It ensured that any device in the signal path would receive an optimal signal level to its input and pass on an optimal signal level to the next device in the chain. There's a lot of bad information out there that keeps getting repeated. On the face of it, gain staging couldn't be simpler: you ensure that you feed an appropriate level from the first stage of your signal path to the next, and repeat this from the second stage to the third... and so on, all the way from your instruments, mics and preamps to the final stereo mix bus. That’s one of the reasons why gain staging is so crucial. In audio engineering, a gain stage is a point during an audio signal flow that the engineer can make adjustments to the level, such as a fader on a mixing console or in a DAW. If the signal is too quiet, you may capture … When pushed above a certain limit you’d get a soft compression/saturation effect at the beginning and the louder you pushed the input signal the more overt the distortion became. He acts as owner, editor, lead author, and web designer of LedgerNote, as well as co-author on all articles. Gain Staging - Levels are Everything for High-Resolution Recordings. The second reason is that analog and digital systems use different decibel scales of measurement! So maintaining the same concept of optimal gain staging that you use during recording is your best bet: -18dBFS is a good average level to aim for. If the modeling was done properly, most of them will exhibit the same “non-linear” behavior as their analog originals. Here's the short version of a long story. This path can be a chain of several analog boxes wired one after the other, or several plugins inserted on a channel one after the other. Keeping it conservative will help you maintain proper gain structure throughout your mix. If you need help, I've written about how to use a limiter here. You had to think globally, across the whole chain of gear. if (!window.AdButler) { When gain staging, it’s our job to make sure that all the relative track volumes are at the proper level relative to one another while maintaining a specific master output level. Channel Output Level. Most plugins change volume levels. 3. Gain staging will allow the audio producer to minimize noise by eliminating many gain stages. On the plugin itself, you will want to set the output to an appropriate level before sending it to any effect devices. Headroom is less of a concern too. And that's the real crime, the situation most people find themselves in because they aren't aware of this critical balance between gain and resolution. Every recording medium has a finite amount of headroom. Headroom is how much room your audio signal has before it starts to get compressed and distorted. It ensured that any device in the signal path would receive an optimal signal level to its input, and output an optimal signal level to the next device in the chain. If you're on a mixing board you can watch the levels there (and will know how) but let's talk in terms of using a digital audio workstation (DAW) software, like the best DAWs including Pro Tool, Logic Pro, or FL Studio. Al Isler is a musician as well as a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer who, according to his mom, "works with computers". Of course you'll begin reducing levels as you mix, and the goal will then be to manage your levels at the mix bus compressor and master output. Level Matching Devices. Good gain staging was an engineer’s way of navigating safely between them. It meant making sure that the gain structure between devices was set up properly. Input Level Gain Staging. Great. But what are they exactly? Back in the good old days of analog recording, you had 2 main things to consider when it came to recording a healthy yet clean signal: Good gain staging was an engineer’s way of navigating safely between them. Get the best of our production tips and news, weekly in your inbox. The name of the game here is full resolution audio, but you don't want that full of noise and distortion either. But the related reason is that you've recorded in at the proper levels and have found that you want to sculpt the frequency response of a track so it sits in the mix better. So what's a gain stage? I start out the gain staging process with adjusting the levels of my samples within the channel rack first and then dealing with the levels of the mixer tracks i assigned the samples in the channel rack later, after I incorporate all of the different VST’s on each mixer track. You'll want to do the same once you've recorded at this perfect level and start working with plugins. It’s true that proper gain staging can be achieved by setting the recording levels right, but that’s only the 1st step to take care of. When you record, your signal has to go through an analog stage prior to being converted into digital. It can be used for creative tone-shaping purposes. n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n); This is why we call the process of leveling the mix “gain staging”. It’s really easy to forget about buses. Good Gain Staging begins when you’re recording, so ensure material that … Gain staging is actually a pretty straightforward concept—it’s the process of optimizing the level at every point in your signal chain to ensure a clean, clear sound. Home » Columns » Studio Recording » Here. There's no maximum voltage you can send through a wire except for the fact that you'll burn it and break it at a certain point, although typically you'll hit a real distortion ceiling around +20-24 dBu. If your gain structure is too low, you undermine your ability to finish the puzzle by leaving pieces of the puzzle in the box. What is gain staging, and why should you care? Here is an example describing this process: Your goal is to create a large sound stage full of details. You can look at it as a mathematical equation: Distortion Ceiling - Noise Floor = Dynamic Range. Gain staging is the oft-forgotten diamond in the studio recording and mixing process. You should be looking at averages, because the goal is to fill every computer bit with as much digital information as possible while operating at the levels in which your gear performs best. Just because you're a few decibels above the noise floor doesn't mean you're in the clear. In a general sense, loud sounds good, but once your output crosses a certain threshold it begins to distort. How many are modeled after old analog gear like compressors, EQs, console channels, tape machines, etc.? They all are meant to work in harmony so each piece of equipment in the signal chain receives the signal at the correct volume to maintain the highest resolution possible. Digital equipment like our sound cards, interfaces, DAWs, and computers as a whole work in dBFS, which is a measurement of detail held in a binary number. var AdButler = AdButler || {}; “Gain staging” is simply the process of managing input gains and output levels. He has also mixed, mastered, & recorded for countless independent artists. While this does increase the volume of the noise floor a bit, your signal-to-noise ratio increases at a greater rate, and since human hearing is based on averages the detectable noise is even lower. What you're doing is minimizing the height of amplitude peaks so that they're closer to the average, which in turn raises the average when you turn up the make-up gain. How should you configure your gain structure in order to optimize the gain staging throughout your mix? A good rule of thumb is to equate -18dBFS with the analog standard of 0dBVU. There is a maximum here, which is when you reach 0 dBFS, moving up from larger negative numbers. It is where they perform their best and you pack the bits full of as much resolution as possible. Digitally it refers to the bits and information they can hold before their cup is too full. Poor gain staging results in high levels of noise and distortion, as well as a decrease in headroom. Better Gain Staging Means a Better Mix It's not a war for more volume at the cost of audio attrition. The ultimate goal here is to always be hitting your analog-to-digital converters (into your sound card or interface) and your digital-to-analog converters (back out to the speaker monitors) at 0 dBu / -18 dBFS. Although there's no exact standard, the best magic numbers to remember are: This will keep you safe on any system. Electronically this refers to the maximum amount of voltage a signal path through a piece of hardware is designed to take. That's it. A VU meter forces you to mix at softer levels, that is why it is highly recommended for gain staging.I’m not going to bore you with the history and information that you can find on Wikipedia, I’m just going to give you the steps on how to use a VU Meter for gain staging. But you do want it all hooked into the interface or mixer. 4. There are many ways to ensure you’re starting off with the best … Your gain matters at every step, from the preamplifier, equalizer, compressor, converters, and even when printing the mix for your album release. AdButler.ads = AdButler.ads || []; var abkw = window.abkw || ''; handler: function (opt) { But even if you forego understanding why, as long as you know these numbers you'll be set and achieve as great of results as the gain stage brainiac. To make everything sound as good as possible, you have to achieve the right balance between all of these. var n = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; The difference between gain and level is that the gain refers only to the input of an audio signal while level refers to the output of an audio signal. Adjust the threshold to your preferred working level, which is usually -12dB. This includes trim knobs, input and output gain controls whether in a plugin or hardware, your mixer faders, the volume controls on your instruments, and more. You'll hear people say that you should cut instead of boost when EQing, but you'll hardly find the reason why people recommend subtractive equalization. In the same vein, if you're recording too hot, you'll encounter the distortion ceiling. Anyone who's had roomates who like to have disco dancing rave after-parties until 4 am know a thing or two about unwanted noise.But for our discussion here Both of the terms relate to the loudness of audio. Amateurs are telling each other where the peaks of their amplitudes should be hitting at a maximum, mainly because DAWs use sample-peak metering. Monitoring Device Inputs and Outputs. Most have never even heard of this aspect of signal processing. LANDR is the creative platform for musicians: audio mastering, digital distribution, collaboration, promotion and sample packs. 32-bit floating bit rate is pretty clip proof because … This goes for faders and equalizers. We said all of that above so we could say the following and have it make sense: In the analog stage, you want to bounce around 0 dBu. To understand what levels you really need to be aiming at, we need to discuss the three main reasons for having so many gain stages in the first place: Let's look at each so we know why we're doing this, and then we'll discuss the technical numbers (the part that confuses people who do try to solve this problem). Although everything starts with your vocal or instrument miking, there is a way to raise the RMS (averaged) value of your signal, and therefore your signal-to-noise ratio, which is to compress your signal on the way in before you hit the converters. Noise Floor – the level of the gain stage where the noise is louder than the actual audio signal. That's not how this works or how to gauge it. } var s = document.createElement("script"); You can go positive here without clipping, it's part of the design. Let's jump right into it with... Gain staging is the process of setting each gain stage to the proper levels to achieve a maximum quality, both in the analog or digital realm. All About This Beautiful Sound Effect & Its Uses, Recording Studio Cables: All You Need to Know. So besides managing your levels in and out of every piece of hardware and software, here's a couple other tips to keep you in the sweet spot. The need for proper gain staging doesn’t end when your tracks are recorded…. We can wrap the first two points up in one discussion. Any signal above it will get clipped. Gain staging is awareness of audio levels at all crucial points in the signal path and adjusting the gain or attenuation at various points in this path to achieve the desired sound. Remember when choosing an audio interface was confusing before you read this? This is a large part of how newer, non-minimally orchestrated and arranged music still sounds as crystal clear as a completely digital track with three or four tracks. This does not mean to compress like crazy so you can get louder though. You can convert between the two, but it's unnecessary. Gain staging is important because our ears perceive loud sounds as … I'll explain what it is you're missing with great visual analogy so you know what to listen for, because it's subtle, but it's the difference between an amateur garage band and a pristine professional result. The reason is that that is a very quiet volume and you or your listener will have to raise the amplitude to hear it comfortably. Your dynamic range represents the volumes in which your signal is free from noise and isn't clipped and distorting, but there's a caveat as always. But remember, at 24-bit and 32-bit recording you have plenty of headroom (about 18 decibels worth). A limiter at 0 dB is always a good idea to catch these. Start with the Best Possible Sound. Jared has surpassed his 20th year in the music industry. Avoid running a... 2. Recall that -18 dBFS is equal to 0 dBu, so this means you're hitting your preamp's output at the right levels, which will mean you're hitting the input of the next piece of gear at the right level. Hardware equipment works in dBu, which is a measurement of voltage. It's either done right or you've compromised your ability to have the highest quality song at the end of the day. }()); domain: 'servedbyadbutler.com' It also represents the sweet spot you want to set all of your gain stages to on average. Manage your level on each track this way so the signal is moving into and out of each effects plugin at the right level, and finally into the fader at -18 dBFS. It's so easy to record studio quality vocals these days with the right mic... Analog uses dBu, which stands for decibels unloaded, Digital uses dBFS, which stands for decibels full scale. The more the sound is amplified across gain stages, the more the noise is … AdButler.register(171487,291816, [300,250], 'placement_291816_' + opt.place, opt); It also has to be converted back to analog on the way out to your monitors. It's like a desktop puzzle. Conversely, sending too hot a signal to the effects bus will result in a distorted signal. s.src = 'https://servedbyadbutler.com/app.js'; I applaud everyone that doesn't bog down in technical details and jumps right in, because music … s.async = true; As with the Low-Band Gain, the Mid-Band gain contributes to the overall gain-staging of a signal. Today we're going to cover this topic in it's fullest extent. Ignorance won't save you though. Is there a specific amount of headroom you need to have? Don’t Ignore Plug-In I/O Gain. It meant making sure that the gain structure between devices was set up properly. Fortunately, we all have the computers and hard drive space to be recording in 24-bit these days (instead of the old 16-bit standard). Learn more about. You can't see what number is popping up as your peak and base your gain stage on that. The goal was to keep your signal as high above the noise floor as possible to maximize your signal-to-noise ratio. In the process of boosting the volume, you're also boosting the noise floor. Have you ever noticed that a sound is different when you run it through effects at a high or low level? If you want a certain frequency to sound louder, then you should cut around it instead. One reason, as we said before, is that we're dealing with averages (root mean square, actually) here, as is the hardware, software, and the human auditory system. This meant that quieter passages wouldn’t be obscured by a bunch of hisses and other undesirable noise. To get this, you really need to understand the difference between gain and volume, which we've covered in our Gain vs. Volume article. Get the ideas, tools and tips you need to grow your sound straight to your inbox. So the same rules apply: the harder you push them the more they’ll start to compress, saturate and distort. And as a mixer or recording engineer, there's no excuse for not perfectly executing your gain staging. AdButler.ads.push({ It is entirely possible to increase a signal’s internal gain while maintaining a consistent volume in your speakers, just as it is possible to increase the volume coming out of an amplifier without increasing the input gain. The answer lies in the name itself: It’s the process of setting the optimum level (i.e, the best possible “gain”) at every stage in the signal path. I applaud everyone that doesn't bog down in technical details and jumps right in, because music is art. The same goes for boosting on one track, but what you don't want is a boosted, accumulated noise floor where it's all added together and noticeable. Gain staging is the process of managing all of these volume levels within a project for the purpose of achieving the cleanest mix possible. s.type = "text/javascript"; Leave plenty of headroom for mastering! A big challenge for anyone doing live sound is something called gain staging. Here's an image to explain why this is a problem. How to Gain Stage 1. Make your mail more musical
But up until we reach that point digital is a perfectly linear medium, so we don’t have that gradual onset of compression and distortion that analog recording exhibits. Digital audio gets rid of a lot of these gain structure issues. Watch as Weezna shows how to get a clean and loud signal from the mic..preamp..compressor..interface..DAW. Again, set all of the faders to zero, and monitor your microphone (or instrument if you're direct injecting) levels on its own fader. This isn’t always a bad thing. But on average all of our gear is designed to perform best at that level. place: plc291816++, If you try to record a signal that’s louder than what the medium is capable of handling, it will clip the tops of the waveform and you’ll hear that as distortion. Just Industry News, Tips, and Exclusive Deals. document.write('<' + 'div id="placement_291816_' + plc291816+ '">'); Boost them all, and you potentially add up to 15 dB or more to your signal before it hits the mix. So why should you care about gain staging if it looks like digital recording has fixed all the problems? But it still matters! You want to begin testing levels and set the trim on your preamplifier until you're dancing around -18 dBFS in the DAW on the fader. But averaging lower leaves plenty of headroom and dynamics for the mastering engineer to work with. Some producers recommend mixing to a higher level, but to my mind, it makes things more difficult later. Gain staging is the process of making the dB level of a sound consistent throughout the entire processing system. Engineers would try and find the best balance point between noise at the bottom and distortion at the top, which is ultimately what gain staging is all about. Here’s a brief walk through of this process using a soft synth like Serum as an example. For serious work you should be working in 32-bit. var plc291816 = window.plc291816 || 0; This refers to the way signal levels are set between the various components in an audio system. Preamp and line inputs play an important role in gain staging. • No Spam. LANDR is an instant online music mastering tool. Overdrive one piece and sure, it might sound good in a vacuum. What we’re talking about is the importance of gain staging – a basic yet crucial audio concept that can have tremendous impact on the quality of your recordings and mixes. However, 80% of the time I’m mixing someone else’s work, I get a mix that’s way too hot. In the analog world especially, gain staging refers to adjusting the level at each point of amplification to ensure an optimal signal-to-noise ratio, without (unusable) distortion. This keeps the noise low. You need to leave headroom when you’re mixing music! Keeping it conservative will help you maintain proper gain structure throughout your mix. You can't just push it till you see your peaks nearing the red lights. This quick explanation will help you understand exactly what headroom and gain staging are and why they’re necessary—even in the brave new digital world. And get on with the task of mixing without fearing your faders! If the next piece is a compressor and you're compressing with 10 dBu of gain reduction, then you'll want to add 10 dBu back to the average signal with the output gain. In a nutshell, gain staging is simply ensuring that an audio signal is at an optimum level from one stage to the next in the signal path, giving your sounds enough room to breathe and maximise dynamic impact. What's the Difference Between Mixing and Mastering? You shouldn't be worrying about peaks or maximums. The Level Meter plug-in is most informative when set to Peak & RMS modes, showing averaged and instantaneous levels. If you did it right, you should find that your master bus levels are low enough that you don’t have to worry about clipping. There are a few things you can do to help you wrangle in your signals so they can hang in around -18 dBFS without peaking or sounding cruddy. Too much and you're clipping and distorting. If it has plugins on it, it needs to … (function () { Exactly how people feel about their gain structure in mixing – “Gain Staging” being the strategy you chose to use your bank account of dBs, if you even have a strategy….And this is what we need to talk about! Like your bank account, the gain structure of your mix needs enough headroom to be able to deal with crazy or unexpected events. But the act of capturing a high quality recording is not. Keep grinding! So maintaining the same concept of optimal gain staging that you use during recording is your best bet: -18dBFS is a good average level to aim for. So give headroom and gain staging the time they deserve. Sending too low a level to the effects bus and then turning the plug-in’s input level up to compensate will result in a noisier signal. Pay Attention to Your Buses! } In the picture above, you can see my mix bus is dancing around -18 dB, although it peaked as far as -8.3 dB (it actually goes higher across the whole song). Matching effects send level with the plug-in’s input level is the first key to proper gain staging. }, keywords: abkw , You don't need a voltage meter to check this. Gain staging is the process of setting all of the volume levels on the channels to about -18 to -20RMS dBFS. If you apply the information here to your next tracking and mixing session, you will, without a doubt, notice a difference. It's every point at which you can adjust the amplitude of your signal. Gain staging is the oft-forgotten diamond in the studio recording and mixing process. If you keep your peaks hitting not much above -10dBFS, and keep the average level around -18dBFS you should have a signal that’s right in that sweet spot. Just keep in mind that more dynamic instruments like drums or percussion might need more space as their signals can have very large peaks. Our blog is a place for inspired musicians to read up on music & culture, and advice on production& mastering. I'll say it again in a different way to help burn it into your noggin: It's good to understand why we're shooting for these numbers, even without digging into the math. Gain staging is the act of ensuring 'healthy' levels throughout each stage of the recording and mixing process - too low and you're not utilising the full resolution of the recording medium and you might run into noise issues, too high and you run the risk of causing overloads. Mid-Band EQ Gain. The noise floor is no longer really a concern in most modern DAWs as the level of system noise is so low that it doesn’t really impact the signal at all. But if you've done your recording engineer job properly, you'll have a huge signal-to-noise ratio where this isn't a problem. At the bottom is the natural noise floor of electronics and background sounds that creep into your signal, and at the top is your distortion ceiling. Monitoring the input and output levels of devices is crucial. You may not be able to average -18 dB in a full mix, but you will want to use all of the resolution you can by pumping as much volume as possible without clipping the peaks of your waveforms. When you record with levels too low or too high, it's like creating a tiny image and then zooming in during normalization, mastering, and when your listeners turn up the volume. Transient peaks are fine as are dips below, but in general you want to be hanging out there at 0 dBu. Each jump has given us a drastically larger dynamic range, but what this really means is it's driven the noise floor lower and lower. By the time you've balanced your levels in a mix, it'll look (and sound) like this: Everyone knows not to record too hot and to back off when the red light comes on, so let's not spend any time on that. Depending on what the plugin is doing, it will … What you want to do is set all of your gains and trims to zero, right up the middle. Headroom in analog circuitry and tape recorders was a gradual thing. Senior Audio Engineer at LANDR. If you're only 5 dB above the noise floor, you will always be only 5 dB above the noise floor, because you didn't achieve a high signal-to-noise ration. Let's explain with the discussion below while referencing the image above. Too little gain is like saying "I know 4k Blu-Ray is a thing now but I'd rather sound like a VHS tape.". opt: { Most plug-ins have input and output gain controls that are provided to … Noise floor is the inherent noise of the signal path, including the recording medium (in those days it was magnetic tape). The only problem with trying to keep your signal high above the noise floor is that you ran into the other issue—headroom. Use 24-bit Or Be Mindful of The 32-bit Float Trap. There are several reasons, all of which are complex and beyond the scope of this conversation. High-Band EQ Gain. Your goal is to manage the output of each piece of gear so that you're dancing on average at 0 dBu, which will read -18 dBFS inside your recording software. But in general, if you’re pushing all your plugins with high levels it may start to make your mix sound brittle, harsh, and 2-dimensional. It's a science and why we're called studio engineers. Its the first … So, basically, the level that’s coming into the channel is the same as the level coming out. How to Achieve Low Audio Latency While Recording, What is Reverb? They'll hear a grainy version of what you intended, and whether they realize why or not, they'll know it doesn't sound like the other professional records they enjoy so much. What is gain staging? He has released 4 independent albums and merchandise to global sales. Obviously if you cut drastically you'll have to push up the fader, which on the surface seems to create the same problem. This is because you just barely recorded in the dynamic range instead of dancing in the sweet spot where full resolution occurs (we'll get to this next). }); In digital we have an absolute limit (0dBFS, or decibels Full Scale). Even though you’re in the digital domain take a look at all your plugins. If the signal is too loud, it may clip, causing distortion. The more bands your EQ has, the more potential gain stages you must account for. None of this will make you a better musician or songwriter, but it will make each recording incrementally more enjoyable. The only people who have an excuse for recording near the noise floor these days are those who don't realize they need to be using a preamp with their microphones... and even then it's barely excusable (and easily fixable). Achieving such high levels of perfection requires a lot of gear, acoustic treatment, and mixing skills, but at minimum you can at least easily get this part right and then move on to the next part of the equation. Headroom can be achieved with multiple tricks and there are 6 – 7 major methods to get headroom without sacrificing the sound. What you'll never do is make them equal to each other. You can stand back and tell what the picture printed on the puzzle is, but if you move closer you'll see gaping holes in the image. This ensures there's no influence up the signal chain. These analog stages are subject to the same gain structure problems we mentioned earlier: So when you’re recording it’s best to set your levels conservatively. It also helps you then run through each piece of the signal path without adding more noise in each jump of the chain. A good gain stage on each track keeps the noise floor down and crams in more detail. Any frequency range that you boost will also boost the noise floor in that range. They both concern and are the boundaries of what is called the dynamic range of your signal. It’s either clipping on the master or […] I try not to push a peak higher than -5 dB, personally, because some transients will slip past you even with compression. The tracks feeding those Reverb and Kick auxiliary busses are staged correctly too, although I'm feeding them in at lower levels.