Are you RUINING your mixes by slamming everything? Let's talk Gain Staging. It's important.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 3 тра 2024
- In today's video, i'm talking about how it's likely that you're ruining your mixes by driving everything too hard and ending up with a badly defined mess. You might not even be aware of it - so let's talk about what Gain Staging actually is, how we can use it and why it's not so bad once you understand it.
What gear to buy? We recommend interfaces, microphones, monitors and more at our Thomas (Europe) and Sweetwater (USA) links below
www.thomann.de/gb/thlpg_loh2r...
🍻 BUY US A BEER WITH PATREON!🍻
/ hoppolestudios
Thanks to our Patrons who made this possible - your names are at the end of the video. You make a huge difference!
📱 FOLLOW US HERE 📱
Facebook: / adamsteelproducer
Instagram: / adamsteelproducer
Website: hoppolestudios.com
All links are affiliate links
#gainstaging #mixingtips #mixing
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - What is gain staging?
1:30 - Old school analog
2:30 - VU Meters and +4dBU
6:30 - Tape sounding "fat"
7:40 - The Digital Era and dBFS
9:30 - Comparing analog +4 to digital 0
10:42 - Recording "in the red"
12:30 - Woolly and Fuzzy
13:40 - The main problems of modern recording
14:40 - Audio levels ADD UP
16:00 - Why not just turn the faders down?
17:00 - Feed your plugins what they want!
19:45 - Control your distortion
21:10 - My system for easy gain staging
24:30 - Thanks for watching!
I watched the whole thing, had to stop it long enough to get a coffee, you did a great job explaining this and I thank you. I have been watching more videos on gain structure, or gain staging what ever you want to call it and this was one of the best so far.
A breakthrough for me was realizing I don't need to be scared of being "too soft" when tracking. The DAW basically has no noise floor (although plugins modelling analog gear might simulate it). So it's always safe and better to leave too much headroom initially than too little. Adjusting "up" at any point is easy, if required. As you said, just turn up your headphones/monitors to compensate. Get used to stuff sounding ridiculously quiet at first, it's fine.
Phew. Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy. Thanks for saying that.
I’ve always tried to avoid this mistake, but then I listened to some older recordings where I didn’t know better and the clarity was incredible. All they needed was some mastering.
The nuances in my vocal delivery were what surprised me the most. The little inflections that gave it character really stood out.
Excellent video my man, very well explained. It's always good to know the reasons behind the actions. Thank you so much for this 🙏
Thanks Adam, this has been an eye opener and I'll be referring back to this video quite often. Great content/advice.
This has been so so SO helpful. Thank you for the little tips along the way: the bit about lower frequencies needing addl decibels was mind blowing.
Yup, Analog gear=you're not making good sounds unless you're bouncing in the red
Digital Gear= Avoid "the red" at all costs
Very helpful! I started recording with Reaper a few years ago and was unsure about gain levels, having previously worked in the analog realm (many years ago). I was definitely not using proper gain staging in the DAW at first. Your videos have been tremendously helpful to me as I learned, and continue to learn, to work with digital systems.
Thanks. I think I already knew almost all of that ‘information’, but you have delivered a very useful ‘application’ of the subject, many thanks 🙏
This is a truly great presentation/explanation.Thank You and well done !
Learnt a great deal here . My mix’s will change for the better now . Keep it up . Cheers 👍
You are super helpful and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge of recording good music.
Long but totally necessary subject on this video! That was awesome.
More fantastic content!! I’ve learnt, and continue to learn, so much from you. Thanks so much. You and Kenny G are my go-to Reaper guys (in that order)
I appreciate you explaining all this from the historical perspective, from past to present. Putting gain, decibels and levels in this context makes all the info less nebulous and seemingly arbitrary. Thank you!
This was great. Thank you for the lesson
Thank you. You know, now that we “know” so much these days, I think you just blessed me. I have at any given time, 40 to 50 channels coming from downstairs. Sometimes the combined levels become overwhelming. Sometimes we just don’t step back and look at the whole situation. We add compression and whatever onboard, then tons of VST’s in the DAW, then onto the livestreams or broadcast mix. Yes sir, no wonder we are walking a tight ‘’db” rope. Yes sir, bless you my brother. Preciate your time.
Amazing. This was a really great lesson. Thank you!🥁
Excellent video!! This is the only video that properly explains analog versus digital gain staging in my opinion. Completely blew my mind!! Needless to say I will be tracking differently from now on.
Thanks so much man. Big fan/viewer. Keep pluggin bud!! lovin'it
Your videos rock Adam ! I'm currently setting up my own little home studio here in Australia and I get so much from your content. It's direct, to the point and you explain everything quite clearly so that someone like myself who is new to recording can understand completely. I'm also very appreciative that you share tips, tricks and techniques that work in the real world. Rock On Man !!
Thanks Richard! Good luck with your recording journey :)
Top lecture. 😂 Once again you make a fairly complicated subject less complicated.
Thank you.
I expect this to be a little harder to implement than it sounds - but it sounds like exactly what I need to look into next.
Cheers for sharing!
I really like the k system. Once you set the monitors up and set up the meters to match (at least you can in cubase, idk about others), it's really cool how you get used to what "loud" means. When recording at 24 bit and mixing in 32 bit floating point, we don't need to worry about recording hot anymore. And that's pretty damn cool. This was great man✌️
Thanks for sharign & explaining in a wonderfull way, saludos ! keep safe!
Thanks so much for this, as a newbie 100% in the box I never really considered this.
Highly appreciated, thanks 👌
Great knowledge and well explained 🏴⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I was always taught that volume and gain are 2 separate measurments. Sliders on each channel in a DAW/mixer board control the volume of the channel/stereo out/etc, not the gain. Gain staging is opening a VU meter, and setting the gain by increasing/decreasing for an average of 0, with a plug in for gain adjustment, or by increasing/decreasing the actual height of the wav file in the track. The tracks sliders for volume do not effect the VU meter's gain reading, only gain adjustments effect the VU meter, not volume.
Watched from start to finish. Excellent analysis and presentation. I have been one of those poor souls recording at those horrible levels and spending SO much time on the mix.
I am now recording at -18 to -14 with distorted guitar and WOW!!
I BARELY have to spend time mixing if I nail my recorded tone.
Explanations and intelligence are becoming scarce. Thanks for being a beacon of LOGIC
Thank you brother, great video
This has been a real eye opener - speaking as a total amateur who has been mixing recordings by ear, but not really understanding why something sounds good when I accidentally do something well, and definitely not understanding why something I've done sounds terrible that time around. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this and building a process into my work flow.
I hear you, its often hit or miss for me. Its a bit of wilderness as I am not composing rock music or metal. Experimenting is good and the journey that counts
Total life changer! thank you
Thank you Adam, it was interesting and very well explained :)
Love this video, it was like a cool audio history lesson. Love your take on things, so detailed and well explained. Would be so cool to get your take on more mainstream stuff. I come from a house and urban background. But the way you explain stuff would be great with mixing techniques, principles and plugins. Plus I think your followers would double.
Thanks for sharing this!
Good talk Adam, lots of useful info
Thanks for the education really needed this
Great video,learnt something new which I can carry through to my own DAW recordings.
Please, more of this type of content! thank you! :)
Right on. I used to record hot or in the case of digi tracks like ampsims and vst drums, get pretty loud then take care of clipping with a limiter. Yes it's loud, yes it's super bombastic and beefy, but also it's sort of tiring on my ears. So now I mix quietly and gently bring things up to where they should be.I'm no true engineer, just had to step back and use my ears. My mixes are still plenty loud, they smash when they should and breathe when I want them to.
In short: Analog red ok. Digital clipping bad. And be aware of level stacking with multiple tracks.
Good vid man.
Communication is everything.
Thanks.
Well articulated video. I am one of those old fashioned white coat boffins, lol. Many times in a mix with reaper , what i hear is deceptive. Through my monitors it sounds ok but through the cans its a shocking fuzz fest. Reaper has great headroom and we sometimes dont quite understand what we are dealing with. Thats when we abuse the system, lol. Reaper for example has far far greater headroom than most of the gear i have. So its easy to do everything at high levels but screw up going in and coming out.
I naturally go back and reduce levels all round and listen carefully.. Its not something i think about anymore, but its great when somebody can articulate whats actually happening. It all comes back to using your ears. What i find now is that my ears tell me when its too loud and i back off. The meters are just a guide/reference and i know from my electronics background , what the meter tells me isnt the whole story. But isnt it great that we dont have to sweat the SNR anymore. I find that even recordings made at less than ideal levels just dont have noise problems.
Will look to employ this method on my next project, thanks!
thank you the difference is amazing and simple
Brilliant! Subbed.
Great stuff. Some "AHAA" moments when understanding why we did the recordings on tape the way we did :)
Excellent! That helped a lot.
Certainly an eye opener. I'm with Dan Blood here. I've always done my mixes mainly based on my ears. I'd like to think that I am getting better but still, cannot wrap my head around why some things can still sound muddy and box sounding or not defined. I will definitely have to watch this again the next time I record. Tracking the drums is still the culprit to all of my mixes. Thanks Adam.
Thank you this was super helpful
Good stuff, cheers mate!
Great video. You covered away more than your other UA-cam buddies 😉
When in doubt, turn it up! If the meters aren't in the red you're doing it wrong is what we used to say when driving some consoles. But, these days with the unlimited headroom in the age of floating point DAW's the only time I really worry about levels is when A/D or D/A conversion is happening. Another time level is a consideration in my workflow is when driving some plugins as some have sweet spot for the level going in. That being said, I've found similar results when targeting levels as you describe in the video. Going above -14 or so on something other than drums is rare when I'm tracking in to the box.
I suspect it's easy for some of us to forget the basics of gain-staging we learned so long ago and it might be confusing to people who have never had any experience with analog recording. Which I suspect is probably the majority of engineers these days. Great topic and explanation.
A very important tutorial here, the temptation to overload the gain when you are sitting at a DAW is very often destructive. Your definitive description was most informative and this 66 year old life long pro muso was listening intently, and from now on will follow your principles, thankyou so much.
Great video, thank you!
I have to comment on this video. All these comments are saying you did a great job with this video so I was interested. The comments did not disappoint. You did a great job on this video my man.
Well done, for something so complicated. I started listening to recordings in the 50's, and by the 60's got acclimated to a certain kind of sound. My friends and I call it, "Beatle F'd" and we are always trying to get that sound. Now I am trying to compose and record for the digital tools I am using, instead of like I am still stuck with tape.
awesome video dude! thanks!
Thank you for this really interesting video - I will check out all my old recordings, I'm curious what levels I'll find 🙂
I didn't think I would but I actually understood more than I thought ,I think I get it now thank you
great content. thanks a lot!
tnx Adam, I am still new to this. I am generally recording my own compositions, unless its some sort of foley art. I have an old triton I like playing and going for a thick orchestral sound with pads stacked in different ways, I digress.
Ill do little experiments to see how low I can go then record a littler hotter and then some. For my particular style I rather get away with low recording levels -18 to -12 sometimes even slightly lower depends on the patches in the Triton. then I'll do test renders play back on different speakers.
I am surprised at how often the rendered file comes out louder and I have no idea why. I equate that to some of the similar issues in the print industry like artifacts
Excellent 👌🏽
Amazing info here, both practical and historical. And I'll just add another thumbs up to recording at -18db. I even had trouble hearing the click over my guitars when recording and had to crank it up. It's so painful how obvious and natural this seems now. Also remember to lower your gain and consider dual tracking your rythm guitars boys and girls.
Thanks Mate🤘🤘🤘
Very useful mate!
Excellent!
Very nice and helpful video. Thanks for sharing! One question though: Does this apply to virtual instruments as well? Should I limit these source signals, too? From how I understood this, I'd say yes. Especially when I'm layering a lot of them, right?
P.S.: loved to hear about the historic background of things
Really useful video!
This is a great video. And possibly one of the most important topics. I don't record a lot and I'm trying desperately to remember the technique I found that worked well as a starting point for a noob. It was something like get your kick circa -18 on daw meter (which I don't think is true peak) fire up a vu meter plugin on the master bus, mute the kick and bring up the bass guitar until it hits the same level the kick was. Use this starting point as a ref for setting any other levels it should be about the right level to apply classic emulation plugins. Then try to not add any more than 3-4 dB of gain in one go with those plugins. If the final mix is quiet then boost it digitally at the end. Sound about right?
Great video. I understand now about gain staging. Could you please differentiate between gain staging while tracking and normalizing while mixing?
Grab your self a coffee and watch this. It may not be the sexiest subject but super useful if you're like me and like to understand 'why' we do things rather than just following a 'do this' video. It explains the background and an example of how he applies it to real life. I know to record at a lower level than my old tape 4 track but I now know I wasn't low enough which is why I fight my master bus.
Cheers.
thanks my brother
So, in summary, track to between -18 and -14 in the box. 😃
Thanks for the detailed breakdown this is really helpful stuff!
With your average RMS at that value! Not the peaks. That’s the important part
Fabulous.
Bravo!
Such a great video.
By the way, is that a Linus Tech Tips T-shirt?
Been trying to figure it out the whole video too.
These videos are soooo helpfull,thanks a lot HOP POLE STUDIOS!!!
Question:
I would like to buy a lap-top that's strong enough to run Reaper,and that's also strong enough to have the interfaces etc connected to it.
I wouldn't use it for anything else really.
Any suggestions on what lap-top i should get? My knowledge on computers is rather poor...
Another fantastic video. I expect the same principles apply when working with VSTs, no? Basically, I've spent the past few months rebuilding some MIDI files of a few of my favourite tracks (in FL Studio) so I can get my head around a bunch of VSTs I purchased (namely the Arturia V Collection and Roland Cloud). I've now made the switch the Reaper because it has better routing options (why did I not do this years ago?!), and I'm using the Waves SSL channel strips for EQ etc.
I've built a bunch of instrument templates in Reaper (mostly drum machines thus far) just to get my head around the workflow. Now I want to refine the templates so they're basically all gain staged as soon as I load them. This seems to have proven simple enough for the drum machines, but when I start bringing the synths in, they appear naturally much louder than the drums. However, once I gain stage them to around -18dB (I've only tweaked the input level - no other processing), the drums sound quite level but the instruments sound considerably softer.
Is there something I should be keeping in mind here?
VSTs do behave similarly, I think plug-in manufacturers are encouraged to have their soft synths be very loud to be immediately pleasing…
Keep in mind -18 is only a rough RMS target, adjust accordingly and use it as a starting point, keeping in mind a lot of synths sounds unmixed have huge low end that makes the meters fly!
Free education! Yay! Thank you!
Our band played a show at a frat house some years ago and they had a "head-room" and let me tell you...the head-room was sweet
I tracked a theatre choir using my Zoom F8 once. 6 mic channels all nicely in the green, but I forgot to consider the loud backing track. It wasn't happy. Even though I wasn't using the master tracks I fear that slamming monitoring circuitry might do bad things to the mic pres.
In DAWs, if you hit the 'red' on the master track during mixing, you can add a volume plugin to first position on the master FX chain to bring down the level and eliminate any digital distortion from having, say 30 odd multiple tracks.
Exactly! In 32bit float gain reduction completely fixes any distortion
This only works if every plugin you use up until the master bus has no “saturation” or other processing based on level, and has inherent headroom. Most of the time it’s not actually a valid argument, even though it’s technically true
CLASSIC VIDEO
All I have to say is, thank you!
Great video, very informative! is that a lava lamp in the back?
Thanks! Yes, two lava lamps on the console, helps with the tone ☺️
Hey Adam! Great video! Just a quick question, you say when needed you turn your speakers louder. Do you change that volume a lot? From tracking drums, to guitar, vocals, mixing...
Unlike a lot of engineers, my monitoring volume is not fixed. I’m careful not to run too loud, but I use it almost like a zoom function so I can turn it up for fine detail or down for the bigger picture
Great video. In the red, probably meant they liked the sound of the soft clipping that analogue hardware produces. This would require a plug-in in the digital world, as it only has hard clipping, as you say digital clipping is awful.
Yes very much so!
Smells quality stuff :)
Honestly this has made everything pop through more cleanly without much going on with the eq. Certain plugins too I never understood why they were clipping in the plugin when the original file at unity was coming in about -12 db right around the low end of the yellow on pro tools. This was not something that got taught in school when I did audio engineering. This makes a hell of allot more sense now. I got the mvMeter2 last night, seems a bit processor heavy for some reason on my pc. Gamechanger still at the end of the day.
Just turn the faders down. Recording lower levels so you don't push when all things add up is wrong. Gain in a preamp is also called sensitivity for some reason, having the opportunity to do whatever we want afterwards in the digital world is great. If you need a more sensitive mic you can turn the gain up, if you want a less sensitive one turn it down. Gain staging happens in every stage and even if it is not so obvious like in a guitar-pedals- amp example, it works like that also. It is different to lower your guitar volume than lowering the volume of an overdrive pushing the amp etc. I agree that sometimes even if you can not hear distortion, things might be saturated and lose transient and definition, like a clean in the edge of break up guitar, that it is fatter and can suit some styles but doesn't have the transients for funk for example. I found that a lot of different plugins react different to the given level , so I tend to gain stage by ear and use, and I use a gain plugin or a the reaEq (something linear where gain doesn't matter and in 32bits you can not clip) in the start of the plugin chain so I can control how much I push and saturate my sound.
What i always wonder is how this translates to tracking guitars into amp sims. For example a high output humbucker can easily go into the digital red even with the preamp gain on my interface (MOTU M4) all the way down. But i feed this signal into the input stage of a simulated overdrive pedal and guitar amp, so does the amp sim react properly to the level it is fed since a real pedal-amp combo would be driven equally hard by the guitar's output? The output of the amp sim i treat like it is described here.
Great content - thank you. Also, really appreciate the math (+6 db when adding two identical tracks).
Question, though: What if you are recording, say, just vocals & guitar - do you still suggest tracking at lower levels, or will peaking at -6 db be fine?
Thanks! Yes lower levels every time, you can always use a master limiter if it’s not loud enough after the mix stage
@@adamsteelproducer Thank you! You are convincing me to switch over to Reaper from Logic - really appreciate you man!
nope, adding two identical tracks add 3 db to the volume
thanks for a great explanation, but if we don't have analogue gear when tracking are there any plugins that we use to check the correct levels particularly using virtual instruments such as superior drummer 3 virtual gtr amps.
@@brian1346 I will give them a try, thanks
Given that all DAWs use 64bit FP math then all one needs to do is place a volume FX on the master bus to ensure any overload doesnt occur.
in your track fx add an EQ and make it overload to 100db add another fx volume/smoother and decrease volume by -100db
Duplicate track, remove both fx and change the phase and play - you get silence. One cancels the other out - there is no distortion in the original.
OR
The easy way - Take a recorded track increase itś db to +100 - nicely overloaded. Now go to the master bus, add an fx volume/smoother and reduce its volume by 100 db. No overload.
Distortion doesnt happen in digital. It just doesnt. It can only occur if you feed your outgoing DtoA converters with distortion.
This is the truth.
Whilst it’s technically true, it entirely misses the point of working in analog levels.
You can ice skate uphill, but why would you when you can level the field?
So, back in my day... it was rare to distort tape... because you'd be aiming not to put your signal down too loud to avoid 'bleeding' onto the surrounding tracks 🤔👍
That's an interesting way to look at it. I guess the modern equuvalent would be the use of filters to prevent wayward frequencies from cluttering up the track.
Thanks for the video liked and subscribed, so have I understood that you are trying to get each track to peak no higher than -18dfs when gain staging?
Quite the opposite, No! It’s not about the peaks, but the overall general level. That’s why I’m fine with snares etc going way above but not so much with distorted guitars that have a much more even level.
Thanks for watching!
@@adamsteelproducer Thanks for your reply! I think I understand, so is the whole point of gain staging, to make sure every track starts and stays on a consistent level and maintains headroom? Or is it just because this is the sweet spot that allows the plugins to sound their best?
Thanks for your time,
It’s a bit of all of the above, it means you’ve got a good starting point for all your tracks to build up without clipping and for plugins to behave as they should, which all makes your life easier in the long run
@@adamsteelproducer Beautiful, thanks so much for taking the time to help!
Thanks for the video, it's been taking me a while to get used to this, you've helped a lot. I'm running a Mesa Mk.V through a Captor X into an Akai EIE pro interface, I'm quite happy with the results, but as you mentioned, if I make my average level sit around 0 on the interface VU meters, my low strings sometimes peak too hot, making the needle hit the top and flashing the 'clip' led briefly, so I tend to turn the interface gain down, the LED doesn't flash but my average is far below red.
Is it better to never have those peaks going hot and have a quieter signal as I have been doing, or should I be trying to get my average near 0VU even if it peaks hot?
With the Captor X I also have another control on the gain before it reaches the interface, so I could send a hotter signal from the Captor and lower interface gain.
I'd really appreciate your thoughts, perhaps my VU meters are just cheap and I shouldn't trust them.
Thanks again for all of your tutorials, they have been invaluable to me.
My advice is ignore the vu meters on those akai units entirely, they’re cheap gimmicks and not calibrated to anything at all (the interface is fine as far as I know but the meters not so much).
Quieter is better, digital clipping never sounds good in a mix.
You can always use a limiter on the final song mix if it doesn’t feel loud enough compared to commercial releases.
@@adamsteelproducer Thank you so much mate, I wondered if they were basically just cosmetics, I'll give that a try. Cheers!
16:14 I usually clip gain everything that seems too loud for analog emulated plugins to handle so that I don't have to mess with the faders that are post fx or add any plugins in the chain. Clip gaining actually reduces the audio before it goes into any plugin or hardware.
But clip gain doesn’t negate you driving your preamps and ADC too hard, and adds an extra step that you can avoid whilst tracking.
If you’re mixing something you’ve been sent then this is a good solution, but I’m trying to explain the best approach start to finish
@@adamsteelproducer I totally understand. I usually don't drive my preamps hard but some home studios like mine don't have proper sound proofing resulting in a slightly higher noise floor during the day or we can't get rid of the CPU fan noise since it's in the same room. In scenarios like these I let recordings go slightly above -12dbFs. I find my Audient preamps and convertors to be fairly forgiving when driven slightly higher. I understand your point that it's not ideal to do so but I guess between 'driving your preamps and converters a little harder' or 'getting a bad Signal-to-noise ratio', the former is lesser of the two evils. Let me know if I have it wrong.
Great review. Can you tell the names of the songs from rolling stones with tape distortion.? Best regards.😎
I’m not a huge stones fan so I can’t remember, but I’m pretty sure jumping Jack flash is one
@@adamsteelproducer Thanks. Good work, friend.😎
Hi. I'm still a bit confused about gain staging. So, my DI guitar should be at -18 or -15 db. I'm using amp sims, when using amp sims should it also be at -18 or -15?