3 Essential Gain-Staging Habits For Loud & Clean Mixes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ค. 2023
- FREE Guide - Learn how to finish at least one great-sounding song per month: pickyourself.com/framework
In this video, you'll discover how to get loud and clean mixes and masters by implementing these 3 essential gain staging habits any music producer needs to know. My name is Philip from Pick Yourself, and I've created this channel to help electronic music producers like you make meaningful progress with their music.
Are you tired of your tracks not hitting as hard as they should? Do you want to achieve that crisp, powerful sound in your electronic music productions? Whether you're into Techno, House, or EDM, gain staging is crucial for getting the most out of your mixes and masters. In this video, I'll walk you through the process of proper gain staging, debunk common myths, and help you maximize the sonic impact of your music, regardless of the DAW you use, be it Ableton Live or something else.
The first thing you need to understand is that if you don’t gain stage correctly, your mixes and masters will never sound loud and impactful. It's not just about adjusting the volume faders; it's about managing the signal level throughout your entire production and mixing process.
Knowing where to gain stage in the signal chain is essential. By managing levels at the right points, you'll preserve the sound quality and dynamics while preventing unwanted distortion or clipping.
It's time to forget about myths like “you have to always send -18dBFs into analog emulation plugins” or “you need to always hit -6dBFs on your master channel”. I'll provide you with practical tips and techniques to get the most out of your plugins and achieve the right balance in your music production, mixing, and mastering stages.
Tune in and join me in exploring these indispensable gain staging habits that will elevate your sound design and give your electronic music the professional polish it deserves.
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I've come across a lot of videos about gain staging but yours is indeed the first one that is really easy to understand rather than making the concept more confusing. Thanks for sharing. This is really helpful.
This is so great to hear! Exactly why I’ve made this video!
totally agree. great work again.
Agreed
You are the first person who explained this process with 100% clarity. Thank you Bro.
Probably one of the best videos on gain staging on youtube. Danke!! :)
No questions right now, but I want to say THANK YOU. this is the exact tutorial I have been looking for. I knew I had bad gain staging habits but I didn't know what exactly they were or how to correct them and you've just told me what they were and the solution. I'm so glad my much more experienced friend turned me on to your channel. Thanks for making your experience available to us for free. you are doing god's work! :D
This truly means a lot, thank you! And cheers to your friend for introducing you to the channel, I really appreciate it :)
Your video is by far the clearest advice I have received about gain staging (after many videos and podcasts) because you are so precise every step of the way! I'm really looking forward to applying these steps to my projects. Thank you! 🙏
That comment made my day, I really appreciate the great feedback! Have fun implementing the advice :)
Great video! I've watched a TON of videos on gain staging and no one ever talks about gain staging using vsts and sims. I've struggled with gain staging when using amp sims a lot, trying to hit the fader with a good signal level that gets boosted after the sim is added, but this put everything into focus concisely. Thank you!
Chapeau. Learning with you is just pure joy. Just discovered you channel and watched four videos this aftternoon about some specific topics where i struggle over and over. Thanks a million. :) Grüße aus salzburg.
Gr8 stuff, clarity in your overview and demystifying. 👾
Great video for sure , will try to apply these steps on my current and next projects.
Great video! Once I learned proper gain staging, my mixes not only sounded clearer, but when it came to mastering I found I could get them much louder.
This was excellent. Thank you for FINALLY explaining this is a clear way. You’ve earned my subscription! 🙌
This is incredibly useful.
Thank you.
Huge thx , overlooked this and paid the price. Adjusted as shown and man does it make a difference.
I only recently came across your channel and every video is quality. You explain each topic well and I am glad you also elaborate on what NOT to do. Very, very, very helpful!
Your comment means a lot to me, thank you. I truly appreciate the feedback!
Great video, thank you !👏
Thx bro, needed that
you're a very good teacher and I'm going to be going through all of your videos
thank you for your work!!! it was really helpful
Dude this is such an amazing video! Thank you so much for this!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for the great feedback :)
I’m really pleased that you cover how gain affects the plug-ins and how to adjust accordingly. The examples and process are really clear. I am looking forward to more content from you.
WOW, Phillip, this was such a brilliant and informative video. I had read various articles about gain staging but it failed to really resonate with me. This video has made everything perfectly clear. Thank you very much!!
That means the world to me, I’m happy it was helpful.
Great lesson! Many thanks :)
Amazing tutorial thank you so much bro.
You've explained it perfectly, thanks!!
I have to say this is easily the best tutorial i've come across after weeks of trying to wrap my head around it. SO clear and concise. thank you so much sir! it deserves far more views.... for now, i'm just glad to have the information for myself though hehe. thanks!
Best music production content so far on youtube, keep up the good work :)
I truly appreciate that comment, thank you! :)
Amazing video, thank you
25 minutes well spent, thank you!
That last bit about leaving the faders at 0 until the very end of the mixing process is such incredibly good advice. The separation of volume automation and overall mix levels is something I sometimes see get completely overlooked/ignored in other online videos, where I see automation of the faders being used instead...that (to me) would just make my life more difficult than it would otherwise need to be.
Nice one, congrats on having the attention span for that ;-) It's... not very common these days. But some topics just require that in-depth discussion and gain staging for sure is one of them.
Exactly that’s why they call them faders. We fade just a little bit to make fine tune adjustments.
yes this is the way!
So automation of volume on the timeline for different sections of a song would be automated with utility plugin instead correct?
Great explanation with good examples.
Exactly the info I was looking for :)
Now I’ll open the daw and try this out, thank you for sharing the knowledge ✌️
So great to hear that! Have fun experimenting :)
Excellent tutorial thx.
this was a very useful video for me my friend. glad i went thru it. thank you.
Very helpful and thank you. My mixing is one of the areas where I need the most work. I will try this tonight!
Really nice video and my compliments for your pleasent and enjoyable explanation! Thanks a lot!
That means a lot, thanks for the great feedback! 💯🙌🏻
This is the best explanation for gain staging that I have seen..
This was such a clean and simple, yet advanced video to watch, and finally a good video about Gain Staging for Abelton. Thanks! :)
Awesome, happy you’re getting some value from this :)
Dope tutorial!
14:51 This is misleading: overshooting 0dBFS here (or at any intermediate point of your signal chain) is not what results in the unwanted clipping that you describe. So even if the plugin's GUI shows some flashy ominous red warning, no clipping happens at this specific point in the signal chain. That's because your Ableton session and all your plugins are working with a 32bit floating-point signal, which can represent signals way above 0dBFS and therefore gives your signal a virtually infinite headroom. That kind of unwanted clipping (and thus distortion) will only happen when a bit depth conversion happens, ie. when the signal is sent to your soundcard or rendered to a lower bit depth audio file. Quite notably, you can have all your tracks summing way over 0dBFS, and it won't clip as long as you apply gain reduction on the master bus before the signal goes "out" of your DAW.
So yes, obviously there is no point in purposefully mixing at like 200dBFS only to then apply a 200dBFS reduction on the master bus, but it's important to pinpoint where in the signal chain distortion may or may not occur, so that when you do have an unwanted distortion you can more efficiently find out where it's coming from.
This was just what I needed, thanks. Just fixed a ton of stuff that was clipping.
Awesome info, thank you! I'll try the tips in my next session. I like that it is very simplified since I don't like delving into mixing/technical sound territory. But when it is simple and quick - worth it :)
That’s so great to hear! I’m myself not too strict about it either. But being agnostic is also not helpful.
Simplicity. I really enjoyed your take on everything.
Awesome!
Keep the videos coming there’s some unique tips on this channel.
Thanks so much, that’s great to hear! If you have specific topics you’d like to see videos about on the channel then let me know. I’m very open to ideas!
Thank you brother, with your tutorials im finally able to have a professional mix. A full mixing session with mix and master from start(zero work) to finish would be sick!
Cheers from Sweden.
gold mine
Endlich jemand, der gut erklären kann! 🤗
Very helpfull. Thank you!
I really appreciate the great feedback, thanks!
Only just subbed to this channel from a more recent video - your teaching is incredibly smooth and you make sure we know not only what something is doing but why it is doing it and how to change that to improve it. 22k subs is criminally low. Great work man.
Thank you so much. This means a lot! 💯🙌🏻
This comment really shows me that the right kind of people are finding this channel. Thanks a lot!
BEST GAIN STAGE VIDEO ON TH-cam!
Really helpful
Philip, thank you for this advice and great video. The part at the end about leaving faders at 0 finally clicked for me - Now using a mix tool at the end of each chain to complete my process rather my instinctual desire to grab a fader. As far as the rest of the video - invaluable information. I have never thought about adjusting the gain level at the actual plugin. Love it and will apply to every mix moving forward. You just gained another Subscriber [No pun intended]
Perfect, I’m so happy you’re getting value here!
Wow, this helps alot. All the tracks in project sounds cleaner and more dynamic. Finally when I open exported track in Audition I can see very nice curves.
Perfect. I love it when people get immediate results from my content. Thanks for sharing! 💯🚀
Really Great explanation. It will definitely help me by using this technique. Thanks. You have a new subs now :)
Thanks for this . Would you showing us ( in later video or blog post ) the gain staging workflow which including several Mix bus ?
wow, this transformed my mixing, even though i got a lot more work to do, it helped me understand clipping on the main source of the sound, and going to the source, is the way to go, like you said :D.
This is the way! ;)
Peak metering is obviously crucial in the digital domain, but I still prefer using a VU meter for two reasons. A) Gain staging discipline, and B) I've noticed that when using guitar pedals, less gain provides a more desirable tonal ballpark. So, I experimented with the Ableton Pedal, applying significantly less input gain, and it reacted similarly to hardware pedals. I know that -18 dB might seem excessive for most plugins, but it doesn't hurt either. When recording my hardware synths, the signal-to-noise ratio is excellent even below -18 dB. If not, I use a gate, but increasing the input gain wouldn't solve this problem.
By the way, love your videos! They're just what the doctor ordered-straight to the point.
Yep. 100% agreed! And thanks for the kind words, I truly appreciate that!
great one Philip ;) hugs!
Heyhey, nice to see you here! Big hug :)
I love you dawg
thank you.
You’re welcome 🚀
Thank you 🙏
You're very welcome :) Glad it was helpful!
@@pickyourselfofficial This is the best tutorial I've seen on gain staging hands down! It also helped me think about how to mix later instead of as I go.
Thanks alot!!! I've been looking so many videos that don't make any sense😂 Some even say gain staging is a myth and so on... I tried this and everything soundet really good. I also found flaws in my mixes that I did not hear before trying this!
Thank you, that means a lot! So good to hear that you got results from this workflow.
thanks man, all makes perfect sense from analogue days but it is really good to see it in action and witness the effect of a well gain staged loop in ableton.
you use a lot of fancy plugins, might have to check some of those out.
Thank you!! I seen other videos on this matter. I have been told to use a utility plugin at the end of the effect chain of every channl to set the right level. Now I understand this is wrong.
For me it‘s always these four steps that work perfect without any unwanted clipping or distortion:
1.) Make sure the source signal of every channel is below 0db so no plugin causes distortion in the internal calculations (-6db peak should be fine to avoid fast transients.)
2.) Level match each plugin so you can hear what the plugin is actually doing when bypassing it and the level stays consistent.
3.) Set the fader of the Kick channel so the output level of this channel shows -10db at peak. (This sets a reference point)
4.) Mix everything around that kick. This way the incoming signal level of the master channel will normally go between -4 and -6 db and has enough headroom for the mastering stage.
Nothing else needed. Keeping the incoming level around -6 to -10db has also the advantage that the faders stay in the upper region and can be better finetuned while mixing since the fader scale is logarithmic.
Woooah i did wrong for so long…thank you , it’s very clear about gain staging, the only thing that i don’t like about having a utility volume tool to automate is that it’s not convenient when creating tracks , the faders are so quick access…
thankyou homie. i finally feel like i understand this properly.
I've seen so much conflicting advice about gain staging in the digital world but this all makes sense to me. Going to be trying this on my current project. Thanks!
Great to hear that! This is exactly why I made this video. Let me know if you run into any follow-up questions.
@@pickyourselfofficial actually I do have a question. I tend to use busses for drums, synths, pads, vocals and FX. Do I set those to zero at first too? Many thanks.
@@thestoicscientist yes, this applies to all channels in your project. And to be honest, once you gain experience you don't have to be super strict anymore about all of that. But I find it helps producers who aren't getting consistent results yet in their mixes and masters. Just establish a few good habits, but don't be too religious about them either.
@@pickyourselfofficial cool, thanks again!
Using the utility plug in..yes yes.
I did like that you suggested gain staging starting with the faders at unity and adjust the source. I had another instructor say that your faders should be between -6dB to -12dB, but then I had an issue with one of my projects where the track was still hot and I couldn't figure it out until someone else suggested looking at the source of the sound and start there. It just makes sense that you should always be starting with your source.
Exactly! :)
This is an excellent tutorial and technique on gain staging. If I could afford all the expensive plugins it may be useful for me. I will just have to utilize the plugins I have in my DAW to accomplish this if I can.
Thanks so much for the great feedback! Don’t worry about the plugins. They are not your bottleneck at all. Remember, I offer mixing and mastering as a service and so I have to be on top of everything that’s available. But the only thing that makes 95% of a difference is ears + skill. Your DAW plugins are great in most cases. It used to be different a few years ago but the developers have really improved a lot on the stock tools.
brilliant vid as always. I'm going to implement the faders at unity level in the next project and actually mix them later in the process
For now I was only mixing volumes and doing balance in the other Ableton's Tab;/ arrangement & songwriting mode
Also worked with -3dB in audio sources, I will start going down to -6 ; and for sending premaster before mastering or for using myself after I'll learn to do a good sounding master for testing and sharing, master level should be -6dB on top of that , is this right information? mastering a premaster export of the mix on -6dB or should I master the bus inside the project after I'm done mixing? which approach would you recommend ?
GG!
Great to see how plugins can benefit from lower signals, because the DAW makers often tell you proudly that nothing can clip inside because of using floating point values everywhere until the final master out conversion.
Good point! In a way, they’re correct. But they’re also leaving out some significant nuance to that statement. Thanks for sharing your thoughts! 💯🙌🏻
Excellent explanation !
A question though.
After the gain staging, with faders at unity, as shown in the video, all meters are peaking between -12 and -6.Fine.
However at that point the song doesn't sound very nice, because some tracks are too loud in comparison with the others.
This is, as you seem to indicate, because no mix balancing using the faders has been done (you mention at the end of the video that you only try do this at the very end, just before mixing)
But then how do you get to produce a song in a decent way ?
I mean, if everything is gain staged, but you're still in the production phase (adding/removing tracks, adding/remove devices, changing instruments and sounds, ...) then how can you tell for example whether something sounds fine together ? Some tracks are way to loud relatively to the other, so you can't decently hear and judge those other tracks, because the sound on a track burries the sound of some or more other tracks ?
Given you are indicating that you only touch the faders at the end of the production phase, just before mixing, then how do you do this ?
Do you level everything out with the Utility plugin at the end of the device chain of each track, so that the track sound in balance relatively to each other ?
I'm really confused with regards to that. Can you clarify a bit ?
Kind regards
keep making content. you deserve views
This comment means a lot, thank you!
first of all, I think it is one of the most informative videos about gain staging. How does it sound to you if you do the following in your mix: You complete your mix without actually setting a limit of -6 to -12 on the sound source (we just kept the same level of intensity in the effects rack ,dynamics etc )At the end of the mix you set all the faders to unity gain and with a utility now you set the volume . For example , if in the channel of kick we had set the fader to -7.8 so that it would peak at -12dbfs, at the end of the mix since we have already placed this fader to unity gain and now with "utility"turn left to -7.8 .So the fader now is in untity gain but now we can do more careful actions in every channel, since the more you reduce the fader, the more drastic changes we would have because of the logarithmic increase.
This was great. Explains why my masters keep clipping. I was following the wrong advise for years and now I know what to change. I was gain staging to 0db with faders at infinity. I should have been having them at -12 to -6 db. And i was doing this before adding effects and stuff. yes Im an ameture and learning, but now my mixes and masters will sound much better and less mud. Thank you very much.
Thank you, I’m so happy to read that you got instant results! That’s the best feedback I could wish for 💯🙌🏻
Thanks for this guide! It helps me a lot!
Do you have a guide on how to properly use that limiter? Or could you please consider making that? Thanks in advance!
Great idea! Will put it on the list :)
awesome!! appreciate it! @@pickyourselfofficial
Great video! When you say this mix is far from perfect, what exactly do you mean? I feel like people often say that but never show a "perfect" mix. Is it still missing sounds in certain frequency bands or do you mean it's not fine-tuned perfectly?
Wow, your channel is awesome bro. You are making it so much simplier to understand. But im wondering why ppl say to compensate the gain reduction, and give more output, what is that all about? how do i do that correctly if that is what im supposed to do? Thanks again man, you are awesome.
Thanks, that means a lot! To your question: if a compressor for example reduces the gain 3dB, you add 3dB at the output gain stage of that compressor (often called make up gain). You don’t have to be super precise but it’s helpful to keep it in the ballpark of what you’ve taken away. I hope that helps!
yeah they are probably telling you to match the volume after the plugin to whatever the volume was before the plugin. That is the best way to A/B a plugin and hear what it is actually doing to the sound. Our ears are easily fooled by volume so if the volume is lower after the plugin then we will think the change we made was bad... if the volume is higher after the plugin we will think the change was good. Only way to really know is to match the levels of the before & after :)
@@user-bo8ex4ji7n the big issue always is that it introduces friction and takes you out of flow state. So with more experience, you need less “perfect” gain staging.
Damn. Thank you! Why does everyone else overcomplicate or oversimplify this? Again, thank you.
That’s what I asked myself as well and why I even decided to make that video, haha. Thank you!
@@pickyourselfofficial The "telephone game" effect maybe? Whatever. Just glad you made this and I found it! If this is how you normally break it down, I'ma sub for life! Thanks again!
Great video! Interesting approach!
See at 09:34 you say about hitting -12dBFS to -6dBFS - but at 20:00 the "LEAD" channel is hitting around -4.8. So would you decrease that lead more, or is that also fine?
Thank you! Great question. Here, it's important to look at the meters and where the thick green lines are located. This shows you the RMS values and not only the peaks. Both are important, of course. The -6 to -12dB recommendation is rust a rough ballpark.
Thanks Phillip, really useful video. I think I mix as I go, is there anything wrong with that? Or is it better to wait until the end and go through all gain staging checks then mixing?
There are pros and cons to both approaches. I’ve made this video that sums up my point of view: Why I Never Mix While Producing (And What To Do Instead)
th-cam.com/video/iTpdZfY7i5g/w-d-xo.html
Let me know if it resonates with you :)
@@pickyourselfofficial Thanks, that's helpful. So I guess the pro's and con's depend on if you're happy with your sound design/composition etc already or not. Good tips to bear in mind.
Broooo thank you so much, this is sooo good, just Did it with my recent session. It's soo much cleaner, thanks.
Is there a video about how I go from mixing to mastering like about the gain lvls, do I mix with master 0db, convert to wav and master then with -6db. Or do I mix with a master on -6db wav it and ?aster then with master 0db?
I use Vital and like Serum, it comes in hot!! I am new to mixing and mastering and this is the first vid I've seen that tells you to adjust the gain at the source. Thanks for that tip! Quick question, what do you want your gain level (peak level) in the master to be before the mastering process?
Great question! Most resources will tell you “-6dB”. But that’s a myth, there’s no reason for that specific peak level. Especially if the music is very dynamic and only has a few peaks at that level and most of the music is far below it. So in a nutshell: everything below 0dBFs is fine, and in the days of 32bit float processing you can theoretically also handle higher peaks. That being said, I would go for peaks a bit below that (between -6 and -1dBFs) and keep proper gain staging in the mastering chain so you don’t mess it up in the last step. As always, don’t be religious about it and try to listen critically and make a judgment based on what you hear :) I hope that helps!
@@pickyourselfofficial that helps. I've seen hundreds of vid in the past 8 months so right now I am trying to sort thru the bad advice and absorb the good. I'm producing future bass so I've heard totally different ways to mix bass and kick sounds.
Hey Philip, thanks for all the amazing advice in your videos! Just wondering, you mention that there are many problematic TH-cam tutorials out there. Could you recommend other TH-cam channels that you believe are giving good advice/tutorials? :)
Yeah I’m actually planning a video about lesser-known channels that are worth checking out. No exact date when it’s gonna happen but it’s on my content list for sure :)
@@pickyourselfofficial Amazing, looking forward to it! Thanks :)
Great shit brotheirn.. It's kind of ironic cuz i just finished a mix of my track and everything was so low that I had to crank my speakers up hella to get it to bump, I just tried your method and now it's much more balanced and sounds better too. What's interesting to me though is the gain utility plugin being used in the end of your chain. I've seen some bad dudes on TH-cam use that as the first thing in their signal flow, regardless though, the part that's making me trip balls is the automation concept with utility gain and then faders for leveling. Maybe it's cuz I fried my brain from too much bud and don't really understand the difference but is there really a difference with using volume automation instead cuz that's what I've always done braw? Maybe I'm not fully understanding the difference between a fader that's for leveling and a utility gain or some shit.. 🤔 Thanks broseph!
Great to hear that, super cool that you got results from the method right away! The utility thing has the following advantage: you can automate the volume of a track and go with the “feel” of the energy curve, using the utility gain. But then, in the final stages of mixing you might find that this track needs a couple of dB overall. So instead of having to move the whole automation lane, you have the channel fader as a final means of level control. So the automation stays the same, but you can easily add or subtract a couple of dBs. I hope that answers your question!
@@pickyourselfofficial Fuck yeah braw, thanks for responding.. Last question: My master fader is now hitting around -12db and it seems like the consensus online is that you want it around -6db or so when you send it to a mastering engineer, sometimes even -3db. Can I just use a uitility gain on the master track to push it up to -6db or so?? Thanks braw!
“the closer you are to the source, the better” ok go ahead mr trapstar 😎
🤘🏻💯
Great video!! What level do you look for on the master buss? Just try not to clip? Little side note…the Saturator preset “A Bit Warmer” is a 1-1 emulation of the Sonnox Inflator. Idk if it was intentional but they Null during testing. There’s a few videos on here if you’re wondering.
Thanks! Everything below 0dBFs is fine. Too quiet is not ideal, so I’d say a healthy mix peaks somewhere between -12 and 0dBfs in most parts. The strict “you have to submit a pre master at -6dB” requirement is absolute nonsense from a technical standpoint.
@@pickyourselfofficial Awesome to keep in mind! I just mixed a 3 track e.p. for a client and I started at -10db on the kick, and by the time I got done bringing everything in I was floating at that -3db to 0db area. This was also on an indie fusion rock track, where the drums were done in midi than converted to audio, the synths were played with a midi keyboard, and than live guitars and vox. So quite a bit of dynamics.
Do you use Clippers at any stage of your mixing? If so, I feel that explaining how you use them, might pair well with this video.
@@travesdymusic ahhh nice, perfect! Yeah clippers are interesting. It’s a hot topic right now but so many producers are using them in ways that make things worse instead of better. So yes, I guess I definitely need to make a video on how to use clipping properly. In my mixes and masters, they do play a role but they’re as transparent as it gets (unless I use them for intentional saturation on kicks, snares, claps, etc.). But in most cases, I use them so that you don’t notice them but still get some extra headroom.
@@pickyourselfofficial BINGO!!! I have to agree that they are being used incorrectly. Excited to see what you come up with!
This is awesome. Admittedly, even though I've got some good quality releases out there (with your help, Philip, haha), I didn't take the time over the years to think thru this carefully and internalize it -- I still make these mistakes most of the time during initial sketches :)
I spent some time playing with levels today through some of my material and the difference in sound is significant!
Question on LUFS. When you are doing your rough master limiting to get things in the right ballpark of loudness, are you gauging based on peak LUFS, an avg, or 'integrated' that some plugins show?
Good to see you here ❤️ Great question! Here’s my workflow: I go to the loudest section of the song. Then I dial in the limiter and look at the short-term LUFS reading on the Fabfilter Pro L2. This gives me a good representation of how loud that section is. Momentary LUFS are too short, integrated LUFS are too heavily influenced by the macrodynamics in the arrangement. So I pick the loudest part and I listen carefully to possible artifacts. Then I check with references (and their loudest section) and dial in whatever amount of limiting feels appropriate. Every song calls for a certain “density” sweet spot. That, to me, feels like a more appropriate concept than loudness. The loudness will be normalized anyway through steaming platforms, but the density remains the same. I hope that helps :)
This totally makes sense when you are explaining it. Thanks❗️
@pickyourselfofficial In regards to LUFS and spotify normalization. I can see in the video that you're aiming to hit around -8 LUFS, 3. Do you prefer to master the track to hit -8 LUFS or at -14LUFS or is there a specific LUFS you prefer. It is concerning because were subject to users turning the normalization on and off and also being able to set it on loud mode at -11 LUFS. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks
@@bumcrackhole1 great question, I’ll do a video on that soon! My opinion: Master to the level of “density” that the track calls for and ignore LUFS values (as long as you’re at least in the +/- 3dB ballpark of other tracks in your genre). There is no perfect target value but one thing is for sure: -14LUFS as defined for streaming services is rarely a good choice for electronic music (unless it’s suuuuper dynamic electronica/ ambient). I hope that helps!
@@pickyourselfofficial thanks for your help, definitely adding your philosophies to my arsenal. Looking forward to the video! All love
Indeed, gain staging is an important topic and your video make sense to me! I have a question: so when we mixed everything and make a rough mastering, for example, using only limiter what volume level should I achieve? On your video I can see -8LUFS but how loud is it in relation to other tracks? Does it depend on the music genre? Can you help me to understand this?
It absolutely depends on the genre. Just try to be in the sweet spot where your track sounds as “dense” as you find useful without distorting or pumping like crazy. Bring in a couple of reference tracks in the same genre and start comparing. Here’s a video I made on that topic: th-cam.com/video/dXgGff9En9E/w-d-xo.htmlsi=XoJRd5l5BrF4e0Ty
Thanks! Early on you say adjust levels at the source - on the samplers, synths, etc. At the end you say 'use Utility'. Any difference? Thanks again
Thanks for another great video. I’m curious what your view is on normalizing audio recordings at the tracking and mixing stages. I often hear that it’s not a good idea to normalize because you then have no headroom left for using plugins. But is there anything wrong with normalizing and then lowering the gain of the audio clip to compensate? When recording guitars and vocals the levels are usually so low you can barely see the waveform, even with input gain set high, so my natural inclination is to normalize
Okay that’s an important one! Normalizing a recording that is way too low is definitely not a great idea. All you do is bring up the noisefloor with the recording. There must be an error in the recording process. I don’t know your exact setup but first I’d simplify the recording chain to the bare minimum to figure out where the gain is lost. All normal mics and interfaces should offer enough gain for modern recordings. If with maximum preamp gain you barely get signal, something is wrong in the setup or the equipment itself. Some mics (like the sm57 and other dynamic mics) come in pretty quiet. If your interface preamp doesn’t offer enough gain, you might want to add a gainbooster like the “cloud lifter” or similar devices.
@@pickyourselfofficial thanks for your reply. I’m using a Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK and RODE NT1A mic with phantom power. To get vocals peaking at -12dB and averaging -20dB I have to have input gain at about 3/4 full. For electric guitars the recorded audio level is even lower despite the high input gain. Aside from that, assuming the recorded audio level is ok, is there anything wrong with normalizing?
@@foxate there’s nothing sonically “new” being introduced by normalization. So in that regard it’s not an issue per se. But for your specific problem it’s not a helpful workaround. The vocal level and preamp setting seems fine to me. With electric guitars you just might want to use a dynamic mic very close to the amp and make sure to open the giant pot on the guitar fully. Hard to tell from afar but I just hope it helps you figure it out ;)
You don't need most of this in digital land; especially if you are using 24-bit and certainly when using 32-bit export. Most DAWs can handle 32-bit float files where clipping occurs at some humongous positive dB value, and not at unity (i.e. 0dB). Your full-scale is more centred around the 0dB if anything, so anything reasonably higher than 0dB is absolutely fine.
As a result, all channels (including the master fader) can simply be lowered down to below 0dB to achieve two things:
1) To export to a 16-bit master
2) To ensure your DAC (from your audio interface to your speakers) can handle the range and hence listen to the mix with no distortion.
When gain staging may matter is on each individual channel's chain. Many plugins have some sort of optimum input level value often documented in the manual. Depending on what each plugin does, you may not want to drive it too hard, regardless. That does depend on the plugin's function and what you are trying to achieve. In your example, you are driving something way too hard inadvertently defeating the object of what you want to acomplish in the first place. This and other similar examples are common sense and must be avoided. Besides that, gain staging is completely pointless nowadays.
Technically all correct ;) but you won’t believe how wrecked people’s sessions are under the hood (plugins driven way to hot, like shown here) and they’re wondering where in the chain the distortion comes from. I’ve seen it way too many times in real client projects and the workflow here is an easy step-by-step system. Don’t forget, many beginners have zero clue of 95% of what you’re writing in this comment. So I believe it’s much smarter to establish good production habits early on. Thanks for contributing, I dig it!
how does it work with grouped tracks?
Excellent presentation, thank you.
I have been doing this since 1961, when we built our own gear from scratch.
I have been gain staging in the traditional manner ever since then and have never believed in this -18 dB nonsense.
Why mix 78 dBs dynamic range when you have 96 dBs dynamic range available ?
It is important to stress that signals typically ADD and for every channel you open, the other line faders have to be pulled back slightly.
Danke schön,
Bill P.
Thanks so much! Yep, your experience just proves the point ;-)
@@pickyourselfofficial You're welcome ! ☺
This was such a good explanation that I now have to adjust my starter template :) A question; if I'm adjusting the levels inside Serum and the master meter inside Serum goes to red while the channel level is only at -18 db. Should I still push the master level inside Serum to get the channel level to at least -12 dB?
Hard to give advice without seeing the synth patch firsthand. My guess is that something inside the synth patch is way off in terms of gain staging.
You can use the exact same workflow from this tutorial but “inside” the synth patch. So check the gain from start (oscillators) step by step until you get to the last effect and ultimately the master out. I hope that helps ;) thanks for the great feedback 🙌🏻💯
@@pickyourselfofficial got it, thanks 🙏🏼
Quick question: if I’ve already freeze and flattened some serum tracks, if I just reduce the clip gain on the now, audio recording, this is NOT truly addressing the problem, is that correct? The correct move would be to pull in the serum track from a previously version of the project, then go into serum and reduce the master gain?
A very good video! Thanks a lot, Philip.
But I personally don't like the idea to save the same volume level after each audio effect. It's very tedious to align the volume many times when you actively sound designing with many plugins. The same volume level isn't mandatory. We just need enough headroom of the input level for every plugin.
Let's assume:
- You have a chain of audio effects A, B, C.
- The volume input level for A has enough headroom.
- The volume input level for B has enough headroom.
- The volume input level for C is too loud.
So you just need to decrease the volume between B, C. There are three methods:
- Decrease the output level of B.
- Decrease the input level of C.
- If your plugins don't have input/output level parameters, you can just decrease the level between them with an Utility Plugin (U). The chain will become A, B, U, C.
In simple words: if the volume level became too loud, just decrease it right in the bus. That's it.
Similary, if the level is too low, you can increase it with an Utility.
Great input! Here's my take on it: whatever decreases friction in the process and INCREASES your ability to make quick decisions is good. So if this workflow does that for you, keep doing it. For everyone who's maybe reading this, I want to point out one detail: The output stages of certain plugins also have a "sound". So just keep that in mind. If you're using a utility, you limit yourself from making active use of that character. It's a detail, nothing more. And probably not relevant for 99% of producers out there ;-)
@@pickyourselfofficial You're right. VST plugins are just black boxes for music producers. Only developers know how every knob works.
BTW I've just compared the sound of a sample without processing and with 10 pairs of utilities (-12db, +12db). And I haven't hear the difference😄. So utility is just a technical way to fix the volume without any character changes
What if we gain staged everything to -12 and want to balance everything with the faders, but if I move the fader of one channel to 0 ( one of the perc elements for example) it’s still too silent?