Headroom 101: How to use Gain Staging for a Better Mix | LANDR Mix Tips #7

What is headroom? Headroom is how much room your audio signal has before it starts to get compressed and distorted.

Every recording medium has a finite amount of headroom. If you try to record a signal that’s louder than what the medium is capable of handling, it will clip the tops of the waveform and you’ll hear that as distortion.

Good headroom in recording means that your levels are in the “sweet spot” range for the recording medium.

That sweet spot is the perfect balance between a system’s noise floor and clipping point.

Today’s digital recording software has an extremely low noise floor, but headroom still matters.

You need good Headroom for your mixes to sound the best they can.

Your DAW has an impressive dynamic range, but you still have to convert your signal to analog to hear it.

Bad headroom affects the way your AD/DA converters handle what comes in and out.

Record too low and you’re fighting the noise floor. Record too high and you push things into distortion and clipping.

The key to getting the right headroom is gain staging. A good rule of thumb is to equate -18dBFS with the analog standard of 0dBVU.

If you keep your peaks hitting not much above -10 dBFS, and keep the average level around -18 dBFS you should have a signal that’s right in the sweet spot.

Just keep in mind that more dynamic instruments like drums or percussion might need more space as their signals can have very large peaks.

Example: For this tutorial I’ll be tracking DI electric guitar. To get a precise overview of our levels, I’ll start by adding a meter plugin to the track.

Right away I can see that my interface’s input is set too high. The guitarist’s loudest notes are peaking at -3 dBFS—not quite in the sweet spot.

Before I record the part again, I’ll decrease the gain of the preamp until the signal falls into the range I want.

Now the loudest notes are just touching -10 dBFS and the body of the signal is hovering around -18. That will give me great headroom for tracking.

The need for proper gain staging doesn’t end when your tracks are recorded…

As you process your audio with plugins during the mix, you’ll be affecting their levels.

Compressor make-up gain, EQ boosts and cuts and other mixing processes are level-based operations.

This means that they’re subject to proper gain staging as well.

Maintaining the same practices of good gain staging that you use during recording is your best bet so -18dBFS is a good average level to aim for.

Example: Now that we’ve recorded our guitar track with good headroom, we’ll add some compression.

As I was adjusting the settings, I added makeup gain to account for the compressor’s gain reduction. To double check that I’ve maintained the right headroom I’ll add another instance of my meter plugin directly after the compressor.

By comparing the two meters, we can see that I’ve gone a little bit overboard with the makeup gain. I’ll decrease the compressor’s output slightly to get back to the sweet spot.

Good headroom is important for your sound. It’s also a great way to start thinking about your dynamics before mixing even starts.

Use these tips to get headroom right on everything you record.

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Learn how to get perfect headroom for your mix with gain staging:

[LANDRmusic]

Can you hear the effect of good headroom?

[kinguutttgt]

-18 real works for me. I have been learning how to mix but nothing helped but gain staging made my sounds X1000 better

[simclimie]

YOU GUYS ARE PHENOMENAL...IVE ALREADY APPLIED THIS TECHNIQUE...AND IT CHANGED MY MIX AND MASTER...IT'S LIKE A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE...YOU GUYS ARE PHENOMENAL...THANK U..
U HAVE MY DEEPEST APPRECIATION AND RESPECT HOW U EXPLAIN EACH TOPIC AND DO IT QUICKLY WITHOUT WASTING TIME...

[nsjx]

Really appreciate the Many bases you guys are covering. Your information is solid and no BS. Big fan of the blog so far. Lots of gold in there. So now I need not rely on Sound On Sound exclusively for straight dope on things ;) Cheers!

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear Sir, thanks for your advisable explanations!!!!
I asked one question from so many sound professionals but nobody able to give an answer to that question.

This is the question: The all chanel faders strips have been labelled as -15, -10, -5, 0+5, +10 db. I need to know what does it mean by - 15 and +15 Specially - and + signs???
Why do they mention only between -15 and +15

Someone told me that it is so complicated to understand. Is it
Thanks!!!

[darick]

So after gain-staging if I need a certain sound or element louder would you then use the faders to adjust volume for certain elements?

For example if I set my kick to peak between -18db & -12db but I need it louder would turning it up on the faders actually mess up what I just gain staged? That’s the only thing confusing me.

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear Sir, how do you do? I have an unclear point on Limiter ( Peak Stop). I need to know how can I adjust the Limiter in Standard way for live sound???,
Is there any rule ?? That mean the amount of volume or decible???
Thanks

[newtempleproductions]

How I wish I had taken my courses in LANDR back in 2012 instead of Western Civ.

[shanebrock]

Hi I was wondering what plug in you used for metering in the video?

[hittist]

@LANDR, So none of my drums or instrument should go above - 10? ive heard the kick should be at 6db

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear Sir, I want to know if I set the gain in right way, when I am setting Low shelf and High shelf of EQ, the volume meter goes more than unity gain.
So should I set the gain back aftert set tye Thanks

[roypaschedag]

Working with the VU meter but, how to do it with drums like clap snare kick, cause these are not rms but peaks, when gainstaging to -18? how do you guys do this with the drums and VU meter?? THANKS!

[praneethdhanushka]

Dear Sir, I have a puzzle on sound waves transformation between mic and our ear.

When we sing to the mic, it converts acoustic transverse sound waves to electrical signal. Then it goes to the Mixer, Amplifier and finally comes to the speaker. Then speaker converts it back into acoustic sound waves.

Then sound waves come to our ear and make vibratings on our ear drum. Then ear drum's nerves transform physical vibrations into a electrical signals which carry to the brain.

I wish to know that, the electrical signal which is generated by mic and our ear is same in Or different????
Mic generates elecrical signal on concept of electromagnetic induction.
But our ear generates electrical signal in different way from mic.
Do both electrical signals ( from mic and ear) are same in wave form???? And Voltage????
If you can explain briefly.

Sorry for a long question!!!!

[hugomusik]

Hey Landr, what about the individual busses?like instrument buss, and drum buss. Say I have all of the individual tracks at -18dbfs, but when all the individual tracks are added up going to there respectable busses that means the busses or most likely going to be louder. So my question is does the same technique apply when dealing with busses. Aim for -18dbfs on the individual busses?

[MrGenerousJay]

Does this also apply to using samples?

[PMMMARIO]

hi is this needed for every individual track?

[BoxsterBox]

Don’t worry if you beats are close 0db if it’s not clipping it’s fine. As long as it’s a fire beat the artist will like it. -0.5 is a good peak. But -0.2 or -0.3 occasionally is fine.

[Fred_Free]

Why add a drum loop throughout the video, it adds nothing but distraction to the viewer.

[gb.filmusic]

oggi si lavora in 64bit float, quindi in-the-box non frega più nulla a che db lavori o tieni i fader, la dinamica non la perdi di sicuro finche non comprimi o limiti. CHANGE MY MIND

[Apex_King]

Can’t even understand wtf you’re saying