A weekly newsletter for music producers and artists who want to make better records, all 3-minute reads. Covering songwriting, audio engineering, recording studios, and more.
Take Three: The 4 steps to proper "gain staging" and why it matters
Three minute reads for artists and producers
|
|
Drew and Ellie Holcomb "Brick By Brick EP"
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Thomas Dulin
|
Cole Phillips - "Stoned in Bridge Creek"
Produced by Pat Lyons
Engineered by Thomas Dulin
TAKE THREE: GAIN STAGE MANAGEMENT
“Gain staging” is one of those topics you hear about a lot if you’re exposed to audio content online.
When I was starting out as an engineer, it seemed like something I knew I should do properly, but few people were willing to give advice on what exactly it means to have “proper” gain staging.
That’s because the idea of gain staging is a very broad idea.
It’s also a bit confusing because the expression “gain staging” sounds like a verb — something you do — but in fact, there is no one single action you can take that can be described as gain staging.
It’s more accurately described as a set of practices that helps keep your signals from being overloaded at various points in a signal path.
A stage of gain is any point in the signal path where you have the opportunity to turn up or turn down the level. Maybe we should start referring to this idea as “gain stage management.”
My general philosophy for best practice in gain stage management is to follow these 4 steps:
1. Set the mic preamp gain level to be within 10dB of where you think it will be for the final mix.
For most things I’m recording, this means I am looking for the meter to peak between -12 and -6 dBFS.
The exception to this rule would be a situation where I am intentionally applying more than enough gain in order to achieve a certain sound, typically distortion, and then finding a way to turn that gain back down to a useable level.
2. Keep all plugins at unity gain!
This means that the level that goes in to a plugin should be roughly equal to the level that comes out.
Example: If you’re using a compressor plugin that’s doing some amount of gain reduction, use the output gain in the plugin to compensate and turn it back up.
This is typically done by ear and doesn’t need to be an exact science. But when you turn a plugin off and back on, the level should be roughly the same. Rinse and repeat.
3. Keep all channel faders between -10dB and 0dB.
Have you ever noticed that the physical distance between -10dB and -20dB is much smaller than the distance between 0dB and -10dB? If all your faders are at -20, it’s going to be difficult to make fine adjustments.
Keeping your fader in that sweet spot around 0dB gives you maximum resolution when moving the fader up or down.
4. Keep all bus faders and master faders at 0dB.
If your buses are clipping, turning down the bus fader doesn’t help! You will need to turn down the channel faders feeding that bus.
If your master fader is at 0dB, faders are all near the sweet spot, and plugins are at unity gain, you have a good handle on the gain staging in your session and you can be confident that all stages have a healthy amount of signal.
Does all of this make sense? Feel free to hit reply and let me know if you're struggling with this. I'll do my best to respond to issues.
Until next week, happy music making, Reader.
Take Three
by Thomas Dulin
A weekly newsletter for music producers and artists who want to make better records, all 3-minute reads. Covering songwriting, audio engineering, recording studios, and more.
Three minute reads for artists and producers who want to make better records By Thomas Dulin Hey Reader, here's this week's Take Three email. Wanted to mention this at the top: I am hosting a one hour live class next week, March 20, showing folks how to edit drums in Pro Tools. Never done anything like that before, so I'm pricing it low. Come join! I'm covering: editing drums by hand QUICKLY the most important keyboard shortcuts using beat detective like a pro when and how to use elastic...
Three minute reads for artists and producers who want to make better records By Thomas Dulin Hi Reader, here's this week's Take Three email. TAKE ONE: QUICK LINKS Become a zooming Ninja in Pro Tools via Production Expert My friend Cory Wong has released a free producer pack for Logic via Music Radar. Bonus: his hilarious "keynote" video announcing the pack. I offer professional mix feedback and 1:1 coaching calls for upcoming producers/engineers. TAKE TWO: SENDING TO MIX As a mix engineer, I...
Three minute reads for artists and producers who want to make better records By Thomas Dulin Hello Reader, here's this week's Take Three email. TAKE ONE: QUICK LINKS Apple has announced their M3 chips and their new line of Macbook Pros. (Link from B&H) Gobbler has closed shop suddenly, removing access to their plugin subscription bundles. Originally, Gobbler was a tool that allowed you to backup your DAW sessions to the cloud automatically. RIP. Spotify plans to stop paying royalties on songs...