page_title: Fade (audio engineering)
section_title: Fader
hierarchical_section_title: Fade (audio engineering) / Fader
caption_attribution_description: English: Siemens RC 826 - Three Fader potentiometer for the equalizer function
context_page_description: In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theatre lighting in much the same way.
  A recorded song may be gradually reduced to silence at its end, or may gradually increase from silence at the beginning. Fading-out can serve as a recording solution for pieces of music that contain no obvious ending. Both fades and cross-fades are very valuable since they allow the engineer to quickly and easily make sure that the beginning and the end of any audio is smooth, without any prominent glitches. It is necessary that there is a clear section of silence prior to the audio. Fade-ins and -outs can also be used to change the characteristics of a sound, such as to soften the attack in vocals where very plosive sounds occur. It can also be used to soften up the attack of the drum and/or percussion instruments. A cross-fade can be manipulated through its rates and coefficients in order to create different styles of fading. Almost every fade is different; this means that the fade parameters must be adjusted according to the individual needs of the mix.
context_section_description: A fader is any device used for fading, especially when it is a knob or button that slides along a track or slot. It is principally a variable resistance or potentiometer also called a ‘pot’. A contact can move from one end to another. As this movement takes place the resistance of the circuit can either increase or decrease. At one end the resistance of the scale is at 0 and at the other side it is infinite. A. Nisbett explains the fader law as follows in his book called The Sound studio:"The ‘law’ of the fader is near-logarithmic over much of its range, which means that a scale of decibels can be made linear (or close to it) over a working range of perhaps 60 dB. If the resistance were to increase according to the same law beyond this, it would be twice as long before reaching a point where the signal is negligible. But the range below -50 dB is of little practical use, so here the rate of fade increases rapidly to the final cut-off".
  A knob which rotates is usually not considered a fader, although it is electrically and functionally equivalent. Some small mixers use knobs rather than faders, as do a small number of DJ mixers designed for club DJs who are creating seamless mixes of songs. A fader can be either analogue, directly controlling the resistance or impedance to the source (e.g. a potentiometer); or digital, numerically controlling a digital signal processor (DSP). Analogue faders are found on mixing consoles. A fader can also be used as a control for a voltage controlled amplifier, which has the same effect on the sound as any other fader, but the audio signal does not pass through the fader itself.
caption: 3 faders used as graphic equalizer in a personal cassette player
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Siemens RC 826 - Fader potentiometer", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:04:10 11:07:26", "Image Artist": "Raimond Spekking", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "980", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "13188", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/2", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:04:06 21:25:26", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:04:06 21:25:26", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7400879/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "100", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "38", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "38", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "856", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "1280631839", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[100, 100, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}