Hi all,

I got this protools session where most faders are standing way too low (between -5 and -30) and where the L2 plugin on the master fader has a threshold fader standing at -20 to pull up the overall level. Of course I can remedy all this by ear, pulling the faders on the individual channels up until I can get the threshold on the master fader down to a normal level (say -2) but is there an easy formula which one might apply?

A related question is the following. How do I have to pull up the individual faders so that the balance remains the same but everything is just louder, taking into account that most tracks have automation on the faders.

Cheers, Bob.

Songman, what if you link those faders in Pro Tools and bring them up? This would acheive what you want and do it evenly.

War

Hi War,

Thanks for the reply!

Well, it's a little more complicated than I mentioned. For one thing the faders are automated and some of them go from say -5 up to +4 at places, so won't I be squashing levels if I just pull up everything more than 2? For another, for compensation, it's not the level of the master fader that I'd be pulling down, it's the threshold of the L2 that I'd be pulling up, and I don't know/think that is quite the same thing. Actually I tried doing it more or less as you said: group all tracks, select volume automation and raise everything with 10. Then I took the threshold of the L2 10 up. My ears tell me I'm not even near to what it was/should be.


Cheers, Bob.

I don't know if protools supports this but what I usually do is apply an envelope to each track and use this to vary levels during playback/mixing and just use the fader for overall track volume.

I'm not a Pro Tools user either, you may be well advised to check out their forum for this particular question! It does seem that an automation "overwrite" would take care of it, along with adjusting the output on your L2.

War

Actually, we got a Pro Tools dude who posts here. But, he hates to type. I'll call him and see if he can give me the answer and I'll type it.

That would be great Steven! Many thanks to all, and best wishes for 2005!

Cheers, Bob.

Hey songman,
I have had "some" luck with this,select the entire track while the view is showing "Volume"(as apposed to Waveform etc.) then use the trimmer tool(not in TCE)to pull all the points up at once ,as you go higher you will find that the dynamics of the automation will smooth out so you can't get too drastic with it.Or you could just apply the gain plug-in to the enire track(in waveform view).I have always run through again.I hope this helps, if not post your question over on the DUC,they'll fix ya up.
-The Other Steve
P.S. I am the one who hates to type

Thanks Other Steve, I only just now read your reply. I've finally done more or less as you suggested, and tweaking here and there got things in the right ballpark.

Cheers, Bob.

Hold Option and click on an automation On/Off button on a fader to turn automation OFF on all tracks. Click on the left margin of the mix window. Down at the bottom are the groups. click on ALL. Raise anyone of the faders and all will rise. Click on ALL again to deselect it. Option click on Automation Off on any track to turn Automation back on.

You will probably have to reset the Master Gain control and any plugins in the Mater fader.

Regards,

Ty (not a Veteran PT guy, but close to it) Ford