Gain Staging - MAKE or BREAK YOUR MIX

[@68Snaps]

There's another issue: if you dramatically raise the gain on a track that was recorded at a very low volume, you're also increasing its noise floor by the same amount. If you do that on several tracks, noise will add up in your mix. (maybe it's explained in the video and I missed it, in that case I'm sorry for wasting everyone's time).

[@SylvanPaul]

Yup, this. I track most things pretty loud for this very reason

[@michaelgraflmusic]

Noise doesn't add up. It averages out. Still not ideal to have noise on every channel.

[@jwtubification]

This is the gain staging talking to I’ve been needing for years. Good chat. Thanks.

[@marcuslawson9750]

GS is actually so important. Took me years to realize this even after going to full sail I still couldn’t get it right for a while. Cheers everyone

[@Brian-Hansen]

Lately, I’ve been aiming for peaks right between -18 and -12. That seems to be giving me enough headroom in my context.

[@MusiclyricsByECDaleyC]

Loving what you do Colt, get some rest, it's something I have learned as well along the way! So far this method has always worked well for me, when If I am well rested, my creativity always jumps up! Otherwise, I keep hitting the same wall over & over again.....Go figure, it's all about my passion, for making the best music I possibly can! Have a great day all you wonderful musicians out there, you're certainly not alone here.

[@RocknRollkat]

Hi Colt, excellent presentation. Little known fact, 'converters' typically have brickwall limiters built in that are never mentioned. That's why people think they can run a little 'hot' and get away with it. I tested Cakewalk with some really overblown (+6 dB) signals and my meters measured a little over +1 dB. In the digital world I NEVER allow clipping, ever. I've heard digital clipping without a brick wall limiter and it's a sound you will never forget. This was years ago overdriving a D.A.T. machine by 1 dB by accident. Sure, you can overdrive analogue gear and get 'warmth', but digital is another story. Best regards, Bill P.

[@SylvanPaul]

Good to know we use the same approach and think about it the same way :)

[@chrisbottoms6396]

I shoot for an average of -18db in my converters and DAW. According to a fair amount of documentation that I have read, that is what is considered the equivalent of analog unity for all analog emulation plugins. What that means is that the analog emulation's optimal starting point is -18db, and then you can push it or pull signal out to get the gear to act like the real thing. It also gives me a lot of headroom for musicians, especially singers, doing something wonky that is suddenly quite a bit louder than what levels are set for. I used to record pretty hot, but it bit me in the butt a couple times.

[@whosaidcosmoandsproutarebad]

-18 average not peak tho..

[@GingerDrums]

@@whosaidcosmoandsproutarebad he said average... this is totally correct. 144db of headroom that 24bit offer is orders of magnitude cleaner than is audible, even at -18db peak. heck, even -30db peak would still null.

[@GingerDrums]

@Atrosion it looks like making sure there is no way in hell anything you record will ever clip. The noise is usually coming from a noisy room. Any modern budget interface has noise floor under 100db...

[@GingerDrums]

@Atrosion highpassing before gain is fantastic, especially of you are compressing on the way in :)

[@henryhuynh2099]

I literally have been tracking in all different levels from quiet to clipping and then mixing and I finally came to this exact conclusion. I’m glad I did it but I also wish this video came out a year or so earlier lol. But thanks for the video and I’m sure it’ll help the next noob as it would’ve for me. Always great content.

[@Mrdalejo2]

“If it sounds good, it is good regardless what you see! Well said!!

[@willmontgomery6221]

30 years ago at the University of Miami I remember learning how important it was (from Ken Pohlmann) to record digitally as high as possible without clipping due to exactly what you're saying...getting the most resolution. In those days I think it was much more important due to the lower bit depths but that always stuck with me. Same for analog because of signal to noise ratios. In recent years I have to say I've enjoyed tracking a full band and bringing it home and the levels are near perfect at fader unity so I see both sides for sure.

[@EdwinDekker71]

30 years ago we didn't have 24 bit headroom :)

[@_TheViewer_]

@@EdwinDekker71 I guess he had 😂

[@KernSound]

@@EdwinDekker71 actually we did, but the only DAW that had 24bit was Sonic Solution. I know because I owned one. It's why I bought Sonic Solution. But that was back in 1995, so give and take a few years.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

Yup. If you think about it, 17 bits has twice the resolution (dynamic range) of 16 bit. 18 bits has twice the resolution of 17 bits. So 24 bit is a massive, MASSIVE amount. So much so that there are portable digital recorders now that record in 24 or 32 bit, and don't even bother with gain controls! It can handle the quietest sounds or the loudest sounds, with excellent resolution regardless.

[@BradlyNHelm]

YOU are a demigod of teaching. I am thankful to have discovered your channel.

[@cylershaw7701]

There's never a problem recording everything at a moderate level. Should be common sense but not everyone understands this concept. Thanks for the video as always.

[@audiodude]

If I was your audio Dad and you were my son I would be very proud of you because you listened and learned well. Even us older engineers did the same approach when dealing with signal to noise ratio when recording to tape

[@Guttalaser]

-6db while tracking is my go to. It's a good compromise between the "go loud school" and the "go quiet school" and has the best benefit from both the policy and works best in post with every good plugin or hardware.

[@TheNoiseFloorav]

Guys, gain staging is like tying your shoes. It's not that hard, and while you can't run an effective marathon with untied shoes, we learn how to tie shoes super early on and don't obsess over it as the make or break point for improving your stamina. It's overhyped as some sort of lynch pin that separates good mixers from bad mixers. Monitoring is a MUCH MORE critical part of the equation, but we all obsess over decimal points when it's absolutely not necessary. All we need to do is know what's happening at different input and output levels, know when we're clipping and when we're not, and know if we've got a low Signal to Noise ratio. That's it. As youtubers, we need to stop overcomplicating a very simple audio 101 topic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/amq6oJtvedGYia8 My video - Gain Staging: What to know, and why you shouldn't stress out about it.

[@theaaronimal]

Yassss! Great tips. Recording levels hot before it clips is the way to go!

[@BoDavisMusic]

Thanks for the video! I shoot for peaks at -9db on most things during tracking especially on vocals which I always consider to be the main instrument with allowing the occasional loud spikes to always be under -6db. Drums I like to shoot for peaks at -6db and loud spikes to always be under -3db. This works for me to have the vocal sit in the mix right out of the box. I also never touch my faders and do clip gain automation for each track as I go for any adjustments needed and this gives me a really nice rough mix as I'm tracking and producing. So when the song is pretty much finished and I'm ready to actually start mixing, I fire up my mix bus chain and its like the aroma of freshly brewed coffee on a cold winter's day...ahhhhh 🔥

[@masonbeard7209]

dang, i was just thinking that i need to figure out how to do proper gain staging. perfect timing!

[@MankyFrilla]

You always give great information and grin your own way of working.. Cheers dude. Merry Xmas. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@yanudol]

Just want to share a trick that I use, especially for sessions that have to go fast: I split the signal in 2 or 3 different tracks with three different levels to attack my converters: -12, -6, 0 (0 or clipping sometimes) then I choose later on and sometimes mixes the tracks, especially in case of big dynamic changes. ;)

[@brucehathcockmusic]

I have been r3cording my synth and drum machines with pre idea of the mix but thanks to you I'm going back to recording with the right levels.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I aim for -12dB on everything, which is more than enough headroom to account for unexpected peaks or transients, and uses enough of the bit depth to give excellent resolution. And of course, it is also enough to be targeted by compressors and other effects.

[@_TheViewer_]

There’s one saying -6, you’re saying -12 So I guess everything in between should be alright anyway ?

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@@_TheViewer_ In the digital world, with 24 float/32 bit resolution, there's really no reason to push to -6. Peaking at -12, you've still got a ton of resolution, enough signal to push compressors, and with headroom left over for processing and mixing. -6dB isn't a lot of space to work with after the fact, and you could end up clipping a loud transient. More important however than the actual number, is that you pick something and stick with it for all of your tracks.

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

@Splitting Time no limiter, this is gain staging, so I adjust the output levels of the synth and the input gain of each channel so that it peaks at around - 12dB.

[@HomeRecordingMadeEasy]

I teach all my students to record to about a -10db into their daw. This way you have no chance of clipping their converters and end of with digital distortion. , especially when you are using a cheap interface. You can always use clip gain in the daw to turn up a track in needed prior to mixing. Everyone does it a little different. Great video

[@nikm3r]

I personally record percussive instruments at -18 to -12, vocals at about the same level and everything else at -24 to -18, that way you have a rough mix ready and you're taking advantage of roughly 100-110db of the converter's range, 6 more db of resolution won't make an audible difference no matter who you are.

[@_TheViewer_]

I would say to record them about the the same level from -12 db and upwards, you can achieve the same with balancing volumes afterwards to -18 or wherever, so you still have the good noise-ratio mentioned above and you can still keep your system.

[@nikm3r]

@@_TheViewer_ all plug ins have -18 or -12dbfs as their unity, there is no reason to record hotter and have to gain stage afterwards just to get the few db of "resolution" left, which nobody can hear. That's my way of doing things, if you prefer another way and it works for you, go ahead.

[@_TheViewer_]

@@nikm3r Sure, do what you like to, I just meant it good because you’re doing extra work for not much in exchange. But no hate here, do what you feel is right, I do too !

[@nikm3r]

@@_TheViewer_ how's that extra work though? I do this as I record and I literally never touch gains or faders ever again (only for automations)

[@_TheViewer_]

@@nikm3r If you say you never ever touch gain or use faders, then obviously you doing something wrong there. Assuming your loudest track is -12, plus another -12 db won’t let them be directly at 0 db, it’s more like they add overall 3db together, about -9 then. You can still Add something, but have to anyway lower if there’s 2-3 elements around -12db coming in. Which is still fine, cause you can adjust one to let’s say -18, another to -24 of needed. But since your highest is -12 with main elements like percussives and vocals, the rest is with -18 to -24 db way too near to noise floor and in general for the mix and master afterwards too quiet, so you HAVE TO gain boost, compress etc. anyway later if you want it competing sonically to other commercial music for example. You are right, there’s a leveling and concept along the numbers you’ve chosen, but in the end not that effective, it’s just a suggestion anyway, not hating your religion here. -18 to -24 is still nearer to the noise floor then doing everything at for example -12 and re adjusting to the way you want them afterwards. Which would be safer and faster, since the way you do it you have a quiet mix the way you like, but still have to automate/gain boost or adjust faders when something should be louder or quieter overall then you have recorded. and end up boosting anyway. And it’s more work, since you have to record at different levels each time, plus more gain and compression in mastering To get to commercial/professional loudness (not loudness war) instead of heaving it right away. Im just saying there’s another good way, not yours is shˋt or some. By the way, before writing back I went to my studio and put three tracks In there recorded to -12db, which had the overall mix adding up from -12db to -6db. So away from the noise floor, but still loud, if needed I could lower one element that needs it with one fade, no automation drawing/recording, no need to boost gain or compress/limit hard in master. So instead recording low to noise and raising it then up, like a mix with your numbers would do and try to get rid of noise, artifacts and all that stuff from boosting/compressing/limiting to get a higher volumes, which would be more work.

[@JakeyWakey]

except the preamps in most of our scarlett interfaces start to crap out way before a nominal level.

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

Funny how something as simple as gain staging could be so debatable. Back when I was recording to a Portastudio, you wanted the signal to go into the red to get that saturation, but not to peg the meter. Great video, Colt!

[@L.DOT.P.]

Another great video Colt... love ya man!

[@ernestdaniels1671]

Colt, in one of your videos you mentioned that you got your patch-bay labels from Trace Audio. I looked on their Face Book page and at their shop on Reverb and I ordered several of he Samson S-Patch Plus labels. Great Advice, I can now stop looking at my Excel spread sheet for my gear ins and outs LOL. Thank You Much.

[@ElectricEddieDaus]

Hey Colt, I agree with you with Method #2. That was the way I was taught years ago before the Digital Box came along. Using 1/2" & 1" Tape we always tried to get as close as possible to 0db at the loudest part of the track. At least somewhere between -3db and 0db. Now that I am working in the box I use the same approach. Using Method #2 however I have adjusted my range since digital performs a bit differently. I shoot for aroun-12db to -6db keeping the Volume levels pretty close to each other rather then wrestling with all different levels which can become an issue. Thx ElectricEddie Daus😎

[@RP14_Music]

Everything has a sweet spot. Having a push everything as loud as you can or aim for -18dbfs is just not simply optimal for achieving the best sound. Each instrument is unique as is each singer.

[@davidbadstubner4582]

I use both approaches but in two very different scenarios. I know this is primarily focused on recording but I use method #1 when gain-staging for a Live concert mix. I like the full resolution of the fader to be at unity and then I adjust the preamp to compensate for the audible presentation in a given space. I’ve, for years, Recorded in the studio using method 2. For all of the aforementioned reasons. For awhile I adopted a “colder” approach to tracking in the studio but since have eschewed it to go back to my roots or achieving the highest dynamic range I can. Thanks for the thoughtful video!

[@23L3V3NS]

As long as you're not clipping, the stuff can sound great but you end up fiddling more, if it's recorded at low gain. Noise floor and all... I stopped checking meters unless I'm mastering! I have found that not looking at the gear, and just using it, gives better results. On my midi keyboard, I have set an "AI knob", so every parameter I click on, I can control with one knob! Sped up my workflow insanely!!! When I dial anything in, I close my eyes... Haha. I got that from the an amazing guy called Dave Pensado! I'm a student of the music and the craft, so I'm always keen to learn something, or improve my understanding on concepts and approaches in the studio. Recently learnt a feature on FL Studio (Which I use to make beats/compositions) through a guy I taught and sold my Producer Edition to, when I upgraded to the All Plugins version... We don't all bank the same information, and if so, rarely ever in the same way... I know for a fact that I know more than the 2 guys (lecturers) that taught me Audio Engineering in college. You're amazing, Colt! Perma-Sub.

[@michaeltablet8577]

Sweetwater is awesome! I love the way they sponsor my favorite channels!

[@nemoitrex9643]

I love the pack of candy that comes with my new gear! 🙌🏽😃

[@precisionsoundworksstudio]

Sweetwater... Yes! Yuval Fuchs is my sales rep. Been with him for over 15 years!

[@frankpaws]

Roy Thomas Baker tracked the first way. Back in the day when studios still existed in LA, he was producing a band and the track was going to be mixed. A 2" tape showed up and set all the faders to ZERO and it was kind of a pretty bad ass mix already.

[@michaeltablet8577]

Pure excellence as always!!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks!!

[@LBJedi]

I sort of do this same thing! I don’t do a ton of tracking, so when I receive a bunch of tracks, I adjust the input gain on each track to get them to a healthy volume. Once I get the processing right, I adjust levels with tge Faders, and use automation. If you see videos or pictures of the old consoles in places like Abbey Road or Est West, they did similar stuff. Then for the mix down, they’re have multiple people riding the faders like they were playing an instrument. It!: really cool!

[@gdanila]

Recording @ nominal line level (+4dbu = 0VU = ~1.23 volts) is still a thing if you want clean recordings, a strong signal and a low enough noise floor. I am talking about average levels here, of course. The only thing to keep in mind is that pro analog consoles have 22dbs of headroom while digital, depending on your converter calibration, have from 14 db to 20 db to accommodate peak information. When you get to the end of the scale, digital squares off the waveform while consoles round the waveform both resulting in distortion, but one of them subjectively better sounding then the other. Another point I want to make is that there's no need to go up to the last db on your digital scale to get "full resolution". Actually, you can try that yourself by splitting a signal and printing it on two separate channels @ different levels. You'll notice that if you match the levels of the resulted files and flip the polarity on one of them, they will null. Have fun gain staging!

[@winterpegers]

I try and track at around -18dbfs as I find this translates well (I.e: 0VU) when sending to outboard gear. Instead of worrying about where faders are I then set levels on original tracks and bus them out to a master fader that can live around the unity mark for precision and ease of mixing. I often have to put a gain plugin or limiter on the master bus to bring levels up to -3 to -6 for multitracking, otherwise it can be hard to hear the track in monitors when overdubbing. I used to normalise tracks to -6db once recorded but if you comp multiple takes in logic it sometimes fails to normalise them all. It’s more important to avoid clipping during tracking than worry about exact levels when recording, but I did struggle initially with where to set levels when implementing outboard gear.

[@kniferideaudio]

Having come from Analog tape recording getting good signal to noise is built into me. I shoot for my average (rms) levels to be between -18 and -6 dBFS with peaks not hitting above -3dB or so in the DAW as a general rule of thumb, the idea that you would hit your converter close to where you want it to sit in the mix is insane to me. -18dBFS being roughly 0dBVU (1K tone measuring 1.23 vdc) gives you a good reference for where things would be in analog land.

[@ChrisTopheRaz]

Been messing around with your second version of getting stage in lately and I like it. Thanks for the video good useful information

[@tonyvalenti6614]

Another great video Colt! Newbie attempting to learn. 😬 There was a lot of great info in your video and you kept my interest. Of course now I want more. You used a lot of terms I am sure intermediate or pros understand. I’d love a video on terms used with examples of how they are used. Of course this is geared towards beginners. 😁

[@StarskiYall]

I’ve found on my Apollo 8 that if I’m just hitting the first yellow light my gain staging for my plugins (I usually do -24 on wlm meter for lufs on non percussive sounds and -18 for drums) is perfect. This is usually just vocals that are tracked through my cl1b.

[@righteyeball]

nice video with a nice clothes from James Coffee! one of my favorite place back in the days

[@sixstringdisciple777]

I would be interested in some advice on how you might gain-stage a virtual instrument, whether still treating it as if it were a real signal coming in or otherwise.

[@johnpilling741]

Invaluable advice again Colt. Thank you so much buddy, explained so clearly.

[@sideast]

-18 to -12 on the way in , job done !

[@dspoet1]

How do you gain stage an instrumental wave file, a two track?

[@jackmmarsden]

Thank you for making this video!!

[@Dragndroprecords]

Love ya Colt, nice job as always!

[@MiguelNoyola1]

Good explanation! I’ll say that’s why a console is desired. You can leave your fader at Unity and take care of the tone and level pre Protools.

[@brucehathcockmusic]

Thanks for posting great video brother

[@Justanothermusicproducer]

For me it's just about healthy signal. Good signal noise ratio and no clipping. There is no problem getting -6 dbs peaks or -18dbs. Gain staging in the digital realm is so easy with clip gain plugins. If you hit an analog emulation plugin use the calibration to your advance, less input gain usually means less distorsion or saturation and viceversa. Btw is not the same a VU than a digital meter, they don't show the same and you shouldn't be used them the same way. If you can "premix" while recording is better, but a lot harder (you have to take risky decisions that only works with a lot of experience), it is easier to record "hot" with a safe peak level (-12 for example). Nowadays it's pretty easy to record with good levels and very forgotable. Anyway, remember to record things worth recording: good songs, good instruments, good rooms... Good performances!!! Make music and learn on the way!!!!

[@petefaders]

I would think, the converter's preamps play a role in the sound. It would be interesting to do a null test of a low input vs. loud input recording.

[@dieemptyofficial8419]

I produce electronic music and apart from my Behringer TD-3 I only work in the box. I level the output of my VST synthesizer to -3dB peak and after processing I level the channel to -9dB peak. The level meter peaks exactly in the middle of the fader button. Personally, this is the best way for me to mix. I level my kick and bass group to -11dB peak and then get to -18dB RMS and about -6dB peak in the finished mixdown. So I still have about 6dB of headroom for mastering.

[@hleet]

While in producing mode, it's more like : everything out loud so we can "feel" the music while adding more tracks ... but at the end, you still need to re-do a gain staging and redo all the mix. Mixing unfinished music (still in production) is wicked !

[@delorusclaiborne3274]

Its shouldnt be.. but helpful videos are rare so its nice to see your content... Thanks for giving good advice in this one should help a lot of people... Im used to analog so I hit @-18 rms it makes sure im hitting the sweetspot 👍 no less no more 90% of the time

[@mikejonesmuzik3765]

Dope Vids bro very insightful

[@nemoitrex9643]

Colt, great stuff as usual man! There is the tendency, sometimes, to not trust my ears because of what my eyes are seeing on the meter. Appreciate that caveat! 👊🏽😏

[@norand022]

100k subs just around the corner ;-)

[@ColtCapperrune]

Getting close!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[@kevinakacoolbreeze]

Great video Colt 🤘

[@KingDadBod666]

I usually make everything -6 db then use the faders to mix it. Idk if that is correct. It just works. XD

[@ColtCapperrune]

That works great!

[@darindipietro9141]

I’m guessing that because I started recording in the 80’s to tape that the “tracking to mix” seems absolutely crazy to me. Even when I switched over to digital I’ve never heard of tracking to mixing levels. If that’s the way it’s done in “big” studios then I’m lucky I missed the bus on that education lesson. What is absolutely evident to me as I’ve worked with other peoples tracks is often they print either waaay to hot or waaay to quiet. Mostly from lack of paying attention and nothing to do with a conscious decision……..

[@NaviRetlav]

In my opinion it's best to record at -6db to make sure that you don't go red accidental peaks. In terms of audio quality, try to get the best signal-noise ratio, and many pre-amps perform best at 50-80% range. If you record quiet, boosting signal in post means that you also boost the noise, it's not an issue when you plan to use clean instruments, but if you plan on adding a lot of distortion, you will hear a lot more noise. It's the main reason why I switched to 32bit float recording audio interface, to have way better signal to noise ratio and basically clan distortion.

[@_TheViewer_]

THX for the input !

[@FromAnightmare]

Great stuff man!

[@ColtCapperrune]

Thanks for watching!!

[@RocknRollkat]

Yup !

[@JochSejoMusic]

How I get my levels I print compression and eq going in directly on the tracks and if I mess a take up I record again, same with vocals they are tuned (spoton 60/30) going in and if I am off pitch I print over until I get through the entire track (just like how t-pain records in his sessions) . After recording I can set the clip gain directly on every track I record so all faders are at 0.0dB untouched. So all instruments/vocals have a insert channel for printing IN and then those tracks go to the respective inserts where I do mixing later. This way works great for me.

[@alekp6822]

What about normalizing tracks prior mixing ?

[@Euphonicmusicschool]

So, maybe, I am missing something, but if you record that hot, then you will be absolutely crushing your mix bus in your DAW. Then, if you turn all the faders down, you’re going to be so far down on the fader that the resolution will be almost impossible to work with. If you instead clip gain everything down, you are sending a quieter level into your plug-ins or hardware. I guess the added benefit would be, as you said, getting every last bit of dynamic range, but it just seems like a PITA to have to clip gain everything down after everything is recorded and then I will have to build a new rough mix compared to the one I made while tracking the musicians. With all that said, I usually shoot for about -12 on peaks. I have my meters calibrated in my DAW to change color at -12.

[@Juliano_DJOL]

Ive always been guilty of tracking and mixing a little hot and mixing a little hot, I personally will produce and mix (90% of the time) with a stock limiter on the master. One time for like a year I tried to do the whole -12db to -6db mixing and didn't feel like it helped due to a similar reason as this, like the plug ins and gear wasn't getting the same effect (mainly compressor or dynamic stuff). I think if I was sending my mixes off to get mastered by a pro it would help some for sure but that's not a normal thing for me these days and when I used to my Mastering guy wasn't picky and could work with just about any level mix, he said thats what the faders are for right...turn it down lol!

[@jayrobarge3443]

Love your channel!!!!!!😊

[@natebrown508]

Thank you Sir!!

[@NoThumb]

Just found out I've been accidentally gainstaging my entire career

[@crossgordon4376]

Can u do a series where u highlight a song or artist that u like and break down why? Can maybe make it a bi-weekly or monthly thing

[@Sicfux]

How does one go about getting a song or an album mixed and mastered by you?

[@JamesArthurHurley]

-6dbFS ≠ 0dbVU -20dbFS = 0dbVU (in most cases) -18dbFS = 0dbVU (sometimes) -14dbFS = 0dbVU (rarely but sometimes) Most gear was design to operate at 0dbVU reference voltage required. But use the above as a rough guide.

[@GBANI]

Leaving from here with Record your vocals loud, enough that they are not clipping. Loud because of the preamp, not because of the tracking compressor though.

[@dankirsner4270]

I agree I use a tascam do 32 and I try to record so that my loudest part of a signal is just under the top of my meters if I get a red clip I back it down just enough so that it does not come on

[@ABS_AD77]

Thanks for a great video. I have a question though. When you record your tracks to a maximum gain you could, using all the headroom that is available, for example, if you record a pad track which is meant to be quiter than all the main vocal, drums and bass tracks, would end up in the same volume as the main tracks. This would make us either to lower the fader level in our DAW or use clip gain to adjust the levels of the quieter tracks to keep the faders at a reasonable levels for convenience. In a nutshell this would force us to gain stage again at mixing stage to bring the faders of quieter level tracks for convenience, otherwise we would end up with faders of quitter tracks in lower resolution areas in our DAW which would make it difficult to make finer adjustments. - Very curious to know your approach in this scenario please. Thanks again for a great video. Cheers!

[@DraftZJ]

james coffee co.. angels and airwaves fan by chance?

[@aaroneschenburg4018]

What about digital -20 is analog 0? So the analog gear would respond at -20 better than above it. Is this an archaic rule?

[@ashcatlt]

Not actually arguing because the basic premise IS good, but…. Bit depth is not the actual issue. It’s getting the most from the analog stages before the actual digital conversion that’s important. Maximize dynamic range and get the best S/N that you can. If your signal is drowning in analog noise, more bits won’t help. OTOH, does that quiet pad reeeaaallly need to go to a compressor? Who’s ever gonna notice? ;)

[@jorykevinberger7047]

I was scrolling the comments to see if someone had pointed this out yet. I’m glad to see it has been.

[@GingerDrums]

Just record at 32bit floating point and you will have maximum resolution at essentially whatever gain is still audible. Otherwise if you are recording at 24bit you have 144db(!) of headroom so -18db is great as a rule of thumb.

[@loetbraamkolk6483]

Can we get a comparison between a track recorded at -18 or -12 that's digitally gained up to peaking -3 versus the exact same track recorded at -3 peaking? You've spiked my curiosity about why I should take the risk of going above -12.

[@henryhuynh2099]

I was hitting -18 and then -12 and so on. I finally landed at -6b. It all sounds fine when digitally or analog gained. But if you dont have a good room to track in or there’s noise, when you gain a quiet signal (analog or digital) it’ll bring up the noise. Sometimes this destroys track IMO. And if there’s multiple tracks w this problem it becomes very apparent. But at -6 I haven’t had this problem. Even if I use a gate or denoise plug-in it never destroyed a track. I’m just a noob but this is the conclusion I came to after many sessions of testing.

[@jorykevinberger7047]

I think I agree with you. You won’t hear it because you can’t hear the 24 bit noise floor between -144db and -129db. Right? The room is the room. The noise in the preamp is the noise floor in the preamp. All of which are higher noise floors than 24 bit depth. That’s what you’ll hear whether you record at -3 or -18 and raise to -3, the audible result is the same. The only reason to check or record “hotter” is to get a sense of that floor and/or because driving an amp input gives a character you like. Am I missing something?

[@henryhuynh2099]

@@jorykevinberger7047 ummmm just a noob here but I think you got more technical than I think I understand lol. I was referring to any noise whether the room ambience or pre noise or gear noise. I have a blues deluxe amp. Sounds really pretty. But it has a hiss like something’s wrong. I don’t mind it so much until I use it to track. Then it’s really apparent and if I get track above -10 than no matter what I do the noise doesn’t come up too much. However if I track that same amp and tone at under -10. Let’s say at -18 than when I bring it up later through compression or gain or even just the fader, the noise comes with it and not only is the guitar amp coming up but everything else does too including the room and whatever noise is in the track. But yes I slam pres and compressors to get more character definitely. I think we’re on the same page. Lol

[@Joelfrancis]

I love your videos dude. Keep it up 👍🏽

[@bizrael11]

So helpful! Great video, as always. One constructive criticism though: Holy smokes, it is really fatiguing to my ears to listen to the vocal processing you use. It's so compressed I have to turn the volume down to 5% every time. But thank you for your videos. The production quality, concise information, the way you explain things, all of it, makes them so valuable. Thank you!

[@trentjohnson11]

What about the Faders when you record everything at the loudest input level. im assuming you just turn them down if needed.

[@ApnaFoodHub-dq5zq]

Very nice to explain bosssss❤️

[@martijn_nl]

I calibrate my VU meters at -18 dBFS = 0 dBVU. Most analog emulating plug-ins work best around that level. I used to record as hot as possible with peaks just under -1 dBFS but since the noisefloor of both converters and preamps have dropped so much compared to my older gear there's no need to record that hot.

[@mcsweet1966]

Hey Colt, thanks for the Video, I use the UAD Studer 800 as the first Insert on all my Audio Tracks and the sweet spot of the Studer is at around -14 so I do my original gain stage to that level but use the output knob to take it down to -16/-18 once I got my tone and vibe. Is it something you would advise to do ? I sometime need to boost the volume of the wave to get it to -14 and I`m still wandering if I could just use the Input of the Studer plugin itself ?

[@ColtCapperrune]

The fact that you know what level to hit that plug-in at, and you do that consciously to get the result you want means you are doing it correctly! There is no right or wrong with any of this stuff as long as you are doing things with purpose. Great job!

[@billymack4258]

What a'/d converters are you using for tracking ? Thanks😎

[@EandVEntertainment]

This is essentially how I learned as well, record at the highest volume possible without clipping.

[@jeffsalvatore7441]

When you record everything at a high volume (for example the synth that's in the background), are you using a gain plugin to bring it down or are you just dropping the fader way down?

[@ColtCapperrune]

Just pulling the fader down in the mix 🤘🏻

[@MetiCudi]

​@@ColtCapperrune lets say i didnt record it, import the files in, and the synth part is peaking at more or less -20dbfs, would you trim/clipgain the file up lets say 18db instead of 20, then set the fader down again -18db?

[@andrewtolson2566]

When you talk about lightly clipping your converters, you have to have high end converters to do that. A scarlett converter never clips in a pleasing way, ever. I believe that is the only real benefit of a high end converters. But thats a whole other video.

[@louiegroenewald]

Nobody anywhere on youtube explains the following regards Gain Staging. I have one problem/misunderstanding regards gain staging. I understand everything you say in this video and the reason for Gain staging, etc. The one thing I don't understand is........Input level needs to be mostly around -18dbfs for plugins, etc. If I put all channels at -18dbfs it will mean they are all the same volume. What do I do about the channels that needs to be lower in volume to bring a better balance in the mix? If I adjust the faders too low I use resolution. Therefor the faders needs to be at unity Gain, right? So I can only adjust Pre gain again to keep fader at unity Gain. But if I do this I loose all the plugin settings I had when level was at -18dbfs as input. What do I do. Thus is the confusion part for me? I can't have faders at unity gain and all channels at -18 the same time. The mixbus or master bus will clip. Please help. Hope this is clear.

[@user-ml4wg5ez4g]

I love your videos Colt! I've been trying to figure something out for days now, please help me, somebody! I've hooked up my audio interface so that it's output is going through an analog compressor and back into the audio interface. The signal going through the output behaves as if it were the signal going to the monitors. I'm trying to figure out how to compress for example a single vocal track in my DAW and leave the rest of the tracks alone so I can dial in the prefect compression settings for my vocals, like Colt and many others do. However, every track in the project is being sent through the compressor which is not what I am trying to do, although I think I am getting closer to figuring out what I really want to do. I'm in the process of figuring out what questions exactly I need to ask. Hopefully this makes sense. I am using Reaper, a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and an ART PRO VLA II compressor. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[@tomtwose7379]

Yes, use your ears however, meters needed for getting "ballpark". Could a (part 2) of this be done on metering ? There's a whole bunch of different types of meters that can be used on DAWz. Well, my Cubase one anyway Cheers, keep up the good work.

[@frankrotthier4392]

ok, but using these levels on all audio tracks would make my mixbuss clip immediately. So you lower all your faders in PT?

[@dmsarchivist]

Drill Producers: Hahahaha +6DB kick go brrrrr

[@chrisheaton5853]

What if the song calls to be dynamic? Do you even out the dynamics post recording to -18dbfs and adjust the dynamics later via automation? It's so confusing... Like what if the hypothetical quiet fingerpicking sounds bad at -18dbfs and said tones sounds better with less gain? But if there is less gain doesn't that mean the plugins won't work aswell? Urgggggh so frustrating. I know my EQ, compressor and everything else about mixing extremely well! It's just that gain staging confuses the living shit out of me.

[@bingybeats189]

But some of the hardware relies on the input being driven to bring the inherent character out of the piece. This is why I like sending stuff out at lower volumes then driving the input. It imparts more character.

[@jorykevinberger7047]

I like that. The input of the signal is one thing and the input dial of the hardware itself via saturation it imparts aside from the incoming signal, is another. Am I following you?

[@bingybeats189]

@@jorykevinberger7047 Yes, that is correct.