Many engineers are wondering how to properly add gain to a mix, or they just want alternatives or simply that they cannot make it sound similar to the commercial counter parts, something about the gain that is different, what are they doing wrong, how should it be done...
I have many times tried to address this, questions keep coming, many are still in the boat of trying to figure it out. I will try to share some of my knowledge on this with the purpose to help.
My take is that it is a mixed bag of causes leading to this situation. The result is produced by several factors, not a single one. It is when the brain wants to have this being produced by a single factor, when engineers get into trouble.
It all starts with the frequency response of your input and output, because that is going to determine the kind of resonance landscape you are working within. Peak resonances are always to some degree going to be there, but when you automatically get those concentrated at very important frequency ranges and cannot hear them during mixing so you further amplify them, then at the end you are left with an issue - your mix is kind of noisy and the noise is kind of all over the place.
Good gain is a bi-product of having the peak resonances well distributed and that is to begin with the result of good acoustics and good monitoring. I would say that it is peak resonances in the low end that is kind of the ultimate thing to fix. With tons of unwanted peak resonances in the low end you are not going to feel the warmth of the mix, you are not going to find the kick drum and bass pleasant and the whole mix is going to feel uncomfortable. The noise might not necessarily be that audible, but it is there.
Once you are in this nice resonance zone with your art, from there in my opinion it still kind of becomes a matter of what tools you use. If you are working with hardware, good for you. If you are working with software, good luck. Every single dB closer to your target peak and rms levels is going to depend on having the natural vibe brought up with it, whatever bad resonances that have morphed into your production will be much amplified during your work with software and the natural beauty of the signal will be gone with it. Any attempts to then remove that will further degrade the sound. It's just not the kind of sound you want. So it is really important to get used to the idea that overall you get a greater sound with hardware.
Once you are in this nice resonance zone with your art, have great hardware to gain stage with, then at that point it becomes a matter of your skills. This is when stuff gets a little complicated, because you can at this point achieve many great results in many different ways. It's going to feel and sound different, but overall you are liking the results. But, in modern genres this is really your chance of getting good peak and rms levels in order to get your mix sound and feel like what you hear on radio. Good peak levels for instance is to not have the signal clip at any signal stage, pretty basic, but for many reasons this can happen.
Once you have succeeded with these things, in my opinion it becomes more and more about the gain staging relative to the stereo image from here. I tend to like to reduce all sound sources to mono early on during mixing, not with any plugins/effects, but simply by using the pan knobs. I'll share how I do this. Many of the sound sources are recorded in stereo and during recording you have tuned the production towards a certain rough stereo representation. I find that it is good to remove these stereo qualities and create the rough mix from a more mono version, because it helps to get a better overall view on how frequencies are fighting within the stereo image. When you then balance the mix with volume faders, EQ knobs and compressors, with volume riding and stuff, then once everything is in balance, you can gradually form the stereo image layer by layer starting from the center. What I like to do is to have the sound sources just touch and go past the current outer edge of the mix a little, just have the sound source separate a little in the stereo field compared to the rest. So as I am bringing more sound source further out I do so relative to the sound sources that are already panned. In this way I can layer the stereo image, layer by layer, towards the extreme end of the stereo spectrum. What is causing the separation in the stereo field is because the sound sources separate well at each L-R layer and the separation is mostly done with natural gain staging moves rather than through more complex processing. So please note how I am not just throwing in frequencies into the stereo pot when I am gain staging, I'm just teasing the listener when I use the stereo field. So less is more.
Later on, as you have been gain staging your mix, it more and more becomes a matter of properly dealing with whatever resonances you have ended up with. For instance you might have some noisy resonances in the side component showing up when you approach your target peak and rms levels. So gain staging is equally much about reducing gain and in doing so reducing noise. But reducing noisy peak resonances is something that works and something that should be done. These resonances can be constant or dynamic.
Once you then approach the final stages - mastering - it again becomes a matter of hardware and hardware headroom, as well as about having access to a good resonance zone. You want to be able to get into the sound and add and remove frequencies delicately in the proper way, step by step towards your target desired sound and emotion. This is what a good mastering work is about, but a good mastering work requires good incoming frequencies to master and good access to those frequencies. So if the mix has very complex dynamics, very complex noise characteristics, the ME has very low access and so on, it's worth considering this going back to mixing or recording rather than trying to address it at mastering. But chances are the mix is great but that you have to now make it sit well in the particular genre without losing any of that sweetness already present. At this point it is really about understanding the audio in terms of peak and rms level. Mastering is to a great degree an art of understanding levels, so in that way yes great gain is typically also a result of great mastering.
I have many times tried to address this, questions keep coming, many are still in the boat of trying to figure it out. I will try to share some of my knowledge on this with the purpose to help.
My take is that it is a mixed bag of causes leading to this situation. The result is produced by several factors, not a single one. It is when the brain wants to have this being produced by a single factor, when engineers get into trouble.
It all starts with the frequency response of your input and output, because that is going to determine the kind of resonance landscape you are working within. Peak resonances are always to some degree going to be there, but when you automatically get those concentrated at very important frequency ranges and cannot hear them during mixing so you further amplify them, then at the end you are left with an issue - your mix is kind of noisy and the noise is kind of all over the place.
Good gain is a bi-product of having the peak resonances well distributed and that is to begin with the result of good acoustics and good monitoring. I would say that it is peak resonances in the low end that is kind of the ultimate thing to fix. With tons of unwanted peak resonances in the low end you are not going to feel the warmth of the mix, you are not going to find the kick drum and bass pleasant and the whole mix is going to feel uncomfortable. The noise might not necessarily be that audible, but it is there.
Once you are in this nice resonance zone with your art, from there in my opinion it still kind of becomes a matter of what tools you use. If you are working with hardware, good for you. If you are working with software, good luck. Every single dB closer to your target peak and rms levels is going to depend on having the natural vibe brought up with it, whatever bad resonances that have morphed into your production will be much amplified during your work with software and the natural beauty of the signal will be gone with it. Any attempts to then remove that will further degrade the sound. It's just not the kind of sound you want. So it is really important to get used to the idea that overall you get a greater sound with hardware.
Once you are in this nice resonance zone with your art, have great hardware to gain stage with, then at that point it becomes a matter of your skills. This is when stuff gets a little complicated, because you can at this point achieve many great results in many different ways. It's going to feel and sound different, but overall you are liking the results. But, in modern genres this is really your chance of getting good peak and rms levels in order to get your mix sound and feel like what you hear on radio. Good peak levels for instance is to not have the signal clip at any signal stage, pretty basic, but for many reasons this can happen.
Once you have succeeded with these things, in my opinion it becomes more and more about the gain staging relative to the stereo image from here. I tend to like to reduce all sound sources to mono early on during mixing, not with any plugins/effects, but simply by using the pan knobs. I'll share how I do this. Many of the sound sources are recorded in stereo and during recording you have tuned the production towards a certain rough stereo representation. I find that it is good to remove these stereo qualities and create the rough mix from a more mono version, because it helps to get a better overall view on how frequencies are fighting within the stereo image. When you then balance the mix with volume faders, EQ knobs and compressors, with volume riding and stuff, then once everything is in balance, you can gradually form the stereo image layer by layer starting from the center. What I like to do is to have the sound sources just touch and go past the current outer edge of the mix a little, just have the sound source separate a little in the stereo field compared to the rest. So as I am bringing more sound source further out I do so relative to the sound sources that are already panned. In this way I can layer the stereo image, layer by layer, towards the extreme end of the stereo spectrum. What is causing the separation in the stereo field is because the sound sources separate well at each L-R layer and the separation is mostly done with natural gain staging moves rather than through more complex processing. So please note how I am not just throwing in frequencies into the stereo pot when I am gain staging, I'm just teasing the listener when I use the stereo field. So less is more.
Later on, as you have been gain staging your mix, it more and more becomes a matter of properly dealing with whatever resonances you have ended up with. For instance you might have some noisy resonances in the side component showing up when you approach your target peak and rms levels. So gain staging is equally much about reducing gain and in doing so reducing noise. But reducing noisy peak resonances is something that works and something that should be done. These resonances can be constant or dynamic.
Once you then approach the final stages - mastering - it again becomes a matter of hardware and hardware headroom, as well as about having access to a good resonance zone. You want to be able to get into the sound and add and remove frequencies delicately in the proper way, step by step towards your target desired sound and emotion. This is what a good mastering work is about, but a good mastering work requires good incoming frequencies to master and good access to those frequencies. So if the mix has very complex dynamics, very complex noise characteristics, the ME has very low access and so on, it's worth considering this going back to mixing or recording rather than trying to address it at mastering. But chances are the mix is great but that you have to now make it sit well in the particular genre without losing any of that sweetness already present. At this point it is really about understanding the audio in terms of peak and rms level. Mastering is to a great degree an art of understanding levels, so in that way yes great gain is typically also a result of great mastering.
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