Any tips for gain staging in music production software?

[Some Plantain]

Does anyone have any gain staging tips and tricks when working with sound in music production software I could make use of?

 

[khoalarion]

Set all faders to unity. Use a trim plugin or another tool in your DAW to adjust the volume of all sustaining tracks to -18 dB, keeping the faders at unity. Adjust all percussive tracks to -10 dB with the faders still at unity. Now you can mix without worrying about overloading plugins or clipping. You won't need to chase loudness by turning down the master channel or buses. This makes the workflow easier.

 

[Jianhua]

Why is gain staging important when most music making software programs operate with 32-bit internal mixing?

 

[Lagmar]

Why is gain staging important when most music making software programs operate with 32-bit internal mixing?

Some analog emulation audio effects also have their sweet spot set to the model they're based on, which can be -18 dBFS peak or RMS, depending on the digital audio developer.

 

[p4ris]

Set all faders to unity. Use a trim plugin or another tool in your DAW to adjust the volume of all sustaining tracks to -18 dB, keeping the faders at unity. Adjust all percussive tracks to -10 dB with the faders still at unity. Now you can mix without worrying about overloading plugins or clipping. You won't need to chase loudness by turning down the master channel or buses. This makes the workflow easier.

Does audio track normalization do the same thing?

 

[knb1]

Grab all the waveforms and bring them close to zero with the fader set to pre-fader metering.

 

[MarkMaleh]

Put a VU meter on each channel and figure out a way to control your gain at the beginning of each track. You can adjust the incoming gain with a plugin or use the gain control that's built into the track. Then, adjust your gain so the highest peak hits around 0 volume units. After you have each audio track's peak hitting around 0 volume units, make sure to adjust every sound effect output volume so that you peak around 0 volume units after each audio effect in your chain. Essentially, you want to ensure that you are coming into the track and every plugin in your chain at the same level. When you're done, you should have a meter on every one of your audio clips reading 0 volume units. This means that all your tracks will have the same signal strength, and you can use your faders to mix and adjust levels accordingly.

 

[MintyCitrus]

Use your ears. Listen to what level is appropriate.

 

[Minimum Reputation]

You have to recognize that you can be fooled into thinking that something sounds better just because it's louder.

Gain staging is simple. You want each effect in your effect chain to have the same "loudness" coming out as going in. Use the "output gain" setting on each effect in your chain to achieve this. If you have a favorite audio effect that doesn't have an output gain setting, add some sort of FX utility plugin that achieves the same thing.

The idea is that you can hear your mix with all effects bypassed and the perceived loudness won't change. That way, you can make objective decisions about which effects to use without being fooled by perceived changes in loudness.

 

[rhomboidus]

Leave each fader at 0 dBFS and lower the volume of the audio clips. The mix bus should peak around -6 with everything playing. This should give you plenty of headroom for any audio software plug-ins.

 

[SineWave]

0 dB in 0 dB out on every insert FX reading on a standard volume indicator