Input Faders (cubase)?

[amra]

What purpose do the input faders server in Cubase?
It would seem that they would have to be "post AD converter", so wouldn't really prevent digital clipping.

I had a discussion a while back with a friend of mine, his position was that it doesn't matter if your signal is clipping, you can turn it down here and then you are good.

My position was, that if you are clipping here, it is too late, since it is already clipping at your converters, and should be addressed before it ever gets into your PC.

So that brings me back to my original question, what purpose do they even serve??

 

[mixsit]

You are exactly right, you can't undo with software what has happened prior to it being converted.
Sonar here, but their input trim is pre-everything else, track fader, aux sends and inserted effects plugs in the track just like on a hardware mixer. This where you make global level adjustments to the tracks level.
Wayne

 

[legionserial]

Yup, however you could still use the fader to turn it up if needs be, just there doesn't seem any point in being able to turn it down as you say. But, if you have inserts on the input channel that louden it or quieten it in someway, thats where the fader may come in useful. Although most plugins tend to have some kind of make-up gain control on them anyway.

 

[noisewreck]

Yup, they're usually hidden on my mixer although I have used the muting functions on it a couple of times.