Logic Pro Weird Master Fader behaviour, anyone else?

R

rhodrimarsden

New Member
My "Master" fader (which I never use, I mean, who does?) has taken on a life of its own over the last few months, and it has been driving me absolutely nuts. Suddenly it's up at +4db or something, causing the Stereo Out meter to peak, or it plunges to -8db or below and everything is weirdly quiet. I have to check on it several times a session to make sure it hasn't misbehaved.

ANYWAY, I've just worked out why it's happening, and I wonder if anyone could humour me / confirm that this is a bug?

Open any project, then immediately click in the grey Control Bar area at the top. Then hit Ctrl+Up Arrow, or Ctrl+Down Arrow on the keyboard. For me, the Master volume (i.e. both the Master fader in the Mixer window *and* the horizontal slider in the Control Bar) move up and down. This isn't listed in the Key Commands Assignments window, and it appears to be uneditable.

As I have the Ctrl + arrow keys assigned to zooming in and out in the Arrange window, no wonder my Master volumes are all over the place... I'm glad to have finally found out why it's happening, but it's still massively annoying. Even if I change my Zooming assignments, hitting Ctrl+Arrow is so instinctive for me, so it still risks screwing things up.

(Weirdly, it only seems to happen when the project has just opened. If I then click away from the Control Bar and into somewhere else, and then back to the Control Bar again, and try it again, it no longer happens.)

(This is Logic 10.8.1 on Sonoma 14.2.1, btw.)
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Hi,
I've attached a video that hopefully helps you.

In summary, the "master fader" is more of a hindrance than a help. It's an additional bus that actually adjusts the stereo bus and can really mess up your mix.

Personally I've disabled it.

It's explained in detail here.

Hopefully it helps :

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Upvote 0
One example of where the Master Bus is important is with any form of Surround - 5:1, Dolby Atmos etc. Edgar explains this in his video.

In any of these formats, the Stereo 1-2 Output is just one of several outputs, but the Master Output is then controlling the final volume level, it can contain summing plugins and so on.

For mixing to Stereo, simply make sure it is set a 0, that makes it "harmless".
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Back
Top