[LAD] Half-OT: Fader mapping - was - Ardour MIDI tracer
Ralf Mardorf
ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Fri Aug 22 10:32:19 UTC 2014
On Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:29:30 +0200, John Rigg <ladev8 at jrigg.co.uk> wrote:
> Ralf, please stop dictating how others should work. I've been recording
> in studios for 35 years and I like to think I know what I'm doing. Not
> everyone who has different working methods from yours is an idiot, but
> that seems to be what you are implying.
Hi John,
you claimed that you know how to record right in the first place, so that
you don't need EQs for the mixing, that's why you claimed that EQs by
default for each mixer channel could be a nuisance. You might have the
gift to know how the frequencies will interact for the mix, already when
doing the mix, but that is a very unusual gift. It's common for good audio
engineering that EQs and faders are the basic tools for mixing.
I confirmed Fons' piece of information that fades are rare when mixing
music and the fades you are doing are those rare fades, fates that btw.
I'm doing too, at least I do similar fades.
The quality of mixes nowadays often suffer from bad engineering, because
as Fons' pointed out, people tend to add too much effects to a channel, I
added that one reasons is, that using EQs as a basic tool for a
transparent mix and to control the dynamic range of a song, nowadays often
is replaced by using dynamic effects and much usage of fader automation.
I'm not dictating anything, the nature of the interaction of audio signals
from several channels, when mixing them to a mono or stereo sum dictates
us the way we most of the times should do a mix, to get a transparent
acoustic pattern, with an acceptable dynamic range. Dynamic effects, such
as a compressor are ok, they are needed, but to use them, EQs are needed
too and sometimes EQs can replace usage of a compressor, at least for the
individual channels.
You get me wrong, I'm not implying idiocy. My intention is to point out,
that young people don't have a chance to learn by trail and error,
regarding to the odd design of many Linux DAW mixers. Qtractor is one
piece of software I very often use. Many young people using Linux are
using it too. It's mixer e.g. doesn't provide post fader aux sends for
audio, resp. for MIDI the faders are post aux sends, but if you insert an
effect, it's also post fader and will add noise, even if you use the
channel at a low volume, IOW the odd design of this mixer and some other
mixers too, leads to learning how to mix in a wrong way. Learning by trail
and error only works, when the mixer has got a sane design, as the mixers
had, when you and I learned audio engineering > 30 years ago.
Regards,
Ralf
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