Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. If you liked this video don't forget to smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming tutorials! 🔥
Didnt realize those shades of green represented average and peak. Also, I’ve been fooling my ears by not matching the gain increase some effects/plugins cause. Huge game changer. Thank you as always
You can use a clipper plugin to tuck in that light shade(peak) into the dark shade(rms) and achieve more headroom and avoid overworking the limiter on the master. Check out the Clip To Zero method by Baphometrix.
your branding has gotten incredible, highly professional, you're in my top 3 music/audio teachers, I don't have a favorite one, you're all great at different stuff/genres, much love Will
You have a really great way of explaining these concepts. I felt so overwhelmed before finding your channel, but now I'm empowered to keep learning. Thank YOU!
After digging through countless youtube vids on gainstaging and not really grasping it fully....I felt a bit fed up always getting bits of info but never the full concept. Until I just now stumbled upon your video....and at the end I have a Big Smile on my face! Finally I understand it all....thank you so much....awesome! 👍😁👍🎵🎵🎵🎵
You are really good at keeping things simple yet you're able to teach stuff that's kind of complex for beginners. You make even the complex stuff simple is what I'm trying to say, and a 10 minute video of your feels more like a 2 minute video because it's just a constant flow of efficiently conveyed knowledge!! Subscribed without hesitation, thank you so much buddy :)
@@EDMTips I've tried to mix people's vocals into my instrumentals, but because we are all just file sharing, I find it hard to mix it in because they used crumby microphones, or peaked too often in the recording. The vocals can't be re-recorded. Are there tips for fixing noisy vocal recordings?
First time I’ve understood gain staging properly. Usually videos on the topic are an hr long! Nice work, I’m looking forward to trying this on a mix. Thanks!
I’ve never ever ever had a tutorial where I’ve learned so much I normally use the faders to gain stage ! This is gonna help me sooooooo much mate thanks a lot ❤️
@@bernardodocruzeiro2496 see it as Gain - input, Volume - output. So when you're working with a bunch of plugins in a channel you want your GAIN to be (somewhere) around the sweet spot down the processing chain in order to achieve the best possible sound and keep enough headroom for final processing of the whole track. Volume is just how strong, or loud, your sound is in the mix. For example, if you want your strings to be somewhere in the background you'll adjust the VOLUME, not the gain.
Thank you so much. After countless gain staging videos you have explained things properly and the most simplest for me to understand. I appreciate u man
Hi Will, I'm devouring all your videos one by one, I'm coming from a "little" creative block and you're getting back the fresh spark of creativity and the desire to continue composing and mixing. Particularly, this technique was one of my favourite in the past (it's the most comfortable way for mixing as well), but I've got rushed by the "more volume on each track" syndrome and lost my way. Thanks for this super clear reminder, for your awesome explanations and, equally important, the A/B demo results of one way and another. Really really appreciated. You have a new fan for sure!
Thank you for doing this video. I already understand gain staging, but I see so many people of all levels doing tutorials online that clearly don’t. It’s an important topic that every producer should know
Your amazing at explaining things, this topic in particular is something i think isnt taught well even over YT, it was well done and i dont even use ableton. Thank you!
Holy crap man, i just went into one of my tracks that was good but sounding a bit underwhelming, put a gain plugin on each track and set them to each one at -18 then put all the faders back to 0 and it sounds fukn great and i haven't even started actually mixing yet... wtf... this is a game changer for me. Thankyou!
Great video Will! I think my favorite tip is about A/B with your gains matched in volume. So many times I see videos of people cranking a compressor or saturator and then thinking it sounds better because it's only louder!
I’ve been binge watching all your videos the past 2 weeks and my mix downs have improved tenfold! It’s now more balanced and consistent, especially when playing them on multiple speaker types. Thanks for all the content and help youve provided!
Bro this is incredibly 🔥 . I love u u have saved my life. Being stressing up with music for about 5years now and thinking to quit. Watching this has changed my conception over how signal control affects music even the plugin gain. I love it. Can u teach us plugin arrangements on buses and auxiliaries aswell
Hey great job breaking that down to a practical list that follows signal flow and explaining why gain staging makes a difference in the actually fader movement- I knew all of this stuff but for some reason felt weird about using secondary gain utility plug which is stupid. Another good side effect of having gains at the end of the fx chain on each channel is that you can use the last gain to balance- then all your automation is proportional so it just rides on top of the new level. Much better than going into volume automation points- selecting them all and bringing them all down. Also- that last gain plug in can be automated as well. Great job!
THANK YOU SO MUCH! i was in a rut for hours trying to find a good db ratio for my sounds, and this fixed it. my track is so much cleaner and more smooth now
Thanks for this ! I usually set the gain stage at -18 except for the KICK and Bass wich are at -12, and still have to lower something between 5db and 12db on the Trim to keep under -12 (when using processed or normalized Drums of course)
Hey Will, I love your videos, just when you think you know a little bit, you come along and give us so much more valuable tips n hints. I always say it, but thank you for your time and effort. :)
Thanks for the vid. A little constructive criticism: The two tracks at the start to demonstrate gain staging were different parts of the song / The first version had no snare. Would be a fair comparison to use the same part of the song. Just as demonstrated in your gain matching tip.
Sheesh man, thank you SO much. I've been researching gain staging for yonks but never had it laid out so clearly. Just applied it to a track in Cubase and feel like your tips have improved it tenfold. I can't thank you enough! Subscribed; will watch everything you put out haha All my respect to you.
Thankyou so much man, already had a good grasp on gainstaging but only now have I realised that I was setting levels based on peak and not RMS😂 a stupid error but I’m excited to see how my mixes sound from now on
Another great lesson, Will! Thanks very much. In addition to your hour-long 'how to produce' videos, I'd love to see some 'how to mix/master' videos i.e. to watch your entire process from inputting the stems to mastering a 'shiny new banger'. ;) I watched some of the succincter videos and thought it'd be interesting to see a whole session and hear your thought process throughout! Keep up the great work. All the best.
YOOOO first producer to shout out Studio One!!!!! I've NEVER seen that in a pro production tutorial!!!! Anyways, thanks for all your content and videos. I've learned (and keep learning) SOOOO much, and you explain it all with such clarity and ease. I've become a WAY better producer since a year ago when I didn't know you existed.
Great explanations, vital details, plus hands-on instruction. I think you have generously shared your secrets with the public - this will sweeten your karma! Thanks.
Great Stuff.One great thing that one can take from the meters, is how compressed or not, a particular track is, and also a rough idea of the crest factor per track or in the master, just looking at the peak and RMS tops and the difference between them.
This actually helped a lot. Thanks for the thorough explanation. Now it's like I have to go back and do so much more. Your channel has actually helped me more then everything I've learned on my own in all my years of producing. Thanks for all the amazing content.
Great video and very important facts to get a balanced mix with enough headroom for the mastering. As long as you are working only "in the box" it works fine. The problem of this " -18 dB rule" comes when you would like to integrate external effect processors that are connected to your audio interface (especially some great sounding vintage reverbs and delays with only analog ins and outs ). Then the -18dB leveled signal could be sometimes too low for those external reverb processors and they wouldn't react properly (e.g. no reverb is coming out or only with a lot of hiss). In this case I recommend to copy this certain signal to another track from where you send it to your external reverb processor with an higher average level (maybe -12 dB or -6 dB). Otherwise you wouldn't hear any reverb on your fx returns. Some external reverb boxes offers digital i/o's like AES/EBU or SPDIF, then you stay on the digital domain and you may work with them as a plugin.
Young William, congratulations on the 100k. Well Deserved... BTW, you can add the plug-ins you need to either midi/audio, then save them as "default' so you will never need to do copy paste. But you knew that already!
Ugh. I wish I watched this earlier in my learning process. I could have saved a TON of frustration. I couldn’t figure out why everything was making sounded so unbalanced and muddy. I had zero clue that you had to balance the gain at each stage of the process. Just went into my last project and made the adjustments and now it sounds incredible.
thank you so much for this! i've recently learned the general principles of this concept but was struggling with specifics and this really illuminated things for me. great video
@@EDMTips I think most of it all it helped just to see the process start to finish in one sequence, but specifically I realised I'd been going wrong by setting my inital levels on different channels as a kind of rough relative mix rather than having them all be roughly equal. I also hadn't thought to add another gain plugin at the end of the chain for attenuation and had struggled trying to use the channel fader very low down.
I've been producing for nearly 7 years now. Everything in producing can sometimes feel challenging. For me, mixing in particular. Whilst it's not exactly the dark art it once felt like, it's still really hard sometimes. Thanks for the tips.
This opened my eyes a bit. I haven't cared much about gain in the daw, as most of them are 32 bit float anyway, so even if you clip something on the meter, you can dial it back on your next stage, no distortion should happen. But I've got also in a different setting a behringer x32 console and the manual states the same.... set your input gains to -18 dB, which is actually the top of the green region on the meters. I have been using it like this on the x32 and doing it in a daw makes totally sense. Thank you!
I’m currently getting back into mixing/engineering/mastering my music which is rap, these past two days I’ve learned SO MUCH and had gained very good information and insight from your videos which is wild because, the majority of music you mix is EDM!! I’ve watched hundreds of videos with Hip Hop engineers but none have ever been as clear as you!! Love from Coachella EDM Tips keep on making these amazing videos!!
Just awesome.. been trying to learn this for months! Thanks so much for this tutorial.. first that explained it very easy so i understand every part of it haha, and with good examples. So helpful! Congrats to 100k subscribers!!
Brilliant video Will. You've got such a natural gift for teaching and presenting. One quick question. Would you put a utility between every plugin on an effects chain to maintain the -18dB across the whole chain? Thank you!
Thank you! Probably not, as most devices and plugins have an output volume, so I would gain match the output to the input (just by ear - doesn't have to be super accurate).
Thank you for this great insight. I was always gain staging using the peak instead of the rms levels. Also i didn’t balance the levels from plugin to plugin. The end result is great now. Keep up the good vids….cheers.
that's what I do, always automate volumes with utilities as well. I never touch the faders. This is a great video though, wish I'd seen it 10 years ago !!
Loving your videos, this is really helpful! I was wondering if you had any videos specifically focused on the writing stage of a track? I find that when I’m writing I get too caught up and getting the mix perfect and I lose site of the direction of the tracks.
Wow your tips are super amazing, refresh the knowledge you already have but also teaches you new things which you accidentally ignore learning this super massive world of music, thank you so much!
Wow that was the first video of yours that i have watched and it has immediately cleared this up and it has been confusing me for years. Subscribed, thank you 🙏
So I learned gain staging when I went to school. And was taught by a few engineers I sat with. But was never taught it this deep. I wish you would do this with studio one or reason. As I am a more visual or hands on type. But awesome awesome video. Thank you so much
I've seen 8 or 10 of your videos by now, and most of them contain information that I've already known from years of audio mixing on my own, but I really appreciate how you describe and explain these concepts to your audience. And of course I learn a thing or two here and there. So I subscribed today, even though I don't produce EDM, because your tips are universal, and I look forward to getting your new videos in my YT feed. Keep up the good work!
Hi Will. Great video about gain staging. When I just started out producing music I wasn’t that aware of gain staging. This was a long time ago tbh. It’s so important to have a healthy flow between all channels running through different VSTs etc. Love ❤️ your channel.
@@EDMTips At the moment I struggle with arranging my tracks correctly. I produce music for over ten years and this is the first time in my music career facing this problem. Any tips?
Great tips... I've been using the pink noise reference for gain staging, but I like the idea of using the -18 average dB as a guide.. Also, since my artist name is SweetSpot, I particularly enjoyed this video... LOL
Awesome, using gain staging has transformed my mixes in the last year or so. Great tips! What about send buses like reverb or delay? Should they be gain staged too?
Any effect or distortion or anything that you put on any sound needs to be part of the game staging process. This can be accomplished through numerous times of resampling
Great question! It probably doesn't really matter much in most instances, but if you are feeding them into some kind of analogue-modelled plugin (like a saturator), then ideally yes!
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Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. If you liked this video don't forget to smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming tutorials! 🔥
Amazing content
@@Andrew-yg7bg Thanks!
Hi Will, golden info as always!
Excellent !
Thanks Will Have testing working very well !
Didnt realize those shades of green represented average and peak. Also, I’ve been fooling my ears by not matching the gain increase some effects/plugins cause. Huge game changer. Thank you as always
You can use a clipper plugin to tuck in that light shade(peak) into the dark shade(rms) and achieve more headroom and avoid overworking the limiter on the master. Check out the Clip To Zero method by Baphometrix.
@@ELLIOT8209 thank you m8!
@@ELLIOT8209thank you for this recommendation much appreciated.
Learned more in these 14 minutes than hours of courses and discussions in the past. Super!
Nice, stoked to hear that, Alex!
Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
After hours of watching various gain staging videos I’ve finally found one which clearly explains how and why🥳🥳
your branding has gotten incredible, highly professional, you're in my top 3 music/audio teachers, I don't have a favorite one, you're all great at different stuff/genres, much love Will
You have a really great way of explaining these concepts. I felt so overwhelmed before finding your channel, but now I'm empowered to keep learning. Thank YOU!
You're welcome, Tanisha! Thank you for watching and supporting the channel 🙂🙌🏻
After digging through countless youtube vids on gainstaging and not really grasping it fully....I felt a bit fed up always getting bits of info but never the full concept. Until I just now stumbled upon your video....and at the end I have a Big Smile on my face! Finally I understand it all....thank you so much....awesome! 👍😁👍🎵🎵🎵🎵
Awesome, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
Anything else you're struggling with and would like me to cover on my channel?
@@EDMTips - thank you - will keep it in mind👍🎵
im doing semi professional producing for almost 10 years but NEVER heard of this EVER.
Thank you so much !!!
I’ve seen so many videos never once heard anyone say gainstage my groups 😢.
Cheers man.
You're welcome :)
Game changer ❤
Commenting here just to let algorithm know this is a great video, please recommend it to more producers.
Exactly what i needed 👍👏😊. Next video on Tonal balance control ❤🌹🙏🏾
You are really good at keeping things simple yet you're able to teach stuff that's kind of complex for beginners.
You make even the complex stuff simple is what I'm trying to say, and a 10 minute video of your feels more like a 2 minute video because it's just a constant flow of efficiently conveyed knowledge!! Subscribed without hesitation, thank you so much buddy :)
Thank you for the sub and kind words, I really appreciate the support! 🙂🙌🏻
This one is the eye opener tutorial. I knew about gain staging but not in such detail. Thanks a ton for this bro❤
You're welcome, glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
I can't believe that I'm watching this for the third time in 2 days, why didn't my audio school cover this so eloquently? would have saved me YEARS!
Glad it was helpful! Anything else you're struggling with?
@@EDMTips I've tried to mix people's vocals into my instrumentals, but because we are all just file sharing, I find it hard to mix it in because they used crumby microphones, or peaked too often in the recording. The vocals can't be re-recorded. Are there tips for fixing noisy vocal recordings?
Realizing as well that by the 3rd time i watch these I GET IT!!!😂🎉 I like this guy
The 5th gainstaging video i have watched... So good I do not have to watch another. Thank you so much!!!
First time I’ve understood gain staging properly. Usually videos on the topic are an hr long! Nice work, I’m looking forward to trying this on a mix. Thanks!
YoUre welcome! Let me know how you get on
I’ve never ever ever had a tutorial where I’ve learned so much I normally use the faders to gain stage ! This is gonna help me sooooooo much mate thanks a lot ❤️
When you use your faders you are just increasing or decreasing the volume, not the gain ;)
You're welcome! 🙂
@@jeremietoussaint4085 whats the difference between volume and gain?
@@bernardodocruzeiro2496 Im learning about this too, the way I understand it is gain volume is the waveform volume increase/decrease.
@@bernardodocruzeiro2496 see it as Gain - input, Volume - output. So when you're working with a bunch of plugins in a channel you want your GAIN to be (somewhere) around the sweet spot down the processing chain in order to achieve the best possible sound and keep enough headroom for final processing of the whole track.
Volume is just how strong, or loud, your sound is in the mix. For example, if you want your strings to be somewhere in the background you'll adjust the VOLUME, not the gain.
Thank you so much. After countless gain staging videos you have explained things properly and the most simplest for me to understand. I appreciate u man
Hi Will, I'm devouring all your videos one by one, I'm coming from a "little" creative block and you're getting back the fresh spark of creativity and the desire to continue composing and mixing. Particularly, this technique was one of my favourite in the past (it's the most comfortable way for mixing as well), but I've got rushed by the "more volume on each track" syndrome and lost my way. Thanks for this super clear reminder, for your awesome explanations and, equally important, the A/B demo results of one way and another. Really really appreciated. You have a new fan for sure!
BOOM! 🙌🙌 😎
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support 🙂
Great explanation. I will be checking out more of your videos!
Glad you enjoyed!
so well explained. first video i ever see really breaking it down.thx
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
Thank you for doing this video. I already understand gain staging, but I see so many people of all levels doing tutorials online that clearly don’t. It’s an important topic that every producer should know
Your amazing at explaining things, this topic in particular is something i think isnt taught well even over YT, it was well done and i dont even use ableton. Thank you!
Thank you, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙌
Holy crap man, i just went into one of my tracks that was good but sounding a bit underwhelming, put a gain plugin on each track and set them to each one at -18 then put all the faders back to 0 and it sounds fukn great and i haven't even started actually mixing yet... wtf... this is a game changer for me. Thankyou!
Rock on! You're welcome! 🙂
Yknow man i appreciate the little zooms and stock footage you put in. Your editing helps you get to the subject faster than others. I like it.
Cheers! Working with a really good editor now :)
Great video Will!
I think my favorite tip is about A/B with your gains matched in volume. So many times I see videos of people cranking a compressor or saturator and then thinking it sounds better because it's only louder!
Exactly!
good one!
Yes. This is the only way to tell what an analogue emulation plug really sounds like.
I’ve been binge watching all your videos the past 2 weeks and my mix downs have improved tenfold! It’s now more balanced and consistent, especially when playing them on multiple speaker types. Thanks for all the content and help youve provided!
You're welcome, I am glad you found my videos helpful so far! 🙌🏻
Bro this is incredibly 🔥 . I love u u have saved my life. Being stressing up with music for about 5years now and thinking to quit. Watching this has changed my conception over how signal control affects music even the plugin gain. I love it. Can u teach us plugin arrangements on buses and auxiliaries aswell
Hey great job breaking that down to a practical list that follows signal flow and explaining why gain staging makes a difference in the actually fader movement- I knew all of this stuff but for some reason felt weird about using secondary gain utility plug which is stupid. Another good side effect of having gains at the end of the fx chain on each channel is that you can use the last gain to balance- then all your automation is proportional so it just rides on top of the new level. Much better than going into volume automation points- selecting them all and bringing them all down. Also- that last gain plug in can be automated as well. Great job!
Thank you! I’m glad you found it useful :)
THANK YOU SO MUCH! i was in a rut for hours trying to find a good db ratio for my sounds, and this fixed it. my track is so much cleaner and more smooth now
Dude, you just helped me fix problems in my mixes I was beating myself up trying to figure out. Thanks!!
You're welcome, Matt, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙂
Thanks for this ! I usually set the gain stage at -18 except for the KICK and Bass wich are at -12, and still have to lower something between 5db and 12db on the Trim to keep under -12 (when using processed or normalized Drums of course)
Hey Will, I love your videos, just when you think you know a little bit, you come along and give us so much more valuable tips n hints. I always say it, but thank you for your time and effort. :)
Thanks for the support, and you're welcome! :)
Thanks for the vid. A little constructive criticism: The two tracks at the start to demonstrate gain staging were different parts of the song / The first version had no snare. Would be a fair comparison to use the same part of the song. Just as demonstrated in your gain matching tip.
Sheesh man, thank you SO much. I've been researching gain staging for yonks but never had it laid out so clearly. Just applied it to a track in Cubase and feel like your tips have improved it tenfold. I can't thank you enough! Subscribed; will watch everything you put out haha All my respect to you.
Another very insightful video, and will definitely employ these techniques. I can already hear the improvements in my mix..haha
Nice one! Glad it was helpful! Anything else you're struggling with?
Thankyou so much man, already had a good grasp on gainstaging but only now have I realised that I was setting levels based on peak and not RMS😂 a stupid error but I’m excited to see how my mixes sound from now on
I feel so relieved whenever I see any of your videos, such a lot of fine tuning for my music mate, thank you so much
Very informative. Never thought to have the gain utility at the beginning and end of a chain. Very clever, thank you!
Thank you so much for the support! Glad the video was helpful! :)
Especially helpful discussion about staging instrument channel and aggregate bus and post effect
Another great lesson, Will! Thanks very much. In addition to your hour-long 'how to produce' videos, I'd love to see some 'how to mix/master' videos i.e. to watch your entire process from inputting the stems to mastering a 'shiny new banger'. ;) I watched some of the succincter videos and thought it'd be interesting to see a whole session and hear your thought process throughout! Keep up the great work. All the best.
Honestly, I easily understand and follow along your every videos. Thank you so much, sir🙏❤
YOOOO first producer to shout out Studio One!!!!! I've NEVER seen that in a pro production tutorial!!!! Anyways, thanks for all your content and videos. I've learned (and keep learning) SOOOO much, and you explain it all with such clarity and ease. I've become a WAY better producer since a year ago when I didn't know you existed.
You're welcome, glad you found my videos helpful 🙂
This has made what I’ve been finding a very confusing topic crystal clear. Thank you ❤
Great explanations, vital details, plus hands-on instruction. I think you have generously shared your secrets with the public - this will sweeten your karma! Thanks.
I am using this formula, and it's making an audible difference to the mix on my new track.
Thanks for putting this up dude 😉
Stoked to heat that and happy to help! 🙂🙌🏻
Great Stuff.One great thing that one can take from the meters, is how compressed or not, a particular track is, and also a rough idea of the crest factor per track or in the master, just looking at the peak and RMS tops and the difference between them.
you are a true master, you are one of the best explainers of this subject. Thank you
You're welcome, glad you found this helpful! 🙌🏻
This actually helped a lot. Thanks for the thorough explanation. Now it's like I have to go back and do so much more. Your channel has actually helped me more then everything I've learned on my own in all my years of producing. Thanks for all the amazing content.
You’re utmost welcome! Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support! 🙂 Keep it up!
great tips, can't wait to try them
Go for hot, Chris, and let me know how it goes! 🙂
Great video and very important facts to get a balanced mix with enough headroom for the mastering. As long as you are working only "in the box" it works fine.
The problem of this " -18 dB rule" comes when you would like to integrate external effect processors that are connected to your audio interface (especially some great sounding vintage reverbs and delays with only analog ins and outs ). Then the -18dB leveled signal could be sometimes too low for those external reverb processors and they wouldn't react properly (e.g. no reverb is coming out or only with a lot of hiss). In this case I recommend to copy this certain signal to another track from where you send it to your external reverb processor with an higher average level (maybe -12 dB or -6 dB). Otherwise you wouldn't hear any reverb on your fx returns. Some external reverb boxes offers digital i/o's like AES/EBU or SPDIF, then you stay on the digital domain and you may work with them as a plugin.
This is the first mixing channel that makes sense to me. Thank you so much!
Young William, congratulations on the 100k. Well Deserved... BTW, you can add the plug-ins you need to either midi/audio, then save them as "default' so you will never need to do copy paste. But you knew that already!
Thank you, and indeed you can, and indeed I did!
Ugh. I wish I watched this earlier in my learning process. I could have saved a TON of frustration. I couldn’t figure out why everything was making sounded so unbalanced and muddy. I had zero clue that you had to balance the gain at each stage of the process. Just went into my last project and made the adjustments and now it sounds incredible.
Sweeet, then my job here is done! Glad you found it helpful :)
thank you so much for this! i've recently learned the general principles of this concept but was struggling with specifics and this really illuminated things for me. great video
Stoked ot hear that! Really glad you enjoyed it! Any point in particular you found useful?
@@EDMTips I think most of it all it helped just to see the process start to finish in one sequence, but specifically I realised I'd been going wrong by setting my inital levels on different channels as a kind of rough relative mix rather than having them all be roughly equal. I also hadn't thought to add another gain plugin at the end of the chain for attenuation and had struggled trying to use the channel fader very low down.
I've been producing for nearly 7 years now. Everything in producing can sometimes feel challenging. For me, mixing in particular. Whilst it's not exactly the dark art it once felt like, it's still really hard sometimes. Thanks for the tips.
Very dope and easy to understand. Thank you
You're welcome, glad it as helpful! Any point in particular you found useful?
I have to say that this is the best tutorial I ever had wached for gain staging. Now I got it. Thank you very much you made my day.
Rock on, glad it helped! Anything else you're struggling with?
This opened my eyes a bit. I haven't cared much about gain in the daw, as most of them are 32 bit float anyway, so even if you clip something on the meter, you can dial it back on your next stage, no distortion should happen. But I've got also in a different setting a behringer x32 console and the manual states the same.... set your input gains to -18 dB, which is actually the top of the green region on the meters. I have been using it like this on the x32 and doing it in a daw makes totally sense. Thank you!
Beautiful video. Someone finally explained gain staging to me in a way that made sense.
Rock on! You're welcome! 🙂
I’m currently getting back into mixing/engineering/mastering my music which is rap, these past two days I’ve learned SO MUCH and had gained very good information and insight from your videos which is wild because, the majority of music you mix is EDM!! I’ve watched hundreds of videos with Hip Hop engineers but none have ever been as clear as you!! Love from Coachella EDM Tips keep on making these amazing videos!!
You're welcome, I am glad you found my videos useful! Thanks for watching and the kind words of support! 🙂
Just awesome.. been trying to learn this for months! Thanks so much for this tutorial.. first that explained it very easy so i understand every part of it haha, and with good examples. So helpful! Congrats to 100k subscribers!!
Brilliant video Will. You've got such a natural gift for teaching and presenting.
One quick question. Would you put a utility between every plugin on an effects chain to maintain the -18dB across the whole chain?
Thank you!
Thank you! Probably not, as most devices and plugins have an output volume, so I would gain match the output to the input (just by ear - doesn't have to be super accurate).
Thank You! @@EDMTips.
Thank you for this great insight. I was always gain staging using the peak instead of the rms levels. Also i didn’t balance the levels from plugin to plugin. The end result is great now. Keep up the good vids….cheers.
that's what I do, always automate volumes with utilities as well. I never touch the faders. This is a great video though, wish I'd seen it 10 years ago !!
Game changer! This makes such a difference, even to a basic mix!
100k! Congrats!🥳
Thanks, Michael, I truly appreciate the support!
Loving your videos, this is really helpful! I was wondering if you had any videos specifically focused on the writing stage of a track? I find that when I’m writing I get too caught up and getting the mix perfect and I lose site of the direction of the tracks.
Absolutely! Check out these tutorials, they should help:
th-cam.com/video/BmSKebGw4h0/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/jEdMfr5tLcQ/w-d-xo.html
@@EDMTips wow! Thanks so much for the quick reply! I will check these out. Your videos have really upped my game. Ty
You're welcome!
Great lesson!!!
Really glad you liked it! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
You taught gain staging properly made it easier to understand.
I learned so much from this video that other videos with this lesson didn’t teach
Glad it helped!
Wow your tips are super amazing, refresh the knowledge you already have but also teaches you new things which you accidentally ignore learning this super massive world of music, thank you so much!
You're welcome, glad you liked them! 🙌🏻
@@EDMTips yess definitely 🤗
Wow that was the first video of yours that i have watched and it has immediately cleared this up and it has been confusing me for years. Subscribed, thank you 🙏
Well, looks like I've done my job then! 😉 Thanks for subscribing and I hope you continue to enjoy the content! 🙌🏻
Biggup , another great video 🙌
Cheers!
Awesome review! Amazing! Thanks for nice sharing! Have a lovely day!👍
hey thanks again for your videos.. all my production is going to a next level thanks to your tutorials!!! thanks a million ❤❤❤
Rock on! I stoked to hear that, Manny! 🙌🏻
Super helpful. Thanks!
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
Wonderful !! Never knowing it before. Thank you sir
So I learned gain staging when I went to school. And was taught by a few engineers I sat with. But was never taught it this deep. I wish you would do this with studio one or reason. As I am a more visual or hands on type. But awesome awesome video. Thank you so much
You're welcome! 🙂
I finally understand gain staging after watching this.. You Just helped me sooooo much
THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!💪
Awesome, glad you found it useful! Anything else you're struggling with?
@@EDMTips yeah, need to know how to get my music sounding industry quality and loud (mastering)
Straight away, i've learned something, Light Green and Dark Green on the mixer, thanks Will.
Rock on! You're welcome, Anthony! 🙂
The last mistake was my key takeaway 😉All very useful! Thank you so much.
You're welcome, glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Это лучшее, что за последнее время я увидел на ютюбе! Кратко и понятно ;) Огромная благодарность тебе, человек! Мир твоему дому!
Very Nice Video, many thanks!
You're welcome, glad you liked it! Any point in particular you found useful?
what a great walk through of gain staging! Subscribed.
Glad you found it useful, and welcome aboard! :)
I've seen 8 or 10 of your videos by now, and most of them contain information that I've already known from years of audio mixing on my own, but I really appreciate how you describe and explain these concepts to your audience. And of course I learn a thing or two here and there. So I subscribed today, even though I don't produce EDM, because your tips are universal, and I look forward to getting your new videos in my YT feed. Keep up the good work!
hands down best gain staging video
Hi Will. Great video about gain staging. When I just started out producing music I wasn’t that aware of gain staging. This was a long time ago tbh. It’s so important to have a healthy flow between all channels running through different VSTs etc. Love ❤️ your channel.
Your welcome! Glad it was helpful! Anything else you're struggling with?
@@EDMTips At the moment I struggle with arranging my tracks correctly. I produce music for over ten years and this is the first time in my music career facing this problem. Any tips?
Great tips... I've been using the pink noise reference for gain staging, but I like the idea of using the -18 average dB as a guide..
Also, since my artist name is SweetSpot, I particularly enjoyed this video... LOL
Impressive and valuable insight at every step! Explaining gain staging and how to properly implement throughout the production is spot on!
Thank you, I am glad it was helpful! Anything else you'd like me to cover?
Really clear and interesting one Will, the format and quality of the video is also really enjoyable ! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Best video I've seen on gain staging, its something I know I needed to do better but never grasped it properly. Until now. Thanks Will!
BOOM! 🙌🙌 😎 Glad it was helpful!
Thorough, simple and concise. Thank you for the re-instruction
Great video. Thanks!
You're welcome! Glad it was helpful 🙂
Thank you man This is a perfect video...will def be trying these methods
11:20 ... Love the little ornamental bits in these videos. "Magic ay? 😃" 😂
Awesome, using gain staging has transformed my mixes in the last year or so. Great tips! What about send buses like reverb or delay? Should they be gain staged too?
really want to know the answer to this too
Of course
Any effect or distortion or anything that you put on any sound needs to be part of the game staging process. This can be accomplished through numerous times of resampling
Great question! It probably doesn't really matter much in most instances, but if you are feeding them into some kind of analogue-modelled plugin (like a saturator), then ideally yes!
Brilliant video brother!!👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thank you! 😎
От души, человечище! Наконец-то услышал что-то новое.
BOOM! Appreciate it! 🙌🙌 😎
clipping is FINE! in some genres, sound design etc. heavier music