Editing Fade (audio engineering) (section)

==History==

=== Origins and examples ===
Possibly the earliest example of a fade-out ending can be heard in [[Joseph Haydn]]'s [[Symphony No. 45 (Haydn)|Symphony No. 45]], nicknamed the "Farewell" Symphony on account of the fade-out ending. The symphony which was written in 1772 used this device as a way of courteously asking Haydn's patron Prince [[Nikolaus Esterházy]], to whom the symphony was dedicated, to allow the musicians to return home after a longer than expected stay. This was expressed by the players extinguishing their stand candles and leaving the stage one by one during the final adagio movement of the symphony, leaving only two muted violins playing. Esterházy appears to have understood the message, allowing the musicians to leave.<ref>[[Symphony No. 45 (Haydn)]]</ref>

[[Gustav Holst]]'s "Neptune, the mystic", part of the orchestral suite ''[[The Planets]]'' written between 1914 and 1916, is another early example of music having a fade-out ending during performance.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyI_Cb8olkMC&pg=PA318|page=318 |title=Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation |last=Huron |first=David |publisher=MIT Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-262-08345-0}}</ref> Holst stipulates that the women's choruses are "to be placed in an adjoining room, the door of which is to be left open until the last bar of the piece, when it is to be slowly and silently closed", and that the final bar (scored for choruses alone) is "to be repeated until the sound is lost in the distance".<ref name=FullScore>"The Planets" (full orchestral score): Goodwin & Tabb, Ltd., London, 1921</ref> Although commonplace today, the effect bewitched audiences in the era before widespread recorded sound—after the initial 1918 run-through, Holst's daughter [[Imogen Holst|Imogen]] (in addition to watching the charwomen dancing in the aisles during "Jupiter") remarked that the ending was "unforgettable, with its hidden chorus of women's voices growing fainter and fainter&nbsp;... until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence".<ref name=Imogen>"The Great Composers and Their Music", Vol. 50, Marshall Cavendish Ltd., London, 1985. I.H. as quoted on p1218</ref>

The technique of ending a spoken or musical recording by fading out the sound goes back to the earliest days of recording. In the era of mechanical (pre-electrical) recording, this could only be achieved by either moving the sound source away from the recording horn, or by gradually reducing the volume at which the performer(s) were singing, playing or speaking. With the advent of electrical recording, smooth and controllable fadeout effects could be easily achieved by simply reducing the input volume from the microphones using the fader on the mixing desk. The first experimental study on the effect of a fade-out showed that a version of a musical piece with fade-out in comparison to the same piece with a cold end prolonged the perceived duration by 2.4 seconds. This is called the "Pulse Continuity Phenomenon" and was measured by a tapping-along task to measure participants’ perception of pulsation.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kopiez|first1=Reinhard|last2=Platz|first2=Friedrich|last3=Müller|first3=Silvia|last4=Wolf|first4=Anna|title=When the pulse of the song goes on: Fade-out in popular music and the pulse continuity phenomenon|journal=Psychology of Music|year=2015|volume=43|issue=3|pages=359–374|doi=10.1177/0305735613511505|s2cid=147398735|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5603/d00e2a828d4c9313c1635765f9ba45a7784e.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200212140129/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5603/d00e2a828d4c9313c1635765f9ba45a7784e.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-12}}</ref>

An 1894 78&nbsp;rpm record called "The Spirit of '76" features a narrated musical vignette with martial fife-and-drum that gets louder as it ''nears'' the listener, and quieter as it ''moves away''. There are early examples that appear to bear no obvious relationship to movement. One is "Barkin' Dog" (1919) by the [[Ted Lewis (musician)|Ted Lewis]] Jazz Band. Another contender is "America" (1918), a patriotic piece by the chorus of evangelist [[Billy Sunday]]. By the early 1930s, longer songs were being put on both sides of records, with the piece fading out at the end of side one and fading back in at the beginning of side two. Records at the time held only about two to five minutes of music per side. The segue allowed for longer songs (such as [[Count Basie]]'s "Miss Thing"), symphonies and live concert recordings.

However, shorter songs continued to use the fade-out for unclear reasons—for example, [[Fred Astaire]]'s movie theme "Flying Down to Rio" (1933). Even using fade-out as a segue device does not seem obvious, though we certainly take it for granted today. It is possible that movies were an influence here. Fade-ins and fade-outs are often used as cinematic devices that begin and end scenes; film language that developed at the same time as these early recordings. The term ''fade-out'' itself is of cinematic origin, appearing in print around 1918. And jazz, a favorite of early records, was a popular subject of early movies too.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq91503fadeout.html |title=Stupid Question Archive |access-date=2008-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071130074156/http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq91503fadeout.html |archive-date=2007-11-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The same could be said for radio productions. Within a single programme of a radio production, many different types of fade can be applied. When mixing from speech to music, there are a few ways that fade can be used. Here are three examples.
*''Straight'': the introduction has become a musical link between the music/speech that follows, additionally the first notes of the intro can be emphasized to make it pop out more.<ref name="Nisbett, A 1962">Nisbett, A. 1962. The Technique of the Sound Studio. London & New York: Focal Press.</ref>
*''Cutting the introduction'': Since the first word of the vocals has to follow promptly after the cue light, it could be used to move the recording onward.<ref name="Nisbett, A 1962"/>
*''Introduction under speech'': The music is placed at the specified time on the cue, the level must be low in order for the vocals to be audible.<ref name="Nisbett, A 1962"/> Here the fade-up generally occurs just before the final words in order for the cue to be given.<ref name="Nisbett, A 1962"/> In stage productions the closing music is played from a predetermined time and fades up at the closing words in order to fit in exactly with the remaining program time.<ref name="Nisbett, A 1962"/>

Though relatively rare, songs can fade out then fade back in. Some examples of this are "[[Helter Skelter (song)|Helter Skelter]]" and "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]" by [[The Beatles]],<ref name=Everett>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p0p6jL-u3T4C&pg=PT171 |page=171 |title=The Foundations of Rock: From "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" |last=Everett |first=Walter |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-531023-8}}</ref> "[[Suspicious Minds]]" by [[Elvis Presley]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_suspicious_minds.html|title='Suspicious Minds': Elvis' Greatest Single?|last=Patterson|first=Nigel|author2=Piers Beagley|work=Elvis Information Network|access-date=September 2, 2010}}</ref> "[[Shine On Brightly]]" by [[Procol Harum]], "[[Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Lennon and Yoko Ono song)|Sunday Bloody Sunday]]" by [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]], "[[That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore]]" by [[The Smiths]],<ref>Goddard, Simon (2009). Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and The Smiths. London: Ebury Press.</ref> "[[Thank You (Led Zeppelin song)|Thank You]]" by [[Led Zeppelin]],<ref name=Everett/> "[[In Every Dream Home A Heartache]]" by [[Roxy Music]], "[[In Deep (Argent album)|It's Only Money, Pt. 2]]" by [[Argent (band)|Argent]], "[[The Great Annihilator]]" by [[Swans (band)|Swans]],  "[[The Great Southern Trendkill#Track listing|(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin]]" by [[Pantera]], "Illumination Theory" and "At Wit's End" by [[Dream Theater]], "[[Paramore (album)#Track listing|Future]]" by [[Paramore]], "[[Operation: Doomsday#Track listing|Doomsday]]" by [[MF Doom]], "[[Outro (M83 song)|Outro]]" by [[M83 (band)|M83]], "Cold Desert" by [[Kings of Leon]], and "The Edge Of The World" by [[DragonForce]].

===Contemporary===
No modern recording can be reliably identified as "the first" to use the technique. In 2003, on the (now-defunct) website ''Stupid Question'', John Ruch listed the following recordings as possible contenders:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071130074156/http://archives.stupidquestion.net/sq91503fadeout.html ''Stupid Question'']</ref>

{{blockquote|[[Bill Haley (musician)|Bill Haley]]'s cover version of "[[Rocket 88]]" (1951) fades out to indicate the titular car driving away. There are claims that [[The Beatles]]' "[[Eight Days a Week]]" (recorded 1964) was the first song to use the reverse effect—a fade-in. In fact, The Supremes had used this effect on their single "[[Come See About Me]]", issued a little over a month before "Eight Days a Week".}}

More recently: "At the meta-song level, the prevalence of pre-taped sequences (for shops, pubs, parties, concert intervals, aircraft headsets) emphasizes the importance of ''flow''. The effect on radio pop programme form [is] a stress on continuity achieved through the use of fades, voice-over links, twin-turntable mixing and connecting jingles."<ref name="Middleton">{{cite book|last=Middleton|first=Richard|title=Studying popular music|year=1990|publisher=Open University Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=0-335-15275-9|pages=95–96|edition=Reprint}}<!--|access-date=6 July 2013--></ref>