Gain Staging in the DAW (All You NEED to Know)
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- Опубликовано: 6 июл 2024
- By request: A LOADED audio mixing topic explained, demonstrated, updated for the modern era and simplified!
I also highly recommend checking out this excellent written article on Gain Staging by Nick Messitte: bit.ly/gain-staging-izotope
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![Does Gain Staging Even Matter? - [Logic Pro X]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9lDnYcWlFWA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Does Gain Staging Even Matter? - [Logic Pro X]](/img/tr.png)
You said it right Sean : there are no rules in music, just guidelines 👌🏼
🙏 amen
The day the introduction doesn’t include “Hey what’s going on out there, I’m Sean Devine, hope you all are doing welllll” is the day I stop watching these tutorials 🔊
You know it’s gonna be a quality tutorial because it doesn’t start out with “YOOOooo it’s ya boi!”
gracias sean!! creo que ha sido uno de los mejores videos sobre gain staging que he visto en youtube
One of the best explanations I have heard on this topic… great clarification, thanks!
I've been bumpin' your vids for a minute now. Love the content, your studio and the overall vibes, Sean. Thanks for your efforts!
This is a very good video! I’ve been making instrumentals for a while and this is a great way to get rid of any unwanted distortion.
Great video man! Keep them coming
Great video. I have a similar mindset. Is good to understand gain staging and have a “method” that we prefer to address it with, but not over stress about it, like at all! So many people out there always giving advice about how everything has to be this many db and you must do gain staging this way or otherwise you suck, that it used to make my head hurt. Relax people, and learn how to use your ears 😉 thanks for sharing your wisdom, as always!
thank you for making your tutorials so clear! This was a simple concept that old rules and new tricks can go hand in hand, but one or the other need not effect what you're doing. Great lesson.
appreciate it Todd!
very claire way to explain this topic !! Thanks man
Great video bro! Love it
I appreciate these videos, Sean. Much Love!
Smooth transition from the intro, theme song & back
Edit: well said, Sean. I took your approach on this since I been watching for a few years. Thanks for all you do!!! Bless
my pleasure Andre! 🙌
Sean single handedly changed my Logic production game... stuck with stock plug-in workflow for a year following his method. Now I'm finally diving into Wave plugins... some next level stuff in short time. I appreciate your work and tutorials !
Good stuff Johnny, glad to help 🙌
Great video!! Definitely a very important process when Mixing Pro tips! Thank u 🙏🏾
Great video and topic, thanks!
Good man, brilliant!
Thanks for clearing that up Sean!
Such needed information👊🏾... thank you kindly!!!
The best stuff I've seen and heard all year for gain stagijg
Thanks for making it clear! Very helpful
This right here!!!! 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you soooo much Sean! You're such a help.
Hey thanks sean!!! Love these tutorials.
Excellent! Thank you, Sean!
Thanks for sharing 🔥
This was just what I needed at this very moment! I'm new to daw, and can easily get bogged down with TMI!! Thank you...perfect timimg!
glad to hear it David
So helpful 🙏🏽
Thanks, Sean.
i see a sean video, i like. great video as usual ❤
Very Good info. Thank You So much.
Well Done!
Thanx!
Thanks man so informative I have been over doing gain staging ie a gain plugin 🔌 on every channel. From now on I will be doing it this your way. Much love from uganda East Africa sean
great video! 💯🔥
Thanks Sean
Thanksss brooo very niceee
🔥🔥🔥 my guy
Very good and excellent communicator.
I never had twitter acct.
thanks Bobby 🙂
Thank you..
Needed this! Have seen so many different people cover this topic and they all have different approaches which obviously give you a different end result (final mix). If I have to take anyone’s word for it though, it’s Sean Divine!
the only value i’ve found out of worrying about gain structuring is that insofar as the levels into a processing chain match the levels out of it, you can A/B that chain against another (or against no processing) to see if it’s really adding something beneficial, without dealing with level changes.
💯 turtarial the perfect one
What!!!!!? Thanks a million for this
Hi Sean, Nice video man! Can you kindly make a video highlighting the usefulness of pre fader?? My channel seem to clip easily when set as pre fader. Thanks
Super helpful
Thanks for the video!
This is true for a DAW like Reaper where clipping can occur only on a master channel. But I was pretty surprised to see that FL 20 still has some kind of hardware-coded channel clipping that still occurs if the signal is too hot. The funny thing is you can't see the limiting plugin, but it's there doing it's thing. And because of that invisible limiting, your meters don't show any clipping too, what makes it even harder to detect. I assume that it is one of the reasons why so many beats in FL tend to sound kind of muffled, not quite clear (when the sound attacks were completely cut off).
At the same time I've no problems with Reaper, where I can hear actual clipping on a master-channel and see if any channel is clipping by meters. And there I really can apply everything said in this video.
Excellent video. Gainwise Logic tends to get hot pretty quickly (with barely a few tracks), I don't know why is that. Experimenting, I recently discovered the VCA trick and is great: you can gain stage after the fact and that takes away all the stress with this annoying "-6 db of headroom" stuff. Keep up the good work Sean!!!
Thanks for your tutorials Sean, My music now are "not the same"
Great video! Although Logic does have input metering. Check out in the display settings for “Input Metering”, once activated, the faders will be pre channel strip (y)
yes, a handy feature but not what I'm referring to... it won't change the input level prior to hitting the inserts
My favorite 'guru'. Hope I could make a collab with you
INTO THE THICK OF THIS
I think my questions brought this new tutorial😁..Thanks Sean... So gain stage before applying pluggins...yes?
This is the sauce
Love the video bro. Just wondering if you ever use the Pre-fader option when gain staging?
Definitely! You can setup a key command for it as well to quickly keep an eye on it
Plz sean make a indepth beat mixing video🙏🙏 i have seen all ur previous videos which was very helpful bt we need more of them so plz🙏🙏
Noted! :)
Beat is 🔥🔥🔥 that your working on
appreciate that!
Hey dude. Your videos have been so helpful. I am just starting out. I must say this gain staging can be annoying. I have two questions if you have a moment from some of the information you explained.
I' basically mixed and mastered a song without realizing I needed to gain stage. I don't want to have to go back and readjust the volume faders after reducing the individual tracks with a gain plug-in that are clipping. Any idea of how I can get around this? If I reduce the gain on a track, for example by -5db just to stop it from clipping (putting it at approx -8 to -10db) if I go back and increase the volume fader by 5db. Might I be able to get the volume back to where I initially mixed it at with the song as a whole? I’m trying to avoid balancing the whole thing again volume once I hit the tracks with the gain reduction plug-ins. 😒
Also. I want to start practicing mixing into a limiter like you've explained. When I master a track I have been putting the true peak at -0.1db… which I probably should not be doing? Do you think it's OK to mix with the limiter at -0.1db instead of -1.0 (like you’ve advised) since I will be going back to master the track with a true peak of -0.1?
Or Should I just toss out that practice and put my true peaks at -1.0db moving forward when mixing and mastering.
Sorry to bombard you dude. I love your videos they have definitely been a big help for me. Cheers my bro!
Hell yeah dude i can’t believe I’ve been forgetting to check the digital clipping as well as just listening hahaha sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh
I found it very hard to follow, especially the correct naming of the bounces - I thought standard procedure was to name stuff "djsfgdsfgy" and "sdgdhjvsdfsvd1" ?! Great video Sean, top man :)
lol thanks man!
Thanks. Is logic really worth upgrade over garage band? Thank you
🔥🔥
very simplified.
Por favor podrías activar los subtítulos en español.gran canal.
Thanks you to share some precious advices, you are a generous person.
I've pushed my skills ahead with this and its so rewarding for my music.
Thanks again keep the good vibe !
Sounds Way better after what you did👍
Look you up to reply can't find wondering what I won,😁
Its been a while. Hope u doing good...
Wow! I MusicLuv they way you break down and simplify it. Dude :-)
thanks, glad to help!
I never heard about that VCA trick before! Thats amazing. Just making sure let’s say I want to use your mastering studiorack preset and I need that -6db headroom but on my stereo output don’t have -6db , I can create a VCA output with all my tracks including vocals and lowering the VCA output until I have that -6 db headroom?
yep, that will work! ...or even easier, StudioRack has an input gain control right there on the plugin :)
@@SeanDivine amazing! Thank you so much!
How about to make a video mixing vocal hip hop to studio one. What see what happens.... Views.. Abo... etc....
I suppose of course you work in 32 bit floating point, isn't it ? In the exporting phase of your mix, to send to the mastering studio, do you still use 32 bit float file and don't worry about to leave enough headroom ? If yes wich is the peak and rms target level of the mix, or if not why ? Have a great music, CIAO
Much Respect to you and the knowledge you share, truly appreciated, quick question?
Do you use a vu meter? Especially for gain stagging?
generally, no... the VU measurement is much more helpful in the analog realm. Not so much in the DAW IMO
@@SeanDivine don't most plugins emulate the analog hardware?
Hey Sean thanks for the video very informative indeed. Just wanted to know what your personal approach to mixing piano tracks are? E.g. Fx chains, leveling, etc.
multiband compression... and carefully selected reverb :)
@@SeanDivine Awesome thanks Sean!
Hey Sean, here’s a future video idea if it already hasn’t been covered, can you show us how to tune drums/808s, etc to the sample or finding the right key in general and the whole process for the low end instruments when starting a beat from scratch?
Thanks!
noted! will see what I can do :)
@@SeanDivine Thank you! Appreciate all that you do bro. One of the few youtubers that are really good at teaching mixing
What do you do if you're working on a solo track project and during the mastering process, on the limiter, the only way to get the LU-I to -12 is to crank the gain to almost max volume and now the sound is distorted?
Hello, Sean.
Thank you for posting a good course today.
Then, lowering the final vca level in the mixing session,
Does lowering the clip level in the mastering session mean the same headroom?
It depends on whether or not the mix was clipping when exported. If it was, the result will remain in the mastering session.
@@SeanDivine Thank you for your precious answer.
I hope you have a good day.
very helpful
This is a great tutorial but I do have some questions:
1) Keeping this lesson in mind, is there a level you target when tracking so you end up with a good, strong level but still with enough headroom to mix and then master?
2) Do you target any particular mix level (i.e. -14 dB) before mastering?
From my experience, I can tell you
1) Loud enough for the artist not to ask “why is it so quiet” I aim for Spotify standards
2) Whatever the mastering engineer wants is what the mastering engineer gets
Yep! Adding to what Paul said, the gainstaging process for tracking is a bit different. Vocals/instruments, I aim for the "sweet spot" of the hardware pre (ruclips.net/video/YywWAt0RsNo/видео.html). Virtual instruments are floating point, so as long as there's some headroom before printing to audio, all good!
Hey Sean, hope you can answer My question! What is a vca and how can I create it? Is it just a bus that you put your other buses through?
ruclips.net/video/tSuwq8ukdVg/видео.html
Hi Sean, when setting the VCA .. you send all tracks including busses to that VCA to create the headroom?? Or just the individual tracks without busses..?? Please reply on this.
Just the individual tracks
So my question then is: What does this magic "sweet spot" for gain staging sound like? That is what I keep hearing is so important about the -18db for analog plug ins. I came from the old school of recording, so I got into the bad habit of mixing at hotter levels, sometimes including when using analog simulated plug ins. I think I have a fairly good ear, but I can't seem to tell if my mixes are missing this holy "sweet spot" sound or not. Is it worth my time to try and go back and lower all these levels now?
There's no magic "sweet spot" for any of this stuff, just what sounds best to your ears. That might mean pushing things harder for some engineers and others not as much, depending on the desired effect. -18dB talk is overrated imo... it can make a difference but if you weren't being too reckless before (audible / unpleasing distortion), then it's not going to make your mix fundamentally better.
Can you mix and master my songs, and how much will you charge if you charge because I'm broke.
Do ⑂ou think we need to gain stage to -18db for better mix with analog emulation plugins or simply having -6db head room is just perfect ?
It’s very much plugin dependent. Some of the analog emulations model the sound of the hardware, so you can look at the manual to see what’s suggested... that being said, MOST plugins these days are not picky about input levels in floating point, so just leave a bit of headroom and use your ears :)
Cant you use the Pre-Fader Metering function in Logic - the you see the level of the signal directly and can adjust if its to loud/low - and adjust on the Gain FX?
yes, that works too :)
This may be a silly question but isn't putting your gain plugin at the very start (top) make your other plugins (such as compression) work harder? Wouldn't it make more sense to put your gain plugin at the end of the chain? If I'm sending say bass tracks, out to the studio, & trying to send everything off at say, -12db.... shouldn't I be putting the gain plugin at the end? (Again, very sorry if this is a silly question)
You place the gain plugins BEFORE the rest of the plugins for this very reason - this way, you control the levels pre-fader / prior to going through the rest of the processing on the channel. I talk about VCA faders in the video which is a very simple way to create headroom for sending out tracks for mastering :)
great video i just noticed my levels on my kicks and 808s are not loud enough when i gain it up it distorts and eats up true peak im puzzled.... is it a velocity issue??
as in you can't hear them well? If you can't monitor what's actually happening in the low frequencies, that would explain why you're pushing levels too hot... many times for the 808 / sub it's more about increasing perceived loudness, rather than just level
@@SeanDivine thanks ...I was speaking in terms of on your previous video on mixing loud when i export from maschine into logic for example my kick ate up my headroom trying to get it to -12db ..was just wondering do i need to normalize the kick or is it a kick sample issue keeping me from reaching the level...but thanks for the response ..lol im just want to be able to upload my beats to youtube and compete with quality!
Hey Sean! whats the diference of bringing bakc de vca or the master?
a VCA track will affect the levels of all the individual faders you assign to it, the master fader (in Logic's case) is a final gain control that controls your output channels
@@SeanDivine VCA?
@@rossco78 ruclips.net/video/tSuwq8ukdVg/видео.html
So if I want 6 db of headroom for mastering I just route all channels into a vca and pull that down till I get the headroom? I know it's not recommended to pull down the actual stereo out master bus but how is this different technically??
yes, that's how I do it. VCAs factor in your send relationships, so if you want your auxes to sound the same it's the way to go.
@Sean Divine
Thoughts on External preamps over A.I preamps ??
Top 3 under $500 ?
in that price range, it's not going to be a huge difference compared to a budget AI pre. Once you get into $700+, you'll typically notice a big difference
@@SeanDivine I went Focusrite ISA One
Good choice 👍
Nobody anywhere on youtube explains the following regards Gain Staging. I have one problem/misunderstanding regards gain staging. I understand everything you say in this video and the reason for Gain staging, etc. The one thing I don't understand is........Input level needs to be mostly around -18dbfs for plugins, etc. If I put all channels at -18dbfs it will mean they are all the same volume. What do I do about the channels that needs to be lower in volume to bring a better balance in the mix? If I adjust the faders too low I use resolution. Therefor the faders needs to be at unity Gain, right? So I can only adjust Pre gain again to keep fader at unity Gain. But if I do this I loose all the plugin settings I had when level was at -18dbfs as input. What do I do. Thus is the confusion part for me? I can't have faders at unity gain and all channels at -18 the same time. The mixbus or master bus will clip. Please help. Hope this is clear.
That's referring to the INPUT level of the channel BEFORE it hits the plugin. Post fader (post pan) levels will of course be subjective and your mix channel levels will vary greatly.
🙋🏻♀️👍🏻
Do you use this same approach when you're mixing into the SSL Fusion and any other outboard gear? I ask that because I gain staged in the DAW once before I routed signal to my summing mixer and the Fusion...ended up with quite a bit more headroom. Also check out this single I co-produced, mixed and mastered by Laia. Preview it and let me know what you think of the mix!
music.apple.com/us/album/i-been-thinkin-single/1564048658
What’s a VCA??
ruclips.net/video/tSuwq8ukdVg/видео.html
7:30
Hi Sean.. Small question... BUSSES and VCA's control the gain that does to the MASTER? So post inserts on the BUSSES?
Let me know whenever possible. When you brought the " beat " VCA " to bring down the fader level on the MASTER... is it possible to MASTR that track in that same session? Looking forward to your reply.. It should clear maybe a mistake I was doing.. Thanks in advance.
You can't actually apply processing / plugins to a VCA. It simply adjusts the levels going to the master. You would want to set up an additional bus / aux in that case (not the same as a VCA).
@@SeanDivine Thanks. I know that..buyy once processed the busses and or adjusted the VCA ...can I master in the same session but on the mix bus...??
that's exactly what i always saying,, and some people reacting to that by saying to me ( man,, you are ignorant,, you are low level ) 😂
as long as it gets the results you want, they can say whatever they want... all good ☺️🙌
@@SeanDivine that's exactly what i always do ✌
I'm from Jamaica, and I teach everything I know that actually sounds pro, can you show me how to mix a Jamaican 🇯🇲 Dancehall mordern vocal
finally I understood this gain stage madness, now I feel free to create and make love.
Practicing good gain staging isn't just about clipping or not clipping, it's about employing efficient mix strategy and understanding the fundamentals of optimal signal flow. Learning to do it like the pros have been doing it for decades is, imo, the best place to start because it gets you in to a big picture fundamental mindset, with the end mix result in mind regarding what headroom is ideal for any particular mix, as well as understanding how to manage noise floor and getting vintage emulation plugins to work optimally, and not letting louder trick you in to thinking it's better at any step in a plugin chain. Imo, newbies should all start by learning traditional mixing because it's tried and true and creates a strong mix strategy foundation. I tried for years to just do it my own way until I finally ate the humble pie and decided to learn the value of traditional gain staging, beginning with proper metering. As soon as I did, the intimidation factor plummeted. It's 100x more fun to mix now because I know how to strategize top to bottom. Now I can relax and just enjoy mixing without chasing mysterious ghosts of random unwanted distortion and noise while fearing that making a change will make the mix crumble. Such a relief to let go of that chaos and fragility.
Nice one! Not knowing what gain staging is and/or completely ignoring it is quite different than being well aware of it while not letting it take over your mixing process. I believe there's a balance (no pun) to be had here 😊 Thanks for sharing Chris
@@SeanDivine I guess I don’t understand this notion of letting it take over your mix process. Once it’s understood and honored, it just becomes good habit practice that runs in the background to mixing. Is what you’re basically suggesting that people don’t lose their shit if something goes in to the red now and then?
Yes… and that you can follow all the “rules” of gain staging and chasing numerical values on your meters and that still won’t get you a great mix. Many new mixers seems to overfocus on the technical side… A creative minded mixer with trained ears will make a much more interesting mix than a technically focused mixer any day!
@@SeanDivine understood. So what you’re essentially getting at is the importance of balancing technical accuracy with creative risk taking. Cheers.
At the end of the day, it’s about how it sounds and what’s best for the song... however you get there. Listeners don’t care about how we utilize gain staging or how the meters look 😊
At 2:57 you mentioned "analog fixed point". Fixed point or floating point - these are digital terms - not applicable to analog.
Also you said something about -18 dBFS not always being an appropriate level to hit the input of a plug. While this is true, it's also kind of a straw-man, as the suggested level reference is -18 dB to -20 dB RMS = 0VU. If you follow this, you can likely be hitting -10 dBFS to -6 dBFS on your DAW's peak meters.
No one is suggesting a reference of -18 dBFS.
So really, analog mixing techniques with regard to gain staging is the way to go in 2021. It's just confusing to people that the 0VU of the analog world is not the same as 0 dBFS in the DAW.