Flat Fader Mix

How often do we see audio consoles set up with the faders all over the place - some way up, some way down - and this tells the simple story that the mix is out of control.

Here's a system that will give you a great starting point for your mix, and will allow things to stay in control as the gig progresses.

The "flat fader mix" is a system of gain and fader setup, which allows you to very quickly establish a good starting point for your mix - with all faders set to "unity gain" - in other words, all sitting in a line, at the 0dB point.

Why?

Because setting up the console in this way gives you a reference point to come back to, as you mix.  During a mix, you will want to feature the soloists etc, by pushing their channels, by 3/6/9 dB up/down etc, but always you will want to go back to your starting point.  And if the faders are all over the place to start with, you can't get back, and the mix gets further and further out of control...

The idea is that we start off just setting things up with the gain pots and faders only, for each channel, to quickly establish a musical mix - and before we adjust things like EQ and stage foldback.  At the end of this process, we will have all the faders set up at the 0dB point, all in a line - and this becomes your reference point.

It's very easy then, to return to this point when you need to, and this way, your mix will never get out of control.