Playing the Fader

This paper goes through the evolution of the audio fader and volume automation. It looks at the interdisciplinary nature of expressiveness in music production, briefly touching on what creates emotions in a performance. The aim is to look beyond the fader as a levelling and balance tool by also regarding the fader as an instrument to complement the artistic intent, the song’s message, emotions and performances. The author will elaborate on his workflow using video to demonstrate how he regularly is ‘playing the fader’ – to level, balance and augment the emotional expressiveness in a vocal performance. The result is compared to what seems to be more conventional techniques and discussed.