GAIN STAGING when RECORDING? Get the Perfect RECORDING LEVELS

#recording #homerecording #skillshare

GAIN STAGING when RECORDING? Get the Perfect RECORDING LEVELS

We talk a lot about the importance of gain staging your mix to get a great sound, but to get the best results, you have to start even earlier…
I’m talking about gain staging at the recording phase!

When you mix tracks that have been recorded well, a significant part of the work has been done for you. When tracks are recorded too loud or too quiet, you can run into a whole host of mixing problems that make your job unnecessarily harder.

In today’s video, I’ll show you some tips and tricks (and even plugins) to help get recordings right at the source.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
1:01 Why gain staging is important for good recordings
2:09 Average vs Peak levels
3:11 How to set gain levels in Cubase
5:24 Helpful plugins for gain staging
6:30 Using a VU Meter to track average levels
7:38 Using SuperVision in Cubase 11 to monitor levels
10:18 Optimal recording levels

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Some of the gear and plugins I use in the studio:

STUDIO MONITORS:
HEADPHONES:

[davidball]

I love this guy. Get's to the business quickly and doesn't send a mixed message. All things Cubase, he has under control as well as sharing insight into the fundamentals for people like me. Thank you Chris for all that you do, and, keep it going brother. We need you. Thank you.

[stixslivers]

It was veery worth watching this again Chris, I will watch it again, need to take some notes. Thanks

[Justwantpeacelove]

It's 2021 at this point we should have some type of ai vst that can pin point the average to getting the DB we want! Thanks for the this amazing video aswell brother!

[lucianappleton]

I'm ol skool. I have a bunch of really nice compressors that I use to watch the signal that hit the ADC. I say really nice compressors because I don't want to hear them knocking down the spikes.It's also less of a balancing act managing the dynamics going in.

[prenumenumedefamilie]

RMS is more like for consistencies "roots means square" because booth phase compile and picks means "reaching top mountains" also showing little top spikes ! Well maybe for gtr or drums ! big transients included!

[erkamau]

It Is importante to considero the Dynamic range available by the dac section, not all the dacs have -18 or -20 dBu, often a bit more, let'say for example - 14 dBu, so to use well all the recording headroom we have to match - 14 dBFs for RMS when recording...

[rodferguson]

The IK/T-racks meter module is also very cool. I never thought of using it on an input channel....nice!

[prenumenumedefamilie]

we can already rec up to 48 bit depth if we want! because you mention 24 is great also !

[ocelot]

Hi Chris! I have a question regarding the Control Room volume (red monitoring knob). I have set up the Control Room for my audio connections and it is working great.

However, when I was re-amping my DI guitar signal I noticed that the default value for the Control Room volume is always -20dB which results very weak DI signal. Because of this I have been increasing the Control Room's red volume knob to add more gain for the signal that is re-amped.

I was thinking that if I want to set the equivalent master output volume level (when the Control Room is disabled) what is the correct value? Would it be 0dB?

[ABS_AD]

I am wondering which audio interface your using. Thanks for a great video.

[kdcyp]

Thanks a lot Chris! I have now added “supervision’ plugin on every channel in my/your! template as the last slot in post fader plugin section. I suppose I should have it also as the first plugin in my pre=fader section for the input ‘pre’ signal 🤔 Of course I use Alt+left mouse click on the power button on the plugin to switch it fully off until I use it, to save CPU loading 😉

[sunpointstudio]

One could set the channel meters colouring to imitate the VU meter colouring i.e. have the meter change to red at -18.

[DMidNyte]

Hey Chris, I've got a question. When you gain stage tracks, that's fine. But what if said tracks go to a group. That group is now pretty high. Do you gain stage that group?
And lastly, do you have any merch? I would love a shirt or hat with your logo? Thanks ❤

[Guitardood]

I can't lie... I get lost in the majesty of that beard sometimes and have to rewind the video... my god man, it's perfect!

Another great bit of info here, as usual... Thanks for always making amazing videos!

[erikkroll]

That is pretty much what I go for. Max peaks of -6 but they rarely hit that level.

[SuperSamsosa]

what is the free vmeter alternative ? thx

[viktorschurban]

great job Chris! very comprehensive and hands on stuff)

[Bezowinz]

Great vid!

Yeah, Cubase not having RMS levels on the channel is a PITA.

[AcousticBruce]

Newb question here: I would assume that on my external audio device that I would want to keep those levels is close to A max of zero DB. So before even working in the DAW, get the audio interface levels as high as possible without going past zero. The reason I'm asking this is because you have this -18 DB and I'm assuming that's for post-processing after the audio interface?

[undercrownhiphop]

So with vocals would u want to set VU 0 to -6db to monitor peak? And use another rms meter to make sure your coming in between -18 and -10 rms?