Group fader reduction question......brain is mush

[greatlovesongs]

Hi all....and thanx up front for any help here. Sorry for the legnth....trying to give a complete overview of what my mental hang up is here.....

This should be easy....but I'm worried enough about it to want to get a second opinion from anyone who knows DP well enough to know how the mixing engine handles the below scenario.

OK, I have a full audio 30 track recording of a band that I'm mixing "in the box" on DP5.13 and assigning to 2 tracks (via FW) thru my DM and out digitally to a Masterlink. (started the project BEFORE I bought the DM, so I did not want to mess with the mix on this project by re-assigning all outs to the DM, and mixing with the DM)

I am not using a Master fader in DP on this one and don't want to add one (it would'nt do anything to help the problem I'm trying to fix anyway)

What I need to do is lower all the levels a smidge or two to reduce an overly "hot" drum sub mix w/o having to remix everything.

SO...HERE'S THE PART I NEED HELP WITH;
When I "shift click" the faders as a group to lower the whole session, do I only highlight the tracks that are assigned to the stereo FW outs (any tracks that I have not assigned to a sub fader and the subfaders themselves), or do I grab the sub faders and all the subsequent tracks assigned to the sub groups. I have quite a few sub groups in each song....primarily Drums, B3 tracks and backing vocals.

Logic tells my brain that by highlighting and adjusting the subgroup faders AND all the faders within the group, that it would get a "double reduction" as compared to the faders assigned directly to the FW outs....or if not double, then greater than what the rest of the directly assigned FW outs would be getting on the group fader reduction....

OR....would you grab ALL faders and go? Also, I have effects assigned to subgroups that many tracks share....I believe I DO NOT touch any of those faders while reducing the mix....correct?

I'm not looking for different ways to set this up at this point....too much work into this mix at this point to screw with anything that would require individual adjustments again, just advice on the which faders to grab and reduce as a group to retain the projects mix and integrity of all included components.
Thank you again for any feedback.

James
Boise, Id

[Spikey Horse]

Couple of things ..

- Shift clicking faders and dragging them causes a 'geared' response so that whatever starting point they are at they will all reach the bottom at the same time. Whether this is desirable or not is up to you!

- Why not slap on a DP 'trim' plug onto every audio track and take the level down that way? You could open one trim plug reduce the level and then copy the trim plug along to each adjacent track in the mixer to save adjusting them all..... then you could leave all audio/group faders alone.

- Wait for someone else to respond with other suggestions!

[greatlovesongs]

Couple of things ..

- Shift clicking faders and dragging them causes a 'geared' response so that whatever starting point they are at they will all reach the bottom at the same time. Whether this is desirable or not is up to you!

You know...I wasn't aware of this!
Thank you for the response.....

I'm glad I have not started adjusting these songs yet......

James

[Spikey Horse]

Couple of things ..

- Shift clicking faders and dragging them causes a 'geared' response so that whatever starting point they are at they will all reach the bottom at the same time. Whether this is desirable or not is up to you!

You know...I wasn't aware of this!
Thank you for the response.....

There is quite a long discussion thread here about it here somewhere - form the end of last year sometime I think

I'm glad I have not started adjusting these songs yet......

James

You are working on a copy of this project (or mix) right?!

[kazuya]

Hi,

maybe i missunderstood something (as i am just a german) but try this.

hit the w key and reduce the level of one fader in the mixing board.

hiting the w key groups every track temorary.

you have to keep w pressed when you do it.

Or double tab it, do the operation and hit it again.

Hope it helps, otherwise just forget what i wrote

[pencilina]

the "w" (temporary group keystroke) is a great way to handle this. If it wasn't clear in Jame's post
-use the show hide column in the mixer window to select only the tracks you want to lower.
-click "w" twice
-grab a fader and pull them down to where you want them
-then click "w" once to turn off the temporary group

if you have volume automation in some of you tracks and not others this will be a problem as only the tracks without automation will stay to put (the automation will override the fader attenuation). In this case:

-record enable the automation on the tracks that don't have it
-go to an empty part of the song and hit play (you can go to the end of the song)
-click on but don't move the faders- this will write a volume break point in those tracks
-hit stop and make sure you have volume automation in the all tracks you want to attenuate
-select all the tracks you want attenuate and go to region>change continuous data, select audio volume and change to a % lower then 100 or add a negative value

pulling down the auxs couldn't hurt as long as your FX sends are all post fader (DP's default). If not pull down the auxs as well or just pull down the auxes if your mix is all stemmed (sub-grouped)

good luck - you can't go wrong if you save and/or take advantage of the undo history window to A/B you mixes

[greatlovesongs]

[/quote]You are working on a copy of this project (or mix) right?! [/quote]


Yes Thank you....

I think I found a good solution for this. My main problem was a hot drum sub-mix (peaking "over" within the sub meters only)...fine on the overall mix.

I created a "group" consisting of the tracks "within" the drum sub mix, excluding the Drum SUB fader. Lowered that group of faders until the headroom was there that I needed (I have a UA Pr.limiter on the drum sub already, but screwing with that messes up my overall drum mix)....
Then, I raised the drum sub fader back up until I matched the reference point I had set to check it against.
I re-attached a "Master Fader" to the song and re-set the signals through the DM for the level I wanted on the Masterlink.

From what I can tell, I have retained the overall MIX and integrity of all components within.

Fixed?!! I don't know.....seems like it.

James
Boise, Id.