Why I Don’t Do “Gainstaging” (and what I do instead)

[jonnytherrien]

I had an employer who was a mastering engineer and a teacher previously. He told me he used to have students make a mix using only level faders. Then do it again using faders and panning. Then do it again with faders, panning, and hi pass filters. And so forth for a few more steps. I think people will over utilize plugins and processing without knowing what they want to hear or feel. I feel like most my mixes are just levels, pans, and filters.

[markusszelbracikowski]

I think usually what people mean by gain staging is not about making everything the same level, but leaving room for the mix to not clip when you put every track together. That's the main goal for me at least.

[scottparker]

This particular process and concept, above all others, truly was the game changer and got me to a point that I could make a mix, instead of mixing a variety of clipping noise.

[MrSkyTown]

I gain stage for multiple reasons, if I don’t gain stage then I’ll have issues where adding a plugin will clip the track if it’s too high coming in for example. Gain staging helped me to mix and sound better, the thing about mixing that’s cool and fun is everyone has their own workflow. And for me the mix balance is more easier for me after gain staging.

[kevinreddoch]

On a fundamental level I totally agree that it's more important to focus on making music rather than fretting if the gain of everything is perfect. However I think the misunderstanding of gain is the main issue. Gain is not the same as setting levels. Gain is setting how much of the signal is available. It's like plumbing. You have the gain/main water line which limits how much water you can pull at a given time. The fader is like a faucet. You can control how much of the source you want to use. 😀

[franlarsen]

The idea with peak normalizing is to do it on the raw tracks, and it has
no impact on their final level in the mix. They still need to be mixed.
What is gives you is a more predictable result when you are using plugin
chains that you have setup in advance for the expected level. So it can
be a time saver.

[matthewkerr]

A discussion of "Gainstaging" without talking about signal-to-noise ratio, clipping, and headroom, is not a discussion of gain-staging at all. This video is about mixing. I don't think you understand the fundamental concept of gain-staging.

[therealmusicianaire]

THANK YOU! I was doing static mixes all my life until I started hearing about gain staging. So I researched it, tried it, and struggled with it. I did get some decent results, but I kept wondering why they weren't better results than what I'd always done. And then you made this video. And I thank you for "giving me permission" to go back to static mixes. That's what I know, where I'm comfortable, and what gives me the results I want. [for readers of this comment, I've been recording for over 40 years, so it's not a matter of being a relatively new kid on the block who doesn't grasp the concept of mixing well. ;-) ]

[Hermiel]

I heard you make a lot of valid points but none were a case against gain staging. This is the process of maximizing a signal's level so as to minimize noise and optimize it for the next amplification stage in the chain. Normalizing tracks so the waveforms look bigger is not gain staging and it never was.

[vancenichols]

Thanks so much for making this topic clear and concise in a world where the usage of the term "gain staging" is as diverse and dynamic as all the colors in the spectrum. This what you've provided is quite liberating! 😀

[thesouringgentleman]

I just never thought this was a thing before I started watching YouTube for mixing strategies. I make sure a track is close to zero. I add fx, and make sure it can go close to zero without sacrificing dynamic range. Then when I’m mixing, I can turn everything down, or bring it all up depending on what the mix needs.

[alastairgames_]

I understand what you’re trying to say but gain and level are two different things. Gain staging in mixing isn’t really a thing, gain staging only applies to recording as an engineer, not a mixer. Like you said briefly it applies to analog hardware, and setting the right gains through a chain of analog hardware on the way IN to the DAW. Which is very important it have proper gains hence gain staging. I think the conversation you’re trying to have is about a great balanced mix, not gain staging.

[shamgarsan]

Gain-staging is about getting the right amount of signal to the next device in the chain while maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio overall. It's not as relevant when dealing with fully arbitrary digital mixing, but it's a habit from live audio that I don't feel like giving up and it proves useful when dealing with emulation plug-ins.

As for track normalization, I find it very useful when working from templates to do fast turnarounds on recurring projects with consistent elements. Normalizing the raw tracks will set up the templates properly for fine-tuning rather than scratch-building.

[DonnTarris]

In 1982 I custom built a recording mixer for my studio, that would allow me to set the input level of each strip, and then apply any eq (usually high pass or similar) to deliver the best signal level for each input to its corresponding track of the tape recorder - in essence, so that the peak of each instrument or voice would be the same on each track of the tape. The signals were returned to the corresponding channels on the console just ahead of the fader, pan and often reverb send (post fader). The faders represented the loudness of each returning track, allowing a mix to be made without interfering with the level going to tape. So your shaker channel would have the fader set at a different position than the kick drum, which would be different from any of the other returned signals.
When I get tracks from someone else to mix, often live recorded tracks, the firs thing I do is load them all into a simple application that allows me to run a normalize function to make their peaks equal -6 db. This makes them similar to signal on the tape I used to record to. I then load them into Logic, or other DAW, and set the faders and pans as I would expect the various levels to be represented visually for the mix. At -6db, there's enough room if a channel requires work using an equalizer or other plugin without overloading it, but it also allows me to see the waveforms clearly for every channel. I also only bring up sounds like kick, bass, and vocal to -6 on the fader to begin with, to allow everything to be added without overloading the mix buss.
What I've found is that some plugins are not designed very well and require that I insert the "gain" plugin (Logic) prior to the other plugin so I can set the gain (staging) so as not to overload, or not to under feed, that plugin. In the analogue world, we would gain stage to control at which stage the signal was to be amplified cleanly, or to control an amount of overdriving the gain going into a piece of analogue gear. I don't think of the concept of gain staging as a complex or confusing one, at least it wasn't during the time I instructed courses in the early 80s.
That said, music and recording are very subjective in the creative phases, and I would override actual electronic engineers when the numbers didn't look good, in favour of the achieved sound.

[kshep]

I agree but I also gain stage. I take Hornet VU meter, put it on first track. set it to -18db for the reference setting and 0db for peak just to limit anything way out there, set to group 1. Now drag that over to every other track. Open any instance, click auto, you will see the gain dial move. Play your song from start to finish then click stop. Auto will turn off and every track has been set to a reference level. Basically you have given yourself some headroom without moving a fader yet. Now do your static mix, adjust panning as you deem necessary. Check in mono to see if anything pops out, adjust, switch back to stereo, repeat. At end you should have a decent mix without a single plug-in yet. Now start listening for what the tracks need in context with one another, compression, eq, etc. I work this way especially now I’ve gone to hybrid mixing. I know if I’ve done the above, when I send out a track via adat into my Ferrofish ad/da converter and into whatever 500 series modules i want to use on the track that I started into that chain with headroom. I don’t obsess over it, I use an automated tool, listen to the song as it is doing its thing and move on, never to mess with gain staging any further. This way of working may not be for everyone, but it works for me, it is cheap and maybe takes 10 minutes to setup part of which I’d be listening to the track anyways just to get an idea of where I want to take things. Good luck everyone and have fun mixing (which I think Joe is spot on about here!)

[ghostofpanama]

Absolutely agree - really sensible advice.

It seems that gainstaging has become something of a cult.

Of course, balance the input and output levels in the stream but sorting a static/simple level/pan balance before whamming on those plugins is such a really good discipline.

You might also find that you don’t need all those plugins after all…

[PaulMorini]

Isn't there a difference between gain staging, (making sure that the signal being recorded is at the appropriate gain in the beginning and then going from one device and or plug in to the next), and relative volume levels between the different signals or tracks? I thought those were 2 different issues...

[cromy]

Gain staging is crucial. I think your point is more on having a good balance in mix context

[tutubeos]

Finally 💙. Thanks. I always thought I was wrong. I kinda do gain staging but I think I do it differently. First I mix all the tracks, find the right level between all the tracks using just the faders, no plugins, just fader levels, focusing on what sounds right to me in terms of relative balance between the tracks. Then, I select all the tracks and I bring all the faders down (or up) till the master output gets to around -6 db. Then I apply plugins and I make sure to keep that - 6db in the master output by adjusting the output volume of each plugin, I do not touch the faders anymore (besides small corrections). It musically works for me, it’s not math, and it’s simple. Thank you Joe.

[KH-mqrg]

You are so good at explaining things, thank you so much, great video!