dude you are a great teacher. One aspect you bring up about checking the levels at each plugin stage is key and has saved me from making a mix "over cooked" lol. you get to the point of what you are teaching. I've watched a lot of gain staging vids and most the time the person way overcomplicates the explanation. Appreciate what you do here brotha!
Awesome - you made my day with your comment - this is exactly what I was hoping for in creating these videos. Really appreciate the feedback!! Much more to come!
Another amazing video man! All those problems I've got in mixing my drum kit. I adjusted the 'gain' normally pretty good on the intervace and preamp but from time to time I'm getting into orange. This will help a lot. Wasn't aware of the gain reduction in the EQ🤘🤘🤘
Thanks, George...great advice, and great video work. I also have used a limiter on my master out, so this confirms this practice for me. But really, for me the great revelation is your TABS method. I never used busses before like that. I'm looking forward to incorporating this method, and going back and remixing all my old stuff! Thank you so much!
Hey, I had a question that I haven’t been able to get a good answer on. I produce in Ableton, and how I have my template setup is I have predefined bus groups for my drums, mids+highs, lows, and vocals. I route my m+h and lows into a side chain bus, and the side chain bus, drums, and vocals into a pre master. Finally to my question. I use a gain utility on the pre master to bring everything down 12db. Does it affect my mix at all if I’m doing this gain staging so far down the line on a single track? Should I be gain staging earlier on the bus level instead of at the pre master level? I’ve never noticed any issues, but I’m just a hobbyist so I wouldn’t have much feedback if it didn’t work.
Good question - thanks for reaching out! I pretty much manage gain throughout the entire signal flow. I think the thing is, using a utility to keep your pre-master at -12 db may cause some additional distortion or less desirable limiting / compression depending on what you are using for a gain utility. What has worked well for my workflow is managing all my gain at the track level (plugins included) then keeping by busses at -12 and then sending them to the stereo out. Although I may mix my busses up to as high as -6db, they never end up going over zero. That said, I also compress and EQ all my busses so it is important to manage your gain in all those too. My gain structure goal is to have everything under zero collected together to hit my stereo master at -3 db - then I add my mastering chain. My suggestion is manage your gain throughout the entire signal flow. Hope this is what you are looking for in an answer. Thanks for your questions and if there is anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out!
@@GGabrielMusic this is exactly the advice I was looking for. The clipping inside the virtual instrument was an eye opener. Now, I do produce more electronic stuff that uses clipping as sound design, but I’ve been struggling with where I let that happen naturally vs unintentionally. Thank you so much!
You can always have the original sound NOT clip and use clipping plugins to do that for you - that way you get to keep your actual gain below zero and clip and distort using plug ins designed for that purpose.
Unless your plugins are analog emulations, then the only place gain really matters is on the master bus. 32-bit floating point processing means you have tons of headroom. When you render, as long you're not clipping on the master output, you're good. It seems like you're really talking about recording levels, not gain structure, anyway.
Thanks for your input! In giving it the label 'gain structure' I am meaning the structure of your gain throughout your signal flow, which includes all the pathways your signal goes through. While I agree that you have tons of headroom, the reality is once your plugins, tracks, or busses peak, you can audibly hear the distortion and my goal was to point those instances out to ensure users get the cleanest sound possible without added distortion. Thanks for commenting!
@@GGabrielMusic Yes! Thank you for being willing to answer questions! At the moment, I do have several. 1) Are you planning to cover monitoring and custom headphone mixing? I almost understand it... 2) Back to the Autoload: regarding the monitoring that we set up there. Is that specifically for the engineer and 3) recommended for what I think of as pre-mixing (if you can imagine what I mean by that? Otherwise I can elaborate.) I really appreciate all your series and willingness to help us understand.
Answers: 1) Yes - I will be covering monitors and headphone mixing as I have added that to the list last week (great minds think alike!) 2) Please define what you mean by 'the monitoring we set up there' for your Autoload question - I'm not sure I understand 3) Please elaborate Thanks for reaching out - I will do my best to answer any questions on this once it is clarified. Thanks!!
@@GGabrielMusic 1) YEEHAAAAAA, hallelujah! thank you Great Mind! I am making great progress since you've been creating these series. 2) from The AutoLoad- Part 2: after 8:01, "adding auxiliaries, the first are just monitors for our (8:04) audio interface let's just for the sake of argument saying we're using a two-channel Scarlet so our first two auxes are going to just be Dem monitor" 3) Elaborating: my question should have been, how do we use the Dem monitor? Mine is still muted as per instructions for set up. BTW, I'm working the Scarlett 18i20, and I am recording pretty much every day, with what I think of as practice mixing (adding EQ, Compression, etc, as per the T.A.B.s map) to train my ears to distinguish what these entities add to the sound.
AHHH - ok - So, all those do is give you direct access to monitor your Scarlett IF there is even an occasion to do that. The only time I actually unmute those is if there is a lot of stuff in my session and let's say I want to play the bass over it but the bass level is too low (this works for vocals too). So...unmuting the direct monitoring of that gives me not only the level from the track I am trying to record, but also the raw signal of the bass (or vocal) so I can hear it better while tracking. I use it about 3% of the time - but I have the option if need be. It is fair to point out that it doesn't really work if you are using and amp simulator or something on the track level. It is really only if you want to boost the raw signal coming in from your interface if you need to. Hope this clears up what that does.
dude you are a great teacher. One aspect you bring up about checking the levels at each plugin stage is key and has saved me from making a mix "over cooked" lol.
you get to the point of what you are teaching. I've watched a lot of gain staging vids and most the time the person way overcomplicates the explanation. Appreciate what you do here brotha!
Awesome - you made my day with your comment - this is exactly what I was hoping for in creating these videos. Really appreciate the feedback!! Much more to come!
great video dude. “Hey I’m George and this is my recording” is a bop
LOL - Thanks! Appreciate the comment! Lots more to come!
Got it George Thanx
You are very welcome!!
Great tips again George, thanks!
My pleasure! More to come!!
This is a very important topic that many of us have little knowledge of how to control. Thanks for sharing your experience.
My pleasure - much more to come!
Another amazing video man! All those problems I've got in mixing my drum kit. I adjusted the 'gain' normally pretty good on the intervace and preamp but from time to time I'm getting into orange. This will help a lot. Wasn't aware of the gain reduction in the EQ🤘🤘🤘
Great!! Glad this was helpful!
Thanks, George...great advice, and great video work. I also have used a limiter on my master out, so this confirms this practice for me.
But really, for me the great revelation is your TABS method. I never used busses before like that. I'm looking forward to incorporating this method, and going back and remixing all my old stuff! Thank you so much!
Great! Makes me happy that you are liking the T.A.B.S. method - let me know how your mixes turn out! Thanks for the comment!
Nice video!! What about recording analogue? I hear the perfect noise/floor ratio is recording it to -16 into digital.
Analog is a whole other animal with so many factors. I should plan some analog videos for the future!
Loving this series
Thanks SayMan!!
Hey, I had a question that I haven’t been able to get a good answer on. I produce in Ableton, and how I have my template setup is I have predefined bus groups for my drums, mids+highs, lows, and vocals. I route my m+h and lows into a side chain bus, and the side chain bus, drums, and vocals into a pre master.
Finally to my question. I use a gain utility on the pre master to bring everything down 12db. Does it affect my mix at all if I’m doing this gain staging so far down the line on a single track? Should I be gain staging earlier on the bus level instead of at the pre master level? I’ve never noticed any issues, but I’m just a hobbyist so I wouldn’t have much feedback if it didn’t work.
Good question - thanks for reaching out! I pretty much manage gain throughout the entire signal flow. I think the thing is, using a utility to keep your pre-master at -12 db may cause some additional distortion or less desirable limiting / compression depending on what you are using for a gain utility. What has worked well for my workflow is managing all my gain at the track level (plugins included) then keeping by busses at -12 and then sending them to the stereo out. Although I may mix my busses up to as high as -6db, they never end up going over zero. That said, I also compress and EQ all my busses so it is important to manage your gain in all those too. My gain structure goal is to have everything under zero collected together to hit my stereo master at -3 db - then I add my mastering chain. My suggestion is manage your gain throughout the entire signal flow. Hope this is what you are looking for in an answer. Thanks for your questions and if there is anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out!
@@GGabrielMusic this is exactly the advice I was looking for. The clipping inside the virtual instrument was an eye opener. Now, I do produce more electronic stuff that uses clipping as sound design, but I’ve been struggling with where I let that happen naturally vs unintentionally.
Thank you so much!
You can always have the original sound NOT clip and use clipping plugins to do that for you - that way you get to keep your actual gain below zero and clip and distort using plug ins designed for that purpose.
Unless your plugins are analog emulations, then the only place gain really matters is on the master bus. 32-bit floating point processing means you have tons of headroom. When you render, as long you're not clipping on the master output, you're good. It seems like you're really talking about recording levels, not gain structure, anyway.
Thanks for your input! In giving it the label 'gain structure' I am meaning the structure of your gain throughout your signal flow, which includes all the pathways your signal goes through. While I agree that you have tons of headroom, the reality is once your plugins, tracks, or busses peak, you can audibly hear the distortion and my goal was to point those instances out to ensure users get the cleanest sound possible without added distortion. Thanks for commenting!
Working on understanding gain, so thanks very much!
My pleasure! Let me know if you have any questions!
@@GGabrielMusic Yes! Thank you for being willing to answer questions! At the moment, I do have several.
1) Are you planning to cover monitoring and custom headphone mixing? I almost understand it...
2) Back to the Autoload: regarding the monitoring that we set up there. Is that specifically for the engineer and
3) recommended for what I think of as pre-mixing (if you can imagine what I mean by that? Otherwise I can elaborate.) I really appreciate all your series and willingness to help us understand.
Answers:
1) Yes - I will be covering monitors and headphone mixing as I have added that to the list last week (great minds think alike!)
2) Please define what you mean by 'the monitoring we set up there' for your Autoload question - I'm not sure I understand
3) Please elaborate
Thanks for reaching out - I will do my best to answer any questions on this once it is clarified. Thanks!!
@@GGabrielMusic
1) YEEHAAAAAA, hallelujah! thank you Great Mind! I am making great progress since you've been creating these series.
2) from The AutoLoad- Part 2: after 8:01,
"adding auxiliaries, the first are just monitors for our (8:04) audio interface let's just for the sake of argument saying we're using a two-channel Scarlet so our first two auxes are going to just be Dem monitor"
3) Elaborating: my question should have been, how do we use the Dem monitor? Mine is still muted as per instructions for set up. BTW, I'm working the Scarlett 18i20, and I am recording pretty much every day, with what I think of as practice mixing (adding EQ, Compression, etc, as per the T.A.B.s map) to train my ears to distinguish what these entities add to the sound.
AHHH - ok - So, all those do is give you direct access to monitor your Scarlett IF there is even an occasion to do that. The only time I actually unmute those is if there is a lot of stuff in my session and let's say I want to play the bass over it but the bass level is too low (this works for vocals too). So...unmuting the direct monitoring of that gives me not only the level from the track I am trying to record, but also the raw signal of the bass (or vocal) so I can hear it better while tracking. I use it about 3% of the time - but I have the option if need be. It is fair to point out that it doesn't really work if you are using and amp simulator or something on the track level. It is really only if you want to boost the raw signal coming in from your interface if you need to. Hope this clears up what that does.