7 Gain Staging Mistakes That Most Producers Make (and How to Fix Them!)

[@EDMTips]

Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. If you liked this video don't forget to smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming tutorials! 🔥

[@Andrew-yg7bg]

Amazing content

[@EDMTips]

@@Andrew-yg7bg Thanks!

[@Noitkidda]

Hi Will, golden info as always!

[@gbigbo_zjebeezjeboo]

Excellent !

[@Andrea.Zechmeister]

Thanks Will Have testing working very well !

[@Noq92]

im doing semi professional producing for almost 10 years but NEVER heard of this EVER. Thank you so much !!!

[@alexbreugelmans8448]

Learned more in these 14 minutes than hours of courses and discussions in the past. Super!

[@EDMTips]

Nice, stoked to hear that, Alex! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?

[@oldschooljohnny]

I can't believe that I'm watching this for the third time in 2 days, why didn't my audio school cover this so eloquently? would have saved me YEARS!

[@EDMTips]

Glad it was helpful! Anything else you're struggling with?

[@oldschooljohnny]

@@EDMTips I've tried to mix people's vocals into my instrumentals, but because we are all just file sharing, I find it hard to mix it in because they used crumby microphones, or peaked too often in the recording. The vocals can't be re-recorded. Are there tips for fixing noisy vocal recordings?

[@antgeeze7129]

Realizing as well that by the 3rd time i watch these I GET IT!!!😂🎉 I like this guy

[@yvesbajulaz]

so well explained. first video i ever see really breaking it down.thx

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻

[@djlokho]

Didnt realize those shades of green represented average and peak. Also, I’ve been fooling my ears by not matching the gain increase some effects/plugins cause. Huge game changer. Thank you as always

[@ELLIOT8209]

You can use a clipper plugin to tuck in that light shade(peak) into the dark shade(rms) and achieve more headroom and avoid overworking the limiter on the master. Check out the Clip To Zero method by Baphometrix.

[@djlokho]

@@ELLIOT8209 thank you m8!

[@RDH.85]

@@ELLIOT8209thank you for this recommendation much appreciated.

[@cjfromgtasanadreas]

your branding has gotten incredible, highly professional, you're in my top 3 music/audio teachers, I don't have a favorite one, you're all great at different stuff/genres, much love Will

[@MukeshRathore]

This one is the eye opener tutorial. I knew about gain staging but not in such detail. Thanks a ton for this bro❤

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻

[@songwritertill]

After digging through countless youtube vids on gainstaging and not really grasping it fully....I felt a bit fed up always getting bits of info but never the full concept. Until I just now stumbled upon your video....and at the end I have a Big Smile on my face! Finally I understand it all....thank you so much....awesome! 👍😁👍🎵🎵🎵🎵

[@EDMTips]

Awesome, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻 Anything else you're struggling with and would like me to cover on my channel?

[@songwritertill]

@@EDMTips - thank you - will keep it in mind👍🎵

[@royallmuzikproductionz]

I’ve seen so many videos never once heard anyone say gainstage my groups 😢. Cheers man.

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome :)

[@funpartition]

Hi Will, I'm devouring all your videos one by one, I'm coming from a "little" creative block and you're getting back the fresh spark of creativity and the desire to continue composing and mixing. Particularly, this technique was one of my favourite in the past (it's the most comfortable way for mixing as well), but I've got rushed by the "more volume on each track" syndrome and lost my way. Thanks for this super clear reminder, for your awesome explanations and, equally important, the A/B demo results of one way and another. Really really appreciated. You have a new fan for sure!

[@EDMTips]

BOOM! 🙌🙌 😎 You’re welcome! Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support 🙂

[@bros_alenski]

Honestly, I easily understand and follow along your every videos. Thank you so much, sir🙏❤

[@Intiuz]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! i was in a rut for hours trying to find a good db ratio for my sounds, and this fixed it. my track is so much cleaner and more smooth now

[@tanishagilles]

You have a really great way of explaining these concepts. I felt so overwhelmed before finding your channel, but now I'm empowered to keep learning. Thank YOU!

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, Tanisha! Thank you for watching and supporting the channel 🙂🙌🏻

[@JeuneLysOfficiel]

Thanks for this ! I usually set the gain stage at -18 except for the KICK and Bass wich are at -12, and still have to lower something between 5db and 12db on the Trim to keep under -12 (when using processed or normalized Drums of course)

[@stonyallen]

Great explanation. I will be checking out more of your videos!

[@EDMTips]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@Metaphoria_Music]

You are really good at keeping things simple yet you're able to teach stuff that's kind of complex for beginners. You make even the complex stuff simple is what I'm trying to say, and a 10 minute video of your feels more like a 2 minute video because it's just a constant flow of efficiently conveyed knowledge!! Subscribed without hesitation, thank you so much buddy :)

[@EDMTips]

Thank you for the sub and kind words, I really appreciate the support! 🙂🙌🏻

[@okpandora]

First time I’ve understood gain staging properly. Usually videos on the topic are an hr long! Nice work, I’m looking forward to trying this on a mix. Thanks!

[@EDMTips]

YoUre welcome! Let me know how you get on

[@repasiv]

This opened my eyes a bit. I haven't cared much about gain in the daw, as most of them are 32 bit float anyway, so even if you clip something on the meter, you can dial it back on your next stage, no distortion should happen. But I've got also in a different setting a behringer x32 console and the manual states the same.... set your input gains to -18 dB, which is actually the top of the green region on the meters. I have been using it like this on the x32 and doing it in a daw makes totally sense. Thank you!

[@NellyInTheSky]

Sheesh man, thank you SO much. I've been researching gain staging for yonks but never had it laid out so clearly. Just applied it to a track in Cubase and feel like your tips have improved it tenfold. I can't thank you enough! Subscribed; will watch everything you put out haha All my respect to you.

[@neroldeer]

Nice! Follow the flow is the perfect . The path I follow is 1. Stage the sound plugin. (Obviously that doesn't exist when is just stems). 2. Input gains (Cubase has it built-in - looks like ProTools needs a plugin but should be identical or at a minimum considered step 3). 3. Stage the input effect plugins. 4. Stage the Effect groups/busses. 5. Stage the Buss groups.... rinse and repeat 3 through 5 as needed depending on your buss setup. Finally, when needed - 6. The Faders.... if you do all the above correctly, the faders should mainly sit a 0 and just be used for volume automation. Obviously, there are exceptions depending on what you are trying to do but overall, that covers 95% of it.

[@neroldeer]

It's hard to cover everything when pinpointing something, and the points of not over obsessing is perfect, but, while it's not being said here, there are two points to keep in mind while gain staging. 1. Use your ears, not just your eyes... "move it all to -18db!!" can kill a mix when it destroys specific loudness's the music needs. 2. Keep your peaks in sight. Mastering needs at least -3db, better is -6db to work with. -18db should keep you below those levels but some percussion or big/wide drones or had hits can push above that range.

[@elkinsmedia]

Hey great job breaking that down to a practical list that follows signal flow and explaining why gain staging makes a difference in the actually fader movement- I knew all of this stuff but for some reason felt weird about using secondary gain utility plug which is stupid. Another good side effect of having gains at the end of the fx chain on each channel is that you can use the last gain to balance- then all your automation is proportional so it just rides on top of the new level. Much better than going into volume automation points- selecting them all and bringing them all down. Also- that last gain plug in can be automated as well. Great job!

[@EDMTips]

Thank you! I’m glad you found it useful :)

[@mukeshpathak7302]

Game changer ❤ Commenting here just to let algorithm know this is a great video, please recommend it to more producers.

[@DowdenProductionAcademy]

Great video Will! I think my favorite tip is about A/B with your gains matched in volume. So many times I see videos of people cranking a compressor or saturator and then thinking it sounds better because it's only louder!

[@EDMTips]

Exactly!

[@ghonair]

good one!

[@LennonStephens]

Yes. This is the only way to tell what an analogue emulation plug really sounds like.

[@selaijahplet5018]

After hours of watching various gain staging videos I’ve finally found one which clearly explains how and why🥳🥳

[@DJ-Coma]

Thank you for doing this video. I already understand gain staging, but I see so many people of all levels doing tutorials online that clearly don’t. It’s an important topic that every producer should know

[@lightburning9693]

The 5th gainstaging video i have watched... So good I do not have to watch another. Thank you so much!!!

[@ed_synth-bass]

At 07:50, that is a tip which seems nonsense, and yet... Really useful for me. Thank you so much Will!

[@ghonair]

very good video, congrats! After all gainstaiging in every clip with average volume, we saw clipping on the master fader, did i missed something, or did you forget to tell us to fix this issue? 05:49-05:55 its my idea, should we put again an utility on the master? and bring it down with the utility to -6 or so to say so much db that the master show -6? and when it comes to the mixerfader (to have one clip louder or quieter, automatically from this particullar clip the average volume will be decrease or increase) is this ok? because you still want to have instruments and parts fixed in the mix... or is the average volume just for the plugins hitting sweetspots in processing? thanks for your answers.

[@JS-wd2bk]

Great Stuff.One great thing that one can take from the meters, is how compressed or not, a particular track is, and also a rough idea of the crest factor per track or in the master, just looking at the peak and RMS tops and the difference between them.

[@Dougiebot9000]

Thank you so much. After countless gain staging videos you have explained things properly and the most simplest for me to understand. I appreciate u man

[@nanoghostmusic]

Ugh. I wish I watched this earlier in my learning process. I could have saved a TON of frustration. I couldn’t figure out why everything was making sounded so unbalanced and muddy. I had zero clue that you had to balance the gain at each stage of the process. Just went into my last project and made the adjustments and now it sounds incredible.

[@EDMTips]

Sweeet, then my job here is done! Glad you found it helpful :)

[@RePeterPod]

Yknow man i appreciate the little zooms and stock footage you put in. Your editing helps you get to the subject faster than others. I like it.

[@EDMTips]

Cheers! Working with a really good editor now :)

[@markreid3929]

Holy crap man, i just went into one of my tracks that was good but sounding a bit underwhelming, put a gain plugin on each track and set them to each one at -18 then put all the faders back to 0 and it sounds fukn great and i haven't even started actually mixing yet... wtf... this is a game changer for me. Thankyou!

[@EDMTips]

Rock on! You're welcome! 🙂

[@deangullberry777]

Your amazing at explaining things, this topic in particular is something i think isnt taught well even over YT, it was well done and i dont even use ableton. Thank you!

[@EDMTips]

Thank you, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙌

[@carmayen33]

I feel so relieved whenever I see any of your videos, such a lot of fine tuning for my music mate, thank you so much

[@buzzpsy]

Wow your tips are super amazing, refresh the knowledge you already have but also teaches you new things which you accidentally ignore learning this super massive world of music, thank you so much!

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, glad you liked them! 🙌🏻

[@buzzpsy]

@@EDMTips yess definitely 🤗

[@Stacity]

Interesting Wil and the best advice iv seen. I haven't used a second utility plugin before as a assenuator decreasing volume I will definitely use this method.

[@EDMTips]

Glad it was helpful!

[@conorcantrellmusic]

Another great lesson, Will! Thanks very much. In addition to your hour-long 'how to produce' videos, I'd love to see some 'how to mix/master' videos i.e. to watch your entire process from inputting the stems to mastering a 'shiny new banger'. ;) I watched some of the succincter videos and thought it'd be interesting to see a whole session and hear your thought process throughout! Keep up the great work. All the best.

[@lukereynolds9290]

Thankyou so much man, already had a good grasp on gainstaging but only now have I realised that I was setting levels based on peak and not RMS😂 a stupid error but I’m excited to see how my mixes sound from now on

[@lupebeats2036]

Bro this is incredibly 🔥 . I love u u have saved my life. Being stressing up with music for about 5years now and thinking to quit. Watching this has changed my conception over how signal control affects music even the plugin gain. I love it. Can u teach us plugin arrangements on buses and auxiliaries aswell

[@MrVinylistic]

Great video and very important facts to get a balanced mix with enough headroom for the mastering. As long as you are working only "in the box" it works fine. The problem of this " -18 dB rule" comes when you would like to integrate external effect processors that are connected to your audio interface (especially some great sounding vintage reverbs and delays with only analog ins and outs ). Then the -18dB leveled signal could be sometimes too low for those external reverb processors and they wouldn't react properly (e.g. no reverb is coming out or only with a lot of hiss). In this case I recommend to copy this certain signal to another track from where you send it to your external reverb processor with an higher average level (maybe -12 dB or -6 dB). Otherwise you wouldn't hear any reverb on your fx returns. Some external reverb boxes offers digital i/o's like AES/EBU or SPDIF, then you stay on the digital domain and you may work with them as a plugin.

[@OfficialStudio4403]

YOOOO first producer to shout out Studio One!!!!! I've NEVER seen that in a pro production tutorial!!!! Anyways, thanks for all your content and videos. I've learned (and keep learning) SOOOO much, and you explain it all with such clarity and ease. I've become a WAY better producer since a year ago when I didn't know you existed.

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, glad you found my videos helpful 🙂

[@WORKINPROGRESS-Music]

I’ve never ever ever had a tutorial where I’ve learned so much I normally use the faders to gain stage ! This is gonna help me sooooooo much mate thanks a lot ❤️

[@jeremietoussaint4085]

When you use your faders you are just increasing or decreasing the volume, not the gain ;)

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome! 🙂

[@bernardodocruzeiro2496]

@@jeremietoussaint4085 whats the difference between volume and gain?

[@SpacedOutDoonie]

@@bernardodocruzeiro2496 Im learning about this too, the way I understand it is gain volume is the waveform volume increase/decrease.

[@Lupo150]

@@bernardodocruzeiro2496 see it as Gain - input, Volume - output. So when you're working with a bunch of plugins in a channel you want your GAIN to be (somewhere) around the sweet spot down the processing chain in order to achieve the best possible sound and keep enough headroom for final processing of the whole track. Volume is just how strong, or loud, your sound is in the mix. For example, if you want your strings to be somewhere in the background you'll adjust the VOLUME, not the gain.

[@thelateraledge]

I do something similar, however I use soft or hard clippers depending on the source material instead of a gain plugin. This allows me to adjust the dynamics of the source sound first, then I use the output gain on the clipper to gain stage. I do it this way, so that if I for example send the source sound to a compressor afterwards, the compressor won't have to work as hard to control the dynamics, which is kind of the common goal here, that being, to feed these plugins with source material which allows them to perform their best. Just something to think about, it is not just the level that effects some of these plugins but also how dynamic the source material is.

[@creashinn1]

This actually helped a lot. Thanks for the thorough explanation. Now it's like I have to go back and do so much more. Your channel has actually helped me more then everything I've learned on my own in all my years of producing. Thanks for all the amazing content.

[@EDMTips]

You’re utmost welcome! Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support! 🙂 Keep it up!

[@derekcash7950]

I’m currently getting back into mixing/engineering/mastering my music which is rap, these past two days I’ve learned SO MUCH and had gained very good information and insight from your videos which is wild because, the majority of music you mix is EDM!! I’ve watched hundreds of videos with Hip Hop engineers but none have ever been as clear as you!! Love from Coachella EDM Tips keep on making these amazing videos!!

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, I am glad you found my videos useful! Thanks for watching and the kind words of support! 🙂

[@SpacedOutDoonie]

4:46 which meter should I be using for this technique? Is it the rms meter/vu meter/peak meter? Im using mvmeter2 and it has precise number metering instead of trying to guess by visual meter, its easier for me this way. Is it ok to go into like -17/-16 or -20/-22 etc? What about if a sound has louder peaks from one side compared to the other, left side is like -16 but the right side is like -19, which side do we look at to get to -18? Should the gain plugins be used last or first in the sounds mixer channel? Edit: 9:37 Edit: So I followed some of the first few steps and I didnt get all the levels precise but its around the average level marks, but the beat is very low in volume now. I then put L1 Limiter on the master channel and tweaked the level settings to -8 threshold and -0.5 out ceiling and its sounding pretty damn good. On the master channel peak meter its showing the highest peak hit is -4.1db, is this ok or what cuz you mentioned something about -6db?

[@deepupadhyaya09]

Exactly what i needed 👍👏😊. Next video on Tonal balance control ❤🌹🙏🏾

[@JozeatTxb]

Very useful video. Just a few old school "reality checks" 1) : possibly the MOST important ultimately :- make sure you have good quality (professional/studio) monitor speakers first!! All that hard work will come to nothing if you cannot hear precisely what is happening. I've had " fantastic results" on some famous modern good speakers, but on going back to my older speakers (eg Yamaha MSP5) which cannot be "fooled" , they have sound me out every time. That also goes to your listening environment (acoustics). 2) I think all in all , lots of modern production relies too much on digital "re-processing", via plethora of plug-ins. That alone instead of making it easier, just gets the project far more complex for relatively little gain - because mostly the samples you have ARE already optimised!! When not recording raw acoustic (eg vocals, live guitars/drums) I often use the "presets" from hardware synths or sound modules (see Yamaha Tyros/Motif) which are 'studio grade' wav recordings anyway_: reprocessing them merely recolours the patches all unnecessarily. Then it's really about simply balancing up the mix levels to optimum -unless original samples are that bad- any , additional plug processing being for effects or final mastering. 3)- Reference music records that have stood out before as perfect engineered masterpieces : In this aspect, lots of the "analogue" pre-DAW recordings (late 80's to early 00's) pop hits are excellent. That's not to say they are perfect, but sonic wise sound that "authentic" simply because of minimal processing. Sometimes this is exactly why they have lasted as hits! This (above) works by the way for ALL music genres including EDM. just my 50 cents. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gp2ogpaFacijadk (mega control of mutliple complex sound sources) kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4CZqZuCqcuqjZI (sound scaping and dynamics) kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYrGYplrhtmrqqc (why sometimes the unprocessed raw audio (no autotune,compress,etc) is the best)

[@mattkomlofske8912]

Dude, you just helped me fix problems in my mixes I was beating myself up trying to figure out. Thanks!!

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, Matt, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙂

[@Ezechel.Trifan]

I have an utility on every track, but then I see you putting 2 of them one after another and I'm like "Well, that's stu... - Oh, wait, you're doing it just to sandwich the plugins in-between. Nice". One of the most informative videos for me. Thanks.

[@Kalyptic]

Hey EDM Tips, I'm having a problem where I bring in a stem and the level is peaking really low but the actually audio sound that you hear is high. How would you go about fixing this? I'm using Cubase Pro and the stem in question is a banjo instrument.

[@northfortyrecords]

I've seen 8 or 10 of your videos by now, and most of them contain information that I've already known from years of audio mixing on my own, but I really appreciate how you describe and explain these concepts to your audience. And of course I learn a thing or two here and there. So I subscribed today, even though I don't produce EDM, because your tips are universal, and I look forward to getting your new videos in my YT feed. Keep up the good work!

[@drmathtex]

Very informative. Never thought to have the gain utility at the beginning and end of a chain. Very clever, thank you!

[@EDMTips]

Thank you so much for the support! Glad the video was helpful! :)

[@yokelectronic]

I am using this formula, and it's making an audible difference to the mix on my new track. Thanks for putting this up dude 😉

[@EDMTips]

Stoked to heat that and happy to help! 🙂🙌🏻

[@regimiro4888]

thank you so much for this! i've recently learned the general principles of this concept but was struggling with specifics and this really illuminated things for me. great video

[@EDMTips]

Stoked ot hear that! Really glad you enjoyed it! Any point in particular you found useful?

[@regimiro4888]

@@EDMTips I think most of it all it helped just to see the process start to finish in one sequence, but specifically I realised I'd been going wrong by setting my inital levels on different channels as a kind of rough relative mix rather than having them all be roughly equal. I also hadn't thought to add another gain plugin at the end of the chain for attenuation and had struggled trying to use the channel fader very low down.

[@dARTfader]

Thank you for this great insight. I was always gain staging using the peak instead of the rms levels. Also i didn’t balance the levels from plugin to plugin. The end result is great now. Keep up the good vids….cheers.

[@KLBoringBand]

This is the first mixing channel that makes sense to me. Thank you so much!

[@teddybeargram3]

So I learned gain staging when I went to school. And was taught by a few engineers I sat with. But was never taught it this deep. I wish you would do this with studio one or reason. As I am a more visual or hands on type. But awesome awesome video. Thank you so much

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome! 🙂

[@jeffreyalanday7432]

Great explanations, vital details, plus hands-on instruction. I think you have generously shared your secrets with the public - this will sweeten your karma! Thanks.

[@sanjaybaraily626]

hands down best gain staging video

[@flyoverfredusa]

that's what I do, always automate volumes with utilities as well. I never touch the faders. This is a great video though, wish I'd seen it 10 years ago !!

[@bapti2560]

Really clear and interesting one Will, the format and quality of the video is also really enjoyable ! :)

[@EDMTips]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@HarmonicLife79]

This has made what I’ve been finding a very confusing topic crystal clear. Thank you ❤

[@onuralkilinc]

you are a true master, you are one of the best explainers of this subject. Thank you

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome, glad you found this helpful! 🙌🏻

[@PeterB95]

I've been producing for nearly 7 years now. Everything in producing can sometimes feel challenging. For me, mixing in particular. Whilst it's not exactly the dark art it once felt like, it's still really hard sometimes. Thanks for the tips.

[@rafaelhernandez5550]

I have to say that this is the best tutorial I ever had wached for gain staging. Now I got it. Thank you very much you made my day.

[@EDMTips]

Rock on, glad it helped! Anything else you're struggling with?

[@dominica-o1654]

Game changer! This makes such a difference, even to a basic mix!

[@maju4231]

Just awesome.. been trying to learn this for months! Thanks so much for this tutorial.. first that explained it very easy so i understand every part of it haha, and with good examples. So helpful! Congrats to 100k subscribers!!

[@Auxbeatz]

this is a great video! all the things you said in this video I did naturally when I first started mixing.

[@nayaleezy]

Especially helpful discussion about staging instrument channel and aggregate bus and post effect

[@Abandoned_Logik]

Another very insightful video, and will definitely employ these techniques. I can already hear the improvements in my mix..haha

[@EDMTips]

Nice one! Glad it was helpful! Anything else you're struggling with?

[@finlaysharpe844]

Wow that was the first video of yours that i have watched and it has immediately cleared this up and it has been confusing me for years. Subscribed, thank you 🙏

[@EDMTips]

Well, looks like I've done my job then! 😉 Thanks for subscribing and I hope you continue to enjoy the content! 🙌🏻

[@DrCook45]

Hey Will, I love your videos, just when you think you know a little bit, you come along and give us so much more valuable tips n hints. I always say it, but thank you for your time and effort. :)

[@EDMTips]

Thanks for the support, and you're welcome! :)

[@MrBrownAlliance]

Young William, congratulations on the 100k. Well Deserved... BTW, you can add the plug-ins you need to either midi/audio, then save them as "default' so you will never need to do copy paste. But you knew that already!

[@EDMTips]

Thank you, and indeed you can, and indeed I did!

[@gbigbo_zjebeezjeboo]

Great video ! A question though. In the "Super low faders chapter" at around 7:35 you explain adding two Utility plugins to each track. The first one to get to the sweet spot of around -18db. What is the purpose of the second Utility plugin ? Can you clarify a bit please.

[@desmondcroft3302]

Perfect! Gain staging is my biggest struggle , I just learned that Ableton is 32 bit which allows for us to gain stage like we do in Ableton.

[@EDMTips]

Rock on! Glad it was helpful :)

[@jaguarrmusic]

New here and am already in love with your videos

[@EDMTips]

Welcome aboard, and thanks for watching!

[@anthonydean1652]

Straight away, i've learned something, Light Green and Dark Green on the mixer, thanks Will.

[@EDMTips]

Rock on! You're welcome, Anthony! 🙂

[@kharma7755]

Great tips... I've been using the pink noise reference for gain staging, but I like the idea of using the -18 average dB as a guide.. Also, since my artist name is SweetSpot, I particularly enjoyed this video... LOL

[@johnnnyd]

Best video I've seen on gain staging, its something I know I needed to do better but never grasped it properly. Until now. Thanks Will!

[@EDMTips]

BOOM! 🙌🙌 😎 Glad it was helpful!

[@LifeIsGood1992]

this is very useful, I was using the peak levels for mixing instead of the RMS which "was" quite bad

[@EDMTips]

Glad it helped! 🙌🏻

[@larrycavallucci3258]

This was interesting and helpful even though I do not do any EDM. It's also interesting to see ALL the different METHODS of gain staging and "Static Mix". I also believe that at some levels, those two are similar and can be done at the same time. I also saw another "Studio One Minute" video where all the tracks are selected, and you pull down the gain knob, or input trim knob, or whichever TERM you prefer!, for ALL at once and get the Main OUT or Master out or Bus to -18 db. Hornet, an Italian plugin Co, also has a plugin that does ALL tracks at one time, after you set your presets for them. Pretty nifty. Thanks!

[@chucksl21]

Beautiful video. Someone finally explained gain staging to me in a way that made sense.

[@EDMTips]

Rock on! You're welcome! 🙂

[@StamikVibe]

great great video, but is this it? what next? eq, comp, and fx prosscs? then is the mix is done?

[@wmextra]

I learned so much from this video that other videos with this lesson didn’t teach

[@EDMTips]

Glad it helped!

[@PANAMA8]

Это лучшее, что за последнее время я увидел на ютюбе! Кратко и понятно ;) Огромная благодарность тебе, человек! Мир твоему дому!

[@Digiloog]

A very clear tutorial. Except, at 2:40 you are talking about -6dB for the master channel. Is that also at pre-fader listening? Do you bounce at -6 dB or do you raise the fader to peak 0dB before bouncing? Thx!

[@YaronKeren]

I just want to tell you thanks for this diamond of a video 🙏🏻 you nailed it spot on very clear and well done produced.

[@Learning863]

Do I keep the channel faders at 0 the entire time and use second utility to mix volume? Or do I mix volume with channel fader after the first utility and use seond utility to bring back to -18. I got lost on step 3. @ 7:00 min mark

[@Mista808]

As an artist that produces my own instrumentals, that also sings, raps etc. on the instrumentals I've produced, would you STILL recommend that the mix be set to -6 dB? If yes, I have a couple questions regarding that logic. Would the answer only be YES if I were sending out my songs to be professionally mixed/mastered by an audio engineer? Because if that's the case, I've never done that with my music. Instead, I mix the songs myself and always have. I can't say I "master" them.. because I don't have experience with mastering, but I definitely do my absolute best to mix them to the best of my ability. So in my situation... should I STILL focus on having my mix sitting at about -6 dB, or should I do my best to focus on the levels of my finished songs being as close to 0 dB as possible? Hope you understand my question and get back to me! Thanks!

[@logicbox1539]

Hello, On the string channel 7:11, I don't understand why you have to turn down the fader and add the second gain utility when the first gain utility allowed you to reach -18 dBFS ? tia

[@user-en1oc8xn8q]

Just a heads up, the sweetspot is -18 RMS not dBFS. dBFS is peak volume, RMS is average volume. So the whole point of what he's doing with the 2 Utility devices is so that he DOESNT have to turn down the fader on the mixer in order to achieve the desired level for this track (which is going to be quieter than the -18 RMS sweetspot). This instrument in particular he's saying, he wants it to be quieter in the mix -however, if he ever wanted to use a plugin or audio effect on the track, the levels still need to be roughly -18 RMS. Therefore he adjusts the first Utility device to get to -18 RMS, but now the instrument is coming through too loudly in the mix (remember that he wanted this instrument to be quieter in the mix). To make it quieter he adds the 2nd Utility device and adjusts the level to whatever volume he thinks works (no longer worrying about the -18 RMS level, yet, if he wanted to add a plugin or audio effect, all he would have to do is insert the plugin/effect in between the two Utility devices to ensure that the audio level being input into the plugin is in the sweetspot, while also not increasing the volume of the instrument in context to the mix) Hope that makes sense. Also just for the record, he misspoke once or twice accidentally saying -18 dBFS, when he meant to say -18 RMS.

[@architechproducer]

After many years producing, I think this video upgraded my knowledge a lot. Thank you for this and you got a new subscriber.. 😘

[@EDMTips]

BOOM! 🙌🙌 😎 You're welcome, and thanks for the support! 🙂

[@djfutchy]

Brilliant video Will. You've got such a natural gift for teaching and presenting. One quick question. Would you put a utility between every plugin on an effects chain to maintain the -18dB across the whole chain? Thank you!

[@EDMTips]

Thank you! Probably not, as most devices and plugins have an output volume, so I would gain match the output to the input (just by ear - doesn't have to be super accurate).

[@djfutchy]

Thank You! @@EDMTips.

[@Honzinus78]

Hey Will, this 14 min. video showed me more than I was taught at music school for seven years!!

[@EDMTips]

Nice! I am glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻 Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?

[@Honzinus78]

@@EDMTips Thank you, Will! You are really a great mentor! I graduated from Prague Conservatory, "Composition and Arrangement". I haven't watched all your videos so far but I would like to know more about those beautiful background arrangements. I always end up with something not too good. I am very interested in EDM now ;)

[@onimisilovesonmusic4548]

You taught gain staging properly made it easier to understand.

[@crushworxvideo]

Loving your videos, this is really helpful! I was wondering if you had any videos specifically focused on the writing stage of a track? I find that when I’m writing I get too caught up and getting the mix perfect and I lose site of the direction of the tracks.

[@EDMTips]

Absolutely! Check out these tutorials, they should help: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJ62fJiYfNxnnpI kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHbHfpmoatl_mbM

[@crushworxvideo]

@@EDMTips wow! Thanks so much for the quick reply! I will check these out. Your videos have really upped my game. Ty

[@EDMTips]

You're welcome!

[@Mista808]

My question is super simple. Perhaps you already answer it in this video. Guess I'll find out? Should I or is it okay to gain stage with plugins such as reverb, eq, compression, delay etc. already added to several different channels? I watched a video on gain staging earlier and this guy was showing how to properly gain stage instrumentals but he didn't have a single effects/processing plugin on any of his instruments. I found that odd! If it's fine to keep all these processing plugins in play while gain staging, do we still still set the gain to the same -12 to -14 dB range when gain staging?

[@maaruz1979]

Man this guy is different from the rest, Great teacher

[@EDMTips]

Thanks!