Logic Pro X - Pre Fader Metering

askaudiomag.com by Jay Asher February 3, 2014

What is Pre Fader Metering? How would it affect your projects in Logic Pro X?
Should you care? Jay Asher answers all this and more in this illuminating article.
Back in the days of recording consoles and tape machines (remember them?)
especially when tracking and mixing the recording engineer would be viewing
the fader levels to make sure they were not going into the red area, because that
meant there would be distortion in the recordings. If the engineer pulled down
the fader, he would hear the track played back more softly, but the display would
remain the same because it was a pre fader display, meaning it showed level
before any fader adjustment as opposed to post fader, which would reflect the
levels after the fader movements.
This was very important to the engineer, especially in the tracking process, as he
needed to see exactly what was flowing into the channel strip to ensure that
there would be no tracks recorded with distortion. Then while mixing, he or she
depended on his or her ears to balance the level flowing out of it. Thus, I
observed that the engineers I worked with always stayed in pre fader mode while
tracking but occasionally switched to post fader during mixer to check things
out, then returned to pre fader.

First there was 48-bit fixed point integer...

So how does this relate to the world of digital audio? The first Digital Audio
Workstation (DAW) that became widely used for tracking and mixing was
Digidesign's Pro Tools. Pro Tools used expensive proprietary hardware and its
design structure was called 48-bit fixed point integer. Without getting too geeky,
this simply meant that as signal flowed into a channel strip, the channel strip did
not adjust its headroom. So like the analog world, the engineer did not want the
channel strip to go into the red. Therefore, engineers tracking and mixing in Pro
Tools worked mostly with pre fader metering for the same reasons as they did
when working in the analog world of consoles and tape recorders.

Then came 32-Bit Floating Point

Later on however, other DAWs like Logic Pro, Digital Performer, and Cubase, all
so called native systems because they did not require proprietary hardware,
were introduced with 32-bit floating point integer. Pro Tools, now owned and
developed by Avid, also has gone native with most of its systems and they are
also 32-bit float. Floating point adjusts the headroom of the channel strip as it
comes in, so with the exception of the stereo outputs, it is fine for every channel
strip to be going into the red, as no digital distortion is being created. If however
the stereo output, which WILL distort if it is is going into the red, one need
simply pull down its fader and the problem is solved. So I can hear you asking,
do I really need to use pre fader metering?

Post Fader metering vs Pre Fader

First, let me show you a few pics to illustrate exactly what the difference in
behavior is in Logic Pro X under pre fader and post fader metering, in case you
still do not quite get it.
In Pic 1, you see the level of an audio track with no fader adjustments (0.0 dBfs.)

Pic 1
In Pic 2, I have pulled the fader level down and because I am in post fader mode,
I am not only hearing it played back more softly, that level is reflected in the
display.

Pic 2
Lets see what happens if we enable Pre Fader Metering. If I click in the Control
Bar while holding the Control key, I have the option to customize what is

displayed in the Control Bar and even save it as a default. In the Modes and
Functions column, notice that I have checked Pre Fader Metering. See Pic 3.

Pic 3
If I click the Pre Fader icon that is now in the Control Bar, it turns blue, as you
see in Pic 4, which means that I am now in Pre Fader mode.

Pic 4
Now when I play back, I hear the track more softly but what I see on the faders
level is still what is flowing through the channel strip, regardless of my fader
adjustments. See Pic 5.

Pic 5

Why use Pre Fader Metering

So since by my own admission, simply pulling down the stereo outputs fader
resolves any distortion issues, why argue for pre fader metering?
1. Plug-ins:If you only use the plugins that come with Logic Pro X, you would
never see this issue, but since the signal flow starts with the plug-in at the top of
the channel strip and flows down into the subsequent plug-ins, certain thirdparty plug-ins do not handle hot signal coming from other plugins well and can
internally distort, or just sound plain lousy.
So when I am mixing with pre fader metering, if I hear something that sounds a
little off and I see certain channel strips are going wildly way up in the red,
while there is no guarantee that they are the culprits, they are a very logical place
to start troubleshooting.
2. You really should mostly mix with your ears, not your eyes. The various
elements in your mix can look balanced but sound imbalanced.
3. Consistency of workflow: If you adopt this practice and you find that if you
travel from DAW to analog, you will have little adjustment to make.

4. The end result: When I set my stereo output level to its desired level and
adjust the output of my other channel strips that flow into it by controlling the
plug-in levels, I seem to end up with a better and more open sounding mix. I
know that the science says this should not be so but I hear it. It may simply be
that by doing so I am paying more attention to details about my plug-ins settings
than I would otherwise, but my experience tells me I get a better end result this
way.
Finally, it is just considered good mix practice by the pros. Try it for yourself,
and I think you will find you like working this way.