hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bro :P i remembered when i used to listen to these types of people who wants to get views just by contradicting important stuff to comfort people who dont want to learn or make the right efforts to achieve a professional result :P i wasted many years bcz ididnt take into consideration stuff like this by listening to amateur and unprofessional youtube producers
Gain staging is extremely important. But its not complicated. In fact, you barely need to consider it in the digital realm. Just dont clip the master and youre usually good to go!
@@NathanJamesLarsenyes don’t clip but you realise that every process you add, changes the level thus effecting the tonal balance and thanks to the fletcher Munson curves we think louder = better until you bring it back down and realise you’ve over done it
@@NathanJamesLarsen BROOOOO u can have a bad sound without clipping it :p if u consider a sound is proper just bcz its not clipping i advise you to change the domain of music
With compression and saturation it will sound horrible and you will have more aliasing and digital distortion if you go in too hot. Going higher than -12 is going to make it sound cheap.
Well, this is partly true. While DAWs don't have analog hum while recording, they do have clipping issues in a plug-in FX chain, because the levels going into plugins are not always the same going out...and if your plug-in does not have oversampling or is adding artifacts to the signal, then it will get distorted. The simple fix is monitor the levels going in and out, don't use a ton of FX plugins, and for the handful you use, use ones that give you a clean signal especially in the highs.
True, when I was watching I was in doubt if this was totally true, because in some plugins the gain stage may be necessary to avoid unwanted saturation in the signal.
"You dont need to clip and you just record properly" You just explained gain staging while saying it doesn't matter. What a dumb way to beg for views lol
Actually the issue normally happens for me when I get stems from other producers some stuff may come in too hot others too quiet. Bring levels up at the source if too quiet bring it down if too loud. But just like he said not complicated and dont spend too much time thinking about it 😊
I record acoustic drums and not many people do that today. Gain staging I feel is more important when it comes to acoustic drums because it's very hard to get the proper levels for drums in certain parts. It's been very difficult for me to be honest being self-taught
No gain staging isnt just about tracking. Going from one device, whether plugin or hardware u need to maintain the same relative level. And yeah ive heard a lot of tracks that were recorded too low. Add compression and boom is terrible
Not true... You need to be careful with overloading your plugins - they have their sweet spots. And if you do it throughout your whole project, the quality of your final output will be affected.
I'm just starting to mix and one of my many questions is about the gain stage process. If during mixing I decide to put a plugin that simulates an analog peripheral, shouldn't I adjust the signal gain for the plugin to work at a more comfortable level?
no bro if this happens u should adjust the input gain of the sound before it enters the plug in its much better and of course u can adjust the output from the plug in specially most plug ins add loudness just by adding them so its good to reduce this added dbs from the plug ins output gain but mainly focus on the input gain of the sound before getting into the plug in if its good i think the sound after the plug in will be also good in the end the input gain is the top of the chain .
🤦♂️ this is what happens when you learn engineering on UA-cam. I can’t even begin to explain the multitude of reasons this is terrible advice….. if you think Digital has nullified this then you are sorely misinformed. I’ve been mixing for 30 years both in analog and digital. In the digital world we still have noisefloor ! Sound cards are not silent ! Read the manual please. Dif vsts react dif ways…. If you don’t read the manual then you’ll miss what is the proper input level to get the best result. Saturator vsts like soundtoyz decapitator expressly tell you in their manuals as one example…. So taking one comment from Andrew Scheps as gospel for ignoring it is foolish advice I’m sorry to say. And you completely ignore the fact that people records sources still from microphones into a daw and hardware synths…. You telling me those are silent and don’t need proper gain staging ? 🤦♂️ how about you tell everyone just clip the VU meters red and call it a day ?
In one mixing tutorial video I heard the phrase "if you cannot gain-stage - you cannot mix". I stopped the video and ended up unsubscribing a few days later 👌
So you think if I am going into my mix bus at -20 pre the mix bus processing that would be exactly the same as going in at -1? Think the compressors and Limiters won't have to work extra hard?
I recommend volume balancing first, be it through gain or volume. Make it sound the best you can just by setting how loud things are. THen improve from there ;)
@@SyoDrawsdo not listen to this bro😫. I know its been 1 year but gain and volume are 2 different things. Gain is how loud things are coming in, and volume is how loud something is after it has gone "through" the mixer and plugins. You should almost always regulate the loudness by gain input and not the faders.
@@SyoDraws I Just got into this correct way of gain dtaging recently and here one example of when this is useful. If you put a the GAIN of a sound to 1db (clipping). And lower the VOLUME (with fader), afterwards; the clipping will still be there, as thats how the daw "picked up" the sound
Its misunderstood by many. Gain is merely the signal coming in. In technical terms its the strength of a signal, always, but we tend to use it to specify/measure how hot it is comin in, and volume is what goes out. There are a fair few concepts related to how hot a signal is comin into the track or plugin or whatever, and minding those is essentially "gain staging" Like some plugins apparently are made for an input of -18 lufs or rms, dont quite remember, but ive never actually seen one. They might well be out there tho, so gain staging is a thing. Just not something you need to think about all the time.
So I guess just listen to this random guy instead of the engineers who design the plugins we run.
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bro :P i remembered when i used to listen to these types of people who wants to get views just by contradicting important stuff to comfort people who dont want to learn or make the right efforts to achieve a professional result :P i wasted many years bcz ididnt take into consideration stuff like this by listening to amateur and unprofessional youtube producers
Gain staging is extremely important. But its not complicated. In fact, you barely need to consider it in the digital realm. Just dont clip the master and youre usually good to go!
As I said - don't clip. That's really the big thing and pretty much it - that's why I said it's just overblown.
@@NathanJamesLarsen And I'm saying i agree with you :D
@@NathanJamesLarsenyes don’t clip but you realise that every process you add, changes the level thus effecting the tonal balance and thanks to the fletcher Munson curves we think louder = better until you bring it back down and realise you’ve over done it
@@NathanJamesLarsen BROOOOO u can have a bad sound without clipping it :p if u consider a sound is proper just bcz its not clipping i advise you to change the domain of music
With compression and saturation it will sound horrible and you will have more aliasing and digital distortion if you go in too hot. Going higher than -12 is going to make it sound cheap.
Thank you.
Gain staging is right up there with mastering and analog in terms of overblown audio terms.
Gain staging is still good practice and particualry important if you're using analog modeled plug ins because they do have a sweet spot
Facts
Well, this is partly true. While DAWs don't have analog hum while recording, they do have clipping issues in a plug-in FX chain, because the levels going into plugins are not always the same going out...and if your plug-in does not have oversampling or is adding artifacts to the signal, then it will get distorted.
The simple fix is monitor the levels going in and out, don't use a ton of FX plugins, and for the handful you use, use ones that give you a clean signal especially in the highs.
True, when I was watching I was in doubt if this was totally true, because in some plugins the gain stage may be necessary to avoid unwanted saturation in the signal.
"You dont need to clip and you just record properly"
You just explained gain staging while saying it doesn't matter. What a dumb way to beg for views lol
Thx plz keep making video and shorts like that
Actually the issue normally happens for me when I get stems from other producers some stuff may come in too hot others too quiet. Bring levels up at the source if too quiet bring it down if too loud. But just like he said not complicated and dont spend too much time thinking about it 😊
Exactly - if you focus on just nailing a good general level at the beginning it makes everything a lot more simple.
Gain staging is more than clipping or noise. Live production vs recording and mixing in post is a different approach.
I record acoustic drums and not many people do that today. Gain staging I feel is more important when it comes to acoustic drums because it's very hard to get the proper levels for drums in certain parts. It's been very difficult for me to be honest being self-taught
No gain staging isnt just about tracking. Going from one device, whether plugin or hardware u need to maintain the same relative level. And yeah ive heard a lot of tracks that were recorded too low. Add compression and boom is terrible
Thank you - good to know
Nah you gotta gain stage no matter what...
Not true... You need to be careful with overloading your plugins - they have their sweet spots. And if you do it throughout your whole project, the quality of your final output will be affected.
What’s the audio interface that u’re using? Pls respond im kinda desperate atp
I'm just starting to mix and one of my many questions is about the gain stage process. If during mixing I decide to put a plugin that simulates an analog peripheral, shouldn't I adjust the signal gain for the plugin to work at a more comfortable level?
no bro if this happens u should adjust the input gain of the sound before it enters the plug in its much better and of course u can adjust the output from the plug in specially most plug ins add loudness just by adding them so its good to reduce this added dbs from the plug ins output gain but mainly focus on the input gain of the sound before getting into the plug in if its good i think the sound after the plug in will be also good in the end the input gain is the top of the chain .
@@DarkConsciousthen default your plugin to a sitting where it doesn’t add much gain when you insert it
I got a presonus studio 26c and i get hum, so i have to record high
So im going to listen to a random UA-camr who no one knows instead of all the popular UA-camrs out there. Ridiculous
take 2 seconds to actually look into someone before commenting saying they're a random person.
Otherwise you might just look like a moron.
Huge issue if I’m using GarageBand no?
Hate to say it but your noise floor is present in this video. Everytime you speak a noticeable noise can be heard under your voice.
🤦♂️ this is what happens when you learn engineering on UA-cam. I can’t even begin to explain the multitude of reasons this is terrible advice….. if you think Digital has nullified this then you are sorely misinformed. I’ve been mixing for 30 years both in analog and digital. In the digital world we still have noisefloor ! Sound cards are not silent ! Read the manual please. Dif vsts react dif ways…. If you don’t read the manual then you’ll miss what is the proper input level to get the best result. Saturator vsts like soundtoyz decapitator expressly tell you in their manuals as one example…. So taking one comment from Andrew Scheps as gospel for ignoring it is foolish advice I’m sorry to say. And you completely ignore the fact that people records sources still from microphones into a daw and hardware synths…. You telling me those are silent and don’t need proper gain staging ? 🤦♂️ how about you tell everyone just clip the VU meters red and call it a day ?
In one mixing tutorial video I heard the phrase "if you cannot gain-stage - you cannot mix". I stopped the video and ended up unsubscribing a few days later 👌
Yeah that's rough...
If you can’t gain stage in multiple areas in that process because it’s on going..your mix with definitely sound like shit.
False. Wrong info buddy. Gain staging is not just about the noise floor but Maximizing the most dynamic range. Digital clipping is a real thing.
So you think if I am going into my mix bus at -20 pre the mix bus processing that would be exactly the same as going in at -1? Think the compressors and Limiters won't have to work extra hard?
Why the hell would you be at -20
@@BR_READDY225 That's the point.. Pick any extreme you want. Let's say -1 or -20 are you going to get the same result or does gain staging matter?
So… should I still gain stage or go straight to just adjusting the volume knobs as I go into the mix?
I recommend volume balancing first, be it through gain or volume. Make it sound the best you can just by setting how loud things are. THen improve from there ;)
@@tordurhansen333 thanks
@@SyoDrawsdo not listen to this bro😫. I know its been 1 year but gain and volume are 2 different things. Gain is how loud things are coming in, and volume is how loud something is after it has gone "through" the mixer and plugins. You should almost always regulate the loudness by gain input and not the faders.
@@samska6741 got it. What would the difference be, though?
@@SyoDraws I Just got into this correct way of gain dtaging recently and here one example of when this is useful. If you put a the GAIN of a sound to 1db (clipping). And lower the VOLUME (with fader), afterwards; the clipping will still be there, as thats how the daw "picked up" the sound
U need it to get on a two track beat 😅 so it is relevant
Period
Bro, its the single most import. . . Nvm
You are the reason why people think fader means volume
Or you could watch the full length vid I did on this instead of assuming 🥸
But what is gain staging itself?
Its misunderstood by many. Gain is merely the signal coming in. In technical terms its the strength of a signal, always, but we tend to use it to specify/measure how hot it is comin in, and volume is what goes out. There are a fair few concepts related to how hot a signal is comin into the track or plugin or whatever, and minding those is essentially "gain staging"
Like some plugins apparently are made for an input of -18 lufs or rms, dont quite remember, but ive never actually seen one. They might well be out there tho, so gain staging is a thing. Just not something you need to think about all the time.
Phew
Thaks!!!
Good to know!!
*Laughs in Clip-To-Zero Method*