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Thanks man!

It’s just another way of getting more volume. You don’t have to do it, it’s just something I do and a few pro mixers do

It’s plenty loud for me. Not sure what’s going on for you

It's also very silent for me, watching it on a phone 🤔

@@AndrewAuroradont listen to those people. The volume’s fine

Not sure why it’s quiet for you guys. It’s plenty loud coming out of my phone speaker and computer

Thanks man!

Happy you enjoyed the video! However, I do have to respectfully disagree with you on your point. Sure, you can get a good mix without being organized or having a good workflow, but it will be so much easier to not only achieve A good mix, but LOTS of good mixes consistently when you start to establish a workflow, and part of a strong workflow is organization within your session. Obviously having your folders organized outside of your session won’t affect your mix, but if your files are all the same color, named random stuff, and are all over the place within your session this will cause you to waste time and have unnecessary challenges during your mixing session, which will ultimately effect how efficiently and quickly you can mix, which in turn can very easily effect the sound you are able to achieve. When mixing, you want to be able to remain creative and not have to waste time, and having to worry about organization and whats-what is going to take you out of that creative head space. Establishing a workflow will take time, and you will continue to get better the more songs you mix, but it’s better to start establishing that sooner than later, as opposed to approaching every song differently with no real idea of where and how you like to start.

@@AndrewAurora thanks for the reply. I wasn't trying to say you shouldn't work towards having a workflow or avoid organizing but that none of that would even start to address most people's main problem/objective which is getting a good sounding mix. Workflow means making things that work easy to repeat, but you have to figure out what works for you first.

@@isaachagoel7344 I understand that. It’s much easier to build a house on a strong foundation, a.k.a it’s easier to achieve a good mix when you have a system to get there. Even if you are a beginner, I recommend everyone start building a simple template with tracks they know they will always make, routing they know they always like to use, plugins they always use, and so forth. Approach every mix with a plan. My plan after everything is prepped and gain staged is to get a solid drum mix, starting with shells, then overheads and rooms. After that it’s bass and guitars/chords, then synths & FX, then vocals, then automation, then mastering. I pay attention to everything throughout the whole process, but having established that workflow it allows me to not get distracted and gives me a defined starting point and end point. Getting a good mix is the final result of proper building blocks. Without that it’s like trying to make a recipe and not knowing which ingredient to start with or what order to add everything in. For example, if I’m trying to make a pizza but put the cheese on the pan and the bread on top then i’m probably gonna have some burnt cheese and a terrible pizza. Same ingredients, wrong order, terrible result. Perhaps that’s a bad analogy but i’m sure you get the point lol. Perhaps someone struggling to get a good mix isn’t struggling with their ability to make something sound good, perhaps they are struggling with their approach to getting there

Thank you!

Normalization will work too! Just structure your template around your tracks being at that -10~-12db level. If you are dealing with very dynamic tracks where one section is much louder than another section then I recommend splitting those sections and normalizing them separately, because normalization is going off of the loudest point on that track

Everyone has their own approach, and I’m not saying mine is the best, but for me this is the approach that produces the most consistent results. After watching some other gain staging videos on RUclips, I personally think mine is the most simple and easiest to understand and duplicate. I’m not sure how this would confuse anyone. It’s literally just using clip gain and limiters as faders. Once people start developing their templates they will have to adjust accordingly, but it’s quite simple

Thank you!

Whats DYN mean?

Talking 'bout DYNamics@@AndrewAurora

@@francescol8836 Oh, duh. Lol

Lol I saw both your comments. The lights I used in both videos were the same

Its not necessarily “wrong” to go before the green line, but before the green line is pre-fader. After the green line is post fader. It’s also pre and post the stock channel strip EQ and plugins. So occasionally I may do volume automation on the Master. If I automate the volume up with the final limiter pre fader, it will clip. Same if I did an EQ boost or anything that increased the volume Thats why its post the green line, i.e. post fader

I understand what your saying. However, this video was meant for anyone from absolute beginner to pro, and a beginner may not know what their favorite plugins and routing are yet. They may not even have a template yet. For those people, I didn’t want to take them through an intricate template with tons of plugins and routing, I wanted them to be able to create a very simple template with basic routing that they could build on over time. Balancing is a core fundamental of mixing and plays a big part in gain staging, because if your balancing is out of whack your gain staging will be too. I believe I even said in the video that they were closely related In the video, I explained why I chose to do it this way with the clip gain and limiters. The clip gain comes before everything else and determines the levels going into your template and plugins, so if it’s too low or too high you will be hitting your plugins wrong Thats why I have a target level I aim for, and it’s simple because you can visually adjust the levels of your track which in turn is adjusting the level at which everything within your template is being hit If you clip gain to that level every time and have your template set up in a way thats based around your tracks coming in at that level then you pretty much always guarantee that your plugins and signal chain will be getting hit at the same level, or nearly the same level, every time. It takes out the guess work The limiters are a preference for me that I also explained in the video. It allows all my faders to stay at unity making automation much easier, and it also allows my session to look less messy, because I personally don’t like to have faders all over the place, but if you want to use faders you can. Lastly, at the end of the video I show what it looks like when you do this exact same method using a template complete with plugins and complex routing, and show just by clip gaining at the level I said how I’m able to hit everything at the exact level I want, or close, and have the song sounding 80% mixed before I even start mixing

@@AndrewAurora The point is, by using the tern "Gain Staging" and don't explain the whole concept of it, you just confuse the beginners even more. It is okay if your personal preference is to keep the mix faders at unity and use other ways to level your tracks, but again, recommending that to beginners would add even more confusion to them. There is a big advantage of using the mixer faders for leveling, especially if you did proper gain staging so every track's signal is at roughly the same level before it hits the mixer fader: By just looking at the mixer, you instantly see which elements are loud and which ones are not. This is crucial information you take away from yourself when every single fader in the mixer sits at 0 dB. Also keep in mind that limiters react to volume changes of a signal, while faders don't. So they are not interchangeable when it comes to adjusting the overall volume of a track. I'm also not a fan of doing volume automation on the mixer faders, because it complicates mixing adjustments once automation is used. I'd rather use a gain plugin for volume automation instead.

@@markuskopter Thats where you and I approach it differently. You prefer to use a gain plugin for automation and I don’t prefer that, I prefer the fader. I don’t think cubase has a gain plugin, but a gain plugin would work too to balance instead of a limiter. I know Pro tools has one called trim. The difference between balancing and gain staging, which is what I covered in this video, is that to gain stage you need to have a defined volume goal and a defined volume starting point Balancing alone is just balancing the volumes in relation to each other, regardless of the actual levels Gain staging is actually having a target level and properly controlling your levels throughout your chain to achieve said level, which is much easier when you have a defined level starting point, and a defined level target. However, balancing is a big part of that, because who cares if your goal is to hit -6 on the master and you achieve that, but your drums are 4 db too loud and your vocals are 3db too quiet and you can’t even hear the bass. See what I mean? As for the limiters and mixers, the mixer levels change when you change the volume on the limiter, so you don’t lose any information, and for me personally I almost never use the mixer window in my workflow, so that wouldn’t effect how I mixed anyway. The limiters don’t react to the volume changes at all unless they are limiting. But again, i’m not limiting with them unless I want to. At the end of the day, you can use any plugin that you can control gain with to do this, I just use limiters because they are simple and designed like faders, don’t add color, and if I want to do any limiting to control the volumes, I can The limiters seem to be the biggest point of contingency with people here. I suppose I should have been more clear about the fact that you don’t need to use limiters if you don’t want to. You can use anything you want to, I just like using limiters

Any time Terry! Happy you enjoyed it :)

Actually, my method is heavily influenced by one of the greatest country music mixers in Nashville, Billy Decker. I slightly altered his way and made it my own with the limiters. But if you have a better way please enlighten me and anyone else who is here to learn how to properly gain stage. I’m sure all of us would love to know a better way, and based off your comment i’m assuming you know of one. Perhaps you can make your own RUclips video since you are obviously an expert and share your knowledge with the world. Otherwise, if you aren’t prepared to be constructive, then I would suggest you spend your time honing your craft instead of being a keyboard warrior online and making the audio community look bad :)

NICE !! Dig in kid....anything you bring to, "THIS MIXING BOARD" is obviously going to teach anyone with less "REAL" knowledge, something they are looking to learn, and learn they will !! Your defense was impeccable, obviously you understand the word, "Humility" and how not much is displayed in this , "staggeringly professional pro audio expert" who has no intention of teaching anything to anyone.....has even failed at that for having, "ALL OF the knowledge that he accused you of having none of !" He has STAGGERINGLY FAILED at proving to you and I......TEACHING US as a matter of fact, that HUMILITY is no longer in the thought process of those who I call ASSHOLES !! ....and you obviously no nothing in the field of BEING An ASSHOLE.... because we know ECACTLY WHO Is THE PROFESSIONAL at that.....don't we ?? GREAT SHOW !! IM A FAN. LIKING and FOLLOWING !!

Wow 🏴‍☠️ CHEW on THIS...💩 ......oops, I meant the other brown thing ! 🤎 LUV ! WHAT ever happened to the society of musicians, music professionals and music fans ?? I remember feeling like we were unlike the rest of the world......better in fact ! After all weren't "WE" the only ones with the creativity and the understanding of what we are and we're responsible for being the only real imagination and that being shared by us and ONLY US made us say things only we knew what they meant.....we were the only ones to..... UNDERSTAND.... FEEL..... EXPERIENCE, LIKE THE LATE GREAT JIMMY SAID !?? What happened to us man ?? Cause we.... YOU AND I ARE NOT THE SAME MAN. Gp$3

​@@AndrewAurora to you Andrew !! So there is nolo misunderstanding of who Mr Asshole is ! Do You Bro !! Gp$3

To Mr Asshole

Exactly. I’m not sure if Cubase has a regular gain plugin. I know Pro tools does. The limiter i’m using in this video doesn’t add color just by being on the bus, certainly nothing that is audible if it does, so it doesn’t matter

That limiter doesn’t add any color just by being on the bus, but I do understand what you’re saying. In my experience most limiters I have used don’t add any color unless you actually start limiting. The reason I don’t clip gain the kick to that level and then gain everything differently around it to get a good pre mix is because I know when I have everything clip gained to the 50/50 level I talk about in the video that it will always be hitting where I want it to or close to where I want it to based off how I have my template set up. Individually gaining each track to different levels every time would take more time, but also change how my plugins within my template are getting hit every time. I’m always open to learning better ways, but this way consistently works for me

You mean clipper not limiter

@@Positive_Tea No, I definitely mean limiter

Lol well I am turning down the gain on whole groups of elements using limiters as faders on busses. I know when clip gained to that 50/50 level I talk about in the video that my tracks will always be hitting where I want them to, or close to it. If an individual element is too quiet or too loud I will adjust the clip gain on that element, but if all the guitars (for example) are too quiet or too loud in relation to everything else, I’ll use my limiter as a fader and I will adjust the volume of all the guitars. That prevents me from having to use the actual fader, which I prefer to leave at unity. All of this allows me to get consistent and properly gain staged mixes every time

@AndrewAurora i would just put a vu meter and adjust the level and that's it,every limiter changes the sound of a instrument or a vocal so i use them only when i need them,i do the automation by hand where i need it...i don't say u r wrong but i don't know if it's necessary to put a limiter on all those channels...these days i don't even think about it,after all the processing,parallel compression,saturation and stuff i have enough clean and coloured signal,that never gets deep in the yellow zone and it's powerful more than enough...so i don't see the point in gain staging,to tell u the truth,i never gain stage,cause it makes the songs boring and frigid,i don't like a perfect mix,maybe it's just me

@@Mio-fu1sr The point of the limiter is just to be used as a fader on my busses. It’s my personal preference, but if someone wanted to use the faders they could. The limiters and the vast majority of plugins don’t add any color just by putting them on the track, they add color once you start hitting them, and the purpose of these limiters are not to limit. The awesome thing about music is there is usually multiple ways to achieve one result, and my way isn’t necessarily the right way or the best way, it’s just my way. If you have something the works well for you, then keep doing it. If gain staging isn’t something that’s important to you then that’s ultimately up to you, but gain staging won’t make the songs frigid or boring, it’s merely a way of insuring you have consistent results every time. Some people say the same thing about templates, but if you know you have something you like that your going to do every time, why not save it to a template and save time? At the end of the day, the guy who is doing this for a career mixing hundreds of songs and multiple different genres needs a duplicatable system that delivers him consistent results and does it quickly. Proper gain staging and templates will allow him to achieve that

You're trolling stop it

@@Positive_Tea Who’s trolling?

I literally didn't mean to. Thanks for the feedback though 🙂

No problem! Happy it helped you

Thank you! And ya pretty much. I’ve never seen a purpose for them

@@AndrewAuroraOr even under like 200Hz.

@@prozvan Typically those frequencies aren’t contributing much to your mix from your vocals, but if it sounds good it is good, so I don’t wanna say that they are always bad on vocals

@@AndrewAurora ok yeaaa truee. You could make a tutorial on vocal modulations like doubles, harmonies and all of that.

@@prozvan Like how to make them or how to mix them? I’m currently learning how to produce better but don’t really feel like i’m in a place to teach people yet

Lol happy you enjoyed it!

School is not a mistake. However what you do in school might be😊

@@blackpalacemusic To each their own, but I don’t advice anyone to go spend 30k on audio school. It would be better to drop that money in a studio and online courses

Of course 😊

Happy you enjoyed it!

Happy you enjoyed it man! Hopefully it helps you on your future mixes

I heard the same thing about a guy using Pro Tools. I don’t know anyone personally who has gotten to that level, but it’s insane

Happy I could help David!

Happy I could help!

Ya man, college is necessary for certain careers (doctors, lawyers, etc.) but unless that piece of paper can actually help you get the job you want, then it’s a waste of time and money

Thank you so much! I’m happy you enjoyed my video and the information I shared. It’s great to know that the information I put out is helping people

I would say the vast majority of them apply to all genres. What style of music are you doing?

@@AndrewAurora Boom Bap was my goal,but stuff comes out as it does. I don't force anything. But it's all sample based and there's an issue because the samples have already been mixed and mastered and sometimes the extra dynamics only make it worse.

@@PeteOnTheBeat You mean like drum samples? What do you mean by “extra dynamics make it worse”? Just trying to understand so maybe I can help you out

That’s awesome man! Feel free to send me some of your bands stuff over on my socials. I’d love to hear it! Compression was confusing for me too, so I feel you on that. I’ve currently got the next 3 months of videos planned and recorded for this channel, but I am just about to start planning the next few, so i’ll put the “hearing compression” trick down as one of the video ideas. In the mean time, the easiest way to hear this would be to take something like your bass (usually cuz it has the most groove) compress it a decent amount (maybe try around 5-10 db, just so you can hear this more easily) and start playing with the attack and release times. What you should notice is how the bass feels like it went from pretty stagnant to almost like it starts pushing and pulling the speakers differently. For example, set the compressor to maybe a fast-medium attack, and a super long release. Notice how the bass will probably feel like it barely moves. Then quickly switch the release to the fastest release and notice how bass feels a little more “bouncy” again. Lol I know that may not be the best explanation, but give it a spin and let me know if you notice what I’m talking about

@AndrewAurora hey thanks for the reply! Yeah I kind of understand how it works a little but I wonder why people would want to compress things like drums? Drum hits are all about those transient hits right? And compression would just remove that impact would it not? That's where I'm lost. I guess it just makes the body of the drum after the initial attack louder and overall sounds like "bigger badder drums"? I've got to actually play around with it and hear the difference I suppose. And I know people usually parallel compress the drums and blend right? Also Yeah I have always heard clipping = bad. It's interesting that a plugin would emulate a "bad" sound. But I watched your song mix videos and I do hear the loudness improve with that plugin, so I'll have to do more research on clippers

@@drummerjstone So with compression, it’s a matter of taste and what your goal is. Why I personally would compress drums as a whole would be to glue them together and make them move together so they sound like one big element as opposed to separate elements. However, I don’t tend to compress individual drums very often. Not that it’s wrong, but I don’t typically find it necessary. However, you can potentially use a compressor on a snare (for example) to tame the attack, or bring the attack closer to the decay of the snare, making it fill out the space between snare hits a little better. Thats just one example. Some compressors also add a certain sound you might like on your drums. With parallel compression, this is used because squashing the fuck out of your drums can add a lot of aggression to the sound that would normally sound like crap on its own, but blended together with your regular drums can add a nice, full sound that really helps your drums cut through the mix. As for clipping, I’m not sure if you caught my explanation on it in the video, but if not I explained how clipper plugins are designed to simulate what it was like to clip on analog gear, which has a very pleasing sound, where as clipping digitally sounds like crap. Clippers are a must in my workflow. Btw, i’ve got more mix videos coming that are much better, and much shorter than those other ones I did. Hopefully they will offer some value for you!

Appreciate it man!