@@Gang-25jpretty aggressive comment. Who cares if he’s been mixing 20 years or 11 hours as you put. Everyone is on here to learn and have different opinions and there is no right or wrong when it comes to producing tasteful music.
I make Industrial Hardcore but your channel is one of the best I've seen in TH-cam. No bullshit. No keeping "secrets". Always willing to help. Well done mate.
This is awesome. Thanks for this video! I'm going over my tracks starting with vocals. Running a VU at the start of the chain allows you to gain stage your vocals or other tracks to make sure they are hitting about 0 (-18) but as you add plugins, that will change. I've been splitting up tracks when various wider dynamics occur and use the gain knob on each wav section (in reaper) and pull them up or down to set these levels watching the VU. Then after each plugin I make sure it's hitting the same level at 0 (-18). I'm using the outputs of the plugins to set this though instead of the trim on the Klanghelm, unless there's no way to change the gain on a plugin, then I'm using a volume plugin instead. After it's all set up I mix with faders.
I just put a vu meter on the master.. make sure its hitting 0 before I add the plugin then use the output level on the plugin to get it back to 0 after adding my desired effect. After that I just enable and disable it afterwards to check the loudness by ear and check if the sound is still clean or if my effect needs some tweaking.. not quite the same but it works for me right now
Streaky how and where you find marked that " some vst have a sweet spot vu action"? Since they have full digital scales or other vu tyoe scales? You made me confused!
When I use this method, sometimes high transient instruments like my snares, sound incredibly loud, but on the VU meter, they are no where near the -18 calibration or 0 on the VU, does this mean I have to turn them up, or are they already good at that level?
Are you using one shot samples or are you recording a drum set? If you're using samples, depending on where you got them, chances are they are already processed well, so the volume fader is your best friend. You can always shelf down the highs to make it sit in the mix better
@@Alej_915 he or she was asking if they age gain staging the right way..doesn’t matter if it was processed good or not as you should still gain stage anyway
@@Gang-25j I agree, but if its a sample thats already processed the peaks should be managed, and what i was trying to emphasize was the volume is your best friend before any additional processing. I get what you're saying though, if you're going to process at all you should be checking your gain at all times
I dont know if I am right but its to reduce plugin overload. When you have plugin in overload it creates white noise that gets very loud at the end of a mix. I think its more apparent wth analoge plugins that saturate and impart color etc. Like the noise floor gets to high. But hitting that sweet spot keeps the levels down to w minimum so at the end of a mix after theres been 100s of plugins slapped on, and you master to make the mix loud, the noise floor stays low and theres no distasteful white noise.
I’m pretty new to mixing but I believe the goal when running a track through plugins is to improve the sound in some way and increase perceived loudness without actually raising the level much or at all. That way you can get a nice loud mix without clipping or pushing into your limiter too hard at the end
Sometimes i use on hit hat, but it seems the signal is VERY low, and I cant reach the 0, I don't know how to solve or calibrate the thing 🤔 With others intruments work perfectly
You put one before everything else so you can monitor the audio going thru your plugins, and the one after everything with monitor the audio while you’re processing it like using eq etc
@@GrisibagageSnnaa-qz6zwbro the clip gain is the option to reduce the gain of your clip before it hits the mix fader. For example, you find a instrumental on TH-cam and download it, the beat will for sure be almost clipping above 0.0db, if you just bring the fader volume down you will still be clipping. so you need to bring the gain down. The trim plugin is also Pre-fader before the fader, and is used to reduce the gain too. What i was told is that there's no big dif between both, just that you should use the trim plugin for the overall gain staging and use the native DAW clip gain to make some automation.
I think you wanted to say "calibrated them to -18 dbfs"...not "-18 VU"...It's right? Excuse me, I'm only trying to understand... Thank you for your suggest! 🙂
@@Guitman73 you’re right. It should be 0VU. The meter dictates that 0VU=-18DBFS but that isn’t cancelling out peaks so you may get a higher reading on your DAW’s dbfs meter. Dbfs meters are good for peaks and VU meters are good for average loudness.
-18 dbfs to 0dbvu RMS is generally a designated calibration value for analog to digital converters and plugin emulations. It’s not always the case because sometimes -20 and -12 (if I remember correctly) can be used. But out of all -18 is a more common one and in my experience it’s a very good sweet spot
So very wrong! almost all DAWs have 64bit floating headroom on all faders except the master. You have to know what you are talking about if you are going to give advice.
@@jeffgoh4934 Wrong again. A plug in does not have a sound input in the old traditional way you think. You get to look at them all more like a long stream of text that goes in. The plug-in itself does not care if the value 33 or 133 enters the plug-in as long as it works correctly in the respective DAW's environment. Check e.g. in Logic. You can raise the volume by 10 times within the plug-in without the fader going red. Logic shows that you are high with orange color bec is no distortion. They don't exist. Try it and you'll see. It's next to impossible to get 64Bit floating plugs to distort on all faders except master. Test yourself before you oppose this!
@@jeffgoh4934 glad you stopped commenting because the dude who made the comment that started this is definitely painting half a picture, the two dummies that like his half ass comment is just as lost as he is
You should make a longer video on this with examples in a full track, hard to follow in short form
Gain staging, is the #1 way to make your mix sound so much better. I find, but there is other ways too im sure
It’s not just about making your mix sound good, did you literally just start mixing 11 hrs ago?
@@Gang-25jpretty aggressive comment. Who cares if he’s been mixing 20 years or 11 hours as you put. Everyone is on here to learn and have different opinions and there is no right or wrong when it comes to producing tasteful music.
Yeah chill bro lol. It's not that serious @@Gang-25j
I make Industrial Hardcore but your channel is one of the best I've seen in TH-cam. No bullshit. No keeping "secrets". Always willing to help. Well done mate.
This is awesome. Thanks for this video! I'm going over my tracks starting with vocals. Running a VU at the start of the chain allows you to gain stage your vocals or other tracks to make sure they are hitting about 0 (-18) but as you add plugins, that will change. I've been splitting up tracks when various wider dynamics occur and use the gain knob on each wav section (in reaper) and pull them up or down to set these levels watching the VU. Then after each plugin I make sure it's hitting the same level at 0 (-18). I'm using the outputs of the plugins to set this though instead of the trim on the Klanghelm, unless there's no way to change the gain on a plugin, then I'm using a volume plugin instead. After it's all set up I mix with faders.
Soooo you’re basically doing what everyone else is doing..welcome to the club 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
I just put a vu meter on the master.. make sure its hitting 0 before I add the plugin then use the output level on the plugin to get it back to 0 after adding my desired effect. After that I just enable and disable it afterwards to check the loudness by ear and check if the sound is still clean or if my effect needs some tweaking.. not quite the same but it works for me right now
thanks
Thank you Sonnimus!
Thanks 🙏🏼
Streaky how and where you find marked that " some vst have a sweet spot vu action"? Since they have full digital scales or other vu tyoe scales? You made me confused!
Great Explanation! It don't work for me, if vu meter set at - 18 dB it goes above unity gain into distortion and that's for VST's. Any advice?
this only look for rms audio not peak so you gotta gain stage to peak also
When I use this method, sometimes high transient instruments like my snares, sound incredibly loud, but on the VU meter, they are no where near the -18 calibration or 0 on the VU, does this mean I have to turn them up, or are they already good at that level?
It's best to adjust for high transient sources. That is covered in the Elysia gainstaging white paper if that helps
Are you using one shot samples or are you recording a drum set? If you're using samples, depending on where you got them, chances are they are already processed well, so the volume fader is your best friend. You can always shelf down the highs to make it sit in the mix better
@@Alej_915 Thank you for clarifying, much appreciated 👍
@@Alej_915 he or she was asking if they age gain staging the right way..doesn’t matter if it was processed good or not as you should still gain stage anyway
@@Gang-25j I agree, but if its a sample thats already processed the peaks should be managed, and what i was trying to emphasize was the volume is your best friend before any additional processing. I get what you're saying though, if you're going to process at all you should be checking your gain at all times
Why does it need to be hitting 0db on the meter before the plug-in AND after the plug in
I dont know if I am right but its to reduce plugin overload. When you have plugin in overload it creates white noise that gets very loud at the end of a mix. I think its more apparent wth analoge plugins that saturate and impart color etc. Like the noise floor gets to high. But hitting that sweet spot keeps the levels down to w minimum so at the end of a mix after theres been 100s of plugins slapped on, and you master to make the mix loud, the noise floor stays low and theres no distasteful white noise.
@@cholkymilkmirage4984 thank you love
@@cholkymilkmirage4984noise floor is only a problem when recording thru a mic or keyboards thru your inputs
I’m pretty new to mixing but I believe the goal when running a track through plugins is to improve the sound in some way and increase perceived loudness without actually raising the level much or at all. That way you can get a nice loud mix without clipping or pushing into your limiter too hard at the end
To avoid clipping,unpleasant sound that distorts a signal.
Is this free? Yeah im tired of one song being quiet on loud but all the same mixing stuff
Sometimes i use on hit hat, but it seems the signal is VERY low, and I cant reach the 0, I don't know how to solve or calibrate the thing 🤔 With others intruments work perfectly
Peak normalize to -12
@@Gang-25j I'll try it, thank you! 😎🙏🏼
Why before the plugin? If I have a synth going into an Eq. Do I put the VU the between the two? And then one after the EQ?
You put one before everything else so you can monitor the audio going thru your plugins, and the one after everything with monitor the audio while you’re processing it like using eq etc
So if it's too loud after processing, you use a gain plugin again at the end of the chain?@@Gang-25j
This work for vocals too?
well yeah..
hey strekay, why use the Trim plugin instea of Clip gain?
What does clip gain do?
@@GrisibagageSnnaa-qz6zwbro the clip gain is the option to reduce the gain of your clip before it hits the mix fader. For example, you find a instrumental on TH-cam and download it, the beat will for sure be almost clipping above 0.0db, if you just bring the fader volume down you will still be clipping. so you need to bring the gain down. The trim plugin is also Pre-fader before the fader, and is used to reduce the gain too. What i was told is that there's no big dif between both, just that you should use the trim plugin for the overall gain staging and use the native DAW clip gain to make some automation.
@@nashse7en oh. Thanks bro
Actually..... Calibrate the VU meter to -23 so low level information gets taken into consideration 😉
every each track right?
Every insturments
✅✅✅ yes
just for unlinear plugins
I think you wanted to say "calibrated them to -18 dbfs"...not "-18 VU"...It's right? Excuse me, I'm only trying to understand... Thank you for your suggest! 🙂
Hey there, It’s a VU meter, so measurement is in VU. Not dbfs. Cheers
@@arktikism ...sure?
@@Guitman73 you’re right. It should be 0VU. The meter dictates that 0VU=-18DBFS but that isn’t cancelling out peaks so you may get a higher reading on your DAW’s dbfs meter. Dbfs meters are good for peaks and VU meters are good for average loudness.
th-cam.com/video/fTI3l1LedVk/w-d-xo.html
Why on earth would you wanna do this? -18db??? This shit needs elaboration
😮Why are we setting at -18 tho… sorry for the dumb question
For headroom and in the sweet spot in analog emulation plugins
@@Gang-25jway too low even for analog you bugguh
It's not dumb! Scatta
-18 dbfs to 0dbvu RMS is generally a designated calibration value for analog to digital converters and plugin emulations. It’s not always the case because sometimes -20 and -12 (if I remember correctly) can be used. But out of all -18 is a more common one and in my experience it’s a very good sweet spot
You when 🤓 moment 🗿
So very wrong! almost all DAWs have 64bit floating headroom on all faders except the master. You have to know what you are talking about if you are going to give advice.
Yes, we are in a digital workstation, not an analog console, informatics makes headroom an irrelevant topic in audio
@@LorneSound He's referring to plugins, not DAWs. If using analogue emulation plugins then you'd need to take more care of input levels.
@@jeffgoh4934 That's right Indeed, -18 Dbvu or dbfs is the standard for analog plugins
@@jeffgoh4934 Wrong again.
A plug in does not have a sound input in the old traditional way you think. You get to look at them all more like a long stream of text that goes in. The plug-in itself does not care if the value 33 or 133 enters the plug-in as long as it works correctly in the respective DAW's environment. Check e.g. in Logic. You can raise the volume by 10 times within the plug-in without the fader going red. Logic shows that you are high with orange color bec is no distortion. They don't exist. Try it and you'll see. It's next to impossible to get 64Bit floating plugs to distort on all faders except master. Test yourself before you oppose this!
@@jeffgoh4934 glad you stopped commenting because the dude who made the comment that started this is definitely painting half a picture, the two dummies that like his half ass comment is just as lost as he is