Mixing Audio, 2nd Edition

12

Faders

Even before the invention of the multitrack, various microphone sources were balanced using faders and summed before being recorded. The summing devices used in early recording studios had faders all right, but these were rather bulky rotary knobs, often 3.5” in diameter. When trying to balance more than two microphones, hands had to jump between knobs. One engineer to foresee the advantage of employing linear faders was the legendary Tom Dowd. By building a control section with small linear faders he could control each fader using a finger, and so balance more than two microphones at a time. Technically speaking, a fader is a device that can fade sound, whether it be rotary or linear. Today, the term fader is widely associated ...