Gain Staging Demystified (...How To Set Ideal Levels for Recording and Mixing)

There's plenty of advice out there on gain staging. But what IS gain staging, and why should you care?

Justin Colletti goes deep on the fundamentals of gain staging to help you improve your workflow—and your sounds—in the studio.

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[audiolego]

Thanks Sonic. My kick is -18 and my tune is built around it. I learned it from you engineers, never went to engineering school. Im YouTube educated

[jamesdunlap]

One of the best gain staging explanations I’ve ever viewed.

[Gtown]

I'm super green, working on my very first DAW recording. I was way too hot. Thanks, your expertise saved me at a critical time. Cross your fingers for me everyone! I'll do the same for you 😀

[CLdwyer]

I really appreciate this rundown! I like -18dbfs for peak (transient tracks) and avg. level for lead vocals, low end, music tracks, etc. My combined peak level @ the master bus usually lives around -6 dbfs. Anything over is very informative that something in the balance needs to be tamed. I find that while producing you will be mixing and leveling content anyway so I welcome it. We may as well make it intentional. And actually, you could make it a calibrated standard for yourself. When you work at a certain expectation of level, your plugin chains & processing can be calibrated to a predictable input level and abused if desired! Thank you Justin for the input on this conversation. I think everyone can glean and eventually find a standard that works best for themselves.

[cucumberforest]

In my mix preparations I always measure only the bass track with the VU meter. For all other tracks I do the gain staging visually using the waveform with the bass track as a reference. Super fast and accurate enough.

[darionjaikaran]

Hey Justin, thank you for this tutorial. I wish I had found it about six years ago. Your explanation was very clear without any extraneous talking. You answered many of the questions that would toy with me in the pass. As a result of your explanations here, I want to get your paid courses now.

[whosrichpurnell]

Was super eager to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you!

[rafenord]

You sound like the narrator of "Mt. Everest: Francys Arsentiev" doing an american accent. A very comforting voice perfect for helping one digest 23 minutes of gain staging wisdom!

[kabed]

best explanation of gain staging on the internet

[arpeggioblues]

Justin, just went thru this video a second time, it made even more sense.. thank you so much... thanks for being out there, you're the best of the best.. !

[MattandCamrynReact]

I’ve watched a bunch of videos recently about gain staging, and for some reason this one clicked the most! Liked and subscribed!!

[mf]

This channel is probably the only one that I actually push like on all vids. You guys are great

[audiodemon]

A great explanation of gain staging across the mix, and optimising/balancing all the individual track audio clips right from the start.

[joebressler]

I found that I typically end up with levels at about -12dB Peak. So I built a template that has an input gain set to -12dB and simply normalize everything. All tracks peak at -12dB and are close (enough) to -18dB RMS. I get instant gain staging this way. Simply normalize everything. It's got the 012dB gain set as the first thing it hits. I've not had to make that dreaded decision of whether to drop the master fader or all of the instrument /group faders since making this change.

[BrandonAyre]

Man... I am ever glad I found this... Finally, I get it... As a singer-songwriter who began recording in the late 60's (I still have the 7 1/2" reel to reel of my first demo done at Trident Studios/London in 1969), it has been incredibly difficult for me to understand/process analogue versus digital recording. Thank you for keeping this straightforward and accessible and totally understandable.

[JamesWilliams-sevr]

One of the best explanations I've heard. Subscribed.

[userbanks]

You are the GOAT! Now I can approach gain staging more creatively and technically. I have some conferences next year but I will take you mixing course. I appreciate you Justin. Thanks!

[hanisiblini]

This is an extremely most clever video for Gain staging Thank you sir

[hillcitymusic]

Amazing, informative and easy to digest tutorial on gain staging!!

[ErinIsBlueBlue]

Very clear and balanced piece of advice. I really appreciated this «ultimate» take about gain staging. I know my references now. Thank you very much !