How to Set Gain on Your Mixer | Digital or Analog
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- Gain Cheat Sheet
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If the knobs on your mixer could talk, gain would definitely be throwing a fit about feeling misunderstood. Gain has this great purpose, but often gets mistaken as simply volume control.
In this video, I make it simple by showing you a simple strategy for setting gain that drastically improves the quality of your mix.
"Gain is not volume control " it really ,THANK YOU!
ROFL.
I’ve been running FOH at churches and on staff for almost 20 years. I’m so blessed you started this video out with the water line/faucet thought process..!
I prayed about how to teach others, and started using this type of example about 8 to 10 years ago. May God richly use you to continue to teach others how to mix sound correctly for church..!!
When we mix sound for a service, we aren’t actually back stage or behind the scenes; we are literally becoming the means of how clearly the attendees hear the Word of God preached and taught..!
Awesome!
Thanks for pressing that point about gain staging every time you start a mix. My pet peeve is hearing singers say that I should be able to “set it and forget it” (they want to show up at start time or later-🤮).
Lol. If only it were that hands off.
This is the same for me but every single person at church and even some of the guys who work on the sound system don’t understand. We need to regulate every time and they wonder what’s going on with the sound and think it’s broken. I’m going to show them this channel.
This is made much easier with the Re-Gain feature I just learned about in Mixing Station Pro app. In the app during rehearsal select the channel, press and hold gain until the slider box comes up, tap Re-gain on the top right side. Now you can fine-tune/adjust gain without upsetting the mix front of house or any mix buss sends, because if you add 5db of gain to the channel the app reduces 5db of gain from every output fader the channel is sent to.
Setting gain 1:40
Thanks! This is the most practically helpful video I've yet seen on mixing for live sound! Lee.
Nobody ever explains gain very well.
Thank you!
Well that was incredibly helpful and refreshingly concise. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
This was helpful. I'll definitely be passing this video on to our new sound techs.
Great to hear!
Best simple lesson ever! Thanks kade
Thanks for the straightforward, simple explanation. I really liked the faucet analogy. It can be tough to find helpful content for newbies like myself.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks, Gary!
Such a great way to show input gain structure!! You rock!!
If love to hear a tutorial about in ear monitors. I just purchased a budget system and I'm not sure of the gain settings or do you need to pass through a monitor mixer before sending signal to the transmitter... Would love your input!! God bless you my friend.. By the way I'm a new subscriber and love your videos... looking forward to your response.
This is the best description of gain 😎
Thanks Adam!
Simply put… gain deals with input signal (microphones, instruments, etc) into an audio interface or mixer and volume deals with output signal (speakers etc) leaving the interface or mixer. Thanks for the insight and knowledge! 👍🏾
Woow thanks brother May gob bless you, very usefull love from srilanka🇱🇰
Thank you Sammy!
Wow thanks for yr videos.I been bands most my life and was always told to ALWAYS run Amps wide open lol..I just replaced my Drum PA amp with a bigger Amp and was searching to see if it was ok to turn the Amp down (choke lol) . This and yr other Amp level video really cleared that up for me. Much appreciated 🙏
Great to hear. Thanks man!
Freaking fantastic, practical video bro!
Thanks!
Very informative, thanks Kade.
Happy to help, Mark. Thanks!
Awesome thank you so much!!!
Easy instruction ever
Thank you
God bless you brother for educating the body of Christ. I have very little knowledge of the Behringer X32 compact. My church is very small and is especially affected by the Covid Virus. I have to take up the mantle. For the past3-4 weeks there is no audio feed leaving the X32 to the 3 floor monitors. The Monitors have juice but no audio sound. What could be the problems? Thank you and may God bless you.
wow! you the man, well said man.
Thanks!
Eye opener to me❤
Great video thanks 👍
Great tips man!
Thanks man!
Hi Which mixer is best when it comes to effects yamaha or soundcraft?
Great Video. Love all you are producing. And the cheat sheets are the best!
Thanks Zoe!
My master looks peaked out all the time in Pro Tools for our livestream...still trying to figure out why this is. I will be looking at gain in the tracks as you said. Thank you!!
Awesome
Gracias
It's also important to note that setting the level coming out of the instrument itself (if available) as hot as you can without distorting is just as important as setting the gain level coming in to your mixer. If it's not hot enough, you will have to turn your gain up even more to compensate, and that will increase your noise level.
Great point! Thank you.
How exactly would you determine how much the level should be on the instrument itself?
@@xFlapJack if it's a preamp, you adjust the input and output level as high as it will go without distorting. Some guitar pedal boards have an input level that you can adjust as well.
HI Kade! We use the Playback app to run tracks. We run it from an ipad Pro through the headphone jack and into two D/I boxes for a stereo in-ear mix. I've noticed that some tracks run hotter than others which makes setting gain tricky. Would you suggest setting gain on a per song basis and then riding the fader up and down so as to not impact the mix negatively? Open to your thoughts...
Hey Jorge - I recommend adjusting the levels on the backing track app to get each song on the same level, that way gain at the mixer can stay the same. I don't know how the playback app works, but on the PRIME app, we are able to do this and the settings are saved for each song so we only have to do it once.
@@collabworship We can do this on the playback app as well. Good thinking and thanks!
Hi Kade, why gain interferes with the speakers when its set high with the fader? What are the best levels for both gain and fader?
Hey Vince - Gain should be set like this video. Then you'll need to set amp levels like this: th-cam.com/video/SBn5-gx8MnI/w-d-xo.html
Once these two things are done, most of your faders should hang out between -10dB and 0dB.
What about instruments with a really weak signal? I find that acoustic guitar is really difficult to get up into that -18, -12dB range. I often just don't worry about it just because I'm not really looking for an acoustic driven sound. Any thoughts on that?
If you are getting a weak signal, you'll need to fix it at the source. For example, the acoustic probably needs a new battery. You should also have them turn the volume all the way up on the acoustic itself.
And can you tell me how to Mix a soundboard analog one superbly with a nice output without peak or unwanted noises please, we are using an analog in our church thats y
You'll set gain on an analog mixer using the same strategy in the video. The only difference is, you'll have to solo the channel you are setting so you can see the level meter.
My wireless mic receiver (Phenyx Pro PTU-5000-2H2B) and my analog mixer (Behringer 1204USB) both have gain controls on them. Is it just the same process X2 or something trickier. Thank you !
Usually the gain on a wireless receiver is for the wireless system between the microphone and its receiver. When you connect it to a mixing console, you then use the console’s gain knob for that channel’s input.
Is there a trim control on the x32?
Nice. 👍☝️
Thanks!
would it work the same when have a dedicated mixer to send signal to logic for livestream?
Yes
The gains on all the inputs are set as you describe but when I select the main output I see clipping on the gain meter even though the output meter on the display doesn't show clipping. I'm aware of bus gains but not a main output gain. How do I eliminate this distortion?
Hey John - It sounds like you might need to make and adjustment on your amps. Here's a video on that: th-cam.com/video/SBn5-gx8MnI/w-d-xo.html
Would this method not affect feedback? When we start moving up the faders
It might if the level on your amps is not set correctly. Here's a video on that: th-cam.com/video/SBn5-gx8MnI/w-d-xo.html
how do i set my high and low on the keyboard combo or amp.?
If you are talking about EQ settings, I'd set them to dead center on the amp so that EQ can be applied at the mixer.
I did the same thing,I tot I was wrong to pushed the solo button to check input signal level...
Great tips, please include the Indonesian translation
Thank you for the video kade!
Can i get some advice for my problem?
I use Qu 24 mixer. I use it in a small room, when i set the gain about 0 and when i raise the fader about -30, it's already loud. Can i get some advice about this thing? Thank you
It sounds like you need to adjust the levels on your amps. Here's how: th-cam.com/video/SBn5-gx8MnI/w-d-xo.html
Turn down your master fader.
Great video - My digital mixer (Soundcraft UI24r) does not have green/orange/red lights just numbers. Is there a guideline I should use like -12 or -9??
-18 to -12 is the goal.
In this case, it’s better consult your mixer’s manual to determine what gain level the mixer was designed for. -18db has become a defacto standard (agreed upon standard amoung manufacturers) for digital mixers.
Thanks for the informative video. Like you said, setting up gain is one of the most important parts when mixing. This video made me curious about your channel and after taking a look at some other videos, I decided to subscribe your channel. I also want to point out something about units. When we talk about -18 on the meter, it is supposed to be -18 dBFS (dB Full Scale). Not -18 dB. For example, 0 dBFS corresponds to maximum possible digital level of sound. Therefore, the signals above 0 dBFS would get clipped. In my opininon, as there are more than one decibel units such as dBm, dBu, dBV and so on, we should be more careful about units. Thanks for the sheets as well.
Thanks for the tip!
My drums hit the yellow spot on the mixer, whereas the keys and the guitars don't hit that much but they do are audible out. should I decrease the fader and set the gain to the level that all the input levels are equal or should i just look at the output of what I am able to hear?
You want to set gain so that everything is hitting into the yellow. Then use your faders to determine how loud each channel is in the room.
So how loud do we have to put the instruments volumes like yhe piano and all the stuff... should we put it all the way up and then do gain?
The fader position and the mute button do not affect the gain. You can mute the channel or turn it all the way down and adjust gain if you want to.
Is the X32 significantly different than other mixers? Generally you'd want to get as close to 0db as possible for the best quality signal. Anything above 0db will cause clipping so if something is too dynamic you'd have to be careful, but I am very curious as to why -18db is your recommendation. Thanks!
Also, any ideas as to why setting the faders to unity has become such a popular methodology? I have to work to un-train that thinking from almost every new sound engineer that joins the team.
@@markgraybill4260 You are looking for the place where the yellow meets the green on your mixer. The X32 has this mark at -18dB. Most analog mixers have it at 0dB. So that's probably where the difference is that you are referring to.
I don't know where the fader at unity method comes from. Causes a lot of confusion though.
@@markgraybill4260 There is actually a good reason why we want to have the fader close to unity. If you look at the spectrum and space between 0 and -10db on your fader, you will see that there is more resolution then between -20 and -30. We want the fader near unity to utilize most space and have more control. Don’t need to be at unity, but in that area is smart.
Is the loudest supposed to be -18/-12 or just the normal speaking 🗣?
Just normal speaking should register about -18dB. It's okay if it goes higher than that when they get louder. But if you start hitting red, you'll need to turn down gain to compensate.
Hi thanks for the great videos. I set the gain as you say every night but find once the singer starts there's not enough volume so i push fader up which then causes clipping so i reduce gain which causes loss of volume again. I find it a vicious circle. Plesse help??
My guess is that your singer isn’t as experienced or confident in their vocal control. Does this sound right about them? So what might be happening is your singer sings softer during sound check than during the set.
What you can do is initially set there volume so you can see signal on the meter, and when they get into it readjust their gain. Now, if you are using in-eat monitors be careful so they dont get too loud in their ears. These are the performers that you will have to work with and encourage.
I find the most rewarding part about church sound is seeing the worship team grow together in their abilities and as a team. And when they can settle into a grove together, thats when mixing gets fun and you forget about where the knobs and faders are.
In short, work with your singer and explain that you need readjust there gain setting when they start singing the first song. It might be until the chorus for them to find there volume. So gain needs to be set for them before any monitor adjustments.
The worship leader could help you by warming up the band on the first song and thats when you check input gains. After that initial song then ask if anyone needs something in their monitors.
@@obidavekenobe thank you for the advice much appreciated 🙏
Hi, why do I have my sound of power mixer going off when volume increased please??
It sounds like you are overloading the amps in your mixer. You'll just need to turn it down or get more powerful amps/speakers.
Hi kade, or anybody, when setting gain, where should I place the fader? At unity or turn it down completely? Thanks
Fader position is irrelevant when setting gain. However, I recommend turning it down a bit to make sure you don't have feedback issues. You can even set gain while the channel is muted.
@@collabworship Thank you for the reply. Godbless you!
In practice, it doesn’t really matter where the fader knob lands.
Technically, if you are finding the gain-before-feedback, you’ll want to keep that fader up along with the PA volume in order to maximize your system and find the limits of the PA.
Great advice. One question though. In your downloadable you start with: "While the musician is singing/playing with 'live performance' energy..." Where does one find the magic unicorn that practices/sound checks at "live performance energy"? 🤣🤣🤣
🤣 So true. It's a tough task to get musicians to play at "live performance energy". But if you ask them to let it rip, they'll at least get close.
💯💥💯
How do you get your track to be loud if your sounds are sitting at -18db?
What do you mean by "track"?
@@collabworship individual channel on the mixer. Sorry I’m new to mixing / live sound.
@@LaRana08 -18dB will give you lots of volume to work with. If you go higher than that, you'll likely run into distortion issues.
Keep in mind, some mixers have this mark labeled 0dB. You are just looking at the place where the green lights meet the yellow/orange lights.
My mixer is having a peak indicator on every channel strip. What will happen when one of the channel strip peak indicator blinks.
When peak indicator blinks, it means your gain is set too high. Back it off a bit until it stops blinking.
thanks so much.........I always did it wrong
Same Therory for live stream ?
Also, the download email is not working. I’ve had no issues with other resources from you, but this one does not work.
Yes, same for live stream. I'll check on that download issue. Thanks for letting me know!
When I push the gain to around 2 o clock for vocals for the desired -18 it makes things around very loud as well (flipping through bible, drinking water, etc. is this normal ?
What mic are you using?
@@collabworship sm58 but I just learned about gating today so I believe that can fix my issues
I also just bought new church sound a guide for a volunteer is this good to learn the x32?
@@Tjkfbi1 Gating can definitely help, but you should start with mic placement. It sound like they are probably holding it quite a bit away from their mouth. It should sit right under their chin when talking. And no more than an inch away from the mouth when singing.
@@collabworship ok thank you 2-3 I clock too much gain for a vocal ? I’m worried that if I open it up too much the mic will pic up the monitor and start to feedback
I'm still confused. I turned the volume all the way down and tried to set the gain like you described and the meter didn't show anything until I brought up the volume. So how do you set the volume and gain since both will change the meter readings?
Did you have the channel selected, and were you looking at the input gain, and not output gain? What mixer are you using?
@@collabworship I was confused about the terminology. A "0" setting on the mixer in the video is actually about 3/4 volume. Volume is called "fader" in the video. A "0" setting on the Yamaha mixer I have is not the number "0"on the volume dial, it is the delta triangle on the dial which is about 3/4 volume. Everything works great now.
Glad it's working for you now. Which Yamaha mixer do you have? @@onemoreboat
@@collabworship MG06X
Setting gain for every instrument or vocal 1:41
If my vocal doesn't rise to that point and my instruments can, what I can do?
You need to increase your gain. If you are at max gain but still have low vocals, check if your mic does not have a negative Db setting set up, if it has this option. Also double check your mic batteries if you are using wireless.
@@Goofy10123 Great tips!
@@collabworship thanks. It's my mental checklist whenever there is issues or the sound sounds wrong.
I have heard you should always mix around your vocals, so basically start with them and them bring everything else up to where they are needed. I have had circumstance where I have run out of fader on a vocal mic. May have to pull the whole mix down on each fader, then bring the master up if it is sitting a little low.
Y en la XR18?
Lo mismo hermano. Ambas consolas funcionan en los mismos parámetros
Great instruction. But, why do we need to, according to the cheat sheet, set everything back to default, all EQ , all aux sends (monitor levels), turn down fader, bypass any external processing? This is a deal-breaker for me. Too much to reset and too much to remember where I had it.
You only have to do that on analog mixers. Digital mixers show you levels before all the processing, so you don't need to bypass the audio processing when using a digital mixer.
@@collabworship But in a very simple analog setup, (with some beginner volunteers) no external processing, can we not leave the aux sends and the simple eq on each channel where it is set, and still apply your method?
@@LetMeThinkAboutThis You bet.
@@collabworship Thanks for all of this. God bless.
To the point very clear, but my mixer doesn't have separate channel gain meters.
No problem. Just solo the channel and use the meter you have available.
I was always a believer that before you adjust your gain you should have you fader set to unity. I was always if the belief that all faders should live around unity. Am I wrong?
I was taught that method and use it as well. I'd like to hear why the method in this video is better.
First off, here in the south it is a hose pipe, not water hose. ;)
I'm curious to hear Kade's response as well. In other sound mixing groups I follow this seems to be the dividing point of what is most important; gains set to a certain level or faders set to unity.
Also with most systems running through amps could amp output be adjusted to allow achieving what the gain first camp wants as well as achieving what the faders at unity camp wants? Maybe Kade can do a video on this subject to enlighten us.
I have this same question. I’ve been asking it since I bought my X32. “Should faders be off or set at unity when setting the gain?” But I keep getting different answers 😅
When you leave the fader at unity, you are setting for loudness. When you set gain according to this video, you are setting for optimal signal quality. Gain exists to optimize signal quality. Loudness adjustments should be done at the amp, not gain. Here's a video on setting the level of your amps: th-cam.com/video/SBn5-gx8MnI/w-d-xo.html
When I learned my first (and only) digital mixer (x32) I dove in head first with the faders at unity approach. I've abandoned it entirely. 3 simple and practical reasons I think, but maybe there's a down side? I'm open to persuasion but I've "been-there-done-that" with unity and am not likely to go back.
1. We have old school monitors. Sending back the monitor signal means that if I use gains for loudness I change the monitor mix too. If a musician takes time to request monitor changes, and then I change them again on them to set mains when they don't ask it's like chasing my tail.
2. No indicator lights. Quiet instruments, like a passive bass end up showing 1 green light at best with faders at unity at our mellow venue. Like the OP of this video I like to see active indicators and that means the bass gain is way up and the fader way down. (I'd have the fader up too but I like more bass than most in our venue.)
3. Select buttons. Even after tinkering with the x32 for several years I'm still probably a novice, sure, I agree, but reality is I still am too prone to fail to select the proper channel when tweaking gains as though they were faders. Depending on how groggy, grumpy, or just plain dumb I am I could have changed several things I didn't mean to before I realize it and it's too late to remember everything to undo. Those nice dedicated little sliding knobs are just simpler.
At this point I've lost all connection with why I'd even want the faders all at unity and essentially waste all that hardware designed specifically to allow a direct route to tweaking a specific channel. It feels about as important as trying to get the gas pump to register an even .00 before stopping. Sure, I compulsively want symmetry but how much of my life have I now wasted to satisfy that impulse? At least when I have symmetry on the indicator lights it actually means something?
My final thought is that this may be a throwback to analog mixers and what happens when one of our precious "little angels" get within reach of that non-programmable board for a half millisecond. They go straight for the faders, just like they go straight for the drumsticks or guitar strings. Mixing them all to unity could definitely be a good strategy in that scenario. X32 lock out, save, etc SO NICE!
I wonder if the fader @ unity camp do the same thing in Studio One or whatever software ya'll use?
I don’t have lights on my mixer.
This makes it tough. I imagine you at least have a clipping light (red light)? If so, turn gain up until it clips, and then turn it down slowly until it is not clipping any more.
where is the gain cheat sheet?
Get it here: collabwrshp.com/gaincs
Disclaimer - not for church only
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I'm keep waiting for him to start chanting, hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm everytime he puts his hands together, so distracting.
Tip:
Don't use your hands too much. Just keep your hands down to your waist area or navel area where. Resetting back to home so people can focus on your words not on your hands.
Ok 😂
I know this makes me a bad person. I love what this guy does. But I can't watch his video because of his eyes are open to wide and his beard is to square.
Bahaha. First time I've ever received this critique, Matthias. Thanks for the feedback. -Kade