The Complete Guide to GAIN STAGING Like a PRO

The Complete Guide to GAIN STAGING Like a PRO

If you need help producing professional sounding mixes, it all starts by understanding what Gain Staging is, and how to gain stage your mixing sessions for a better mixing experience… Today is your lucky day!

I’ve compiled some of my most helpful tips into a one-stop resource that you can use to improve all aspects of Gain Staging.

Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comments!

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:43 The #1 Gain Staging Mistake
12:00 Gain Staging When Recording
21:05 Gain Staging & Compression Confusion
23:07 Gain Staging VST Instruments
27:30 Cubase Gain Staging Hacks
38:26 Gain Staging with Analog Gear

=================================
ELEVATE YOUR SKILLS NOW ➜ JOIN OUR COURSES
=================================

➡️ Craft Professional, Radio-Ready Mixes Using Only the Tools Available to You in CUBASE with The Ultimate CUBASE MIXING Masterclass

=================================
LET'S STAY CONNECTED
=================================

⏰ Timestamps ⏰

=================================
Some of the gear and plugins I use in the studio:
=================================
STUDIO MONITORS:
HEADPHONES:

#mixdownonline #chirsselim

[Somedei]

Best Gain Staging video on the internet

[korkenknopfus]

Perfect guide, Chris. And it is good that you show not only the criteria to make the adjustments, but also to warn about the errors. It is a very common thing to be talking with people who have trouble because they get obsessed with the numbers or with trying to re adjust the pre gain after each plug-in adjustment they do, because they NEED the -18, not taking care to the actual mix. In a forum I participate (not MCC) there was a lot of discussion about this.

[borisvillar]

This is the best gain staging video out there
Thank you so much
You answered so many question for me 👍

[DalockDeBaddest]

You are a Heaven Sent Pro, Life Saver 🙌🙌🙌

[MrMusic-ndto]

Excellent video Chris! Best I've seen on gain staging!!! 🎶🎹🎶🎸

[black_amadeus]

good summary. thanks. follow since 2019.

[QuaverloveStudio]

Thanks, Chris. 
I've been guilty of adding plugins after gain staging, then going back and adjusting the pre-gain. Being told not to do that is one thing; explaining why it's not a good idea (as you've done) makes me more focussed on not doing it.

[bjdarl]

Really informative video. Thanks Chris.

[laserjakk]

Chris is simply the best, one they I will travel from Brazil to Canada just to meet you and get a Mixdown Online Cap. If you have a small one, cuz even I'm an adult my head looks like a 12 years old boy hehehe!

[loveMusic]

You never know which plugins you will end up using so just gain stage and you don't have any worries. I consider it part of session prep like naming tracks and color coding.

[alainpatry]

Nice compilation! Question: When you convert instrument tracks to audio tracks, you can either gain stage them before rendering (ex: in the VST itself) OR you can gain stage them after rendering them to audio and are ready to start mixing? Either method is acceptable, yes?

[DMidNyte]

My question is, when a track is in a fader, and running hot, there's the gain stage knobs right there. But if you have 2 or 3 tracks like this, and you pout them in a group, then the group gets hot. We'll you can hit that button again and everything seems fine. But what about putting a compressor on one? Or 2 - 3 other plugs...do you gain stage using the slider? Or the button that inside? And do you have any merch? I would love to have your logo on a hat, or shirt, or even a coffee mug. Mixdown brother!!!!

[VersatileLifestyle]

I do it like this, and plz let me know the right way.
Beat -7 to -10
Rec -6
Vocal -6 to -16
Master -7 to -10 Peak
I'm watching your video so i can lean more

[jvaddison]

Hi Chris, great vid man. Question, so when ive Gain Staged with the pre-gain in mix console, you are definitely saying DO NOT touch pre-gain in mixcon after?

[Satyrator_-gyvq]

Ok, when something in your track or chain or your master clips, turn down the levels. But i don't get why it is a problem, if nothing is clipping, but the level is a little too low on the master. We are in the digital domain, so there shouldn't be a real signal to noise ratio issue, as long as you don't use analog emulations correct? So why not simply put a gain plugin in the master and push it to -6dB in this case? Can someone explain?

[Studiomix]

Very good video about gain staging, I totally can agree upon 😊
Now hope that the comments will be respectful because for some people gain staging can be a very controversial topic. People who think gain staging doesn’t matter can be aggressively opinionated about it. For some people the topic can become a matter of life or death 😂

[MikeBrayton]

I've been doing this for a long time, and the whole concept of gain staging still mystifies me. I work in 32-bit floating point, all my audio files are in 32-bit floating point. Rarely do I experience distortion, even if I'm cranking the levels into and out of plugins, sometimes the faders are completely in the red. Seems like most of the plugins I use have input gain adjustment, so that helps. And if I want to gain up or gain down, I just add a gain plug-in. And if I'm coming in too hot on my 2-bus, or any of my buses, I can just use the gain control on the channel. I'm not certain why there's any need to understand -18 dbfs, unless we're sending the audio outside the box.

[ontrackrecstudioavk]

What to do when some instrument sound is too low after sound checking to reduce the gain staging level and the sound is too low to hear

[sammytheman]

What level should you record guitar DIs, to reamp later?

[jvaddison]

You said something interesting but confusing to me 😊 about eq NOT been effected by the signal amount but by the signal itself 🤯🔨. What Do you mean by "Signal itself"? Do you mean reverb for instance?