Gain Staging – Better Mixes in 5 Minutes

WillDarling

Will Darling @EDMtips.com
Hi y'all...I've recently been experimenting with gain-staging and thought I'd put together a post on it. Let me know if you find it useful :)


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Although it doesn’t sound like the most exciting topic, “gain staging” is one of the most overlooked, simple, and important concepts of getting the best from your mix. Once understood and implemented, it can take your mixes to the next level, giving them more clarity, punch and loudness.
In a nutshell, gain staging is simply ensuring that an audio signal is at an optimum level from one stage to the next in the signal path, giving your sounds enough room to breathe and maximise dynamic impact.
Here’s an example: Your drum sample is set at the best level to go into a plugin (like a compressor or EQ), which is set at the correct level to go into the mix channel, which is set at the correct level to go into the master buss. Simple!


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It turns out that recording and mixing at high levels actually makes your final mix QUIETER (not to mention muddy and/or distorted). Read on, and I’ll show you how to overcome this problem once and for all…
This is primarily due to a lack of what is known as “headroom”. Headroom is simply the name for the amount of available gain you have between your current audio level and the maximum level your system can reach before distorting.


This maximum level is called “0dBFS” (which stands for “0 decibels full scale”) and your audio will distort at this level.


The master channel (aka “master buss”) in your DAW will have numbers displayed next to it, and these show the peak level of your audio in relation to 0dBFS. (In Ableton Live, the brighter green bars display the average level – RMS – and the darker green the peak level).


So, if your audio level is peaking at -10dBFS, you have 10dB of headroom. The nearer you are to 0dBFS, the less headroom you have.


Headroom is important as it allows the music to “breathe”; to have more dynamic range and not put such a strain on the system. It effectively provides a buffer zone to accommodate unexpected transients or loud sounds without risking clipping (unwanted distortion).


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**ACTION STEPS**: So what levels should you record, produce and mix at?
Below are some gain staging action steps you can implement in your tracks straight away. We’ll go through a standard audio signal path in reverse – from the end to the beginning – because if we know our goal, it will help inform the previous gain staging steps:


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.5. MASTERING STAGE:
When a track is mastered, the audio level will be increased to 0dBFS (or fractionally below to avoid distortion) – typically using compression and limiting plugins. This means we need to use a much quieter audio signal (with plenty of headroom) at the beginning of the mastering chain to avoid crushing the dynamics, or causing distortion.


.4. MASTER BUSS (MIX):
You should aim for your pre-master mix to hover at about -18dBFS average, with peaks of around -10dBFS. These figures aren’t exact – and some DAWS meter levels slightly differently – but it’s a good, safe level to aim for. If you mix is sounding a bit quiet, don’t be tempted to turn up the master fader (leave it in default position); just turn up your monitors or headphones. Why -18dBFS? Well, it’s the equivalent of 0dBVU on analogue equipment. That’s the level that every engineer would aim for when recording – averaging around 0dBVU with the peaks going a bit higher.


.3. CHANNEL FADER:
When working with audio (as opposed to MIDI), most DAWS will allow you to change the gain of a clip before any other signal processing. Alternatively (and also with MIDI channels), simply add a gain or trim plugin on each channel at the very beginning of the plugin chain. Adjust the level so the signal for that channel is peaking at about -18dBFS. In electronic dance music (or even pop or rock), the loudest sounds will generally be the kick and the snare, so If you set the gains for these first and mix everything else relative to them, you should avoid any problems.


.2. PLUGINS – THE SWEET-SPOT:
Similar to above, make sure the audio level is about -18dBFS BEFORE it enters each plugin. You can usually do this with the plugin’s native input control. If your plugin doesn’t have I/O gain controls – no problem – simply use a separate gain or trim plugin before-hand. This will avoid the plugins getting pushed too hard and will render the best results. For every plugin you add, you’ll need to check that you aren’t increasing or decreasing the level of the channel. If you are, simply adjust accordingly, e.g. Applying heavy EQ cuts will decrease the level of a channel, so to compensate you can raise the output gain.


*N.B. This is also important to take into account when referencing plugins. If something is louder, it generally sounds better – which can be misleading. To make sure you’re actually improving the sound with a plugin (not just making it louder) make sure you’ve set the gain controls so the audio is at the same level when the plugin is activated as when it’s bypassed.


.1. AUDIO OR MIDI:
Your audio clip or MIDI instrument should output at – you guessed it – about -18dBFS. But what if you’re recording vocals or an instrument through a microphone? Well, this is too broad a subject to cover in this post, but basically – as with the other stages (and for the same reasons) – try to record the average level as -18dBFS with peaks up to about -10dBFS.
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If you like the balance of levels you have in your mix (but they’re peaking too high in your master channel) simply group select the individual faders and bring them down (leaving your master fader on 0db). (This is why I strongly recommend any volume automation takes place BEFORE the mixer channel, e.g. with a gain plugin. Automated mixer levels will make tweaking your mix much harder than it needs to be)!


And there you have it! Why (and how) to gain-stage properly and breathe life into your mixes. If anything's unclear (or you disagree) let me know :)


P.S This is an adaptation of a post from my blog. If you would like to read the original blog post, leave a comment below and I'll post the link
 
And there you have it! Why (and how) to gain-stage properly and breathe life into your mixes. If anything's unclear (or you disagree) let me know :)

Thanks, I can definitely tell you have put some good amount of work in trying to help in a good way. I would say I disagree about pretty much everything, but that is just because I look at it from a different point of view, it is not because I think what you mention makes no sense.

In my world I look at the signal headroom pretty much as the size of a bank and the signal as the amount of money in the bank. So therefore in terms of gain staging for me it is first of all about the native headroom in all of the hardware - the size of the bank. :)

Gain staging with software vs. hardware gives different impact. With hardware you get better signal when you push it more, just like you should.

-0 dBFS is a relative measure, it corresponds to the maximum amount of input and output signal your specific audio interface can handle before it distorts, the more important figure in gain staging is the underlying level/voltage in dBu/volts. This varies a lot between audio interfaces/hardware.

An important part of the gain staging process is to understand the average input track dBu/volts that your particular arrangement with your particular gear allows before clipping. The higher the better.

When you record the signal back to software to print the mix, you should have a true peak meter engaged ITB that can tell you whether you have inter-sample clipping distortion in the recorded signal. You should print separate versions for various mp3 files at various bitrates, both when you bounce ITB or print through recording.

Part of gain staging is not only the gain or volume fader, but all gain altering stages relative to any range of frequencies. When you gain stage like this with hardware during mastering, it adds up to a great signal, in a way you cannot achieve with software.

An important aspect of gain staging is to use as much hardware vs. software as possible.

In heavy hardware based productions you can have some background noise issues, hence the better gain staging, the more important it is to keep the noise down. It is the combination of really good gain staging and really low background noise that makes up a very sweet sounding signal.

Also keep in mind that there are a lot of plugins too with a good amount of inherent noise, sometimes extreme amounts, but many times you can turn it off.
 
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Thanks DarkRed,
What a great reply! I'll admit, I don't have much experience with hardware gain-staging. When I used primarily hardware (in the old days!) I generally recording as hot as possible without clipping, paying little attention to the nuances of gain-staging. These were bedroom antics, and learning as I went. For studio sessions we had an engineer present - I guess well-versed in gain-staging. I'm going to look deeper into this... My interest is piqued!
 
Thanks DarkRed,
What a great reply! I'll admit, I don't have much experience with hardware gain-staging. When I used primarily hardware (in the old days!) I generally recording as hot as possible without clipping, paying little attention to the nuances of gain-staging. These were bedroom antics, and learning as I went. For studio sessions we had an engineer present - I guess well-versed in gain-staging. I'm going to look deeper into this... My interest is piqued!

Very good. Gain staging became a very hot topic when software based productions became popular, commercially gain staging with hardware became what could truly separate the masters from the rest, this is still the case today. Technically you can take advantage of digitally captured sample packages etc. in the raw format, but to the average engineer this is extremely demanding. When you "master" the "noise of digital", to enhance the perception of the natural beauty of analog, you can do great things with software. As a producer, mixing and mastering engineer it is important to be good at understanding sound and sound processing well, whether it is hardware or software based. Whatever route you take with software, at the end of the day it has to bathe in great hardware.

There are great software based sounds and processing out there that you can take advantage of, but overall it is more important to remain true about what a great sounding natural tone really is like and let that come first. I call this sound hygiene, the producer has to understand sound and sound processing from a truth perspective. The emotion and beauty of music comes from the natural characteristics of expressions with sound present in the production, within these natural characteristics of expressions with sound are important ingredients such as dynamics that contribute to the level of truth being channeled from the source/the player to the ears of the listener. Gain staging with hardware is what allows all of these various qualities to be maximized so that as much as possible of the truth in the original expressions reach the listeners.

To become good at gain staging you have to train your ears too. Much of this training comes from listening to the right hardware based productions captured at DVD quality, so that the ears are influenced by very little digital noise. You simply have to unlearn what a poor sounding software signal sounds like and learn what a great sounding hardware signal sounds like so that you become fully oriented around achieving true natural beauty. Once you have that sound memorized in your head, you can begin to align your hardware setup accordingly. This is what works.

So it's just as much about playback as it is about recording. To achieve great music and sound, one has to be in contact with it.
 
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As much times i keep hearing about gain-staging, im still getting mixes that are too hot to handle mainly caused by digital distortion. Thanks for keep spreading the knowledge, everyone.
 
If you're working in digital and you want the master to be at -18dB then just set the master fader to whatever that is. If there's no clipping anywhere then you're done.


You can have a hundred "gain stages" or 1, makes no difference. Gain is a perfectly linear operation in digital. So long as you aren't clipping. Even then it might not matter.


Or.. you know.. voodoo. Up to you.
 
To be fair, this is a very often confused thing due to the hard vs soft aspect, but threads like this would be useful if they contained lists of plugins that ARE designed like hardware, i.e. DO react differently to the 'heat' of the signal.
Most do not, and for 95% of people who are all ITB, nothing matters execept not ever clipping, but there are many threads like this that I think do leave a lot of people confused at best, misled at worst.

I very rarely use any plugin that is designed to react to input loudness, but I guess using them at close to the end of the process in a mix/master kind of chain is an interesting thing. I am 100% ITB and rarely touch hardware, but emulating 'organic' movement and randomness are a big part of my vst nerd out. But Im rambling..

One interesting plugin that is designed like this that I know a little of is this Waves thing-
Greg Wells MixCentric Plugin | Waves

Its an odd thing. I wish I could see inside it. It reacts kind of drastically to input level.
 
It's true that some plugins are level dependent but that's not really what this thread is trying to get at.

This thread is implying there is some magic level that has enough head room that will make things sound better because it just will. It's treating the whole production process, sound itself, as if it's level dependent.

Plugins that are gain dependent (that have a fixed threshold) are usually either saturators or compressors (usually having a fixed threshold because they are a model of a compressor that has a fixed threshold). If they have a variable threshold then their gain dependent characteristics are irrelevant. Again, so long as they don't clip.

But, even if the plugin has a fixed threshold you can stick a gain before it, a gain after it and you have a custom threshold. The plug wouldn't know the difference.
 
Well OP is referencing an 'optimum level', which is just not a thing unless the plugins are gain dependent.
Just tryin to give OP an out... :lol: Or at least have the thread balance out to confusing rather than just misleading. :)
 
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