Dude I love your channel. There are so many others to watch but you make it so simple that it makes me wanna fire up 9.5 right now and get to work. Please keep doing all these great videos!
An easier, faster way to change the gain of a bunch of channels is to link them together first. Then, changing the gain in the Pre Rack changes all of the linked channels at the same time.
Remember from your elementary math class, working with negative numbers, if you have a negative # and you add a positive # (for sound) your sound will increase, if you have a negative # and you add a negative # your sound will decrease. So if your signal is say -20db and your target is -18db, you will want to increase your gain (ADD) by +2db. A lot of people have trouble working with negative numbers so, for sound you are mostly working with negative "dBs". So a good way to think of your meter reading is the smaller the # the "louder" the signal. In other words -18db is "louder" than - 25db. You see (25) and you want (18) your first instinct is to subtract (7) or gain down, working with negative #s you want to gain up, or get closer to (0db).
Ok understood. Thanks for the good tutorial. But what about the meters in Cubase? They are postfader by default as far as I know. Doesn't it make sense to put them all to "input" metering, since we are looking at the very beginning of the digital chain?
Thank You Thank You Thank You....!!! Had a friend who was constantly explaingin gainstaging to me but I just couldn't get it.. Got it now though thank you great explanation..
Great tutorial. I found that I was doing ‘gain staging’ without knowing what it was called. I found the pre’s more by luck than judgement. I standardized using -8dB and thought I was being harsh so will try -12dB to give more headroom. Thanks
Rather than adjusting the pre-gain, what about normalizing the track to your desired output (-12/-18 or ??). Pros or cons, please. Always look forward to your sage advice! Thanks for what you are doing!
the only difference is a philosophic one. if a whole track is too loud/not loud enough you'd adjust the pre-gain, cuz it's just easier. If there's a few events in the same track that don't fit in volume, you'd adjust the level of those/normalise them.
most analog emulated plugs are cali for incoming -14dbfs for best results out. eg.ssl, cla2a, cla76, kramer tape etc. dave rocks anyway!!! peace davey d!!!
thx, exactly what i needed. now i have to figure out how vu meter in cubase and callibrating in general works. any advice? if i am aiming at a -12 dBFS on the stereo out, should my vu meter 0 be at -12 dBFS?
You want your tracks at -12db so that summed up, they don't go higher than -6db in the loudest part of your song. This leaves the mix\master engineer 6db of headroom to work with.
Hago in the hell you get cubase to read the right pregain levels on the input metering setup. It drives me crazy. The master bus is the only one that reacts to it. Other than that, input, or post-fader it does the same on the pregain adjustments. It does reduce the volume but theres no visual reading on the channel metters
Yep ! isn't cubase a great Daw , I use to stage gain at neg 12 , but after learning more about digital and analogue meters have just started stage gaining at neg 18 , I have recorded and mixed my last four songs like this and they are probably the best mixes I have done, great tips Dave keep em coming ;-) Trevor tu^25
At my age old habits are engrained Ha ha , but liking -18 so will probably stick with it now and it will become an old habit ha ha , loving your posts , you always inject fun and enthusiasm ,and thats what its about ;-) Trevor
Great video buddy thanks for this! Quick question though, wouldn't lower all the fades with just a VCA help gaining head room in the stereo channel? That's usually what I do, I just leave the stereo bus at 0 and lower all the volumes so that I have -7~-10 and just crank the volume on my audio interface. Is that a good way to tackle gain staging? Thanks in advance!
If I'm understanding your scenario correctly, the problem with this approach is that your fader levels are not linear they are logarithmic [look at the dB scale next to them]. So for example a "small adjustment" nearer the lower end of a fader could mean a dB changeseveral factors higher than a similar move nearer the 0 line. Its usually best to use the gain to set initial track levels and with the faders as close to 0 as possible and then adjust around this on your mixes. Hope this makes sense
Any cons to adjusting gain at an individual clip level rather than whole track level? As in your verse may be at the ideal gain level but the chorus part may have been tracked much louder. To me no sense in adjusting pre-gain as its the chorus clip that presents the problem
Would the negative gain change the input level to the compressor which i have on my audio track, for instance? I mean, the typcal situation when you have done with your arrangement and you ready to start with mix and mastering, you have all your instruments and plugins right here in project and you realise that there are a lot peaks and clips. Could i just use the negative gain to all my tracks, simultaneously? Would it solve the problem of headroom?
Typically, you would gain stage at the start of a mix. Doing it after you've already added plugins might throw things out of balance. The gain staging is to give you headroom for those plugins. However, if you need headroom, you can always bypass your inserts, reduce the gain on any tracks that are too hot, and then add the inserts back and work from there.
i always wonder what i should do, in order to get less noise: setting my hardware synths level at max, and have my input gain levels relatively low.... or rather not send too much signal from the hardware outs... and then increase the input gains by a quite good amount, on the daw. any idea ?
Unless you want to color the tone with a preamp, I would try to get the majority of the signal from the hardware you're trying to capture. If you do want the preamp to impart some character, it will probably end up being a blend of the two, I would just try not to make the signal too hot, so you have some headroom in the mixing stage. Hope this helps!
The faders are after the inserts in the signal chain, so adjusting pre-gain controls the level at which the signal hits all of your EQ's, compressors, etc. This will effect the way that many plugins function. Analog emulation plugins particularly like to be fed signals that are not as hot.
Nice trick and tutorial! But unfortunately the "Pre" section isn't available on Cubase Elements version 😅
Dude I love your channel. There are so many others to watch but you make it so simple that it makes me wanna fire up 9.5 right now and get to work. Please keep doing all these great videos!
Thanks man! I'll keep em coming!
I didn't know the gain knob stays before everything even if you have the inserts to be before the channel strip. Amazing, thank you! Subbed!
You are correct about the noise cancelling headphones!
Thank you! I did not know about that Pre rack. Pretty helpful.
Thanks again. Understood better this time!
This really helps out with getting the mix to sit right. Thank you so much!
Very helpful. Many thanks, Shaun. Do you subscribe to the -18dBFS rule?
An easier, faster way to change the gain of a bunch of channels is to link them together first. Then, changing the gain in the Pre Rack changes all of the linked channels at the same time.
Remember from your elementary math class, working with negative numbers, if you have a negative # and you add a positive # (for sound) your sound will increase, if you have a negative # and you add a negative # your sound will decrease. So if your signal is say -20db and your target is -18db, you will want to increase your gain (ADD) by +2db. A lot of people have trouble working with negative numbers so, for sound you are mostly working with negative "dBs". So a good way to think of your meter reading is the smaller the # the "louder" the signal. In other words -18db is "louder" than - 25db. You see (25) and you want (18) your first instinct is to subtract (7) or gain down, working with negative #s you want to gain up, or get closer to (0db).
Ok understood. Thanks for the good tutorial. But what about the meters in Cubase? They are postfader by default as far as I know. Doesn't it make sense to put them all to "input" metering, since we are looking at the very beginning of the digital chain?
Thank You Thank You Thank You....!!! Had a friend who was constantly explaingin gainstaging to me but I just couldn't get it.. Got it now though thank you great explanation..
Great tutorial. I found that I was doing ‘gain staging’ without knowing what it was called. I found the pre’s more by luck than judgement. I standardized using -8dB and thought I was being harsh so will try -12dB to give more headroom. Thanks
Very good tutorial. On the spot. Thank you.
Rather than adjusting the pre-gain, what about normalizing the track to your desired output (-12/-18 or ??). Pros or cons, please. Always look forward to your sage advice! Thanks for what you are doing!
the only difference is a philosophic one.
if a whole track is too loud/not loud enough you'd adjust the pre-gain, cuz it's just easier. If there's a few events in the same track that don't fit in volume, you'd adjust the level of those/normalise them.
Clear and to the point. Grazie!
Great stuff for me as an amateur! Thanks
@Talking Leaf Media: QUESTION: Do you know the Trim Plugin in Pro Tools. Is there anything comparable in Cubase 10.5. Pro available?
Yes. Powered Noise Cancelling headphones like the Bose Quiet Comfort series do work that way
Great video, great explanation, thaks :)
My pleasure!
Thank you for your excellent tutorials. Really really helpful. Your a cool dude.
Nice thing to learn. You made good tutorials..
Thanks man.....Just saved me a ton of time....Appreciate it....
most analog emulated plugs are cali for incoming -14dbfs for best results out. eg.ssl, cla2a, cla76, kramer tape etc. dave rocks anyway!!! peace davey d!!!
Its 18dbfs...
Great tip...I'm crap at math too...a little tweak here another there and we get there in the end.
thx, exactly what i needed. now i have to figure out how vu meter in cubase and callibrating in general works. any advice? if i am aiming at a -12 dBFS on the stereo out, should my vu meter 0 be at -12 dBFS?
Nice info there.
U not follow the -18 RMS & -6 Peak famous mixers suggestion on the master fader ? (before any master fx processors)
I would go as low as -18 or -20 dbfs. Helps when using analog style plugins and when using a lot of tracks.
No doubt. 0 is the limit, fidelity is nearly infinite at 24 (or 32) bits.
Thanks for this info, bro. It was helpful.
Can you please tell me how to calculate that gain staging....
thanks 4 information brth
Love and like 💟your videos.
Thank you very much! I alway thought, I know what I do. I was wrong! ;-}
You're welcome!
I kid you not, you are so helpful thanks
found you today and im glad !! thank you .. the siwng video was nice
You want your tracks at -12db so that summed up, they don't go higher than -6db in the loudest part of your song. This leaves the mix\master engineer 6db of headroom to work with.
I want u make a easy tutorial ,how to open CUBASS beginner and how to record and mix vocal
Great video! Thanks a lot!
Hago in the hell you get cubase to read the right pregain levels on the input metering setup. It drives me crazy. The master bus is the only one that reacts to it. Other than that, input, or post-fader it does the same on the pregain adjustments. It does reduce the volume but theres no visual reading on the channel metters
Yep ! isn't cubase a great Daw , I use to stage gain at neg 12 , but after learning more about digital and analogue meters have just started stage gaining at neg 18 , I have recorded and mixed my last four songs like this and they are probably the best mixes I have done, great tips Dave keep em coming ;-) Trevor tu^25
I should try -18 some time and see what's possible with that extra headroom, but old habits die hard!
At my age old habits are engrained Ha ha , but liking -18 so will probably stick with it now and it will become an old habit ha ha , loving your posts , you always inject fun and enthusiasm ,and thats what its about ;-) Trevor
I myself find -17 db perfect...
is it needed to balance the gain of group tracks 12 db?anyone plz reply
Thank you that was great
What are the buttons above the faders for (M S L E)?
mute, solo, listen and edit track
@@TalkingLeafMedia Ahhhh... ok. Thank you.
That is magic! Thankyou!!!!!!!
I noticed that Cubase Artist 9.5 does not have the Steinberg Frequency plug-in.
It comes with only Pro versions
Great video buddy thanks for this! Quick question though, wouldn't lower all the fades with just a VCA help gaining head room in the stereo channel? That's usually what I do, I just leave the stereo bus at 0 and lower all the volumes so that I have -7~-10 and just crank the volume on my audio interface. Is that a good way to tackle gain staging? Thanks in advance!
If I'm understanding your scenario correctly, the problem with this approach is that your fader levels are not linear they are logarithmic [look at the dB scale next to them]. So for example a "small adjustment" nearer the lower end of a fader could mean a dB changeseveral factors higher than a similar move nearer the 0 line. Its usually best to use the gain to set initial track levels and with the faders as close to 0 as possible and then adjust around this on your mixes. Hope this makes sense
That’s what I do as well. Good question.
Awesome again! Thanks!!!
You're welcome! I'm glad it helped.
Any cons to adjusting gain at an individual clip level rather than whole track level? As in your verse may be at the ideal gain level but the chorus part may have been tracked much louder. To me no sense in adjusting pre-gain as its the chorus clip that presents the problem
Absolutely not. The clip level gain controls are super useful for exactly the scenario you described.
Great help thanks
Would the negative gain change the input level to the compressor which i have on my audio track, for instance? I mean, the typcal situation when you have done with your arrangement and you ready to start with mix and mastering, you have all your instruments and plugins right here in project and you realise that there are a lot peaks and clips. Could i just use the negative gain to all my tracks, simultaneously? Would it solve the problem of headroom?
Typically, you would gain stage at the start of a mix. Doing it after you've already added plugins might throw things out of balance. The gain staging is to give you headroom for those plugins. However, if you need headroom, you can always bypass your inserts, reduce the gain on any tracks that are too hot, and then add the inserts back and work from there.
really nice! so question. instead of using trims there anything wrong with just having my faders -18?
Thank you
very useful...thanks!
Thanks for that tutorial :)
As always, good tutorial:)
Hi, TLF! Um...how come you have +dBFS values in the track in the first place? "Floating" audio?
Very useful video mate. Quick question, is it better to gain stage before you record or after you have recorded everything?
Also would you gain stage your bus/group tracks too?
WHAT INPUT LEVEL DO YOU RECORD AT IN CUBASE? -18, -12, -6 ETC....... PLEASE EXPLAIN THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!!
i always wonder what i should do, in order to get less noise: setting my hardware synths level at max, and have my input gain levels relatively low.... or rather not send too much signal from the hardware outs... and then increase the input gains by a quite good amount, on the daw. any idea ?
Unless you want to color the tone with a preamp, I would try to get the majority of the signal from the hardware you're trying to capture. If you do want the preamp to impart some character, it will probably end up being a blend of the two, I would just try not to make the signal too hot, so you have some headroom in the mixing stage. Hope this helps!
thank you sir
Tnx for tips
Thanks!
I get the headroom part, but why don't you just pull the faders down?
The faders are after the inserts in the signal chain, so adjusting pre-gain controls the level at which the signal hits all of your EQ's, compressors, etc. This will effect the way that many plugins function. Analog emulation plugins particularly like to be fed signals that are not as hot.
Wow, thanks! That makes a ton of sense!
That's exactly how noise cancelling headphones work.
Yay!
I didn't come here to learn about noise cancelling headphones.