GAIN AUTOMATION (the secret sauce of compression)

[@edurang]

I have learned more about audio engineering in one week of watching these videos than an entire semester in school for audio engineering.

[@kaydencrooks2790]

I felt this LOL

[@EXTERMINADORJAVIER]

That's because in actual school systems you are obligated to eat all the senseless stuff the teachers want to give you even if it doesn't have to do with the theme you want to learn. It also affects the motivation being in a cold room of boring people. How the hell do you want to learn in your own way? With KZbin.

[@keredrealmusic]

facts, my homie cecil, went to college for music for four years and he said ik more than he does and I left, lol!

[@RasmusGLarsson]

​@@kaydencrooks2790 yes

[@bencalhoun]

And it’s much cheaper 😉

[@testing3379]

Free... bless you guys man. I'm a professional musician ..and guys these ppl are giving away years and years of hard work for free.. I don't know what to say... bless you guys. Thanks, Sirs.

[@eclix]

the WOOORLD explodes. lmao

[@kathelmrich8996]

I liked this video for 2:23

[@victorpilao829]

Lmao

[@khatumu]

thank you so much for this content-- I can't get over the fact that this is free

[@RMRsavvy]

Giving away this for free should be a crime in itself. This is gonna help so many logic users. If I could like a video twice, it’d be this one for sure.

[@paulreid3180]

This channel is now my bible. Thank you so much!!

[@philcodeca]

I didn’t know you could apply cross fade to all regions at once! Lesson learnt!

[@saintpreston]

Amazing video gain staging is how I start every mix now & it has given me the confidence to finally releases my own mixes!

[@Sajtlik]

I love your voice! It’s so understandable and it doesn’t make me sleepy during tutorial.

[@fasttempofever3299]

Thank you so much! It's really nice to finally add this fundamental steps to my mixes, didn't know about this until now! Please keep it up with this awesome content, I'm discovering so much new stuff watching your videos!!

[@mykelnikiforides3350]

Brilliant!! Thank you Dylan. I’m learning quite a lot of new things from all your posts. You’ve saved me heaps of time too!! Very grateful for this information 🙏

[@ZacharyRedFulton]

Not just the secret sauce to compression, but expansion as well - just throwing that out there!

[@Spicyboi1214]

Fantastic tutorial! I use Logic Pro as well and I’ve been very confused about how gain staging works. I’ve been trying to automate the gain throughout the tracks but it just ended up sounding uneven. This is going to make my life so much easier haha. Thank you for the great content! Keep up the hard work!

[@oddsummusic9110]

this channel is a gem

[@honeyjalafofficial]

Great channel! You teach the things in a very simple manner! Thank you for your contribution!

[@christophrau8725]

Thanks for infomations on gain automation. A difficult issue here is to "preserve" the "overall expression" of the band and artists in the interaction. A quiet passage should not necessarily have the "same gain level" as the following part in a song, just as it is with the reaction of all other sounds/instruments/singers. The musicians intentionally work with volume controls and pedals. The mix must not destroy the dynamics and expression of the musicians. Musicians may not identify with the song after the gain work. How do you see this quite difficult task for the "studio person".

[@drinkcloudmilk]

communicate with your artist / producer about their intentionality with their dynamics. If that communication is hard to get, Just use this technique as a means to an end to get your processing chains to trigger consistently, then print and "un-gain stage" the stem so at least you get the benefit of consistent processing. The first example in the video of how a compressor will act differently with wild fluctuations of gain in the recording audio clip is a good example of why this could be of benefit.

[@mache3984]

Bruh........I was literally thinking to myself how dope it would be to have something like this in fl studio where you can actually see the wave form change. Crazy. I just have to figure this out in fl studio now. Thanks.

[@patrickreece6289]

"Time slows when you get close to the horizon"

[@PRIDEATH]

Cklose💀

[@issawen659]

If you want better control of the peaks, you can also just throw in the gain plugin in the beginning of your chain and just automate that as you would volume automation!!

[@aplanebagel]

thanks for this tips! I've learned something new!

[@mikelo303]

In Studio one you have Gain automation lane and just adjust that automation lane without any cutting. Just lane.

[@prodCarab]

With every DAW is the same, the problem is that way don't let you visualize that gain in your clips

[@mikefrogley8613]

Great learning, gain automation.

[@ElyJaffeMusic]

amazing tutorial! I can't believe this info is free, thank you!!

[@Singerville]

Been waiting a while for this one, thanks for sharing!

[@corinasucre]

This is amazing!!! You solved the problem that has been haunting me for three days🌞

[@ivanpina8516]

Thank you very much for your time to explain so well. Incredible your talent and dedication.

[@theq937]

Wow you delivered! Thank you!

[@Fiveash-Art]

That vocal made me laugh my ass off. 😂 Informative video. 👍🏻

[@romesworldent]

Gems! 💎💎 LOGIC GANG...ALL DAY!

[@AndrewRaia]

I've thought about using the vocal rider plugin from waves, although it writes volume automations I think, you can bounce it to a new track, should save a lot of leg work.

[@Bashanvibe]

I need to save this!!! Than you 🙏🏾

[@sizzlemann]

MOTU's Digital Performer has a better gain set up. You can cut, like you did, but the gain knob is in the bottom left corner of the soundbite. It's real convenient. Also, they have figured out a way so you don't have to add the crossfades. They have nondestructive editing that I hope the Apple programmers catch up on.

[@TheTradingCodes]

Wow thanks I needed this video

[@thomasw1865]

You could use a waves vocal rider, und compress it afterwards, right? The rider would pretty much even out the volume (without coloring the tone), and the desired compression afterwards would give it the tone you want.

[@AlecBoyd]

vocal rider is great because it doesn't introduce artifacts like compression (or gain automation). There's also the tried and true 1176 (grabbing the transients) with a fast release into LA-2A (handling general compression)

[@berachahmedia3859]

Very useful video.. ❤❤❤❤

[@fridayafternextfamilycook-8155]

*very useful tutorial👊*

[@ashwanit2t]

you videos are damn informative, precise and clear.

[@yassine.hammar1974]

Thanks dylan

[@kobraklutch7484]

Thank you for this. I've been using the scissors and applying gain staging until now

[@Amzegal]

What about plugs like Vocal Rider at the beginning of your vocal chain? Would it be a good substitute and spare a nice chunk of time?

[@Amzegal]

Sub question : would you use Vocal Rider for anything else than vocals?

[@holberg_music]

I use Vocal Rider at the end of my vocal chains (just in case the waveforms are affected inconsistently by other plug-ins) and it's a great time-saver but it has limits. In general, it's good at providing boosts to content that needs lifting by 1-2dB and it's fine for reducing things that are too loud by about 3-6dB, altogether reducing your dynamic range without having the colouration of a compressor. But you'll find you need to manually set the gain of anything outside of those ranges, as the rider moves the fader in smooth curves and if you have stuff with quite wide dynamic range, you'll hear unnatural upward and downward volume fades.

[@RobertCarlBlankMusic]

No, because you'd be adjusting the volume (end of signal chain) and not the gain (beginning of signal chain). The whole idea here is to have your insert plugins perform consistently, and the only way to do so is by adjusting the gain.

[@Amzegal]

@@RobertCarlBlankMusic Does your answer still applies if vocal rider is at the beginning of the chain?

[@thesoapboxsalute]

Love this idea, but I can't access that "gain" function in the regions area where you use it. It says gain where it is supposed to be, but it looks like it's disabled. Am I missing something? Thanks!

[@oscarpatxot659]

I have been using lately vocal rider but at the beggining of the chain, a little subtractive eq id needed and light compression. Tuning and desseing. Then commiting to that

[@hleet]

Very instructive

[@mistermind7946]

This is merely leveling the blobs :) yet it's useful for those who need to be aware that the signal level hitting the compressor affects the outcome of the compression.

[@23thkr]

Great tutorial

[@schoontube]

How does this relate to the Gain Normalization function? It seems like the same thing but more nuanced and labor intensive.

[@trolldeig1000]

Thank you! Helped a lot :)

[@katecosettevocals]

THANK YOU!

[@andymacc]

Well explained by someone... FINALLY

[@maseratifittipaldi]

Normalizing regions?

[@cookie1138]

Thank you, what a great video!

[@lazarcabarkapa3885]

does anyone know how to do this in fl studio?

[@Victor_Amaya]

Amazing!!

[@corknakovastein]

What about just normalizing the Track with RX10's normalize option? Seems a little less of a hassle and keeps everything sounding natural.

[@KurtBarbaza]

Whats the difference of gain automation vs normalization?

[@BigZBeatZ503]

Got my subscription

[@antisocial6209]

in your video the singer sceams how to do for scream without saturate pls

[@tripjj8662]

Is there a stock plugin that automated this process?

[@simonwilliams-x7v]

Hi Dylan, I am a bit frustrated as I cannot see the gain area in the inspector window as you illustrated. I can't figure out why. In using Logic X. Hope you have an answer as the info on your video is excellent.

[@sammiller9855]

If one wants to retain the dynamic range (purposely quiet and loud sections), how about automating the compressor threshold instead of gain. Or does that defeat the purpose of using a compressor?

[@ReynaldoOchoa]

To me, the whole "gain automation" defeats the purpose of a compresor to level your vocals..

[@jcb.98]

@@ReynaldoOchoa In most pop music today, the job of a compressor has more to do with tone and character than dynamics. Gain staging removes the problem of a compressor only kicking in once in a while, that can change the tone. However, compression in terms of fast dynamics (mostly vocals) remains a huge part of good mix.

[@jive1926]

After setting gain automation on the regions should we set the track to around -12 db in input volume? This is what I’ve learnt from other guides.

[@Yls1313]

Hey Dylan, I was wondering how to couple this with gain staging. Would I first gain stage the loudest part of the track, and then use gain automation to make the other tracks similar?

[@docbrown2064]

I would have said what the video is about is Clip Gains and NOT automation since there's no fine control that you'd see with automation. There's no automation control track either.

[@kofiassor2164]

Is this the same as gainstaging?

[@LykaonMetalMusic]

Isnt that the same with the Gain plugin?

[@phankhactuan644]

great! thanks u so much

[@mohanshiva_musical]

Gain vs normalise pls explain Bro

[@rickhorvath]

I always do this. Guess it’s not an obvious option.

[@jerryk3280]

Where can one listen to the complete masterpiece?

[@adamraimo5371]

ive watched this video a few times and its great information , thank you ! However when use marquee tool and split region then go to move the gain exactly like you did , the waveform is not changing inside selected region

[@xXRyRyXx7]

Don’t forget to switch back to the pointer tool, and click on the track. That will split it into its own section, enabling you to automate the gain. I came here today for the same reason! Happy mixing 🎸

[@YOURGEN-q3z]

Thanks but if I normalize a region?

[@AlessandroArcidiaco]

I hope in a real gain automation like Studio One and others does with line automations.

[@Chinintoo16]

Such absolutely valuable information My big question is, would you do gain automation on a track that is already gain staged? Or is it only done instead of gain staging on hyper dynamic instruments?

[@WTFaulkner]

I absolutely would do gain automation on a track that is already gain staged. I start gain-staging with what I think will the the loudest (most featured) instrument in my mix, during the loudest section, then work the other instruments around it. However, if my loudest instrument is the vocals, vocals are highly dynamic. Gain automation is to smooth out the dynamics in the track before hitting it with successive compression units (many compress vocals multiple times in a chain). Gain staging helps ensure you leave headroom with your overall mix. Gain automation on an individual track helps that track even out so that you don't have large transient spikes suddenly clipping, or resort to over-relying on heavy, clamped-down compression to control a spike (which can cause unwanted distortion). They are two separate processes that each contribute to a better mix.

[@saharshgupta8123]

Suppose if I am going to do the gain automation for vocals, then do I need to do gain staging first?

[@kamyarkarimi3652]

How to do that on midi track ? You bounce in place and than work in audio or i can put the Gain plugin and automate the gain knob?

[@illumen94]

Can some one explain why you/he doesnt just use the "normalize region gain" function?

[@Firetuna1]

So the organ player used his volume pedal. He did it in vain, you leveled it out. / I though gain automation was more like getting all the regions to a good plug-in volume. But not Leveling out dynamic performances?

[@deesee2008]

I agree. It’s better to gain stage and use volume automation, keeping note of compression.Or use everything judiciously.

[@ethanstansfield3667]

Great tutorial, shocking song 😂

[@VirtusLenon]

You’re the best!

[@limbiknetworkstudios4702]

Please tell me exact aim of bouncing our audio clip

[@vykunthmusical8459]

is it what the vocal rider does? instead of gain automation in vocals can we use vocal rider?

[@greghill6096]

Vocal rider does volume automation

[@sonpit]

Maybe use both? Start off with this method first and then use vocal rider? I’m a beginner so I’m not sure. Kinda having a hard time understanding the difference (even though he explained it in this video).

[@greghill6096]

@@sonpit Think of a pipe with water running through it. Gain automation adjusts the level (water) before it goes through the pipe. Vocal rider adjusts the vocal automation (level) AFTER everything (after the pipe)

[@sonpit]

@@greghill6096 Thanks Greg!

[@fvcktv2933]

Does it work for master?

[@younggorilla6311]

What if you use a vocal rider?

[@JDiamondMusic]

Why not just use gain normalization feature ?

[@BarryDocherty]

In my region that Gain output isn't available. Just greyed out Gain: Is there a specific type of audio track that will enable using gain in the region inspector?

[@derekmidgley]

With logic couldn't we simply add the stock gain plugin, first in chain and automate that. Listen for consistency. Once it sounds ok, bounce it in place and take a look. Done.

[@RobertCarlBlankMusic]

I guess that would give you the same results, yes

[@Taffafilms]

Great channel Dylan new subscriber here!

[@fivechordmusic]

Doesn't music need to breath? aka Dynamics? By changing the gain , aren't you removing the dynamic quality of the performance?

[@sohamshah3128]

A question that I had is doesn't gain automation destroy the natural dynamics of a recording?

[@WTFaulkner]

For most modern "radio-friendly" music, dynamics are bad. However, with the "loudness war" supposedly over, we can hope for a return to musical dynamics. I wouldn't gain automate a nuanced jazz or classical vocal. But for pop, EDM, hip hop, etc., it's a must in today's music industry. Also, "destroy" is a relative term, and depends on how much each individual producer approaches the project. The goal is to even out a vocal to get it to sit well in a mix, not to destroy dynamics. If the song has a quiet section with less instrumentation, I may choose to do less automation on that section. Your mileage may vary.

[@greghill6096]

Wouldn’t using Logic Pro’s normalization feature (normalize region) do the same or similar thing?

[@greghill6096]

@@DeSanKwuh good point. Thanks

[@markryanwestcott]

Yes. Normalize region gain is a quicker option and is non-destructive. Look it up

[@greghill6096]

@@markryanwestcott thanks for the info. I did look it up. That method makes life much easier

[@mdsoulsounds]

Thanks, however it may depend on the music type because classical music is very dynamic and compression would kill it.

[@dbtube]

I don't think we can tell that "automation", but gain ajustments. No?

[@youl0se0508]

cool vid

[@dar540]

In order to get the "free" cheat sheets I had to watch a 24 minute video and then book a call with someone to try sell me more stuff ...and still no mention of the cheat sheets? What's going on here lads?

[@ChrisOBrien1980]

but that's not automated, right? You're just adjusting the gain before you start processing.

[@patrickreece6289]

Yes, you're right. This isn't automation. At all.

[@hapcot]

@@patrickreece6289 That is what automation is a DAW is. The DAW is changing the Gain automatically when edited, and during playback. It's not like an AI that just does it for you

[@patrickreece6289]

@@hapcot No it isn't at all. It's essentially performing 'selection based processing' on specific audio regions. If we follow your definition, then literally everything that a DAW does is 'automation'.

[@hapcot]

@@patrickreece6289 Look up automation in a Daw, this is what that is

[@patrickreece6289]

@@hapcot It absolutely isn't automation, of any kind. Nothing is being automated. It is region-based gain adjustment and nothing more.

[@x_b1u3f0x_x]

Great video, but what the hell are those vocals

[@friedfries8424]

10:30 why do you have 2 copies of vocals stacked ?

[@lieli363]

stereo signal

[@friedfries8424]

@@lieli363 can you elaborate more please

[@Oodlenoots]

2:18 lolz 🤣

[@Aaronst96]

TELEFUNKEN multitrack

[@edurang]

Yeah idk this would effectively destroy the dynamics of a song.

[@pehatheone2957]

💪🏼