One benefit of gain staging when mixing is that if you start every song with the kick at the same level your brain develops a reference point and you start mixing faster.
That' leveling my friend - you actually said that yourself :) At least I would describe it that way. The problem is that if your kick is distorted more, it will sound louder, and the level will be different. I think I need to make a video solely on that, but I did talk about it in the Kick & 808 Mixing video.
@lovemusic942 did you even watch the video??? LOL Is it too complicated for you man? "Professional Mixers" is so relative and nuanced. Do they use analogue equipment or in the box? Do they not know this information shared in the video? You don't know what to believe because you have no experience. Watch the video, and learn something.
@lovemusic942 It's becoming a myth as we move further into the digital age. So much advice is a product of how things used to be done. Not that the advice is useless, it just isn't ever a must do like some people act like it is.
Anything with analogue emulation, like vintage chorus, some types of filters, reverb emulations, and so on, have not only got non-linearities you need to be aware of, but also a built-in noise-floor. So yeah, you could send your signal into those plugins real quiet and gain it back to normalized levels afterwards, but if you're not aware of the plugin's features you can easily be introducing noise. And the last thing you want in your mastering stage is to have several channels with a boosted noise-floor. It all boils down to knowing the plugin you're using, and what it does to the signals dynamics. (whether that signal is loud or quiet)
Gainstaging is not a lie. Nobody nowadays will tell you to gainstage because you need to avoid distortion when using digital equipment. In every Video about gainstaging instead you're told to gainstage because louder always sounds better. which always is the case. In order to make rational and useful mixing decisions it is therefore important to gainstage to know that actually the change (for e.g.) of the eq-cut / compression ratio / distortion (especially there) made it better and not only the difference in loudness. Something which happened to me so soo many times: The sound i'm working on doesn't sound full or strong enough. I try to change that by using a saturator/distortion. It does sound better but after gainstaging and a/b-ing i notice that i like the original version better, it just wasn't loud enough. With gainstaging i therefore avoided some unnecessary distortion - but in a totally different way than this video is implying.
With VST yes, it doesn't matter. But as soon as you got any hardware it does. A hw synth peaking at 0db on reecording in a DAW still sounds like shit in the master.
Gain staging also help to standardized the rms value or perceived loudness of your sound. Especially when you need to set the rms value of all instruments and sample in your project to the same level.
This helped me a lot Max! Especially when I'm processing vocals. The easiest way for Newtone to match its grid with that of the Playlist, is to consolidate the vocals. So everytime I do and I get clippings, I just hit the normalize and BOOM!! You're the best Max 🖤 Love from Suriname 🇸🇷
2 ปีที่แล้ว +10
at 2:47 when you export you move your mouse around 32 point-sinc which is the resampling quality and not the bit depth (which is just slightly above) and correctly set up. Obviously you were just going fast and you know it I'm just mentioning it in case someone gets confused and thinks this is the setting to change :) Amazing video quality as always, keep up the good work!
most in Terms here you are right, but With propper Gain Staging you are also able to Make very fine Adjustments at the Mixerlevels ;) this will definitive not work without Gain Staging ,, by that i mean , when people have their Mix Sliders almost all the way down ..and when thy wanna make a Change of 1dB or a half dB then it will make changes of 20 to 30 dB per Move ;) at the Bottom Mixslider area . And then they are confused why they can't Make good Mixing Levels ;)
This makes sense. When I use my 3rd party channel strips tho, I do hit them hard......they are built like that. I'll adjust if things start sounding clippy or too garbled. Thx for the video Brother.
our sound engineer teacher told me the same thing but i didnt beleive him i thought that he dont know about gain staging cus he told me that i dont need to gain stage
sort of accidentally stumbled upon this concept. I was compressing vocals but with the threshold I had, the compressor was not getting triggered, so I used fruity limiter to see visually at what threshold it got triggered.
So in short, audio keeps preserved no matter the level, even when it seems like it is clipping on a mixer. (Just turn the volume down afterwards) But the way non-linear effects work, like compression and distortion, are input-level dependend.
dude says its a lie but then says you still gotta do it for compression and distortion. and then he says as long as you dont use compression on your master. what kind of fool doesn't compress the master or add saturation?
MAX this is out of topic but thank you for the courses. I've learned alot from them especially the chord progression course was game changer for me. :) thank you goat🙌🙌🙌🙌🎶🎶
in the traditional/analog sense of gain staging (making sure headroom is left from a static mix) yes technically that's over because actual clipping isn't as big of a deal anymore and people don't understand the difference because of exactly what you're talking about, but I use it more as a name for a way to describe the "uniquely set dynamic range between all other tracks to themselves."
so essentially, if i made a beat without using any plugins, and im peaking around -2db. all i have to do is bring down the fader on the master track if i want more headroom?
Nice video, your points are very good but I do have a little side note. Gain staging is more than only the gain staging to hear what an effect is doing, gain staging also has to do with the level amount before and after a effect has been used, the gain (level) staging between different elements of your mix and making sure your mix is clean and not too peaky before mastering. So yes what you explained in the video is true, but saying that gain staging as a whole is a lie, isnt true IMO. Maybe you can specify a bit more for beginning producers because it can be very confusing.
I don't agree that gain staging has anything to do with making sure your mix is clean and not too peaky before mastering. That's just mixing overall. I also explained why you can't have too peaky mix before mastering. Gain staging also has *nothing to do with levels between different elements of your mix*. That's leveling. Gain staging (as mentioned in the video clearly enough I hope) is making sure that plugins have enough headroom to work properly - so the volume is optimized throughout the whole chain (standard -18 dbfs which anyway is not applicable to 99% of producers). I also explain in the video the point you mentioned about the level before an effect Is used. It's easy to confuse gain staging and think that it's much more complex concept, that's why you can see a lot of people online say weird stuff about gain staging. Thanks for commenting!
@@theMixElite From what I understand gain staging has more to do with leveling than headroom, its only purpose is to avoid issues later on when you are meeting your target, its a way to save time and in some cases ensuring that volume related hardware/plugins like compressors are not changing response if you change levels and avoiding clipping issues before they begin so you dont have to fix things later. It should be considered part of leveling.
so where should you set everything if sending your music off to be mastered? Lowering the Master Channel volume by -6db would work but it just lowers the volume AND gain, Masterers have to have some head room to work with so what do you recommend?
Telling amateur producers/engineers to disregard gain staging is a horrible idea…. They’re still developing their ear, their understanding of signal flow, plugins etc. This is a bad idea for someone in that part of their music making journey. I wasted yrs of my life as a producer by ignoring gain staging…don’t make that mistake.
You wasted years of your life because you were on TH-cam watching thousands of know it alls . I did my best mixing when I knew very little I just knew how I wanted my music to sound hence the term use your ears … once you start wanting to do all kinds of effects and crazy things to the mix is most likely when you’ll hit a wall but other than that Logic’s preset channel strips helped me drastically I just used to tweak them to my liking .
All Beats are cliped today. If you make hip hop beat, artists love this cliping effect. You cant compete with clean sound from gain staging. They dont like
The problem is not only digital clipping, but also the analog clipping when the preamp cant handle too much input gain.. so even tho you have 32bit A.I but you have crappy preamp, its useless.
Does it sound the same when you export it? The DAW handles the audio at 32 floating point while outside the DAW the same auidio is handled at fixed point resulting into clipping and distortion
the plugins you have to worry about gain staging with are the ones that emulate analog hardware. if a plugin has a certain level they recommend the input signal being it should say in the manual.
Hi mate, can you please do a video on music theory hacks? Also, can you please do a video on showing the power of stock synths like Harmor or Sytrus? Thank you.
Check out *GRGE* or *Olbaid* Their videos are in spanish, but you can enable the auto translate subtitles feature... The first one does genre-specific tutorials (like step by step tracks, showing his process, although be aware he tends to ramble on a lot and often jokes around.) The second one is a little more serious and goes indepth to some of FL plugins, as well as having a full FL Studio free course on his channel (Again, in spanish) and some "Plugin Full Course" series, such as Vital (free vst) and Sytrus (native instrument) Hope it helps, man, best of vibes ✌🏻🎶 PS: *GRGE* sometimes offers the FLP in his video descriptions, so make sure to check, you can get some samples and presets from those... I believe *Olbaid* also has available presets for most native plugins.
Yeah it’s pretty easy. The only plug-ins I can think of that clip at zero is some analog emulation plugins, but that’s literally because they’re recreating that hardware
Faders are for automation and slight adjustments after all the processing has been done. You need set gain which is something totaly diferent. Gain is pre signal so you make sure you dont clip coming in the daw. Faders are just air.
Am Facing the same Problem on my every mixing sessions I real don't know how my Spectrum freaquency Bands should look like if there is Some secreat please Make a Video of it on how to balance high mid and Low so the music to sound less harsh and more Alive thanx.
@fl studio tips plz max make a video about the production side of music i have ben told a 1000 times my production shud sound almost finish when sending it for a mix and that mixing is fixing small issues but how do i get to that point in my production is it my sound choise or what am i missing plz help i see alot of bedrooms producers struggeling at this stage to
Wow, I really didn't know this, I'm always so scared of seeing my meter go orange or red. Does this mean that when I'm recording vocals normalising or not normalising my audio clips don't really mean much? Because I'm usually afraid of clipping the audio
Dont clip…keep doing what youre doing bro. Its what pros do for a reason. If u dnt gainstage your mix, ur track is incoherent and u cant really grasp the depth and masking.
This guy gets it. Another claim people will make is that proper gain staging will somehow result in a mix with better dynamics. This is also false, gain only affects dynamics if followed by a non-linear processor.
Gain staging is crucial for non-linear processes/plugins (like limiting and compression on an insert). If you have a very high level going into a limiter and THEN lower the level after limiter, it produces a very different sound than if you have a lower input first (less compression) and then raise it AFTER the limiter. Obviously having one instrument heavily compressed on a master isn't something you can rescue in mastering either. I think what you've done doesn't really demonstrate this in context.
Ok! but why? I understand that if I clip I can fix it later, but what's the point? If I'm composing or mixing I don't want to hear distortions or artifacts even if I can fix them later. I don't think it's hard to turn the gain down when I have a signal that is clipping. I'm lazy but not up to this point.
@@venericanonebut it isnt going to be is it. It is going to be rendered at 16bit for user playback. This misses the point of what gain staging is for.
@@venericanone saving the peaks at the end is a terrible way of working. Nothing should be digitally clipping even if you can restore it later. Plus if you have to gain down the slider because you are clipping a channel you lose accuracy of movements. Why not just gain stage? All of this is only any good in 32bit FP anyway. But if you clip inside plugins it can really screw them up... especially compressors and distortion, which i am sure he mentioned. Just gain stage, its a better way of working for many reasons.
@@jamescuttsmusicjcm5013 you shouldn't purposely clip. But this video just shows that anything exaggeratedly over 0 db in the digital domain when normalized after exporting in 32 bit float will remove all signals over 0db. So it's impossible to clip if you are exporting at 32 bit float and then normalizing the volume. Too many channels will have you think there's some secret science to gain staging, like having to mix at -12 and then gradually turning up the volume. Rick Rubin obviously doesn't give a f about gain staging and this was before 32 bit float was a thing and is wildly successful. But no I don't think the message should be to purposely clip your signals, I think the message is, stop worrying so much about it in the digital domain. That advice came from an era where everything was analog and there was no 32 bit float encoding.
I think this video is misleading to those who are new to mixing. I consider the term "gain staging" to only exist in the context of effects on the master track, like compression/limiting. Of course, you could still consider manipulating the gain of individual tracks or sounds as gain staging, but I think that just confuses people. Gain staging on the master output is very important, as you stated, to ensure compression is applied as intended, and I think some of the other points in this video stray from that message. This video is a message to established producers that you only need to pay attention to your levels once they're going into a compressor/limiter, but its audience is people who have no idea what they're doing. New producers don't need to know this, but the video communicates that they do. The title is especially misleading
Why did you normalize it ? If you don't normalize it, It will clip, so prevent from this clipping you need proper gain sataging??? I didn't get this ? Please someone explain.
He is basically showing you that "clipping" in the digital world is totally reversible, therefore the "gain staging" concept is false since everything is correctible even if you DO clip.
@@Tal_Adler Only applies if you only work with VSTs though. I used to record all my hardware synths at 0db in Ableton. It sounded like shit unsuprisingly.
So after watching, i still dont agree gain staging is useless, but infact i think i could utilize this info along side gain staging. Still learned something, but dont agree gain staging isnt useful. For the genre i write gain staging is the best way i can balance to match volume instrumentally with other artists. Still found this useful.
For me this was useful in knowing that i can fix clipping before messing with DI’s and things before i finalize what im doing with them Im still gonna go gain staging, better safe than sorry, but I agree this is useful to keep in mind alongside gain staging
@@matthewmortimer5420 same here. Infact i utilized it today and got a better mix with gain staging. Sounds massive now, and clean too. I set my kick and snare to peak all the way red to give them a huge smash,, the more youre peaking the more power the sound has i found. I set my guitar to peak half way at Orange above 0 on the mixer, (I work in fl studio, not sure the actual amount, its above the bar that represents 0 on the mixer sliders) I then peaked the vocals a tiny bit, like half of where i put the guitar peak, just barely Everything else I didn't peak, like cymbals, synths etc Its so massive now
Keep it 32 bit For every export you do while still working on the song. Your final export after mastering should be at the bit depth required for streaming platforms or the target storage or playback media. CD is 16 bit. Platforms that sell samples like Splice can probably accept 24 bit.
Other than file size there's usually no reason not to export in 32 bit, you can always convert it down to a lower bit depth if you need to. Unless you know it needs to be a particular other bit depth, just use 32 bit.
It's easy to fool people with TH-cam's low audio quality. you might not hear it, but every time the computer recalculate audio, normalize etc, you lose a little of the original audio . Simple fact. Many top engineers mentioned the recalculations in interviews and on MWTM. I guess it's easier to hear if you have a good mics, a good soundcard like Antelope etc, good monitoring, and developed your listening. But most importantly, i'm careful with how i gain stage because i can hear and control how it shapes my mixes.
Please is there any way to do biannural panning in fl studio. Make a tutorial about it. Your tutorials are so accurate. Thanks for the info you put out. 😍
Hi there Max, please can you make a video basing on what to do, for example a sound that has extremely low rms value and a very large peak value,as for me this sound I find it myself as having great disadvantages as myself have seen so many producers saying you should turn up your compressor to peak mode but when I do that as I start compressing as much as possible to attain the low rms value to a big one,suddenly my sample start sounding distorted and much more as I increase the threshhold it forces me as well to simultaneously increase the ratio too.The biggest issue comes here on the mix by where some producers feel like they want turn up the volume of this sound in a mix just because they perceive the this sound as too quiet due to the low rms value but maybe there wouldn't understand or get an idea that the sound has a very low rms value and a very huge peak value....and as soon as me and other producers as well start turning up the volume for this sound to be more audible in the mix then the peak meter already starts peaking maybe around +3db,but still the sound is not as loud as I want it to be.Thats what I do,the thing is I like experimenting sometimes but I'm aware that I should not clip our mix buses.As I started knowing this thing of rms,Vu,dbfs,then I figured out back then, that me and other producers as well have confusion on thinking that if the peak meter is round 0db on the master bus then we will be like "which means I haved nailed the loudness",but as these intermidiate producers start maybe playing their audio on phones,good quality audio systems,as well as trash audio systems,Thier audio starts sounding to small and liveless.Then they start wondering,they will be like"but my mix sounds quiet but how come my meter there was peaking around 0db",then comes this issue that I want you to explain in the video I'm requesting,do you big guys start analysing firstly the rms values of your samples at first,let me maybe say there might be a sample or samples that some how have very low rms values and very big peak values...like you guys is there any other way or tricks you do,to keep the peak value almost closer to the rms value in this situation, maybe without using saturation,compression and soft clipping because in such a sample if I use all of these plugins i mentioned the appropriate way,my sample start sounding like it has lost a lot of information,even if I use the compressor it will be affecting peaks on my sample waveform due to the high increase of threshold and high ratio on the compressor.Let me say at the end my results for my sample,I want them to be like as follows; 1)at the end I want the sound to be sounding clean and let me say fairly punchy without ay distortion or clipping. 2)rms value and peak value almost closer to each other Please Max go through these details and make a video almost covering the details on what I wrote. I need support Max. I'm so clumsy on just letting someone understand the problem of music production quires I'm having.I'm hopefully anxiously waiting for the video you can directly inbox me if some how there is no clarity on what I wrote in this following Gmail address lilskrillagee@gmail.com
If you run a dac digital out to another dac digital in,, and have the last dac convert to analog.. will the last dac create the signature sound? Or will it be the first dac?
This is purely about voice quality in video. In might be my monitors but i hear so much resonance in a low end of your voice. If its only me, I apologize. If not , please eq lows a bit in post production (Mixing engineer problems)
"gay staging"
loll
LGBT(EQ)
@@maharajamusic512 an@l compressor
hahahaha
@@Lastereolife Dick-delay
One benefit of gain staging when mixing is that if you start every song with the kick at the same level your brain develops a reference point and you start mixing faster.
That' leveling my friend - you actually said that yourself :)
At least I would describe it that way. The problem is that if your kick is distorted more, it will sound louder, and the level will be different.
I think I need to make a video solely on that, but I did talk about it in the Kick & 808 Mixing video.
@@maurice8732 no
@@theMixEliteThis is not advice that professional mixers give. Gain staging isn’t a myth.
@lovemusic942 did you even watch the video??? LOL Is it too complicated for you man? "Professional Mixers" is so relative and nuanced. Do they use analogue equipment or in the box? Do they not know this information shared in the video? You don't know what to believe because you have no experience. Watch the video, and learn something.
@lovemusic942 It's becoming a myth as we move further into the digital age. So much advice is a product of how things used to be done. Not that the advice is useless, it just isn't ever a must do like some people act like it is.
Anything with analogue emulation, like vintage chorus, some types of filters, reverb emulations, and so on, have not only got non-linearities you need to be aware of, but also a built-in noise-floor. So yeah, you could send your signal into those plugins real quiet and gain it back to normalized levels afterwards, but if you're not aware of the plugin's features you can easily be introducing noise. And the last thing you want in your mastering stage is to have several channels with a boosted noise-floor. It all boils down to knowing the plugin you're using, and what it does to the signals dynamics. (whether that signal is loud or quiet)
Exactly! Pointed that out in the video clear enough hopefully :)
Facts
Gainstaging is not a lie. Nobody nowadays will tell you to gainstage because you need to avoid distortion when using digital equipment.
In every Video about gainstaging instead you're told to gainstage because louder always sounds better. which always is the case.
In order to make rational and useful mixing decisions it is therefore important to gainstage to know that actually the change (for e.g.) of the eq-cut / compression ratio / distortion (especially there) made it better and not only the difference in loudness.
Something which happened to me so soo many times:
The sound i'm working on doesn't sound full or strong enough. I try to change that by using a saturator/distortion. It does sound better but after gainstaging and a/b-ing i notice that i like the original version better, it just wasn't loud enough. With gainstaging i therefore avoided some unnecessary distortion - but in a totally different way than this video is implying.
Give this man a beer, Or vodka. Or rum. Or a lady. Or a kingdom.
With VST yes, it doesn't matter. But as soon as you got any hardware it does.
A hw synth peaking at 0db on reecording in a DAW still sounds like shit in the master.
Can't wait to see what's next. You've literally covered everything my amateur producer mind can think of
I seriously didn't know this thing 😳😳
Thank you so much bro
Gain staging also help to standardized the rms value or perceived loudness of your sound. Especially when you need to set the rms value of all instruments and sample in your project to the same level.
This helped me a lot Max! Especially when I'm processing vocals.
The easiest way for Newtone to match its grid with that of the Playlist, is to consolidate the vocals. So everytime I do and I get clippings, I just hit the normalize and BOOM!!
You're the best Max 🖤
Love from Suriname 🇸🇷
at 2:47 when you export you move your mouse around 32 point-sinc which is the resampling quality and not the bit depth (which is just slightly above) and correctly set up. Obviously you were just going fast and you know it I'm just mentioning it in case someone gets confused and thinks this is the setting to change :) Amazing video quality as always, keep up the good work!
True! But rendered it in 32-bit mode correctly anyway :) Thanks for pointing out
most in Terms here you are right, but With propper Gain Staging you are also able to Make very fine Adjustments at the Mixerlevels ;) this will definitive not work without Gain Staging ,, by that i mean , when people have their Mix Sliders almost all the way down ..and when thy wanna make a Change of 1dB or a half dB then it will make changes of 20 to 30 dB per Move ;) at the Bottom Mixslider area . And then they are confused why they can't Make good Mixing Levels ;)
I argued with someone about this and I wish they would watch this video because it pretty much validates everything I was trying to say.
Each and every video a gem
Ha that just blew my head clean off mate!
Thank you!
You can't understand how much your tutorials are very helpful to me. Thanks a lot.
This is just mind-blowing 🤯🤯
I've never felt so attacked and comforted in an intro
This makes sense. When I use my 3rd party channel strips tho, I do hit them hard......they are built like that. I'll adjust if things start sounding clippy or too garbled. Thx for the video Brother.
Some people say 6db is Double Volume louder. some people say is 3db. Somebody know witch is right?
-6db before mastering is something which most of the industry producers look for !
@@nayankarpe4961😂 industry producer are in the red.
man u just blow my mind and clear all the lie industry talking
our sound engineer teacher told me the same thing but i didnt beleive him i thought that he dont know about gain staging cus he told me that i dont need to gain stage
sort of accidentally stumbled upon this concept. I was compressing vocals but with the threshold I had, the compressor was not getting triggered, so I used fruity limiter to see visually at what threshold it got triggered.
I swear to god, this channel is an absolute goldmine
This channel keep being great :D
Hiha, FL Studio Tips...I Love you Max 🔥🔥🔥
Always waiting for your videos pls upload more just even u talking... 🔥🖤
That whole example where he clipped the sample and normalized it back blew my mind lmaooo
so if you turn the volume down of a mastered beat, record vocals, mix, and make the whole thing louder, you will not lose any information of the beat?
So in short, audio keeps preserved no matter the level, even when it seems like it is clipping on a mixer. (Just turn the volume down afterwards) But the way non-linear effects work, like compression and distortion, are input-level dependend.
BRO
YOU ARE AMAZING JUST AMAZING !!!!!!!
SO MUCH HELFUL!!!!
dude says its a lie but then says you still gotta do it for compression and distortion. and then he says as long as you dont use compression on your master. what kind of fool doesn't compress the master or add saturation?
MAX this is out of topic but thank you for the courses. I've learned alot from them especially the chord progression course was game changer for me. :)
thank you goat🙌🙌🙌🙌🎶🎶
Impatiently waiting
Waiting ❣️💯 All the from Philippines, much love
in the traditional/analog sense of gain staging (making sure headroom is left from a static mix) yes technically that's over because actual clipping isn't as big of a deal anymore and people don't understand the difference because of exactly what you're talking about, but I use it more as a name for a way to describe the "uniquely set dynamic range between all other tracks to themselves."
My mind is blowing right now
so essentially, if i made a beat without using any plugins, and im peaking around -2db. all i have to do is bring down the fader on the master track if i want more headroom?
Dope 💯
So educative....u a legend living his life
Put a vu meter plugin and check if it clip or not! Don’t trust fl db meter of the mixer
Nice video, your points are very good but I do have a little side note. Gain staging is more than only the gain staging to hear what an effect is doing, gain staging also has to do with the level amount before and after a effect has been used, the gain (level) staging between different elements of your mix and making sure your mix is clean and not too peaky before mastering.
So yes what you explained in the video is true, but saying that gain staging as a whole is a lie, isnt true IMO.
Maybe you can specify a bit more for beginning producers because it can be very confusing.
I don't agree that gain staging has anything to do with making sure your mix is clean and not too peaky before mastering. That's just mixing overall. I also explained why you can't have too peaky mix before mastering.
Gain staging also has *nothing to do with levels between different elements of your mix*. That's leveling.
Gain staging (as mentioned in the video clearly enough I hope) is making sure that plugins have enough headroom to work properly - so the volume is optimized throughout the whole chain (standard -18 dbfs which anyway is not applicable to 99% of producers). I also explain in the video the point you mentioned about the level before an effect Is used.
It's easy to confuse gain staging and think that it's much more complex concept, that's why you can see a lot of people online say weird stuff about gain staging.
Thanks for commenting!
@@theMixElite From what I understand gain staging has more to do with leveling than headroom, its only purpose is to avoid issues later on when you are meeting your target, its a way to save time and in some cases ensuring that volume related hardware/plugins like compressors are not changing response if you change levels and avoiding clipping issues before they begin so you dont have to fix things later. It should be considered part of leveling.
so where should you set everything if sending your music off to be mastered? Lowering the Master Channel volume by -6db would work but it just lowers the volume AND gain, Masterers have to have some head room to work with so what do you recommend?
Exactly
Headroom IS about Dynamic range. If you dont have any compressor etc you Can send a clipping mix in 32 bit.
Telling amateur producers/engineers to disregard gain staging is a horrible idea….
They’re still developing their ear, their understanding of signal flow, plugins etc. This is a bad idea for someone in that part of their music making journey.
I wasted yrs of my life as a producer by ignoring gain staging…don’t make that mistake.
He didn't say to disregard it.
You just misunderstood his point
You wasted years of your life because you were on TH-cam watching thousands of know it alls . I did my best mixing when I knew very little I just knew how I wanted my music to sound hence the term use your ears … once you start wanting to do all kinds of effects and crazy things to the mix is most likely when you’ll hit a wall but other than that Logic’s preset channel strips helped me drastically I just used to tweak them to my liking .
@@HitzdropBeats actually no…u dont know me. Dont assume.
All Beats are cliped today. If you make hip hop beat, artists love this cliping effect. You cant compete with clean sound from gain staging. They dont like
Thank you for opening my eyes 👀🙏
your videos are te most usefull on the entire internet
This vedio perfect , you explain a big problem for a producer , that's good just make new we need to watch💥👌
The problem is not only digital clipping, but also the analog clipping when the preamp cant handle too much input gain.. so even tho you have 32bit A.I but you have crappy preamp, its useless.
Does it sound the same when you export it?
The DAW handles the audio at 32 floating point while outside the DAW the same auidio is handled at fixed point resulting into clipping and distortion
the plugins you have to worry about gain staging with are the ones that emulate analog hardware. if a plugin has a certain level they recommend the input signal being it should say in the manual.
Hi mate, can you please do a video on music theory hacks? Also, can you please do a video on showing the power of stock synths like Harmor or Sytrus? Thank you.
Check out *GRGE* or *Olbaid*
Their videos are in spanish, but you can enable the auto translate subtitles feature...
The first one does genre-specific tutorials (like step by step tracks, showing his process, although be aware he tends to ramble on a lot and often jokes around.)
The second one is a little more serious and goes indepth to some of FL plugins, as well as having a full FL Studio free course on his channel (Again, in spanish) and some "Plugin Full Course" series, such as Vital (free vst) and Sytrus (native instrument)
Hope it helps, man, best of vibes ✌🏻🎶
PS: *GRGE* sometimes offers the FLP in his video descriptions, so make sure to check, you can get some samples and presets from those...
I believe *Olbaid* also has available presets for most native plugins.
@@AdrianChazz thanks a ton! Cheers.
Sick!!! pls, do more in-depth videos like this!!
00:23 wait that's john sine 😂 he's your manager?
Yeah it’s pretty easy. The only plug-ins I can think of that clip at zero is some analog emulation plugins, but that’s literally because they’re recreating that hardware
This is amazing!
IF GAIN STAGING WAS A LIE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE FADERS IT WOULD JUST BE A NORMALIZE BUTTON THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR MIXERS
Faders are for automation and slight adjustments after all the processing has been done. You need set gain which is something totaly diferent. Gain is pre signal so you make sure you dont clip coming in the daw. Faders are just air.
For the last couple years im using gain stage and my mix is fine...
Am Facing the same Problem on my every mixing sessions I real don't know how my Spectrum freaquency Bands should look like if there is Some secreat please Make a Video of it on how to balance high mid and Low so the music to sound less harsh and more Alive thanx.
You the plug!
Dear Bro, i really like the way you explain stuff. I was wondering if you have your mixing and mastering course for cubase
@fl studio tips plz max make a video about the production side of music i have ben told a 1000 times my production shud sound almost finish when sending it for a mix and that mixing is fixing small issues but how do i get to that point in my production is it my sound choise or what am i missing
plz help i see alot of bedrooms producers struggeling at this stage to
These teeeeps are really gooooddd
Wow, I really didn't know this, I'm always so scared of seeing my meter go orange or red.
Does this mean that when I'm recording vocals normalising or not normalising my audio clips don't really mean much? Because I'm usually afraid of clipping the audio
Dont clip…keep doing what youre doing bro. Its what pros do for a reason.
If u dnt gainstage your mix, ur track is incoherent and u cant really grasp the depth and masking.
@@josephschmizzo1595 thank you
thanks for all the help
make a video about how to achive louder music on youtubee
Loved how you didnt mentioned or even show that your suppose to turn off master effects when bounching the track for the process to even work 😑
This guy gets it. Another claim people will make is that proper gain staging will somehow result in a mix with better dynamics. This is also false, gain only affects dynamics if followed by a non-linear processor.
Its just good practice? Hangover of the analogue days?
But makes sense when recording analogue signals?
Gain staging is crucial for non-linear processes/plugins (like limiting and compression on an insert).
If you have a very high level going into a limiter and THEN lower the level after limiter, it produces a very different sound than if you have a lower input first (less compression) and then raise it AFTER the limiter.
Obviously having one instrument heavily compressed on a master isn't something you can rescue in mastering either.
I think what you've done doesn't really demonstrate this in context.
Im using your Hard Trap to make Christian Trap Metal. Really digging the course.
So… you’re saying don’t gain stage, yet gain stage?
Digital world is liner anyway. There is no noise floor so you don't have to gain stage. But some Plugins are non-liner and do require gain staging.
Ok! but why? I understand that if I clip I can fix it later, but what's the point? If I'm composing or mixing I don't want to hear distortions or artifacts even if I can fix them later. I don't think it's hard to turn the gain down when I have a signal that is clipping. I'm lazy but not up to this point.
Basically the point is stop freaking out about slight clipping. It won't mess up your track once your render in 32 bit float
@@venericanonebut it isnt going to be is it. It is going to be rendered at 16bit for user playback. This misses the point of what gain staging is for.
@@jamescuttsmusicjcm5013 what are you talking about?
@@venericanone saving the peaks at the end is a terrible way of working. Nothing should be digitally clipping even if you can restore it later. Plus if you have to gain down the slider because you are clipping a channel you lose accuracy of movements. Why not just gain stage? All of this is only any good in 32bit FP anyway. But if you clip inside plugins it can really screw them up... especially compressors and distortion, which i am sure he mentioned. Just gain stage, its a better way of working for many reasons.
@@jamescuttsmusicjcm5013 you shouldn't purposely clip. But this video just shows that anything exaggeratedly over 0 db in the digital domain when normalized after exporting in 32 bit float will remove all signals over 0db. So it's impossible to clip if you are exporting at 32 bit float and then normalizing the volume. Too many channels will have you think there's some secret science to gain staging, like having to mix at -12 and then gradually turning up the volume. Rick Rubin obviously doesn't give a f about gain staging and this was before 32 bit float was a thing and is wildly successful. But no I don't think the message should be to purposely clip your signals, I think the message is, stop worrying so much about it in the digital domain. That advice came from an era where everything was analog and there was no 32 bit float encoding.
I think this video is misleading to those who are new to mixing. I consider the term "gain staging" to only exist in the context of effects on the master track, like compression/limiting. Of course, you could still consider manipulating the gain of individual tracks or sounds as gain staging, but I think that just confuses people. Gain staging on the master output is very important, as you stated, to ensure compression is applied as intended, and I think some of the other points in this video stray from that message. This video is a message to established producers that you only need to pay attention to your levels once they're going into a compressor/limiter, but its audience is people who have no idea what they're doing. New producers don't need to know this, but the video communicates that they do. The title is especially misleading
This guy just killed Gain staging process in FL Studio ! Oh wait.....I pressed the normalize button, everything's fine now XD
Why did you normalize it ? If you don't normalize it, It will clip, so prevent from this clipping you need proper gain sataging??? I didn't get this ? Please someone explain.
He is basically showing you that "clipping" in the digital world is totally reversible, therefore the "gain staging" concept is false since everything is correctible even if you DO clip.
@@Tal_Adler Only applies if you only work with VSTs though. I used to record all my hardware synths at 0db in Ableton. It sounded like shit unsuprisingly.
@@eightcoins4401 I have never worked with hardware synths... No need for them :-)
I think Producer School needs to hear this
So after watching, i still dont agree gain staging is useless, but infact i think i could utilize this info along side gain staging. Still learned something, but dont agree gain staging isnt useful. For the genre i write gain staging is the best way i can balance to match volume instrumentally with other artists.
Still found this useful.
For me this was useful in knowing that i can fix clipping before messing with DI’s and things before i finalize what im doing with them
Im still gonna go gain staging, better safe than sorry, but I agree this is useful to keep in mind alongside gain staging
@@matthewmortimer5420 same here. Infact i utilized it today and got a better mix with gain staging. Sounds massive now, and clean too.
I set my kick and snare to peak all the way red to give them a huge smash,, the more youre peaking the more power the sound has i found.
I set my guitar to peak half way at Orange above 0 on the mixer, (I work in fl studio, not sure the actual amount, its above the bar that represents 0 on the mixer sliders)
I then peaked the vocals a tiny bit, like half of where i put the guitar peak, just barely
Everything else I didn't peak, like cymbals, synths etc
Its so massive now
Wow! it's Amazing I did it well ! Perfect work !
So when should you use 32 bit? On ever export? If I make a beat should I export it at 32 bit, or only for a master of a song?
Keep it 32 bit For every export you do while still working on the song. Your final export after mastering should be at the bit depth required for streaming platforms or the target storage or playback media. CD is 16 bit. Platforms that sell samples like Splice can probably accept 24 bit.
Other than file size there's usually no reason not to export in 32 bit, you can always convert it down to a lower bit depth if you need to. Unless you know it needs to be a particular other bit depth, just use 32 bit.
Wish you made this same video for logic
feel like when i do gain staging my vst plugin for mixing are more effective more cleaner
Max, el numero uno 👊
Much love 💜💜
what about plugin aliasing?
It's easy to fool people with TH-cam's low audio quality. you might not hear it, but every time the computer recalculate audio, normalize etc, you lose a little of the original audio . Simple fact. Many top engineers mentioned the recalculations in interviews and on MWTM. I guess it's easier to hear if you have a good mics, a good soundcard like Antelope etc, good monitoring, and developed your listening. But most importantly, i'm careful with how i gain stage because i can hear and control how it shapes my mixes.
Well logic pro loses quality when doing all of that... they need to get it together
So having 32-bit stems/bounced audio is what makes this possible?
This is a perfectly explained video.. Thanks man
ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE
the jon sine meme is too good xD ..also greetings from germany;)
Great video, well explained.
Whatever sounds good is music 🎵
Wow! that's why I Like is dude He always knows What he is Doin no one ever told us About that secret U are 100% Right
Please is there any way to do biannural panning in fl studio. Make a tutorial about it. Your tutorials are so accurate. Thanks for the info you put out. 😍
how is he rendering the clips with effects? what's the shortcut?
My brain be like BOOST DIS HERE! BOOST DIS HERE!
Hi there Max, please can you make a video basing on what to do, for example a sound that has extremely low rms value and a very large peak value,as for me this sound I find it myself as having great disadvantages as myself have seen so many producers saying you should turn up your compressor to peak mode but when I do that as I start compressing as much as possible to attain the low rms value to a big one,suddenly my sample start sounding distorted and much more as I increase the threshhold it forces me as well to simultaneously increase the ratio too.The biggest issue comes here on the mix by where some producers feel like they want turn up the volume of this sound in a mix just because they perceive the this sound as too quiet due to the low rms value but maybe there wouldn't understand or get an idea that the sound has a very low rms value and a very huge peak value....and as soon as me and other producers as well start turning up the volume for this sound to be more audible in the mix then the peak meter already starts peaking maybe around +3db,but still the sound is not as loud as I want it to be.Thats what I do,the thing is I like experimenting sometimes but I'm aware that I should not clip our mix buses.As I started knowing this thing of rms,Vu,dbfs,then I figured out back then, that me and other producers as well have confusion on thinking that if the peak meter is round 0db on the master bus then we will be like "which means I haved nailed the loudness",but as these intermidiate producers start maybe playing their audio on phones,good quality audio systems,as well as trash audio systems,Thier audio starts sounding to small and liveless.Then they start wondering,they will be like"but my mix sounds quiet but how come my meter there was peaking around 0db",then comes this issue that I want you to explain in the video I'm requesting,do you big guys start analysing firstly the rms values of your samples at first,let me maybe say there might be a sample or samples that some how have very low rms values and very big peak values...like you guys is there any other way or tricks you do,to keep the peak value almost closer to the rms value in this situation, maybe without using saturation,compression and soft clipping because in such a sample if I use all of these plugins i mentioned the appropriate way,my sample start sounding like it has lost a lot of information,even if I use the compressor it will be affecting peaks on my sample waveform due to the high increase of threshold and high ratio on the compressor.Let me say at the end my results for my sample,I want them to be like as follows;
1)at the end I want the sound to be sounding clean and let me say fairly punchy without ay distortion or clipping.
2)rms value and peak value almost closer to each other
Please Max go through these details and make a video almost covering the details on what I wrote.
I need support Max.
I'm so clumsy on just letting someone understand the problem of music production quires I'm having.I'm hopefully anxiously waiting for the video
you can directly inbox me if some how there is no clarity on what I wrote in this following Gmail address
lilskrillagee@gmail.com
How do people gain stage if they have to compress? How do you compress something sooo quiet is what I've always wondered
And that's why you should set your gain so the input level is around -18 dbfs (pre-fader), so it hits the compressor at the "sweet spot"
Hello Max,
How can I reach out?
If you run a dac digital out to another dac digital in,, and have the last dac convert to analog.. will the last dac create the signature sound? Or will it be the first dac?
Is there any other way to do it because again again rendering then importing consumes a lot of time
This is purely about voice quality in video. In might be my monitors but i hear so much resonance in a low end of your voice. If its only me, I apologize. If not , please eq lows a bit in post production (Mixing engineer problems)
I really don't think this is an issue worth talking about
@@seansanderson9805 It's a personal feedback. Not braging about it , just saying.