Or do you gainstage your tracks and set levels with faders?

 

I set my levels with the input gain and fader set to unity for maximum fader resolution.

 

It honestly depends on how an individual first developed their workflow.

if you came up in a commercial production environment, where there is divided labor and hierarchy and a client, director, executive producer or chief engineer would come afterwards and decide things like prominence, tweaks and a few balance calls you probably do a faders up mix first using clip gain or whatever tools with a premix with everything at unity. That way you pass of a session from assistants, technicians to engineers and decision makers that is easy to modify, especially if it’s all printed stems. Film still works this way to a certain extent.,

It doesn’t matter as much as it used to with DAWs, instant accurate recall and almost limitless tracks and clean gain and attenuation.


if you are just working by yourself or calling all the shots, keeping in mind AFL/PFL and are comfortable with automation it isn’t necessary, but if you are trained that way and it works for you and prefer to start with a feeders up mix it all the same in the end.

The summing thing is a red herring.

 

Interesting post. Does this even matter anymore now that we have 32 bit floating point? Genuinely curious cause I know that leaving faders at 0 is still done in the analog realm, just not sure if doing it in pro tools is still needed like it used to be.

 

I work on the assumption you can always boost but it isn't as easy to remove, so I aim to hit the master with the sum total of all my tracks to fit in the -8 to -6 db range. That gives me plenty of room for the mastering process.

Do I gainstage or use the faders?. I suppose its a bit of both My starting point for the kick is usually around -12 and the bass at -14 (although that is only a starting point.

I seem to remember Dan Worrall telling me he aims for -21 for his kicks as a starting point. (I'm 99.9% certain of that)

 

I have Reaper set to create new tracks with the fader at -12dB. It's easier to mix later. Long time ago I discovered that 1) I always have to lower the fader on everything anyway and 2) many VST instruments produce such excessive levels you always have to turn them down quite a bit to fit the mix. In other words, setting them to -12dB saves me some time, but of course you end up touching all the faders anyway, but it's a better start.

Thinking about Sylenth.Will.Fall's post, I'm considering to lower the starting level even further, to like -18dB. Even easier to start mixing with as I also start with a kick at -12dB, bass a bit lower etc. Drums and bass are generally dominating most if not every mix, so it's timesaving to start with those and continue to vocals and leads, then at last background sounds.

 

Last edited: Jan 18, 2023

I always have some nonlinear thing with VU meters to tell if im screwing up my signal or is just too low and pristine. The sound and the meters are my guide to gainstage. My calibration is -18DBfs.

 

I do healthy gain-staging (at all stages) and set each fader as low as it needs to go (basically, the more sounds/elements/channels I have in a session, the lower each fader is set).
Mixbus/2bus and master fader is always at unity gain.

 

Last edited: Jan 19, 2023

I completely agree with that.

I did try going to -21db with all my tracks but the whole process felt alien to me.. I didn't like it .. I'll be interested in knowing how you get on though.

 

This, to avoid clipping wherever the signal is going (folder, subgroup, mainout). My rule is, as high as possible, as low as necessary.

 

.... I just set the synth or whatever is send noise into my daw to be around -6.. BOOM GAINSTAGING... it's such a simple concept... dont send a hot signal into your inputs... I think this is only becoming a "thing of discussion" now because people arent making music anymore, theyre using loops that are normalized in sample packs and dont have an understanding how audio works... so the term "gain staging" is used to turn down audio pre fader....

 

I gain stage with a very low level, considering I use many external FX (reverbs and delays). On each single channel I have preamp plus channel strip, so I touch the fader of the DAW only for small ranges +/- 3 dB for final automations. But honestly I am not too scared about working with faders even at -10 or so, if needed. What I almost never touch are the BUSS faders and obviously the STEREO BUSS fader, all always at unity. Consider that all my single channells are always routed to a BUSS, never go to the 2buss directely.

This way I always hit the STEREO BUSS chain with -14/-10 dB range

 

For me master is taped and locked at unity and mostly everything else starts at unity and tweaked during the mix. I adjust levels to mostly -12, the kick a little lower and those levels are adjusted to those levels by whatever compressor, eq or anything last in the chain on each particular channel.

To each his or her own, flea fly flow.

 

No one here cranking the inputs of the channel on red and compensating on the output? I think it's my favorite way of saturating a signal if you have some sort of preamp/channelstrip on the inserts

 

If the preamps are good, sure thing.

 

sure thing?

 

Ok, that was a bit too common, but turning up a preamp so the signal is going to +XVU isn't really uncommon, right?

 

Ofc! Neve pres sound great driven hot (and compensated by lowered output). Same goes for some output transformers that sound great (by running the output hot).
But the signal still gets gain-staged properly after that (gain-compensated).

 

Right. If the preamps are good.



sry couldn't resist.

 

Last edited: Jan 20, 2023