This is an important factor to consider when establishing an appropriate Gain structure. With the Gain “Auto Set” option, fader placement is apparently irrelevant. This suggests the possibility of linear fader movement with my I-Pad instead of the Logarithmic need to establish gain with faders set at unity. Perhaps Keith will clarify this question.
Hugh
That makes sense to me. “Gain” doesn’t care about fader position. The only reason to adjust gain after an initial setting is to prevent it from red-lining which could sound pretty lousy on most digital boards. But it shouldn’t be so drastic that you have to ride faders to compensate.
Comming from 50+years experience with studio recording I have never been overly concerned with fader position when establishing an appropriate gain structure. Post production mixing does not necessarily require small fader DB movement: however the live SR protocol is to place the faders at unity for each channel as Gain is set for their pre-amp. Their reasoning is fader unity with a logarithmic scale offers much smaller db
increment movement making fine db adjustments easier with an initial unity setting. If my I-pad has linear fader movement their initial setting does not need to be at unity when establishing my pre-amp gain
Hugh!
Why not set the gains using the input level meters and then bring your faders up to the levels you need them to be for a good mix? Doing what you describe can “thin out” the sound if your gain is relatively low, but your faders are at unity. In the analog days we used to run our faders a bit lower than unity so we could drive the EQ a bit more - gave us a bit more clarity and more headroom in the EQ components.
Did you try the ipad app? I don’t think they are linear but if you put your finger down on a fader “cap” and then slide your finger sideways, you can get a much finer change if you then drag your finger up and down away from the fader cap. Largest change happens when holding right over the fader cap.
Maybe someone should design a set of Painton quadrant faders for the CQ? 