUR TELLING ME I SHOUDLN’T HAVE A COW? (Don’t know the difference…) LMAAO, All this Pro-Tools language is crazy. So if possible, can you explain to me in smallest dummy terms how to “Master Fade.” The walk through, you know, select what, then do this, while pressing that, etcetera.
I will be thankful for your assistance….
The master fader can eliminate SOME distortion problems WHEN MIXING.
It will not solve distortion problems caused by overloading mics, preamps or plug-ins (all of which can contribute to harsh mixes)
BUT… if you have a lot of channels and you are submixing groups of tracks into Aux tracks, it can help.
Example.
You have 8 tracks of drums. All of their outputs are sent on bus1-2 to a stereo aux track (with input set for bus1-2).
Let’s assume none of the individual audio tracks are overloading their own channels and you have a good blend but you are overloading the the stereo aux track because the sum of all those drum tracks is too loud.
You have two options:
You can either group all the drum tracks and bring them all down together until the stereo aux track doesn’t clip any more
OR
you can create a master fader. Set the channel to “bus1-2″ and bring the level down there.
signal flow would look like
8 drum tracks –> bus 1-2 –> master fader for bus 1-2 –> input of stereo aux w bus1-2 input
if you put a plug in on the master fader it would look like this
8 drum tracks–> bus1-2–> master fader–> plug in for master fader–>input of stereo aux
you can apply similar logic to any type of track groupings, including all your tracks to make a master mix bus. The master fader for that could keep your whole mix from going into the red…
hope that helps
This was very helpful! Thanks for taking the time to explain:)