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Implementing Gain Staging


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Hello, everyone

 

I would like to talk about gain staging and what could be a proper way to do it based on my workflow.

So, first off, I use Klanghelm VUMeter as first and last plugin of a track’s chain. The first instance is for making sure that the level of my software instrument/audio recording is around 0VU/-18dbFs.

Doing that, I ensure the level feeding the plugins is around -18dbFs, which is the so called “sweet spot” for analog-modelled plugins. Then I check the VUMeter inserted as last part of the chain so that I can manage to add or remove gain according to the various plugins (EQ, Comp, Sat, etc). Doing so I ensure the level remains the same or, if I want, I can set the last VUMeter reference to 0VU/-12dbFs if I want to raise the overall volume of the track from those initial -18dbFs.

Do you think this is a better way to do it than using different stuff? I am talking for example about using HorNet Normalizer of GainMatch for achieving the “same” result.

 

Could anybody tell me what are their thoughts about this and if the workflow example I wrote is a good, “proper” way?

 

Thank you very much, guys.

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Much of getting a project done successfully is in having a workflow that makes sense to you and that you trust in.

 

If you're getting good and consistent results quickly, then your workflow is proper.

 

Gain staging gets more important if you do many projects of the same kind, so you can employ your Templates, your Channel Strip Settings and your Plugin Presets as starting points which will then take you 80% of the way *very* fast.

 

On the other hand, you can also obsess about this and waste 80% of your time dialing in the 'perfect' gain for every snippet and still achieve nothing.

 

So you still need to find the proper balance, literally and figuratively.

 

What I do is select all Regions, hit Normalize Region Gain, normalize Regions grouped by Track to -17 LUFs loudness and be done with it. It's just a ballpark number anyway and when the guitar gets louder or a single vocal phrase is 2LU below that, I won't lose any sleep over that at this stage.

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That’s certainly true.

I mean, everybody’s goal I am pretty sure it’s the same, that is having a “template” that best suits one’s own workflow.

Which of course I know could be comprehending several different ways.

So, being able to knowledgeably talk about my own “vision” of the thing, what would you think about the workflow I presented?

Do you think working with VUmeters as I wrote in the main message could be fine for achieving that homogenous gain staging? I think it has shown by now that I like to have a lot of control in every step of the processes I go through, ahah

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Do you think working with VUmeters could be fine for achieving that homogenous gain staging?

Sure, why not, as you seem to get what you want from them ?

 

I personally am not a fan of VU meters, because while they give a pretty good representation of perceived loudness, they will read short transients way too low and a steady sine too high. I could adapt to this because I learned interpreting VU meters decades ago, I just don't want to and rather use the proper meter for any purpose (Peak or Loudness). Also, Normalize Region Gain is an offline process on all Regions/Tracks, so I don't have to go through dozens of tracks before I even start.

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-18dbFs, which is the so called “sweet spot” for analog-modelled plugins.

Another one of those myths that really needs to be debunked IMO. See: -18db messes with my head visually

 

Keep in mind that back when we used analog gear in the studio, if we wanted some color out of a preamp, or compressor, or EQ, we would after having spent hours carefully aligning the levels of the tape machine and the console, PUSH much more signal than what was considered "normal" into those processors. Pushing more or less signal would create more or less color. So even for those few rare plug-ins that may be carefully designed to reproduce that elusive sweet spots (Do they truly exist? Which manufacturer makes them, and which plug-ins exactly are we talking about?) - you would most likely want different levels at their inputs depending on the type of sound you're striving for.

 

Nevertheless, if you still want all your signals to enter your channel strip at around -18 dB anything (peak? RMS? LUFS?) then I would recommend Christian's solution of normalizing region gain which takes a couple of seconds and you can move on to the interesting stuff.

 

Now of course we also have to consider that the mixing process is a creative process and that our brains work differently, and that maybe the time you're spending playing all your tracks and watching and adjusting their gain and levels and watching the needle on your VU-meters is when you get familiar with the way each one of those tracks is built, evolves, behaves throughout the song, within the mix and when you subconsciously start building a mental stream of decisions that will impact the final mix. Which justifies that in the end, do whatever works for you.

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Hey, David! So I read the thread you linked. I really liked the explanations that you personally gave as well as the story about the recording session with Sheps!

I undoubtedly understand what your whole point is, about how -18dbFs should not be considered as a strict rule to follow whatsoever. That said though, I would like to understand something a little more in depth. Let’s put it this way: I record and mix my own music, and I would like to have kind of a homogenous level among all tracks. So I could do one thing, for example, which is setting the levels pre fader to all hit -12dbFs Peak. That gives me headroom to work with. Or I could make sure that each track moves around 0VU/-18dbFs as AVERAGE and “accept” any peak they display as long as they are not clipping. I would like to know what do you think about this, if we kind of “had” to use a little rule of thumb to get start on the mixing and then focusing on the creative part of it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 2 cents: throughout the years, the more I know, the more I understand that there's no need to obsess over certain things, because in the end, there are too many variables. In the case of the gain staging discussion, here's the "issue" (and I was one of those people here on the forum asking about it as well):

Let's say you find your "sweet spot" of -18 before hitting the first plugin. The moment you add, for example, a compressor as your 1st insert, now you would have to check the output going into the 2nd insert. Well that isn't an issue if your mixing workflow was as simple as that (add 1 insert, then another, then another and not making any changes at all until you're done mixing). Now we know things are not as linear as that. A few minutes/hours/days later, you will probably feel your compressor is not behaving properly, because now you have more elements and in the context of a mix, the settings you picked earlier, are not the best ones anymore. Are you going through the whole process again, one plugin at a time, making sure the levels are hitting the "sweet spot". Probably not. IMO, it's just a waste of time.

 

Music is not supposed to be "perfect" and I think we overthink the whole process and want to be too "strict" when it comes to numbers, instead of just listening to the results and judging if they are the ones that benefit the song or not. For example, we all want plugins to be as "clean" and "perfect" as possible, but then add saturation or randomness to the music, because that's what makes it more organic and "fat/analog". It's kinda weird that we chase "perfection" when in fact music in general benefits from distortion, noise, imperfection, randomness, etc. Hope it makes sense ;)

 

A song is 90% the idea and the performance. Everything else is just "sugar coating" and shouldn't be more important than the core. There's a reason why people stop on a busy and noisy subway station to listen to a great performer, where the listening conditions are far from perfect ;) You can polish a turd, but it's still a turd hahaha

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