I honestly feel because of tutorial’s like this one audio quality has gotten much better, especially Independent upcoming artists. I wonder if like 10 years from now music quality will be even better
@@michellew.3691 yes I say this all the time. The best music we have was made when there was still dinosaurs running around 😂 if you can create a good sound and arrange a compelling track, the rest is way easier. Some of the best tracks are 3 intruments and vocals, yet so many producers think you have to have 100 stems or the track isn’t bussin.
@@Bittamin this is so true I'm guilty of this too thinking the more u put in your beats the better it is but that's not true because sometimes less is more and more can turn out to be less.
Thank you Luca. The first gain staging tutorial I’ve watched that talked about the importance of allowing for a change in tonal balance, without blowing off headroom as being the object of the exercise. As simple a shift in focus as that, has made a huge difference for me. Now I get it, totally, as a creative and not not just a technical concept. Grazie infinite!
Time stamp 15:02 "I train myself through the ears". That was the best take away from the Master Luca. As I have heard other prolific engineers say, the visual graphics are great tools that. are aides to supplement our ability but are not to intended to be substitutes for relaying upon your ears. Luca, a humble and sincere thank you for the $$$ million-dollar video. May you get it back exponentially!
I had to watch this twice to really get the depth of what he's saying. Like it's just really filled with value. I think I'm watch this at least 4 to 5 times to get the most out of it. Thank you!
this is the best demonstration of gain staging I have ever come across I have been so confused watching different tutorials on gain staging this has just put everything into perspective for me thank you so much Luca
Nice to see that you're not afraid to show your gratitude for learning from him and also not afraid to show you're still learning. Some people in the industry "know" everything, you know :p
Luca, Reid, mymixlab in general is just a whole different thing.. Guys, your video are always on another level in terms of quality and explanation.. Superb, as always. Un grande grazie a Luca dall’Italia, numero 1. GOAT ❤️🇮🇹
This is great info. I've also been told to achieve loudness in a mix. I've seen engineers setting there kick drum and bass set to LUFs meter around -14 to -12. If doing this, you begin to clip the VU meter at 18. By doing this method you put less stress on the limiter to achieve loudness. How do you achieve loudness when using this method you've described in this tutorial? A follow up video would be awesome.
@@OpenInfomusicSuperb advice!!! I would just add to that and say if you really want your master to stand out it’s essential to add at least 4 instances of of the ELI Distressor and set each one of them to NUKE! 😁
Exactly 0. I know it’s a silly comment but I’ll respond seriously hoping I’ll help someone: master the track only when you are sure by 100% that the mix is finished, first of all eq it(add\cut as much as needed for your idea), then mid side compression, then glue compression to smaller the dynamic range between all if the instruments in the mix, then and lately a limiter. If you think I’m having a mistake pls tell me so I will learn something new😁.
@@ilay829 ok you took the troll too far… but seriously I usually only use 1-1.5 instances of soundgoodizer on each track. Then I’ll take the sum of all of them and divide it by 3 and that’s how many instances I use on the master bus to tie everything together
I remember back in 2021, when I was starting with mixing, in a session of Samplitude Producer. I realized to make a song sound good, turn up EQ freq volume, not the faders. It appears years later, this was right.
In your sonic explorations, how have you navigated the delicate balance between preserving dynamic range and achieving the desired loudness, particularly in genres where saturation and compression are pivotal? Additionally, could you share insights into how the evolution of digital audio technology has influenced your gain staging techniques and your overall mixing philosophy?
Absolutely key concept. What would have been awesome in this video is if you explained why you were compressing and Eqing. It sounds better yes but that would have been great.
That simple part where you select all the tracks and lower to 0 dbvu is the part I was missing. I've been going in circles with individual tracks. This will allow me a consistent starting point. I know it's simple but a major takeaway for me.
Thanks for the tutorial! That's an interesting way of working, I haven't tried it. You have to remember digital audio is not like analogue where you want your signal hot to get the most signal to noise out of the tape. You can safely track instruments -6 DBs or more in digital and not lose anything. Personally when I'm mixing I start with my drums -6 dbs (after I insert and tweak plugins) on the master bus then by the time I've got all my tracks in I'm typically below zero by a few DBs which is fine since I'm going to export a final mix -3 DBs or more so the mastering engineer has some room to master.
Also it IS happening that you distort the next plugin if you don't compensate gains after compression or EQ. Most of the plugin market today is based on emulation of vintage gear which DOES have a internal virtual headroom that you should not hit harder than "X" dbs.
The sweetspot begins with - 18dB it seems to be important to stay consistent during all the mix for the premaster, it becomes more obvious because the input gain is driving the compression for envelope shaping. Not using the faders but the trim fader is a hard lesson, because post faders change the volume in a logarithmic style, not equally it could add confusion. By that moving the post fader in the upper range has not that much gain loss as moving the fader in the lower range. The advantages of a trim fader is a linear gain difference not only because it is driving by input gain the response of a compressor. Maybe next level would be to check how the needle of the VU meter is moving not just binging it to 0 dB for cross channel consistency, a dynamic short intersample movement or it could be dependent on panning. For the dead center gain staging is important because most instruments are usually not that much panned and clash easier together. For LCR basic mixing the sides could use a different VU sweetspot. That's the freedom of stereo mixing. There is a difference between gain staging to bring everything to 0 dB or using gain staging for different instrument groups or genre dependent gain stages. It becomes more clear when using gain staging as an instrument for placing it in front or background, as example a hihat in house music could stay at -18 dB but for other genres where the focus could be more on snares and kickdrums, the hihat could stay in the background by a - 24dB or even - 36dB VU setting. The deeper truth about -18dB could be that kick and snare drum focused music are more in the range of a bass instrument which loudness octave changes within 6 dB (otherwise it becomes unpleasant by digital clipping or on the other side raising the noise floor too much ). Doing the math -18 dB is a jump of 3 octaves of 6dB (because 6*3 = 18) For panning law one octave of 6 dB is dedicated (3 dB for each side)
@@musicdude1540 About loudness consistency - the difference between post and pre fade. Matching gain staging process like on the analog mixing desk becomes possible by VU it is really a gem to use a VU meter because obviously of the pre fader (trim) and the voltage control becomes more apparent. Doing the levels right before compression or limiting is important for dynamics. Even if working with 32 bit files where the dynamic range is greater than 16 bit, clipping still can be possible if not summed in right place however digital clipping is nasty. For that reason if doing things like saturation and clipping oversampling is important because otherwise high frequencies 'bounce of the nyquist limits' and clutter the mix with artifacts. Oversampling upscales the signal to a higher bit sample rate to do the processing. It becomes more apparent with layers and a great channel number. On analog consoles clipping results in more saturation and is even sometimes desireable. Logarithmic contour like available on almost every DAW in the post fader changes the dynamic tuning by larger gain jumps below 6 dB if you so will once you used a lot of compression, doing gain staging with post faders is contraproductive (once you did a lot of toneshaping with compressors it will change the timbres). Because there needs to be a second step by boosting make up gain and the pumping becomes more prominent which is not always desirable. The intensity of gain if turning faders down changing much more faster in larger increments than leaving the faders at unity gain... which has to do with fletcher munson curves (different frequency perception at lower gain levels) Equal gain structure is important in classic music, lovesongs and ballads. Pumping is more important on EDM bass heavy bangers, rock music and so on. However there are any rules do whatever is good for your mix. Similar to things like bringing the whole mix down by -6dB or so for the mastering chain, so it will stay the same by every preset.
@@soundcore183 The only thing i dont understand is which faders are the pre faders in other daws. I use fl studio and then i use the fader outside the desk. So i use the fader of the sound itself (not in the daw itself). I really wonder what the pre fader is compaired to the daw he is using. If you know you can also explain how it works in other daws, maybe i can relate to that then.
@@MeesterGgaming very simple even in fl studio when you open the mixer each point in the fx can be a prefader when inserting a tool device to adjust the gain or you make a prefader out of the main fader which means level changes are applied before the fx chain not as regular after. The regular attenuation which happens after the fx chain is called a post fader. (where the oposing prefader can be seen as an input drive gain). Input gain makes a difference to the response of a compressor very similar to the threshold. If not using a tool every dynamic plugin usually has a control for volume. The difference between volume and gain is relative and absolute value. The main scheme is: prefader (input gain) -> fx slot -> post fader (makeup gain) Analog mixer outside the daw can be routed in both ways as insert or aux however usually you would prefer an a/d conversion at very end because that is kind of a final limiter with a more precision dynamic control otherwise there would be no point in routing. With high quality a/d converters it makes any difference.
@@soundcore183 Thanks a lot for the fast and clear answer! I did used pre fades some times but not enough at it seems. I almost always use volume VSTS in fx slots but that seems not to be pre fading if i understood your explanation correctly? So pre fading is before you hit the FX slots right? For example within the VST were you make the sound or withint the tool device were you open a sample for example right? Thanks a lot for your fast and thorough answer!
I use wlm plus on the master channel and then lowering the faders to reach -20db... But from now I'll use the input gain knob.. Thanks for the video Luca
Awesome video. I’m doing this now but I seem to lose my 808. Trying to figure out how to maintain the loudness of the 808 while keeping it at -18 using the VU meter. Should I gain everything else down?
I know this is a year old, but Yes! What he showed was valuable, but incomplete. If you got a folder of tracks, along with a rough mix from a recording session, then what he did at first is ideal. Your monitoring is set to the dB SPL level you listen at. Your master fader is at Unity. You’d import All tracks as is with channel faders at Unity. Including the Rough mix on a track that ideally Bypasses the master bus and goes straight to the same hardware outs as the Master bus. I’d reverse one of his processes though: Yes select All Tracks, and Yes grab the clip gain or input gain if your DAW has that, if not just add gain plugins to every track and select all of those. But rather than start at Unity and bring the level down, Before You Hit Play, start at infinity and bring the level up. Reaching the same level as he did, but without any unexpected surprises, to your speakers or worse if you’re wearing headphones. Now, where I totally agree with you, is this only helps with the Mixbus and Monitoring. (Oh, and I’d bring that Rough Mix up to the same level, flip the phase, and they should cancel. Flip it back and you should have a perfect match, Before any actual mixing. You can then exclusive solo against it at every step to see how far you’re deviating from the Rough. Other Reference Track work similarly. Before Metric AB of course) As for Gainstaging the individual channels, doing it this way Inherits whatever levels you received and doesn’t Optimize those channels for Your Signal Processing. So for Gainstaging each channel, imagine a DAW with no clip gain functions, the level comes off the waveform and hits the first plugin slot. That first slot on every channel should be a clean Gain Plugin. Then you’d go channel by channel and use a meter to bring them each up to 0VU, Individually. Preparing them for whatever signal processing you’re going to do next. Okay, so to stay with what he was doing, but on a Whole Signal Chain basis, (which is called Level Matching btw. It’s a cousin to Gainstaging, not Gainstaging itself.) You would also add another Clean Gain Plugin to the Last plugin slot of every channel, and input the exact opposite gain of the first. So if you Added 3dB to channel 1, then cut -4.5dB to channel 2 in the first slots, you’d cut -3dB, and add +4.5dB in the last slots If everything is setup correctly, it should sound Identical to before, and still phase cancel with the Rough. You’ve only added and subtracted gain in a linear mathematical way, and just like 2+2=4, 2+(-2)=0. However, InBetween those Input and Output Gain plugins, you are now “Calibrated” for any Digital (which don’t care), Analog (hardware inserts), or Analog Emulation processing in a way that they were designed to be operated. Everything else he showed about Level Matching each plugins inputs and outputs, is spot on. But if you aren’t “Feeding” each processor what they want, then Level Matching becomes concerning yourself more with the processors before and after, rather than getting the most from the one you’re on. It’s also why plugins should All have and input and output gain of their own. (Well at least non-linear plugins). Many only have an output gain for level matching purposes, but with both, then you can easily “Drive” the plugin, to see what it does when you hit it harder, or softer, and then compensate on the output. As every analog engineer knows, the calibration level in the manual isn’t necessarily the level that I want to use, or sounds the best to me. Lastly, manually using level matching plugins like this has a couple of other benefits and controls: You can now use these Input and Output Gains to “Drive” the whole chain! Maybe you went a little overboard on the saturation from 5 plugins in a row, dialing back the Input to the chain may smooth the whole chain out, and then compensate at the end. But also… Having the Last plugin in the chain solves another issue that Often gets conflated with Gainstaging. Fader Resolution. The standard 100mm fader is not linear from top to bottom. (Google Fader Taper) Quickly, the top half is linear and the bottom half is logarithmic. This allows for the top 50mm of finger travel to be extremely precise, and the bottom 50mm to roll off rapidly to infinity. A brilliant design. Typically the 0dB Unity marker is at the 3/4 point, or 75mm from the bottom. Then the signal is Boosted (say 10dB) before the fader, but when the fader is brought to the Unity mark, it is reduced by that amount. So it gives the illusion of having the ability to Boost by 10 or 12dB above Unity. “10dB In Hand”. Again, brilliant. But in the digital realm, this can be arbitrary. Some DAWs let you configure the behavior of the Virtual Faders in their Virtual Mixer, but they all somewhat emulate this analog audio taper behavior. So, in order to have maximum “Fader Resolution”, you want the faders to Start at Unity, giving you 25% above and below of precise linear travel. A mistake made by Many People, is to adjust their actual Gainstaging pre-fader, in order to preserve Fader Resolution. I didn’t hear this mistake regurgitated in this video, to Luca’s credit. This is an understandable mistake (especially for live sound engineers), because if a sound is way too loud in the mix, you grab the fader. But pretty soon you have a bunch of faders in the bottom half of their travel, making it much harder to mix. So you grab the input gain at the top of the board to dial it back, then you can push the faders back up and get control over the mix again. Problem solved. Except you’re now not feeding the signal chain with enough level, and you’re getting into the noise floor, plus just not letting that processor do what it can do. Well back to our DAW with a Gain Plugin at the end of the signal chain, Just Before The Fader. You can just turn That down like a pre-fader trim, and Not be effecting the optimal signal levels of your processing at all. Healthy signals on All channels, and trimmed levels to the faders, still sitting at Unity. And this leads to the next benefit. Before any processing, and after setting up your session, naming, routing, coloring, etc, and then Gainstaging the channels like above, the next thing you’d likely do is a Static Mix. (Which is faders and pans, no processing. Just moving all of the raw ingredients to where the belong on the soundstage.) If you’ve now set all of your input gains to feed processing, and you then grab all the faders and fly through a mix, pushing and pulling everything into place, when you hit stop the Song is now maybe 80% of what it’s going to be, but those faders will be all over the place. You can now however, Transfer ALL of those fader moves over to that Pre-Fader “Trim/Gain” plugin, one-by-one, and reset All of your faders back to Unity. (Then you Could do it all again, in another “Pass” on the Static Mix, fine-tuning what you did before like following a 60-grit sandpaper with a 220+) Mixing is iterative, and pass by pass, you now have the opportunity to periodically transpose your fader adjustments back to that Trim plugin for a reset. To many who are trying to mix as Fast as possible, this will seem like an unnecessary step. And it isn’t strictly necessary. The whole point is that it is sonically neutral. This is purely about workflow, and control. The final place where this workflow is invaluable, is Automation. (Especially if you use a Control Surface, even a single fader.) Having reset all of your faders to Unity, means that your Fingers (even on a mouse) are always starting from their default resting position. I view Mixing as a Performance, one that builds upon all of the other performances. All of the Artists and Musicians’ performances have been captured, you’ve now organized and processed all of that, and reigned in all of their performances to fit together into one piece. That Mix is now Your instrument, and Automation is where You get to breath life and movement back in wherever you feel serves the final piece of music. Having an Automation phase of the mix, that starts with all of the faders reset, is what makes adding that extra step in setup, completely worth while. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, each time you reset your faders, you’re refreshing your mind and perspective as well.
This video was helpful compared to other videos, but you confused me with one thing. Why did you apply SAME gain of -10.3 db on all the strips, should not it be different for all depending on their levels they were recorded at? Help me learn this please: My Understanding: Step. 1: Check each sound strip one by one and make sure each strip stays close to -18 Db. Use "Gain" for it. This step it to create some headroom. Step 2: Once the gain is applied, now we know that we have headroom of -18 dbs. Then we adjust levels up or down for each strip either by applying the effects such as EQ, Compressor, etc. OR by adjusting the volume knobs. Step 3: While doing the step 2, make sure that the overall “Stereo Out” stays close to 0 dbs using UV meter on stereo channel. Each track is adjusted as it sounds good but overall stereo out should be close it zero. So, the goal is that once the mix it done, level should be 0 dbs for the track. Is this correct?
When I watched this some time back I didn’t really understand what it was about. But now I have started using a VU meter it all makes sense. I have found tracks with guitars have a lot of dynamics and there is a big swing on the VU meter. I changed it to peak and set the maximum at about -6 to -5 by altering each wav by soloing each track and that seemed to work out ok. I need to work on reducing the plug-in levels. Big question??? Is the VU meter placed pre fader or post fader on the master channel. By my logic post fader seemed the obvious? Thankyou for your wisdom 😀😀😀
Some people on the internet saying that put the vu meter on every channels and make every elements on the track to hit 0db on every vu meter. And obviously if we play it all together we definitely clip above 0db in the DAW. So I guess the way luca applying would work better because we are dealing only with 1 vu meter which is on the master.
I see the challenge with analog gain-staging, can be complex and time-consuming. In the DAW luckily, the gain-staging can be done with a macro, as fast as one blinks, for one step in the chain. No reading, no setting of value, just a pre-set command. Done... :)
@@shevyjohn9308 It is far different as the level in is far freer in most cases. FabFilter for instance, has no range where the input is to be for their plugins as long as they aren't red.
The problem i see here is that you always work on two different levels: the master and the single channel. After clip gaining all tracks to meet 0db VU on the master channel you have to adjust the gain on each single channel (in solo mode) in order to meet there again the 0db VU (which makes sense, since that's normally the sweet spot for analogue emulating plugins), but this changes the overall loudness of the track (see 13:00). Correcting the gain with the output knob of each plugin in a track's fx chain doesn't make much sense, if there is a next plugin in the chain which again expects 0db VU as input gain. It would be interesting to see how Luca handles e.g. a synth channel which has to be gain staged up by +5db in order to meet the 0db VU on the channel but which then also increases heavily the gain on the master bus.
Edit: This could probably be solved by putting another gain plugin at the end of each channel's fx chain which corrects the initial gain change by the inverted value.
I know this is a year old, but Yes! What he showed was valuable, but incomplete. If you got a folder of tracks, along with a rough mix from a recording session, then what he did at first is ideal. Your monitoring is set to the dB SPL level you listen at. Your master fader is at Unity. You’d import All tracks as is with channel faders at Unity. Including the Rough mix on a track that ideally Bypasses the master bus and goes straight to the same hardware outs as the Master bus. I’d reverse one of his processes though: Yes select All Tracks, and Yes grab the clip gain or input gain if your DAW has that, if not just add gain plugins to every track and select all of those. But rather than start at Unity and bring the level down, Before You Hit Play, start at infinity and bring the level up. Reaching the same level as he did, but without any unexpected surprises, to your speakers or worse if you’re wearing headphones. Now, where I totally agree with you, is this only helps with the Mixbus and Monitoring. (Oh, and I’d bring that Rough Mix up to the same level, flip the phase, and they should cancel. Flip it back and you should have a perfect match, Before any actual mixing. You can then exclusive solo against it at every step to see how far you’re deviating from the Rough. Other Reference Track work similarly. Before Metric AB of course) As for Gainstaging the individual channels, doing it this way Inherits whatever levels you received and doesn’t Optimize those channels for Your Signal Processing. So for Gainstaging each channel, imagine a DAW with no clip gain functions, the level comes off the waveform and hits the first plugin slot. That first slot on every channel should be a clean Gain Plugin. Then you’d go channel by channel and use a meter to bring them each up to 0VU, Individually. Preparing them for whatever signal processing you’re going to do next. Okay, so to stay with what he was doing, but on a Whole Signal Chain basis, (which is called Level Matching btw. It’s a cousin to Gainstaging, not Gainstaging itself.) You would also add another Clean Gain Plugin to the Last plugin slot of every channel, and input the exact opposite gain of the first. So if you Added 3dB to channel 1, then cut -4.5dB to channel 2 in the first slots, you’d cut -3dB, and add +4.5dB in the last slots If everything is setup correctly, it should sound Identical to before, and still phase cancel with the Rough. You’ve only added and subtracted gain in a linear mathematical way, and just like 2+2=4, 2+(-2)=0. However, InBetween those Input and Output Gain plugins, you are now “Calibrated” for any Digital (which don’t care), Analog (hardware inserts), or Analog Emulation processing in a way that they were designed to be operated. Everything else he showed about Level Matching each plugins inputs and outputs, is spot on. But if you aren’t “Feeding” each processor what they want, then Level Matching becomes concerning yourself more with the processors before and after, rather than getting the most from the one you’re on. It’s also why plugins should All have and input and output gain of their own. (Well at least non-linear plugins). Many only have an output gain for level matching purposes, but with both, then you can easily “Drive” the plugin, to see what it does when you hit it harder, or softer, and then compensate on the output. As every analog engineer knows, the calibration level in the manual isn’t necessarily the level that I want to use, or sounds the best to me. Lastly, manually using level matching plugins like this has a couple of other benefits and controls: You can now use these Input and Output Gains to “Drive” the whole chain! Maybe you went a little overboard on the saturation from 5 plugins in a row, dialing back the Input to the chain may smooth the whole chain out, and then compensate at the end. But also… Having the Last plugin in the chain solves another issue that Often gets conflated with Gainstaging. Fader Resolution. The standard 100mm fader is not linear from top to bottom. (Google Fader Taper) Quickly, the top half is linear and the bottom half is logarithmic. This allows for the top 50mm of finger travel to be extremely precise, and the bottom 50mm to roll off rapidly to infinity. A brilliant design. Typically the 0dB Unity marker is at the 3/4 point, or 75mm from the bottom. Then the signal is Boosted (say 10dB) before the fader, but when the fader is brought to the Unity mark, it is reduced by that amount. So it gives the illusion of having the ability to Boost by 10 or 12dB above Unity. “10dB In Hand”. Again, brilliant. But in the digital realm, this can be arbitrary. Some DAWs let you configure the behavior of the Virtual Faders in their Virtual Mixer, but they all somewhat emulate this analog audio taper behavior. So, in order to have maximum “Fader Resolution”, you want the faders to Start at Unity, giving you 25% above and below of precise linear travel. A mistake made by Many People, is to adjust their actual Gainstaging pre-fader, in order to preserve Fader Resolution. I didn’t hear this mistake regurgitated in this video, to Luca’s credit. This is an understandable mistake (especially for live sound engineers), because if a sound is way too loud in the mix, you grab the fader. But pretty soon you have a bunch of faders in the bottom half of their travel, making it much harder to mix. So you grab the input gain at the top of the board to dial it back, then you can push the faders back up and get control over the mix again. Problem solved. Except you’re now not feeding the signal chain with enough level, and you’re getting into the noise floor, plus just not letting that processor do what it can do. Well back to our DAW with a Gain Plugin at the end of the signal chain, Just Before The Fader. You can just turn That down like a pre-fader trim, and Not be effecting the optimal signal levels of your processing at all. Healthy signals on All channels, and trimmed levels to the faders, still sitting at Unity. And this leads to the next benefit. Before any processing, and after setting up your session, naming, routing, coloring, etc, and then Gainstaging the channels like above, the next thing you’d likely do is a Static Mix. (Which is faders and pans, no processing. Just moving all of the raw ingredients to where the belong on the soundstage.) If you’ve now set all of your input gains to feed processing, and you then grab all the faders and fly through a mix, pushing and pulling everything into place, when you hit stop the Song is now maybe 80% of what it’s going to be, but those faders will be all over the place. You can now however, Transfer ALL of those fader moves over to that Pre-Fader “Trim/Gain” plugin, one-by-one, and reset All of your faders back to Unity. (Then you Could do it all again, in another “Pass” on the Static Mix, fine-tuning what you did before like following a 60-grit sandpaper with a 220+) Mixing is iterative, and pass by pass, you now have the opportunity to periodically transpose your fader adjustments back to that Trim plugin for a reset. To many who are trying to mix as Fast as possible, this will seem like an unnecessary step. And it isn’t strictly necessary. The whole point is that it is sonically neutral. This is purely about workflow, and control. The final place where this workflow is invaluable, is Automation. (Especially if you use a Control Surface, even a single fader.) Having reset all of your faders to Unity, means that your Fingers (even on a mouse) are always starting from their default resting position. I view Mixing as a Performance, one that builds upon all of the other performances. All of the Artists and Musicians’ performances have been captured, you’ve now organized and processed all of that, and reigned in all of their performances to fit together into one piece. That Mix is now Your instrument, and Automation is where You get to breath life and movement back in wherever you feel serves the final piece of music. Having an Automation phase of the mix, that starts with all of the faders reset, is what makes adding that extra step in setup, completely worth while. And if you haven’t figured it out yet, each time you reset your faders, you’re refreshing your mind and perspective as well.
What does “3x Grammy engineer” mean? 3x looking at a Grammy? 3x holding and polishing a Grammy? Because it’s probably not winning one. If it is nominated, then add it! 3x Grammy NOMINATED enigineer!
![[🔴LIVE] งานประกาศรางวัล MAYA TV AWARDS 2024 : มายามหาชน](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nwmWYXXVwBY/mqdefault.jpg)
I honestly feel because of tutorial’s like this one audio quality has gotten much better, especially Independent upcoming artists. I wonder if like 10 years from now music quality will be even better
Its a pyramid. Start with the foundation: a good song & you end up with a better end result.
@@michellew.3691 yes I say this all the time. The best music we have was made when there was still dinosaurs running around 😂 if you can create a good sound and arrange a compelling track, the rest is way easier. Some of the best tracks are 3 intruments and vocals, yet so many producers think you have to have 100 stems or the track isn’t bussin.
@@Bittamin this is so true I'm guilty of this too thinking the more u put in your beats the better it is but that's not true because sometimes less is more and more can turn out to be less.
@@Bittamin true the reason is dynamics the more shit you add the more you need to compromise.
AI will takeover and AI will do the mastering for you 😅
Thank you Luca. The first gain staging tutorial I’ve watched that talked about the importance of allowing for a change in tonal balance, without blowing off headroom as being the object of the exercise. As simple a shift in focus as that, has made a huge difference for me. Now I get it, totally, as a creative and not not just a technical concept. Grazie infinite!
Time stamp 15:02 "I train myself through the ears". That was the best take away from the Master Luca. As I have heard other prolific engineers say, the visual graphics are great tools that. are aides to supplement our ability but are not to intended to be substitutes for relaying upon your ears. Luca, a humble and sincere thank you for the $$$ million-dollar video. May you get it back exponentially!
I’ve been doing this since 4 years this is THE best thing you can do
One of the best videos I have seen on modern day gainstaging on a D.A.W. Very clear and to the point. Thank you!
When master speaks , he tend to make everything clear and simple to understand . Super thanks for this video !!
Luca is the GOAT. Thank you for all your kindness and your generosity of sharing exactly what you do instead of being uppity.
I had to watch this twice to really get the depth of what he's saying. Like it's just really filled with value. I think I'm watch this at least 4 to 5 times to get the most out of it. Thank you!
Agree 😂
this is the best demonstration of gain staging I have ever come across I have been so confused watching different tutorials on gain staging this has just put everything into perspective for me thank you so much Luca
thank you for helping our music sound amazing Luca!
Nice to see that you're not afraid to show your gratitude for learning from him and also not afraid to show you're still learning. Some people in the industry "know" everything, you know :p
Please don't make stupid rap songs about rubbing banks and drugs and violence with this gold like information.
This was huge. I've never seen it explained this way. THANK YOU
Luca, Reid, mymixlab in general is just a whole different thing.. Guys, your video are always on another level in terms of quality and explanation.. Superb, as always.
Un grande grazie a Luca dall’Italia, numero 1. GOAT ❤️🇮🇹
just discovered the importance of this step today. Mind: BLOWN. Great vid thank u!
Finalmente una spiegazione sul gain staging fatta come si deve e comprensibile anche da un neofita del mixing
I’m a simple man. I see Luca vid I click.
I've always had an issue with getting consistent levels when mixing and always fighting for headroom. I see why now. Thanks for this video.
MASSIVE VALUE IN THIS ONE WOW!!!
My god the dynamics 11:24 are well preserved!
Never understood gains staging but now I do! Thank you 🙏
Its a great tutorial! Thank you From Brasil.
The best toot for beginners and others !!! Thanks so much my man !!!
I generally watch pro tools videos but I decided to watch this one! Glad I did! Good stuff!!
Grandissimo Luca! È sempre un piacere seguire le tue guide!
Thanks Luca
Sometimes it's hard to be useful. This video is very useful.
This is great info. I've also been told to achieve loudness in a mix. I've seen engineers setting there kick drum and bass set to LUFs meter around -14 to -12. If doing this, you begin to clip the VU meter at 18. By doing this method you put less stress on the limiter to achieve loudness. How do you achieve loudness when using this method you've described in this tutorial? A follow up video would be awesome.
how much soundgoodizer should i use on my master bus?
You need to put reverb and cla vocals on the master!!! I can’t stress this enough but soundgoodizer is only good when used 3x on every track
All of them
@@OpenInfomusicSuperb advice!!! I would just add to that and say if you really want your master to stand out it’s essential to add at least 4 instances of of the ELI Distressor and set each one of them to NUKE! 😁
Exactly 0. I know it’s a silly comment but I’ll respond seriously hoping I’ll help someone: master the track only when you are sure by 100% that the mix is finished, first of all eq it(add\cut as much as needed for your idea), then mid side compression, then glue compression to smaller the dynamic range between all if the instruments in the mix, then and lately a limiter.
If you think I’m having a mistake pls tell me so I will learn something new😁.
@@ilay829 ok you took the troll too far… but seriously I usually only use 1-1.5 instances of soundgoodizer on each track. Then I’ll take the sum of all of them and divide it by 3 and that’s how many instances I use on the master bus to tie everything together
Thanks so much for this super informative tutorial. I'm already hearing a difference in my mixes!!!
no one has ever talked about it like this, so much easier.
I remember back in 2021, when I was starting with mixing, in a session of Samplitude Producer. I realized to make a song sound good, turn up EQ freq volume, not the faders. It appears years later, this was right.
very useful explanation, thanks @ Lot!! ciao mr. Luca
Thank You Mr Luca Pretolesi 🙌🙌🙌🙌Very Helpful Video 🔥🔥🔥🔥.
You guys are changing the Music World for a good future
This was priceless!!! Thank you myMixlab & Luca Pretolesi!🙏 Subscribing was a no brainer! #Student4life #NevertooLate2Learn ✌️😎🇿🇦
Watching from Limpopo.
Luca ..THE BEST OF THE BEST!
Whenever I see your studio setup it’s always changed than the previous one.
Studio tour coming soon 🚀
Really looking forward to this video
In your sonic explorations, how have you navigated the delicate balance between preserving dynamic range and achieving the desired loudness, particularly in genres where saturation and compression are pivotal? Additionally, could you share insights into how the evolution of digital audio technology has influenced your gain staging techniques and your overall mixing philosophy?
This is the best way to start the mixe, thank you Lucas 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
heyyy luca Thank you for this valuable piece of gold (Mel from Louisana )
This was very insightful.... thanks luca
He's one of the first guys that I've seen using some high end headphones in the studio. I could see the Focal Clear from a mile away...
Awesome explanation and Example., I'm subscribing. Thank you so much.
Great tutorial! ;) Thanks for taking the time to show people how it's done!!
SIMPLY AR THE BEST
Thank you for explaining this!
veeeeery useful
Muchas Gracias Luca por enseñar tu manera de trabajar! saludos!!
Thanks, this really helpful. I really appreciate you making this kind of content.
appreciate videos like this thank you
Great explanation! Thanks for this!
Absolutely key concept. What would have been awesome in this video is if you explained why you were compressing and Eqing. It sounds better yes but that would have been great.
fantastic video!!!!!
Super helpful Lucas 🔥
Thank you for this useful video!
🔥
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
That simple part where you select all the tracks and lower to 0 dbvu is the part I was missing. I've been going in circles with individual tracks. This will allow me a consistent starting point. I know it's simple but a major takeaway for me.
Thanks for the tutorial! That's an interesting way of working, I haven't tried it. You have to remember digital audio is not like analogue where you want your signal hot to get the most signal to noise out of the tape. You can safely track instruments -6 DBs or more in digital and not lose anything. Personally when I'm mixing I start with my drums -6 dbs (after I insert and tweak plugins) on the master bus then by the time I've got all my tracks in I'm typically below zero by a few DBs which is fine since I'm going to export a final mix -3 DBs or more so the mastering engineer has some room to master.
Thankyou! very helpful! Subbed!
Clear stuff! 🔥🔥🧡
Thanks big Luca
amazinggg tips
Extremely useful! 🙏
digital boy che ricordi. comunque sei un grande
Thank you! This really helped me!
Also it IS happening that you distort the next plugin if you don't compensate gains after compression or EQ. Most of the plugin market today is based on emulation of vintage gear which DOES have a internal virtual headroom that you should not hit harder than "X" dbs.
Thank you for sharing.
The sweetspot begins with - 18dB it seems to be important to stay consistent during all the mix for the premaster, it becomes more obvious because the input gain is driving the compression for envelope shaping. Not using the faders but the trim fader is a hard lesson, because post faders change the volume in a logarithmic style, not equally it could add confusion. By that moving the post fader in the upper range has not that much gain loss as moving the fader in the lower range.
The advantages of a trim fader is a linear gain difference not only because it is driving by input gain the response of a compressor.
Maybe next level would be to check how the needle of the VU meter is moving not just binging it to 0 dB for cross channel consistency, a dynamic short intersample movement or it could be dependent on panning. For the dead center gain staging is important because most instruments are usually not that much panned and clash easier together. For LCR basic mixing the sides could use a different VU sweetspot. That's the freedom of stereo mixing.
There is a difference between gain staging to bring everything to 0 dB or using gain staging for different instrument groups or genre dependent gain stages. It becomes more clear when using gain staging as an instrument for placing it in front or background, as example a hihat in house music could stay at -18 dB but for other genres where the focus could be more on snares and kickdrums, the hihat could stay in the background by a - 24dB or even - 36dB VU setting.
The deeper truth about -18dB could be that kick and snare drum focused music are more in the range of a bass instrument which loudness octave changes within 6 dB (otherwise it becomes unpleasant by digital clipping or on the other side raising the noise floor too much ). Doing the math -18 dB is a jump of 3 octaves of 6dB (because 6*3 = 18)
For panning law one octave of 6 dB is dedicated (3 dB for each side)
what the fuck is this comment?
@@musicdude1540 About loudness consistency - the difference between post and pre fade. Matching gain staging process like on the analog mixing desk becomes possible by VU it is really a gem to use a VU meter because obviously of the pre fader (trim) and the voltage control becomes more apparent. Doing the levels right before compression or limiting is important for dynamics. Even if working with 32 bit files where the dynamic range is greater than 16 bit, clipping still can be possible if not summed in right place however digital clipping is nasty. For that reason if doing things like saturation and clipping oversampling is important because otherwise high frequencies 'bounce of the nyquist limits' and clutter the mix with artifacts. Oversampling upscales the signal to a higher bit sample rate to do the processing.
It becomes more apparent with layers and a great channel number.
On analog consoles clipping results in more saturation and is even sometimes desireable. Logarithmic contour like available on almost every DAW in the post fader changes the dynamic tuning by larger gain jumps below 6 dB if you so will once you used a lot of compression, doing gain staging with post faders is contraproductive (once you did a lot of toneshaping with compressors it will change the timbres).
Because there needs to be a second step by boosting make up gain and the pumping becomes more prominent which is not always desirable.
The intensity of gain if turning faders down changing much more faster in larger increments than leaving the faders at unity gain... which has to do with fletcher munson curves (different frequency perception at lower gain levels)
Equal gain structure is important in classic music, lovesongs and ballads. Pumping is more important on EDM bass heavy bangers, rock music and so on.
However there are any rules do whatever is good for your mix.
Similar to things like bringing the whole mix down by -6dB or so for the mastering chain, so it will stay the same by every preset.
@@soundcore183 The only thing i dont understand is which faders are the pre faders in other daws.
I use fl studio and then i use the fader outside the desk. So i use the fader of the sound itself (not in the daw itself).
I really wonder what the pre fader is compaired to the daw he is using.
If you know you can also explain how it works in other daws, maybe i can relate to that then.
@@MeesterGgaming very simple even in fl studio when you open the mixer each point in the fx can be a prefader when inserting a tool device to adjust the gain or you make a prefader out of the main fader which means level changes are applied before the fx chain not as regular after. The regular attenuation which happens after the fx chain is called a post fader. (where the oposing prefader can be seen as an input drive gain). Input gain makes a difference to the response of a compressor very similar to the threshold. If not using a tool every dynamic plugin usually has a control for volume. The difference between volume and gain is relative and absolute value.
The main scheme is: prefader (input gain) -> fx slot -> post fader (makeup gain)
Analog mixer outside the daw can be routed in both ways as insert or aux however usually you would prefer an a/d conversion at very end because that is kind of a final limiter with a more precision dynamic control otherwise there would be no point in routing. With high quality a/d converters it makes any difference.
@@soundcore183 Thanks a lot for the fast and clear answer!
I did used pre fades some times but not enough at it seems.
I almost always use volume VSTS in fx slots but that seems not to be pre fading if i understood your explanation correctly? So pre fading is before you hit the FX slots right? For example within the VST were you make the sound or withint the tool device were you open a sample for example right?
Thanks a lot for your fast and thorough answer!
I use wlm plus on the master channel and then lowering the faders to reach -20db... But from now I'll use the input gain knob..
Thanks for the video Luca
Awesome video. I’m doing this now but I seem to lose my 808. Trying to figure out how to maintain the loudness of the 808 while keeping it at -18 using the VU meter. Should I gain everything else down?
Can you please make a video on how you are using the Handsome Audio Zulu in your mixing and mastering setup. Love you videos Luca your the man!!!
I know this is a year old, but Yes!
What he showed was valuable, but incomplete.
If you got a folder of tracks, along with a rough mix from a recording session, then what he did at first is ideal.
Your monitoring is set to the dB SPL level you listen at.
Your master fader is at Unity.
You’d import All tracks as is with channel faders at Unity.
Including the Rough mix on a track that ideally Bypasses the master bus and goes straight to the same hardware outs as the Master bus.
I’d reverse one of his processes though:
Yes select All Tracks, and Yes grab the clip gain or input gain if your DAW has that, if not just add gain plugins to every track and select all of those.
But rather than start at Unity and bring the level down, Before You Hit Play, start at infinity and bring the level up.
Reaching the same level as he did, but without any unexpected surprises, to your speakers or worse if you’re wearing headphones.
Now, where I totally agree with you, is this only helps with the Mixbus and Monitoring.
(Oh, and I’d bring that Rough Mix up to the same level, flip the phase, and they should cancel. Flip it back and you should have a perfect match, Before any actual mixing. You can then exclusive solo against it at every step to see how far you’re deviating from the Rough. Other Reference Track work similarly. Before Metric AB of course)
As for Gainstaging the individual channels, doing it this way Inherits whatever levels you received and doesn’t Optimize those channels for Your Signal Processing.
So for Gainstaging each channel, imagine a DAW with no clip gain functions, the level comes off the waveform and hits the first plugin slot.
That first slot on every channel should be a clean Gain Plugin.
Then you’d go channel by channel and use a meter to bring them each up to 0VU, Individually. Preparing them for whatever signal processing you’re going to do next.
Okay, so to stay with what he was doing, but on a Whole Signal Chain basis, (which is called Level Matching btw. It’s a cousin to Gainstaging, not Gainstaging itself.)
You would also add another Clean Gain Plugin to the Last plugin slot of every channel, and input the exact opposite gain of the first. So if you Added 3dB to channel 1, then cut -4.5dB to channel 2 in the first slots, you’d cut -3dB, and add +4.5dB in the last slots
If everything is setup correctly, it should sound Identical to before, and still phase cancel with the Rough.
You’ve only added and subtracted gain in a linear mathematical way, and just like 2+2=4, 2+(-2)=0.
However, InBetween those Input and Output Gain plugins, you are now “Calibrated” for any Digital (which don’t care), Analog (hardware inserts), or Analog Emulation processing in a way that they were designed to be operated.
Everything else he showed about Level Matching each plugins inputs and outputs, is spot on.
But if you aren’t “Feeding” each processor what they want, then Level Matching becomes concerning yourself more with the processors before and after, rather than getting the most from the one you’re on.
It’s also why plugins should All have and input and output gain of their own. (Well at least non-linear plugins).
Many only have an output gain for level matching purposes, but with both, then you can easily “Drive” the plugin, to see what it does when you hit it harder, or softer, and then compensate on the output.
As every analog engineer knows, the calibration level in the manual isn’t necessarily the level that I want to use, or sounds the best to me.
Lastly, manually using level matching plugins like this has a couple of other benefits and controls:
You can now use these Input and Output Gains to “Drive” the whole chain!
Maybe you went a little overboard on the saturation from 5 plugins in a row, dialing back the Input to the chain may smooth the whole chain out, and then compensate at the end.
But also…
Having the Last plugin in the chain solves another issue that Often gets conflated with Gainstaging.
Fader Resolution.
The standard 100mm fader is not linear from top to bottom. (Google Fader Taper)
Quickly, the top half is linear and the bottom half is logarithmic.
This allows for the top 50mm of finger travel to be extremely precise, and the bottom 50mm to roll off rapidly to infinity.
A brilliant design.
Typically the 0dB Unity marker is at the 3/4 point, or 75mm from the bottom.
Then the signal is Boosted (say 10dB) before the fader, but when the fader is brought to the Unity mark, it is reduced by that amount.
So it gives the illusion of having the ability to Boost by 10 or 12dB above Unity.
“10dB In Hand”.
Again, brilliant.
But in the digital realm, this can be arbitrary. Some DAWs let you configure the behavior of the Virtual Faders in their Virtual Mixer, but they all somewhat emulate this analog audio taper behavior.
So, in order to have maximum “Fader Resolution”, you want the faders to Start at Unity, giving you 25% above and below of precise linear travel.
A mistake made by Many People, is to adjust their actual Gainstaging pre-fader, in order to preserve Fader Resolution.
I didn’t hear this mistake regurgitated in this video, to Luca’s credit.
This is an understandable mistake (especially for live sound engineers), because if a sound is way too loud in the mix, you grab the fader. But pretty soon you have a bunch of faders in the bottom half of their travel, making it much harder to mix. So you grab the input gain at the top of the board to dial it back, then you can push the faders back up and get control over the mix again. Problem solved.
Except you’re now not feeding the signal chain with enough level, and you’re getting into the noise floor, plus just not letting that processor do what it can do.
Well back to our DAW with a Gain Plugin at the end of the signal chain, Just Before The Fader.
You can just turn That down like a pre-fader trim, and Not be effecting the optimal signal levels of your processing at all.
Healthy signals on All channels, and trimmed levels to the faders, still sitting at Unity.
And this leads to the next benefit.
Before any processing, and after setting up your session, naming, routing, coloring, etc, and then Gainstaging the channels like above, the next thing you’d likely do is a Static Mix. (Which is faders and pans, no processing. Just moving all of the raw ingredients to where the belong on the soundstage.)
If you’ve now set all of your input gains to feed processing, and you then grab all the faders and fly through a mix, pushing and pulling everything into place, when you hit stop the Song is now maybe 80% of what it’s going to be, but those faders will be all over the place.
You can now however, Transfer ALL of those fader moves over to that Pre-Fader “Trim/Gain” plugin, one-by-one, and reset All of your faders back to Unity. (Then you Could do it all again, in another “Pass” on the Static Mix, fine-tuning what you did before like following a 60-grit sandpaper with a 220+)
Mixing is iterative, and pass by pass, you now have the opportunity to periodically transpose your fader adjustments back to that Trim plugin for a reset. To many who are trying to mix as Fast as possible, this will seem like an unnecessary step. And it isn’t strictly necessary. The whole point is that it is sonically neutral. This is purely about workflow, and control.
The final place where this workflow is invaluable, is Automation. (Especially if you use a Control Surface, even a single fader.)
Having reset all of your faders to Unity, means that your Fingers (even on a mouse) are always starting from their default resting position.
I view Mixing as a Performance, one that builds upon all of the other performances.
All of the Artists and Musicians’ performances have been captured, you’ve now organized and processed all of that, and reigned in all of their performances to fit together into one piece.
That Mix is now Your instrument, and Automation is where You get to breath life and movement back in wherever you feel serves the final piece of music.
Having an Automation phase of the mix, that starts with all of the faders reset, is what makes adding that extra step in setup, completely worth while.
And if you haven’t figured it out yet, each time you reset your faders, you’re refreshing your mind and perspective as well.
thanks Mr Luca
thank you mate!
its fantastic👏👏👏
Mixing with vu metre gives a good headroom to the mix. Otherwise people end up with a woofy mix level with no headroom at all
awesome tips thank you
Super!!!!!
Super!
Thanks Luca!
This video was helpful compared to other videos, but you confused me with one thing. Why did you apply SAME gain of -10.3 db on all the strips, should not it be different for all depending on their levels they were recorded at? Help me learn this please:
My Understanding:
Step. 1: Check each sound strip one by one and make sure each strip stays close to -18 Db. Use "Gain" for it. This step it to create some headroom.
Step 2: Once the gain is applied, now we know that we have headroom of -18 dbs. Then we adjust levels up or down for each strip either by applying the effects such as EQ, Compressor, etc. OR by adjusting the volume knobs.
Step 3: While doing the step 2, make sure that the overall “Stereo Out” stays close to 0 dbs using UV meter on stereo channel. Each track is adjusted as it sounds good but overall stereo out should be close it zero.
So, the goal is that once the mix it done, level should be 0 dbs for the track.
Is this correct?
This helped a lot
9:55 - That is how a multi Grammy award winner pulls compression settings in a few seconds.
Why compress the kick? Aren't most kicks already compressed?
Grazie mille!
When I watched this some time back I didn’t really understand what it was about. But now I have started using a VU meter it all makes sense. I have found tracks with guitars have a lot of dynamics and there is a big swing on the VU meter. I
changed it to peak and set the maximum at about -6 to -5 by altering each wav by soloing each track and that seemed to work out ok. I need to work on reducing the plug-in levels.
Big question??? Is the VU meter placed pre fader or post fader on the master channel. By my logic post fader seemed the obvious?
Thankyou for your wisdom 😀😀😀
To the point! Thanks!
Some people on the internet saying that put the vu meter on every channels and make every elements on the track to hit 0db on every vu meter.
And obviously if we play it all together we definitely clip above 0db in the DAW.
So I guess the way luca applying would work better because we are dealing only with 1 vu meter which is on the master.
Vey Very Nice
I see the challenge with analog gain-staging, can be complex and time-consuming. In the DAW luckily, the gain-staging can be done with a macro, as fast as one blinks, for one step in the chain. No reading, no setting of value, just a pre-set command. Done... :)
Hardware no different same thing and very easy its quicker to get that finish sound with less plugins
@@shevyjohn9308 It is far different as the level in is far freer in most cases. FabFilter for instance, has no range where the input is to be for their plugins as long as they aren't red.
Wow, nice ❤️
Thanks Luca, do you know a useful way to lower the profit on Ableton?
Magia en el mix
The problem i see here is that you always work on two different levels: the master and the single channel.
After clip gaining all tracks to meet 0db VU on the master channel you have to adjust the gain on each single channel (in solo mode) in order to meet there again the 0db VU (which makes sense, since that's normally the sweet spot for analogue emulating plugins), but this changes the overall loudness of the track (see 13:00).
Correcting the gain with the output knob of each plugin in a track's fx chain doesn't make much sense, if there is a next plugin in the chain which again expects 0db VU as input gain.
It would be interesting to see how Luca handles e.g. a synth channel which has to be gain staged up by +5db in order to meet the 0db VU on the channel but which then also increases heavily the gain on the master bus.
Edit: This could probably be solved by putting another gain plugin at the end of each channel's fx chain which corrects the initial gain change by the inverted value.
I know this is a year old, but Yes!
What he showed was valuable, but incomplete.
If you got a folder of tracks, along with a rough mix from a recording session, then what he did at first is ideal.
Your monitoring is set to the dB SPL level you listen at.
Your master fader is at Unity.
You’d import All tracks as is with channel faders at Unity.
Including the Rough mix on a track that ideally Bypasses the master bus and goes straight to the same hardware outs as the Master bus.
I’d reverse one of his processes though:
Yes select All Tracks, and Yes grab the clip gain or input gain if your DAW has that, if not just add gain plugins to every track and select all of those.
But rather than start at Unity and bring the level down, Before You Hit Play, start at infinity and bring the level up.
Reaching the same level as he did, but without any unexpected surprises, to your speakers or worse if you’re wearing headphones.
Now, where I totally agree with you, is this only helps with the Mixbus and Monitoring.
(Oh, and I’d bring that Rough Mix up to the same level, flip the phase, and they should cancel. Flip it back and you should have a perfect match, Before any actual mixing. You can then exclusive solo against it at every step to see how far you’re deviating from the Rough. Other Reference Track work similarly. Before Metric AB of course)
As for Gainstaging the individual channels, doing it this way Inherits whatever levels you received and doesn’t Optimize those channels for Your Signal Processing.
So for Gainstaging each channel, imagine a DAW with no clip gain functions, the level comes off the waveform and hits the first plugin slot.
That first slot on every channel should be a clean Gain Plugin.
Then you’d go channel by channel and use a meter to bring them each up to 0VU, Individually. Preparing them for whatever signal processing you’re going to do next.
Okay, so to stay with what he was doing, but on a Whole Signal Chain basis, (which is called Level Matching btw. It’s a cousin to Gainstaging, not Gainstaging itself.)
You would also add another Clean Gain Plugin to the Last plugin slot of every channel, and input the exact opposite gain of the first. So if you Added 3dB to channel 1, then cut -4.5dB to channel 2 in the first slots, you’d cut -3dB, and add +4.5dB in the last slots
If everything is setup correctly, it should sound Identical to before, and still phase cancel with the Rough.
You’ve only added and subtracted gain in a linear mathematical way, and just like 2+2=4, 2+(-2)=0.
However, InBetween those Input and Output Gain plugins, you are now “Calibrated” for any Digital (which don’t care), Analog (hardware inserts), or Analog Emulation processing in a way that they were designed to be operated.
Everything else he showed about Level Matching each plugins inputs and outputs, is spot on.
But if you aren’t “Feeding” each processor what they want, then Level Matching becomes concerning yourself more with the processors before and after, rather than getting the most from the one you’re on.
It’s also why plugins should All have and input and output gain of their own. (Well at least non-linear plugins).
Many only have an output gain for level matching purposes, but with both, then you can easily “Drive” the plugin, to see what it does when you hit it harder, or softer, and then compensate on the output.
As every analog engineer knows, the calibration level in the manual isn’t necessarily the level that I want to use, or sounds the best to me.
Lastly, manually using level matching plugins like this has a couple of other benefits and controls:
You can now use these Input and Output Gains to “Drive” the whole chain!
Maybe you went a little overboard on the saturation from 5 plugins in a row, dialing back the Input to the chain may smooth the whole chain out, and then compensate at the end.
But also…
Having the Last plugin in the chain solves another issue that Often gets conflated with Gainstaging.
Fader Resolution.
The standard 100mm fader is not linear from top to bottom. (Google Fader Taper)
Quickly, the top half is linear and the bottom half is logarithmic.
This allows for the top 50mm of finger travel to be extremely precise, and the bottom 50mm to roll off rapidly to infinity.
A brilliant design.
Typically the 0dB Unity marker is at the 3/4 point, or 75mm from the bottom.
Then the signal is Boosted (say 10dB) before the fader, but when the fader is brought to the Unity mark, it is reduced by that amount.
So it gives the illusion of having the ability to Boost by 10 or 12dB above Unity.
“10dB In Hand”.
Again, brilliant.
But in the digital realm, this can be arbitrary. Some DAWs let you configure the behavior of the Virtual Faders in their Virtual Mixer, but they all somewhat emulate this analog audio taper behavior.
So, in order to have maximum “Fader Resolution”, you want the faders to Start at Unity, giving you 25% above and below of precise linear travel.
A mistake made by Many People, is to adjust their actual Gainstaging pre-fader, in order to preserve Fader Resolution.
I didn’t hear this mistake regurgitated in this video, to Luca’s credit.
This is an understandable mistake (especially for live sound engineers), because if a sound is way too loud in the mix, you grab the fader. But pretty soon you have a bunch of faders in the bottom half of their travel, making it much harder to mix. So you grab the input gain at the top of the board to dial it back, then you can push the faders back up and get control over the mix again. Problem solved.
Except you’re now not feeding the signal chain with enough level, and you’re getting into the noise floor, plus just not letting that processor do what it can do.
Well back to our DAW with a Gain Plugin at the end of the signal chain, Just Before The Fader.
You can just turn That down like a pre-fader trim, and Not be effecting the optimal signal levels of your processing at all.
Healthy signals on All channels, and trimmed levels to the faders, still sitting at Unity.
And this leads to the next benefit.
Before any processing, and after setting up your session, naming, routing, coloring, etc, and then Gainstaging the channels like above, the next thing you’d likely do is a Static Mix. (Which is faders and pans, no processing. Just moving all of the raw ingredients to where the belong on the soundstage.)
If you’ve now set all of your input gains to feed processing, and you then grab all the faders and fly through a mix, pushing and pulling everything into place, when you hit stop the Song is now maybe 80% of what it’s going to be, but those faders will be all over the place.
You can now however, Transfer ALL of those fader moves over to that Pre-Fader “Trim/Gain” plugin, one-by-one, and reset All of your faders back to Unity. (Then you Could do it all again, in another “Pass” on the Static Mix, fine-tuning what you did before like following a 60-grit sandpaper with a 220+)
Mixing is iterative, and pass by pass, you now have the opportunity to periodically transpose your fader adjustments back to that Trim plugin for a reset. To many who are trying to mix as Fast as possible, this will seem like an unnecessary step. And it isn’t strictly necessary. The whole point is that it is sonically neutral. This is purely about workflow, and control.
The final place where this workflow is invaluable, is Automation. (Especially if you use a Control Surface, even a single fader.)
Having reset all of your faders to Unity, means that your Fingers (even on a mouse) are always starting from their default resting position.
I view Mixing as a Performance, one that builds upon all of the other performances.
All of the Artists and Musicians’ performances have been captured, you’ve now organized and processed all of that, and reigned in all of their performances to fit together into one piece.
That Mix is now Your instrument, and Automation is where You get to breath life and movement back in wherever you feel serves the final piece of music.
Having an Automation phase of the mix, that starts with all of the faders reset, is what makes adding that extra step in setup, completely worth while.
And if you haven’t figured it out yet, each time you reset your faders, you’re refreshing your mind and perspective as well.
Just Thank's
muchas gracias
Beast😀
What does “3x Grammy engineer” mean?
3x looking at a Grammy? 3x holding and polishing a Grammy? Because it’s probably not winning one.
If it is nominated, then add it! 3x Grammy NOMINATED enigineer!
how in Pro Tools make gain staging? i not found this
volume knobs ??? help
Super