What Is Gain Staging? How to Gain Stage Your Mix

[@Aightherewego]

Needed this video when i first started. I think it's a beginner's must watch

[@Aightherewego]

I still learned something though. Damn it's a must watch nonetheless

[@G_handle]

iZotope! Can I request that you do a Gain Staging Part 2, deep dive reference video in which you lay out the differences between Peak & RMS, how 0dB VU is referenced, -18dbFS RMS, 1.23v, +4dBU, what Nominal levels are, Noise Floor to Nominal vs Nominal to Distortion, Headroom, Dynamic Range, Signal to Noise Ratio, THD (Total Harmonic Distortion). Essentially EXPAND upon what you just did, but more as a Reference Material that everyone can point to and come back to for the definitive explanation of these fundamental audio engineering concepts. You could also expand upon (with visuals) what digital clipping vs analog clipping looks and sounds like, but also include the point in every circuit, or code where a signal goes from linear to non-linear, and how different circuits distort the signal differently. What do those distortions look and sound like? Even order. Odd harmonics. Etc Sam made reference to the fact that many people get Gain Staging confused. I would argue that if someone where to search KZbin and watch the dozens of GS videos, they'd be applauded for Not coming away confused. Hence my humble request. Settle this once and for all!

[@Staxmann]

😮

[@dprokramaz9281]

There's a tremendous amount of videos providing great technical advice on how to "professionally master" music, and the "sweetspot" of gain and keeping the audio from "clipping" and distortion, etc. However, I downloaded a bunch of top selling songs from the artists' own KZbin channels and placed them in my DAW and guess what? All the audio tracks from these "top musicians" clipped like crazy - The VU meter literally lived in the red zone. This was especially true for rap, pop, dance music, etc. Moral of the story?: Top artists break music production "rules" whenever they see fit which is often.

[@jeremythornton433]

When it comes to EQing, I tend to prefer to cut as opposed to add. I can always bring the level up for the whole sound after I have cut. This is the way old passive EQs worked and I like it.

[@midsfb]

Thanks for the tip I may give this a try

[@davidmultimedia2024]

I’m glad to confirm i’ve been doing it right all these years! 😅 Excellent video! Couldn’t be clearer! It will definitely help A LOT of people out there!

[@Radiokillaz]

I'm also glad to confirm I have been doing it correctly, was taught correctly and am teaching my students correctly 🤣🙏 great video 👍

[@jeremythornton433]

Me too! To me it just makes sense.

[@Yourmom-bl1yx]

One of the best explained gain staging videos I have seen… awesome job!

[@SamLoose]

Thanks, Mum 🙂

[@Yourmom-bl1yx]

@@SamLoose anytime son 😂

[@failsaferecords]

you make it all sound fun and interesting. I grasped all this stuff a while ago, but I'll be sending this link to a few of the sound recordists who fire me sessions to mix. This is a 10 min life saver for them, and for me having to deal with their recordings

[@Harrysound]

This video is fantastic. I know a lot of this stuff but I often watch these videos to gain that little bit extra understanding and to keep fresh. This was expertly done.

[@FukumanDJ]

Another Sam's Big-masterclass! You rule Sam!

[@SamLoose]

Always a pleasure 😀

[@nullnull2128]

Thanks Sam! Excellent breakdown on gain staging.

[@SamLoose]

Thanks for checking it out 😁

[@mohammadtahir3511]

All my mixing issues were mentioned in this video and also clearly explained. This video is amazing.🧡

[@distillednoise]

Finally a clear video about gain staging which classifies as crap all the other videos about this topic.

[@JimReuterskiold]

A very clear explanation of gain staging. I appreciate the way you define terms; sometimes the jargon and terminology gets past me. Thanks, this channel is going into my arsenal.

[@theinfochannel9357]

Thanks to you I now understand what Gain Staging is and how to excite it. THANK YOU SO MUCH Your a GREAT Teacher.

[@davidbasscooper9540]

this video made it clearer and easy to understand. great video

[@craftedtunesentertainment5569]

Omg! I've been doing it the absolute wrong way for so long. I feel like throwing up 🤦. Thanks Sam.

[@bassManDavis1953]

Fantastic Sam! Got it and all thanks to your very interesting and valuable presentation! Can’t wait to try it out!

[@stephen6272]

phenomenal video, dude has a dope voice too

[@SamLoose]

Thanks!

[@CarlitoProductions]

Glad I watched this. Ive been struggling to understand if I always needed to have faders at a specific level and I wasnt clear on the term itself. This was super informative. Thank you for this!

[@stevechandler8847]

Thank you for explaining floating point processing and why gain staging install important.

[@kinggizzard8499]

Wow! Great video explaining quite a lot of key concepts that are easy to grasp for beginners. Thank you! Edit: Better to use the term bit depth rather than bit rate

[@finnsterling6514]

Holy f*ck. This was awesome. Thanks for clarifying a lot of useful--and helpful!--information!

[@JimPianoGibson]

Really clear, really helpful. Thanks.

[@keenra]

Needed this as a refresher, ngl I thought he was saying door instead of DAW for a minute. Accents are fun, thanks for making this video.

[@pastilance1]

Super useful, thanks!

[@larrycavallucci3258]

I'm a "show and tell" guy, so your video made more sense when you showed them working in a DAW. And your 3-PT synopsis at the end was good. I have found that at times when I use Ozone 10 Advanced as my FIRST plugin in the Insert section of a song in the Project Pg, the mastering module in Studio One, I sometimes find that the overall result is too hot.

[@terenceedwardnesbit]

Very informative, and makes me feel better about lowering my recording level to minimize noise when recording. Will help in the future, I think.

[@popolokross444]

you are the first to finally made it clear for me. Thank you, i hope for your continued success

[@BenZeebar]

Excellent explanation. Thanks very much.

[@SuperSamsosa]

wonderful and comprehensible explanation

[@abramtreadwell722]

Learned a lot, thank you!

[@micman1000]

Like the straight onto the meat clear and concise explanation ... excellent video. Thanks

[@aidantriantafillou2501]

That groove was sick! This video has good vibes

[@chaosevolution]

Biggest issue for me is the sub at

[@marcellob.8893]

Finally, a great explanation, thanks Sam and iZotope!

[@NICUofficial]

helpful to have these organized reminders in one place! I feel like I understand gain staging "intellectually", but there's a more profound level of understanding it intimately and hands-on with your personal gear and recording setup. And I'm still working on that. Long way to go! being a massive electronic music / synth nerd I have WAYYYYY too long of signal chains (ever tried running a high-output digital synth through a chain of 3 analog VCAs and 5 analog compressors? Before it even hits a mixer, effect, or DAC? LOL) so gain staging makes a huge difference to the overall final sound, and therefore gain staging is important for making my intended art always good to study and review it. this was a great explanation of the balancing act! edit: also the logarithmic fader range never occurred to me but I see exactly what you mean! another good thing learned :)

[@PrinceEfue]

So glad I have always done this right all along

[@bhargavdobhal5327]

Thank You Izotope very Helpful Video🙌🙌🔥🔥.

[@beatprocess]

great video.

[@rastabaldheadrecords110]

Very informative and clear... much appreciated 💯🙏🏿

[@AlanSamuel]

Excellent video. Thank you for all thee explanations and advices.

[@egoobekele]

Leveling the gain stage between -21 to -18 been doing great for me tho, Never had to deal with noise issue.

[@EHall-yx9xy]

Hey when you mention gainstaging between -21 to -18, are your tracks “peaking” at those numbers?

[@davidpurple3698]

Thanks for a great video. I think you should distinguish between recording/hardware and only using digital plugins.

[@ykakoneTS]

Very well presented. Thank You!

[@gabrieloyebola7517]

Thank you so much for this information, God bless you

[@cedricfabricante3593]

thanks bro

[@jellewierda3828]

Please make all your plugins have auto gain! And a way to lower the threshold when using multiband compression in neutron.

[@OneEyedKing]

Great vid

[@chubbcurry30]

Amazingly helpful!!!

[@guitarsoul1129]

Could you please explain about plugins emulating analog hardware which need about -18dBFS at the input? Is this really an issue nowadays?

[@n.k.9964]

Kind of interesting, how there is not a single word about the most important use of gain staging, at least in my opinion: By using plugins without gain compensation: 1. You are fooling your brain with the omnipresent "it's louder, it's better" bias. So your mixing decisions might be not the best without gain staging. 2. You may change the way a plugin in slot B react to the signal, when changing settings at slot A after the inital setup of the fx chain, since a lot of plugins are nowhere near linear. Or is there another term for the points I am describing?

[@justinsollenne4787]

My guyyyyy

[@kutkobain3623]

If my signal on one of my clips hitting less than -12 should I turn my clip up until it's hitting at at least -12?

[@ektabajelok]

Need your help. I frequently listen to music or conversations that appear very loud even at a low volume setting of the knob, say 4/10, but whenever I record music myself, reaching 3dB peak in the DAW ,appear very low even at high volume, say 8 or 9/10 when played back. The first mentioned louder song /voice also reaches around 4-5dB in the DAW. Why this difference in loudness with same dB? How can I get a louder song without clipping/distortion not recorded above 3dB. Can we have different LUFS at the same dB?

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

thx

[@lupiyorro]

¡Thanks! now I can see it...

[@padraig88]

Just bought a Tascam Series 208i that comes bundled with Izotope, but Cubase tells me I can no longer use 32 bit plugins, is there/will there be a 64 bit version of iZotope?

[@PatrickObiang]

Bravo

[@kcreationkundra2530]

Great

[@iamwe7035]

I know lots of vets that worry about them plug ins before they worry about common sense, I mean gain staging lol😅

[@synthoelectro]

one day iZotope will create a DAW

[@neilmacleod1855]

Anybody else low key prefer the sound of the ‘clipping’ drum bus… 👀

[@joyemojiiboy]

⚡💛👏

[@RockstarRecStudio]

@MixbusTv explained this years ago

[@MendingSilence]

Can you help me with my one project I have trouble balancing the tracks

[@AnP865]

Shout out to everyone watching this day of deadline and realising their entire project is too loud and fucked up :D

[@illestofdemall13]

Quietest* not quiet is.

[@serenitynow66]

😀😀😀😀😀

[@RocknRollkat]

Well thought through presentation, thank you. The average user would benefit from some start-to-finish examples, but overall, well done. Personally, I record old-school style, everything near 0 dB FS for the best S/N ratio. It takes a bit more care when using plugins, but I'd rather have a 96 dB dynamic range than an 84 dB range offered by those -12 dB levels. I'm offered 16 bits, I feel obligated to use 'em all. (-12 dB means you're using only 14 of those 16 bits.) Best regards, Bill P.

[@goldfingers8763]

not true , if you use 32 bit you can mix above zero db without distortion and without harming the transients

[@maximusprime8021]

Not very useful. All concept. No “How to” as the title says.

[@wwlittlejOfficial]

Good video, but Sams vocals were WAY too loud. Kinda hard to trust a vid about gain staging when the video had mixing issues, lol

[@Deepnote_za]

nothing new compared to other gain staging videos on KZbin. Just talking and talking without proper visual demonstrations.

[@mugglywumps5408]

Super helpful, thank you!