Gain Staging in Studio One and other DAWs - Easy Tutorial

Check out my new STUDIO ONE ONLY channel here: / @studioonerevealed
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[@CreativeSauce]

*Check out my new STUDIO ONE ONLY channel here:* kzbin.info/door/-bBpOOJt7befFs8KBac1KQ See you there!

[@gcoudert]

This is one of the best (if not THE best) videos about gain staging on KZbin. I have acquired a Presonus StudioLive 24.4.2 and Studio One so I am going to put your advice into practice.

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you so much for that kind comment. Good luck, the 24.4.2 is a great unit!

[@seismotracker01]

You are amazing. I've never learned about anything so easily and well as I have learned from you about mixing. And I am a retired professor of geophysics and geology, so I have taken many, many courses in my life. Mike, it is not hyperbole to say that, for many of us, you improve the human condition. Please be aware of that. Thank you.

[@mackzorris1408]

Hands down the best tutorial video I’ve seen on this. Easy to understand and perfect pace for me to follow along. Subscribed.

[@johnwilson6461]

At about 8:30 you mentioned that clip gain is one way of adjusting the input level, but that if you have a track consisting of multiple clips, it could be quite tedious and time consuming to select each clip and adjust its clip gain. Well that's certainly true, but here's a helpful tip that I stumbled upon by accident I think. Hold down the Shift key and double click in the lower half of any clip in the track. This will select ALL of the clips in the track. Then, if you move the clip gain handle in any of the clips in the track, the clip gain of all of the rest of the clips in the track will move right along with it. Also, holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the clip gain handle of any of the clips will return all of the clip gains back to 0, assuming they are all still selected. Great video man, I learned a lot.

[@nelomedina8811]

I've been struggling with gain staging and this is literally one of the best videos explaining it and simple to follow. THANK YOU.

[@SergioMartinez-dp9qt]

This is the best tutorial ever, I’m currently watching your series of releasing music and I realized that studio one didn’t have a gain control. Now with your help I’m able to do gain staging. Thank youuuu

[@johnstephen7610]

Mike, I just discovered this video and it is the most helpful video for mixing that I have seen (in fact, it's the ONLY helpful video I've seen on the topic of mixing). You covered a lot of things that I have been trying to learn. In particular the Mixtool is so helpful, and I didn't know about it until I saw your video. Thanks for posting this very useful instruction.

[@dotdotdotw]

Hi Mike. Y'know, Ive watched loads of training courses on different subjects. All of the most popular ones, but I have to say, that yours is by far the most well explained cool and informative of all of them. Well done mate. I'm now gonna look for more of your work on KZbin. Bloody well done and thanks. TC.

[@VicArellanoMusic]

What a good explanation about gain staging! I had already seen some tutorials on the subject, but I always had certain doubts, but with this video I am quite clear! Thanks!!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks for watching Vic, I'm glad you found it useful :)

[@daniellesaux6152]

Mike, I realize this video is a few years old but now that I'm retired, I'm finally getting the time to dig into techniques like this. I've watched many videos that explain the history of gain staging, why it's important and how it will help me mix better. None of them however explained HOW to go about doing it and your video was extremely clear and to the point. I just finished remixing a song in Studio One following your process and my mix is punchier and my outboard analog gear never sounded better! Thank you so much for these videos and your kind and pragmatic approach. You're a gem! My best wishes to you!

[@hankberumen1399]

Hello, I agree with everyone; I was trying to find videos that explained this to me and by far you outshined all of the ones I saw! Great job and thank you so much!

[@richardgill7781]

I am totally noob into mixing, but I like things to be done correctly, and your focused tutorials help a lot in this discovery process. What I like the most, is how you explain things. You tell the how, the more important the why. For gain staging, one could watch numerous videos on the subject, and say "ok I do gain staging, and I do it that way, because that's how seasoned users do it". The end of your tutorial gave in a few words a great reason of using it: making the mixing easier and more controlled. Thanks for your neat pedagogy :)

[@stevekaiser3745]

Mike, I cannot thank you enough for these videos. I can record tracks, but learning the art of mixing/mastering and making professional sounding recordings would have been out of my reach. You are the best! Thank you!!

[@CreativeSauce]

My pleasure Steve :)

[@ToriKnix]

This video has been of MAJOR help to me thank you for making this

[@kennyslate3351]

Good job on this very helpful and proper thing to do! This is essential!!

[@follower7205]

Great instructional vid, very clear & well presented - thanks!

[@willemmichels5951]

Great tutorial. No bla, bla bla like other tutorials but right to the point, so everyone could understand it. It s the first time for me on your channel. I'm gonna check your other tutorials. Keep up the good work. Greeting from the Netherlands

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you Willem, I'm really happy you like the approach :)

[@larshietala9999]

Great man,really great !!! Helped me so much to get everything in place with my track :-))

[@ilanmetoudi]

Consider the stage gained! Thanks for the tutorial, great info as always!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you Ilan. Glad it was of use!

[@ritchiefrancisco2220]

This video was clear and concise. Thank you!

[@williamlee9135]

Awesome video. At firts, I was confused about why you kept using plugins to level and not use the main volume on the VSTi, then I realized it was an audio track! Good stuff. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[@CreativeSauce]

Yeah, it's good point though. There is no need for the gain plugin with a VSTi, although, sometimes I do, just for workflow reasons!

[@sarahtonin4649]

Even if a track is made up of several clips, as in this vocal example, you can still set the the track's gain by selecting all the clips. As you play the track through and adjust the level on one clip, the others change as well. I prefer this to putting a gain plugin on every track.

[@aman4allseasons100]

really well done - I subscribed!

[@brical1176]

I really needed this. Thank you

[@SouthYarraMan]

Hi I'm one your subscribers. Re' gain staging, there are so many vids about this. Some point out that on individual tracks there's no 'gain' to be had because its an echo of analog tape days when raising fader levels raised tape hiss. A lot like a roomful of snakes in the background. Its not a problem in DAWs as long as you record a clean signal, naturally. The real problem exists on the output master and if that goes above 0dB its digitally clipping. I default to -1.5 dB on the output master to allow for headroom when mixing. On individual tracks I normalise every .wav to -3dB, irrespective of what the voice is. You can always use on-clip gain to adjust volumes. Inserting a gain VST on every track increases the CPU load and that's a significant issue in itself. The other issue I often read about is comb filtering/phase issues in mixes resulting in loss of volume / clarity in a mix. This can easily be confused with muddy mixes / 'wrong' EQ decisions .I think its worthwhile to mention that phase cancellation isn't confined to live recording of drums & o/head mic's! Why does every video about this assume that we're all recording with live drums? Probably the majority are using virtual instruments. Latency will cause some track drift at sample level so you need to get into deep editing mode to check peaks / valleys are lining up across the whole mix, not just on drums alone. For many, live drums are just not an option.

[@seetharaam]

Best explanation found so far. Thanks.

[@BrentIraEnman]

Awesome lesson Mike!

[@fillionomar2195]

Finally it became crystal clear. Thanks!

[@k.t.ingram375]

subscribed just because of this video, my head has cleared.

[@linovinn7011]

Very good explanation. Thank you very much!

[@Yahoomediaclub]

Great Content Mike ☺️👍

[@javiereu]

Great lesson!

[@aaronfox915]

Great video. Good explanation. Thank you.

[@darrylfunkyz.fields8118]

Great job! Appreciate you!!

[@edmoss2020]

Very well explained...thank you.

[@RODAREZconAmor]

Thank you very much for your great tutorial. You've explained what I exactly needed to know.

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Rodarez, thanks so much for watching. It always gives me inspiration to make more when I hear this!

[@RODAREZconAmor]

@@CreativeSauce I'm a new beginner singer/ songwriter and I'm trying to produce great sounding music and this gave me the first stepping stone for me to move forward. Thank you again

[@RODAREZconAmor]

@@CreativeSauce So, I use Studio One 4.6 and I actually use Impact. I created myself my own drum patch and set it as a default. So, I first went into loops in the browser area and looked in drums section and picked the best sounding ones in there. Next, I drag them over from the browser to the pads starting at the bottom left corner pad going towards the right, then I'll go on to the next top row until I fill in what I need. Next ,I would titled them accordantly by right Clicking on the mouse, like Kick, Snare, HH, Open HH, Pedal HH, Tom 1, Tom2, Tom 3, Floor Tom, L-OH R-OH ect. When I have filled the pads I change them to mono at the bottom by right clicking on them. Now, when you do that for each pad you would select Mono 1, next pad would be mono 2 and so forth. Next, I set the gain levels. First I go just up above the pads on a button where it says Normalize to normalize them and then on the big knob where it says Amp Gian, for each pad I lower them -12dB. Last but not least I set it as a Default so that every time I use Impact I have my drums all set at a good volume. And here's another thing, when you drag impact to the time line and you click the X to remove the the impact drum pad. Double click on the time line where the track is on and the open the piano roll and you'll see all names in order in the Edit page. I hope this helps you incase you haven't messed with impact yet. Again Thank you for your great videos you do! Watching from Santa Clara, CA USA.

[@jaqpollen3966]

Great presentation

[@keithnorris2109]

Thanks for more great advice! Your videos have given me the confidence to (finally) tackle home recording. Do you happen to know what the gain plugin is for Cakewalk, and where I would find it?

[@1962deiagiov]

Very good video!!! 👍

[@michaelmachie7749]

I agree with what everyone has said before me. Excellent explanation and tutorial- extremely clear and concise, with Use Cases. Awesome.

[@nusense808]

S1 has the gain staging built in now. You dont need to use the mixtool plug in

[@MartinWeeksmw]

Another way to "Fine Tune" the gain staging is using S1's Compressor with it's simple (but brilliant) Side Chaining Feature. Smooths out those rough edges You mentioned very efficiently. and can be done to customize individual tracks.

[@Enice43]

Good stuff....👍

[@MartinWeeksmw]

Great video and yes I've used that Sonkasis (spl???) and it's great. A suggestion though...check out the new upgrade in Studio One to ver 4.5. It has... 1.) Improved "Input" gain staging for when you bring in say a guitarist to record and he's got his whole guitar rig hardware thing already set. 2. an additional console control (go into the wrench and check Pre Fader input control) it provides an additional manual control so you can mouse wheel up and down to the gain level you want. But does NOT replace the Mixtool. So you could actually use both if you wanted. 3.) Some great new macros in the macro tool bar... one of which is a "Normalize" macro that allows you to set automatically the -12 level. great workflow feature. Gain staging average done in 20 seconds that way then use input control to make fine adjustments. Ver 4.5 is a giant step for Studio One. Just thought you might like to know.

[@stephenfell4338]

hi Martin ref paragraph 3 how do you set the -12 level from macros tool bar?. as this is very new to me

[@rickymolina7390]

I esp like how you talk about adjusting output levels on each subsequent plugin in the chain - no one ever mentions that in other videos on gain staging. Also the free gain plugin is a big plus. Thank you!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hey Ricky, I'm glad you liked it. Yes, super important when using plugins to make sure the level going out is the same as going in. And also so as not to fool yourself, as things tend to 'seem' better when a little louder.

[@johnghadimi]

Mike this video was spot on and so easy to understand. So question from me: up until now, I didn't have to worry about this process, but now I do due to the fact that I need to hand off files to mastering engineers. If you have already balanced the song, arranged it, mixed it via insert plugins (EQ, Comp, etc..) , do you then reset the faders back to Unity, do the gain staging, and then balance the track again? I'm trying to understand where this process comes in after you do all that work. Thank you.

[@atmstashing8896]

Great video!

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you:)

[@retsmej]

great lesson !

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you! I'm glad it was helpful.

[@yan_nilov_zodiak]

Thank you, it's very interesting! )

[@CreativeSauce]

Thanks for watching, I hope it comes in handy.

[@traviswilliamsohio]

Great video for a newbie like me thank you! Quick question. Once I stage each individual track, send all my groups to bus, do my plug ins, do I then stage each bus as well ( with mixtool at top of that chain as well?

[@nedim_guitar]

Studio One now, in the version 5, has channel gain, so no plugin is necessary. Very helpful video! Edit: I never thought about gainstaging between plugins. Obviously, one plugin might make the signal slightly weaker or slightly stronger, and then the signal hits the plugin in not completely optimal way. I'll try this on my next mix, and hopefully, it will sound a bit better.

[@tronam]

Analog modeled plugins is the only reason to gain stage in a modern DAW. You can’t clip the channels, the buses or even the master bus. The only place where clipping can occur is on the final output.

[@nedim_guitar]

@@tronam Thanks!

[@MattSilvermanMusic]

Thanks!

[@sanjeez103]

awesome !!!

[@bobtee7899]

NICE!!!!

[@ryandove3586]

Thank you for the video Does this apply to ezdrummer gain staging as well? Should all tracks be at this average?

[@agentbawa552]

This is such great content Mike; thoughtfully planned, well produced and concise. I'm learning (albeit slowly!) Cakewalk and I've a question - why is a trim plugin preferable to using the gain 'knob' on the console view for each individual track? Sorry if the answer's apparent from your video, it may well be that I'm being dim and missed it completely!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Stephen, thanks for watching :) As for your question, that's an easy one:) At the time I made this video, there was no gain knob. They added that in version 4.5, so go ahead and use the gain knob!

[@agentbawa552]

Creative Sauce aaaaaah, I see! Doh! I wasn't sure if perhaps the gain knob was post FX or something along those lines. Thanks Mike 👍🏾

[@neontiger3216]

Great video! Thank you. Just subscribed. I have one question. Do you gain stage the drum overhead channels as well? Thanks again

[@CreativeSauce]

Hey, thanks for watching! A good question, the drum overheads and hi hat can sometimes cause me to break the 'rules'. Sometimes if you gain stage them they sound so loud you end up having the fader very low (giving less control). So in that case, I do lower the gain a little, so that I can have the fader in a more regular position.

[@CLINAZ722]

Great Video! I have a question about this though (probably a noob question) But do I need to pay attention on how I have my gain physically set on my mixer/usb interface when using this method? Thanks!

[@shubhrasinha268]

Do you HAVE to do gainstaging? NO. SHOULD you do it? YES. It's all about signal level management. You can slap a gain control right at the beginning of the master channel and still get the same results, or be methodical and have a logical structure to your levels. Gain staging is a healthy habit, but by no means a necessity for mixing. Places where one should be wary of the signal levels are when using signal level dependent plugins, especially analog modeled ones, as they can impart saturation/distortion (unless you actually want to do that). With 64-bit DAWs, gainstaging is not mandatory, but everyone appreciates a good habit, so...you know...do it, but don't fret over it!

[@inFreestyle]

thx bro

[@brianleechee]

Thank you for this lesson, it is wonderfully helpful! If possible, I have 1 little question. If a track is dynamic, maybe on average you have attained the -12dB peaks and the -18dB avg...generally speaking...but then your singer briefly hits an even louder dynamic, and your meter hits -6dB for just a moment, then it goes back to the general average. Would I adjust my gain to accommodate that spike, and turn the 6dB spike down to -12 (resulting in everything else being colder), or do I accept that one higher peak and maybe compress it out since its an anomaly and i don't want to affect the GENERAL average? Hope that made sense and thanks if you can respond :)

[@richbruns3465]

Thanks so much really helpful I am recording vocals in Studio One 3.5 for Church. My level meter in the console is not going very high when I turn up the gain for my mic and bring it up to -18 the waveform goes very high on the tracks and looks like it is clipped so any suggestions on what I am doing wrong would be appreciated I am a newbie so it must be something in my set up? The peaks are not over -48 there is also a number outlined in red over the decibal column and it says 4079 I have never seen that before and it is not on any other audio or instrument tracks.

[@mikebozik]

I like your advice on mixing to -12. I've been mixing to -6 for several years, but like the concept of just a little bit more headroom with tracks that have a large dynamic range. After waffling back and forth, I think I will finally implement the K12 metering system in Studio One. It now makes sense. The yellow and red LEDs will give me a better indication visually of where each channel is, volume wise. I usually set the meters in pre-fade when doing gain staging. Do I need to do this? If the fader is at unity (and post), can I still get a correct reading of the input gain?

[@PnutProducer]

Great video I have a quick question, if my plugins don’t have output to turn down the gain can I use another trim plugin at the end of processing?

[@CreativeSauce]

Absolutely! And good practice to do so.

[@Stanacturproducer]

Great tutorial. But is gain staging all about bringing down down ur signals . Wat if I have too low trackx should I bring them up. Bc all the tutorials I see is all about turning down ur hot signals . Thanks boss

[@filnn]

Thanks for the video Mike, I did have a question though. My extent of audio editing comes from editing audio for videos, using Audacity. In Audacity, I use the Normalise effect to keep the levels, standard. Could we not use a Normalise plugin to set the peaks and average levels?

[@CreativeSauce]

Hey, thanks for watching my videos, I really appreciate it :) This is a great question. Normalise is useful for setting the peaks, and for making sure we don't go over 0db. Although by doing that, the average level is affected, we can't set the average indepently from the peak using normalise. For that we need to use a compressor. This is important, as our perception of how "loud" something is, is from the average, rather than from the peaks :)

[@HARDDRlVER]

Looking for the link to that plug-in for gain staging

[@stevenkaiser3837]

Do you gain stage Bus Tracks or adjust those later on their own and what about effects like Studio One's Chorus on a guitar that doesn't have an output gain? Is there a way adjust the level after these types of effects or should they be added somewhere else in the process? Thanks again

[@HARDDRlVER]

Well I searched all over your video and cannot find that plug in you mentioned, the one you really liked. Something like Sonali or sonar...something WHERE is the description anyway, lol? Thank you

[@lordmagnus6333]

Have you used the Mixed in keys satellite sessions yet?

[@michaellavender]

Does Using the mix tool plugin automatically eliminate the need to use the gain knob you can put on your tracks located in the wrench button?

[@jamesmulligan1077]

Very nice videos. Could you please explain a bit about the difference between the channel level (LEDs) and the meter level? They seem to be frequently far apart, and should they be? For example: Channel LEDs can hover @ -12db while a level meter shows +3db, so the channel is not peaking but the meter shows it is. That's confusing. If the meter shows peaking, why isn't the channel showing peaking? On the other hand, if we set the Channel slider at 0db and then adjust the meter level to be just under 0db it will affect the channel level making it drop to -34db or something. So even though the channel slider is at 0db, the levels (LEDs) go up to only -34db. Shouldn't we aim for the channel to have its LED levels to about the same place where the Channel slider level is? Thanks

[@timothyreynolds6255]

Do I need this in Cakewalk bBL since it has a gain knob?

[@mbroderick1984]

I don't have mixtool. Is it because I have the free version? Can I just use the gain knobs on the board? I notice on the levels on the channel peak at. I'm also confused because the input gain knobs also seem to have an impact on the track volume even though the fader stays at 0db.

[@oinkooink]

What about highly transient stuff like snares and kicks? Peaks can be set to -12 sure, but the average level may be -30, -36.

[@moraleslamas8843]

Hi there. Could you please do a gain staging session on Cakewalk SONAR? Thanks

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi - please check it out here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWHbqGSHpdF0Z9E

[@creations1775]

What is the difference between gain staging & mixing incase add plugging to tracks db level increase then also maintain -12 db is it current..??

[@stephenfell4338]

Thank you learned a lot. but can you advice what to set the faders to (inc master fader) before starting to record?

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Stephen, thanks for watching. The faders themselves only affect the output volume - the listening volume if you like. As such, they are not relevant to recording as such, accept in that they allow you to hear the channel you are recording. Even this is only relevant if you have input monitoring switched on. However for a more straight forward answer... I generally have my master fader set to unity gain (0dB), and control my overall volume from my audio interface or speakers. For the particular channel I am recording, I set to a level which is comfortable to listen to while recording, or fits in the mix while recording. The main thing to remember is, that fader position doesn't affect the recording level. The level for recording is primarily set by true gain on you interface. Sorry for such a long answer totour question!

[@stephenfell4338]

@@CreativeSauce Thank you for answering so quick i now fully understand i am so comfortable with your teachings thank you.

[@stephenfell4338]

@@CreativeSauce thankyou not a long answer a very informative one I fully understand, sometimes it's difficult in S1 with my clarret getting the right balance between listening to the backing tracks and the one I am recording,if I turn down the guitar on the guitar I loose the tone so it is a balancing act so if there is a set proceedure pleas let me know will save me a lot of time,thankyou

[@birdisthezv]

If all the faders were at 0 could you put the meter plugin on a master buss and trim the gain from the edit window track by track whatever difference would this make

[@CreativeSauce]

It would be one way to do it. But the problem is, when you add new FX plugins to each channel, the gain changes a lot normally, so you kind of need to do it on each channel anyway then.

[@creations1775]

Sir in case 100 tracks is there shud do gain staggering individually..? And maintain each track -12 to -18 db..?? Then what is the peak maintain in mastering sir..??

[@rickymolina7390]

I was wondering if you could explain how you approach target levels for subgroups and for the master buss, now that we've learned how to target our individual track levels. As we know, things can build up pretty fast when we start to funnel things through groups and into the final out. At the moment, as a rule I try to make sure that my master buss never peaks above -6db. Would you agree with this target level? For the subgroups preceding the master buss, would -10db max peaks be ok? Thank you!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Ricky, thanks for your question. I aim for between -6dB and -3dB, as that's what many mastering engineers request. Having said that, I've read one or two articles by people more knowledgeable than me, that even that level is outdated, and was appropriate more like 10 years ago. People in these articles (sorry I don't have the links handy), suggest that as long as you don't clip, it's all good. The idea being that all a mastering engineer needs to do is drop it a few dB if they need headroom, and that it sonically and technically makes no difference. However, it's also true that there is no harm in sticking to a target of -3dB or -6dB. Figures for the subgroups are trickeyer. It can depend alot on how much you are pushing through them, as to the build up. I tend to organise my mixes so that just before the master, I have two groups (vocal and instruments), and those are almost always VCAs. I keep an eye on the master as I go, and usually only have to do minor tweaks. But that's a lot to do with my particular way or organising my mixes. I normally only use busses for effects, and sidechains, and control group levels with VCAs, so I don't really get much build up on buses. I hope that makes some sense, I think I really need to make a video about this though!

[@rickymolina7390]

Thank you so much. I hear what you're saying, and it confirms my experience with and suspicions in trying to create too many subgroups (as opposed to VCAs). Automating VCAs (on groups) has helped my mixes sound much better than trying to create subgroups. I've tried to "Brauerize" one or two mixes in the past only to see the overall result turn out to be lifeless. It seems that the more levels that one adds before the main out the more brittle the mix becomes. Much better, as you suggest to use VCAs and automate volume levels (while keeping an eye on the master buss max peaks at -3db or -6db). I guess one of the main reasons to keep levels conservative on the master buss would be for the mastering engineer (who may need some headroom to make some final tweaks). Thanks again.

[@prajwal_bagewadi]

😍😍😍😍😍❤

[@WillKruger]

Very well done video, thank you! Can I assume that with Cakewalk we already have a "Gain Control" at the top of each channel in the console view? I had recently had a gain staging issue with 14 vocal tracks for the chorus on a song I did. Not knowing about using the gain control I just brought the sliders way down and that fixed the issue. If you care to listen here is my song. www.reverbnation.com/willkruger/song/30432209-grateful-eaton

[@GQLewis]

What mixing board is featured in your intro video?

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi, the intro video is a 3D animation I created, the board is based on the Avid S3

[@GQLewis]

@@CreativeSauce Thank you. Great job.

[@geldartm]

if you are setting the levels to the same level for each track how do you then artistically set the level you would like the instrument to be

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi, thanks for watching. Yes, so the faders being set to 0, is just a reference point, so that you can accurately set the gain to that -12 to -18 range. After the gain staging is complete for all tracks, you can then go ahead and use your faders to artistically adjusts levels.

[@geldartm]

@@CreativeSauce I suppose i was being a bit Dumb, i used in the old days have a commercial 24 track analogue studio, but we did the levels when tracking before we ever recorded anything so on a dry signal we had the levels set, :)

[@CreativeSauce]

Not dumb at all! I think I should have explained more fully. I also feel that setting the level correctly while tracking is best practice. However, those levels are a little different in the digital world, as opposed to analogue. In the the analogue world you need to record a little hotter, to get a good signal to noise ratio. Thanks for your question.

[@matthewprince5668]

Really helpful. Just subscribed. So, I make trance music, which is probably 75% instruments and 25% audio samples. So I gain stage all of them to hit -12db, do the mixing and then in mastering, put a limiter on and then increase the gain so it peaks at close to 0?

[@Shredhub101]

Is gain staging before mastering?? Or in mastering?? Or during mixing??

[@CreativeSauce]

It’s something you can practice throughout the process. Just maintains healthy levels. I personally like to especially check it before my static mix. But often, if you’ve been taking care of it during tracking, you end up doing nothing or very little.

[@Shredhub101]

@@CreativeSauce Thank you for the explanation... Appreciated 🙏

[@bayoubill3561]

I've tried my best to get Free G into studio one 4 but it just won't show up in the browser. I've tried copying the dll.file to other vst file that do show up but Free G isn't there. I need help!

[@CreativeSauce]

Hmmm - the main thing to be aware of is making sure that the path to .dll is setup in the VST locations options. Outside of that I'm not sure :(

[@bayoubill3561]

@@CreativeSauce the wierd thing is every vst is available in Studio One except free G. I put it every vst folder I could find and the .dll files. I can see it scanned when I open up Studio One but when I go in it's not there

[@opkaybeatz]

What if the peak is about -10db but the average is no where close to -18db. Maybe the average is about -24db, how do u increase that to get to the -18db? Thanks in advance for the answer.

[@CreativeSauce]

H8, good question. Wow, that's very dynamic! May o ask what track it is?

[@opkaybeatz]

@@CreativeSauce its an instrument track. After watching your video, i was trying it my mixing and i use the plugins global gains to do that. I do sometimes peak at -12db to -10db but for the average, some are at -32db.

[@CreativeSauce]

@@opkaybeatzOK, with a track like that that is very dynamic, I would do the best you can to get it in range. Remember this is not an exact science. If it's just peaking occasionally, I would focus on getting the average up to a more normal range BUT, just make sure those peaks don't get near clipping! With something like this, it's likely a good contender during mixing for compression, and/or automated volume. Ots not too uncommon. For example bass guitars can be very dynamic, or even acoustic guitars - especially when the player slaps the instrument. Remember, don't get too bogged down in this, the exact numbers are not too important. However, -24 Is probably not enough to get value from plugins like saturation plugins. Good luck!

[@opkaybeatz]

@@CreativeSauce ok. Thanks once again for the reply, so that means i have to be applying compression and saturation to the ones that are very dynamic to get the average to a normal range? And please i want to get in touch to you for any further questions involving studio one. Can i please get your email or any other means of communicating to you easily.

[@CreativeSauce]

Saturation is 'to taste', so that's really up to the sound you want. By the sounds of it, you would want to use compression yes, but without me hearing it I can't say for certain. Yes, please feel free to email me at [e-mail]

[@tres913]

FB sent me

[@CreativeSauce]

Lol, I'm glad it's doing it's job!

[@michaelnear2039]

Sorry, but your accent keeps me from hearing you well...what is the name of the free gain plug in?

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi Michael, it depends which one you mean, there are three listed in the description, and you'll find links there too :)