GAIN STAGING and COMPRESSION CONFUSION?- MIXDOWN Q&A

[@Tayajoh]

Thank you for the great tips Chris! I definitely need to start using references more. I’ll treat my room and get sonarworks.

[@mixdownonline]

Awesome! Thanks for watching!

[@DMidNyte]

I had a great time last night organizing blank guitar tracks and bus channels And importing them into my current music projects so When I'm ready to record my guitar tracks the routing has all been configured. And once again, you are my go to guy when I need to know anything about what's new in cubase. I cherish your videos. You have a very likable personality. You really know the work flow. And you get right to the point of what we need to know to get us up and running as fast as possible. Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos for us

[@mixdownonline]

Thank you Dustin! Love making those videos and help people out, so you're welcome! :-)

[@neilkendall5499]

Great video, very useful info. I've added a Vintage compressor to the channel strip of a vocal track in Cubase. The compressor has both input and output controls on it, which both seem to affect the level of gain on the track. Which of these should I adjust to gain stage? Presumably the output level, but I'm wondering why the input level of the compressor alters the gain on the track too?

[@korkenknopfus]

Hello Chris: that was an excellent idea, to make this Q&A series, including pointing to other videos where the ideas are handled with more detail. Many times, after seeing a video, some little questions are remaining and here is the time to ask and discuss about them. Perfect!

[@mixdownonline]

Oh yeah! I will more of those :-) Thanks!

[@taiyabkamaal681]

Thank you! Your lessons work well, practical, well explained and to the point. Best regards!

[@sommarmeadow578]

Hi Chris, assuming this is the right place to ask new Q&A questions: what would be the quickest way to import older "idea Cubase projects" into a new mix template. I want to import all instrument/audio tracks with their events/parts incl the selected instrument (in case of an instrument track), but keep the new mix template structures (routing, etc) - so "import tracks from project" might do too much of the job. Thanks in advance...

[@ruudjansen2412]

Whaauw!... great tutorial again Chris!.. thanks for all your good work!

[@mixdownonline]

You're welcome Ruud!

[@marcelcouture5373]

Another great video. One question or suggestion I have. Cubase is used by a lot of composers for film, games or other styles that use a lot of orchestral types of sounds. Lot of those composers have a more classical training to composition and orchestration, as I do. I would like to use the notation/score component of Cubase to manipulate MIDI CC's and other controllers with traditionnal music notation symbols. For example, a mod wheel enveloppe (CC1) could be generated from a crescendo or diminuendo in notation. Vice versa, an envelope drawed in Cubase PRV should generate a Crescendo/decrescendo in Score.Velocity could be affected by symbols such as PPP to FFF. My question then become : how can we use the Score component of Cubase Pro to modify all those controllers ? Should we use Dorico for that work ? Would that integrate well with Cubase? Hope this is clear enough. Anyway, thanks a lot for your videos. This is by far the best Cubase site on the web.

[@mixdownonline]

Hey Marcel, happy you like the channel. To be honest with you, I never use the score editor so I couldn't tell. The Score editor in Cubase is more a MIDI note editing and score notation tool than anything else. Not sure it can go that deep. Greg Ondo from the Steinberg KZbin channel would definitely be the guy to talk to regarding this.

[@eds5709]

Great advice again Chris! I think you solved another problem I was having, thanks!

[@mixdownonline]

Excellent, that's soo cool!

[@ShonnMorris]

Once again, your info is priceless Chris. Unrelated question; I'm sure you have a video on it somewhere but I can't find it. I have a song that I feel is too slow and want to speed it up. Everything adjusts to the new tempo, midi/instrument events, and audio media from the media bay. The problem is my vocals aren't and no method I've used is working. Sometimes, it seems to stretch the vocals to a slower tempo. What am I overlooking?

[@ShonnMorris]

Nevermind Chris. I figured it out

[@magnusdevo]

Hi Chris and thank you for your excellent work. I have a question, can you explain to me your signal flow in cubase, from channel to master out. I saw that you have different stereo outputs, can you explain how this works. Best regards! Magnus

[@konradhoroszko255]

Hi Chris, thanks for great tutorials, I've got that qstn: If I do a proper gain staging, than I apply direct offline processing-> compression (with that process I've added some make up gain), and then I want to pre gain a little bit again; does it, at this point, affect the the offline process.., I mean, does the offline process change when I move some pre gain >after< I close the 'F7' window? uff I hope I made it quite clear what I mean..

[@gabrielu2226]

Hi Chris, how do you do gain staging in the effects channel? thank you

[@boyzunemployed5253]

Hey Chris, thanks for the videos, i've learned a lot from them, but a question: I record, mix and master in a "normal" bedroom, what monitors should i use? 5" or 7"? Yet, i've been using HP but i'm about to get myself some monitors and want to know if i need "big" or "small" speakers. The room's about 20 square meters. THANKS! ✌

[@Electricowlworks]

Great tips, Chris! Thanks for sharing. - chaz

[@mixdownonline]

You're welcome Chaz!

[@allen394]

With regard to the Stem Mastering issue, I have seen on KZbin that you should send your final mix of the combined stems as a separate guide for the Mastering Engineer.

[@mixdownonline]

That would make sense

[@nelsonmoloi3767]

Hi Chris can you pls help ..when I using vu meter Bridge and hit 0 dbs .then on my cubase I hit around or between 10 and 5 ...is that enough?

[@oledahl.]

Hi Chris! I have found out that if I lower my pre-gain on some plugins f.ex waves API 2500 then itworks a lot better when the in signal is lower. Does this make any sense? Thank you for making the best channel for Cubase users!❤️

[@mixdownonline]

Yes it does make sense :-)

[@DMidNyte]

Chris, buddy, what the giant old school mix desk behing you. Is it for multiple inputs and routing? And is there any coloration to the signal as part of th process. Whats the story?

[@mixdownonline]

A friend of mine is storing that console in my studio for a while. It's a TAC 16-8-2 (made by Amek). I use when recording drums mainly. I do not use it ifor mixing

[@shonstone79]

In a session I used izotope rx 7 breathe control on 2 inserts and Cubase begin to lag when recording vocals, scrolling and there was a delay on the vocals after stopping play. I tried increasing my interface's buffer size but that did not help. The Constrain Delay Compensation helped on the vocals but the scrolling was still laggy and kind of glitchy. Any advice on the issue?

[@mixdownonline]

If you're using Izotope while recording, you will get in latency issues or CPU peaking problems. That depends also on the processing power of your computer. Increasing the buffer size will help you Mix with the plugin but will add more latency when recording. I would suggest to keep the Izotope plugin for mixing or when you're done recording. Try avoiding recording with the plugin.

[@nikosmertikas6973]

hi Chris!!!! how can i use my yamaha 01v96i digital mixer for hybrid mixing with cubase 10.5 pro??

[@mixdownonline]

That's a good one, I use to own a 01V96 and used the Faders to control Cubase but that was years ago and I forgot how that worked. Not sure but I think some instructions are in the manual concerning this.

[@fabrizio576]

What’s the name of the mixer standing up in the back?

[@mixdownonline]

It's an old TAC 16/8/2 :-)

[@XnazxulX]

Ok so the answer is DONT use compression when gain staging?

[@mixdownonline]

What's important to understand is what will happen to the signal coming in the compressor if you Gain Stage during mixing. You will have to make some ajustments on the compressor if you want the compressor to react the same as before gain staging. Hope that makes sense :-)

[@XnazxulX]

Which is why I have been running into red levels a lot, makes sense. I always thought that it was needed if when you are staging and the level is too low on that track.. now I see that limiting pretty much fixes that at the end of gain staging on the master

[@xlmoriarty8921]

Pre gain staging? Really?

[@mixdownonline]

Lol... no, just Gain staging... Pre-Gain is a feature in Cubase that will bring the gain of a channel down, basically a Gain knob that is "pre" Insert/Fader... Like Clip Gain.

[@thesoundresidence]

Please drop the annoying background music...