Max Fader Level Setting - direct impact on sound?

Cubase
#1

Manual states max fader level defaults are +12dB.

But also says: “Note that this will have a direct impact on the sound of your project.”

Makes me wonder - how does this work and how is project affected when changing this?

Does Cubase internally reduce everything by 12dB and send to plugins - and then compensate on outs when rendering/exporting?

Is this done dynamically, on the fly, or burned into recordings made?
Does it matter i using 24bit recording format - and using less bits?

Seen this settings in other daws too, but never figured it would affect anything but how much it allows fader to go past 0dB - if having low recording level on a track.


Just as well figuring this out before having too many project in Cubase - if to keep default setting or not.

Thanks.

#2

Makes me wonder - how does this work and how is project affected when changing this?

Obviously when a project is changed from +12 to +6 dB fader level, all signals which channel faders exceed +6 dB of gain, will be reduced in volume by the amount of gain exceeding 6 dB, while all others remain the same - the same applies to sends.

#3

But that does not comply with why manual commented on pre 5.5 Cubase as having +6dB and that it would have “direct impact of sound on project”.

If fader then stick below +12dB, which they would - there would be no difference in how i sounded.

One guy also posted about having just upgraded to C7, coming from C5 - and his new vocals recorded low.

I got the impression something more might be involved?

#4

These are two independent sentences though
-Loading pre 5.5 projects will set the dafault value of +12 to +6.
-Setting the default level from +12 dB to +6 dB will have a direct impact on the sound, as I wrote above.

yes. And very simple to verify yourself…

Low recording levels don´t have anything to do with fader levels (input channels aside) at all…

#5

Thanks - you seem to be right about that.

Did a couple of test projects and sat them to +6 and +12 and did recordings.
Could not hear any difference.

So I overinterpreted how they wrote in manual it seems.
:slight_smile:

#6

This is visual only within the software.
For compatibility (showing same values) with different hardware controllers and their different fader throws.