Watching original engineers run the board while discussing a particular tune.

pushing faders is the equivalent of saying "uh", JMO

Hi,
 
You need to see the DVD about Tom Dowd.
 
It's more about listening to the music, than it is about the knobs ... but nowadays, those who are not musically minded will all know the knobs better than anyone else ... but when it comes to music, they know a lot less ... besides not having any idea what creativity is all about!
 
All depends on your level of appreciation for an art form. Unlike most that you will EVER read about, Tom Dowd came from the time when music was RECORDED LIVE, direct into a disk, and you had to have a good and perceptive ear for music, to "find it" and "save it".
 
Now you know why we have a great moment with Eric and Duane, and not really that many others! Wasted by knob folks that would not know a thing about music ... heck, you can hear thousands of these every day in your local concert halls!

The youngsters at the church look at me cross-eyed when I tell them I rode the faders back in the day. When we had "podium" mics, I would follow their head so as to keep it even..... 
Now the mic is plastered to their head and no need.....
 
a free story
I was the first "sound guy"(no pros) at the church who  was able to get the 2nd row choir members to hear themselves, with just 3 mics in front and no monitors...
 

Hi,
 
Because too much of the music these days, and in the past 20/25 years, has become so cookie cutter like, I have somehow, always thought that folks like Tom Dowd, George Martin, George Gomelsky, Tony Visconti, and the ECM guy, were people that had what I call a "twisted ear" for music, and for them, to find something new and make changes here and there to help the artists define their own notes, was fun and a neat thing to do.
 
Unfortunately, the music business is run by the money and the fortunes of the richest, and many of these end up hidden and lost, though everyone of these will ALWAYS ... be remembered for having created a force in the music arts, by helping develop their own scene, even. Gomelsky is considered the "father" of Progressive Music, for example!

robert_e_bone
I recall a video featuring Tom Dowd (fantastic engineer), and if I recall correctly, he would have some faders pulled down - and would push them up or solo them to illustrate a point - such as how tight the backing vocals were, followed by pushing them up into the mix.
 
I cannot think of a particularly valid reason for moving faders around in a video clip when simply playing it back and explaining some aspect of it not related to the faders being adjusted.
 
Or, maybe they simply KNOW that the mix isn't quite done....  hee hee
 
Bob Bone

On the cartoon music book, it is stipulated that Leopold Stokowski used to do that to make sure he had the impression and emphasis that he wanted on the music. AND, of course this became even more important and valuable for him, in recordings, where now he could get what he wanted!
 
I don't know, that "modern" musicians, are as good about this ... I can not imagine Bapu, splitting up a whole bunch of parts of the CHB stuff, and see folks clean them up on their own or otherwise ... maybe I'm just naïve! I tend to think that most of their work is you sing along the rest as if it were harmony, and not all "orchestra" material falls into that at all, which is the main reason why this was first seen and appreciated in classical music in the 50's and 60's (the Red Label stuff), because rock music did not get to see this until later still.

Moshkito
I can not imagine Bapu

Hi,
 
Pretty much the general feel in this forum. You're not alone.

I actually sometimes get the feeling Bapu (and all his incarnations) IS just a figment of my imagination.
 
Then I wonder about how strange everyone must think I am when I interact with him... especially the times when I've been a guest on collabs.
 
Perhaps I just posted raw guitar tracks or vocals in a delusional subconscious haze and as folks heaped praise on the Baps and crew they were just providing the internet equivalent of a polite, sympathic pat on the helmet and "that's nice, dear" then reporting a potential mental health emergency to the modmins.
 
HE'S REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!!!

the helmet lady from the future is talking to me again... HALP!

ooooh... summin's gonna get their mind wiped.

Squirrel??!  Where???!!!  

Call me a sourpuss if you have to, but I think that messing with the knobs and faders in a documentary is mostly so the camera has something interesting to look at.  Most music t.v. shows would have the same impact as a radio broadcast or a magazine article if our guy just stared dead-eyed ahead and delivered his 2 cents.
 
I dunno.  Sometimes it's fun to hear the mix get all messed up in ways that I've never heard before.  It's just cool seeing some of my favorite old rock tunes all discombobulated.