Original subtitles

Today we're going to be talking about

gain staging in

Studio One and other DAWs.

Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're

well. Now today I'm going to be taking

you through a step-by-step tutorial on

gain staging in Studio One or the DAW

that you're using. But before I get into

that, if this is your first time here,

this channel is all about home recording,

whether it be about plugins, DAWs or

gear, it's all here. So if you like that

kind of content and you'd be interested

in the future, then please do subscribe

and ring the bell on YouTube so that you

know about my future videos. Now gain

staging, it seems to be shrouded in

mystery, there's heaps of forums about

it, there's loads of information and

background about the history of it and

why we do it. I'm not going to get too

much into that today, I just want to give

you a practical step-by-step tutorial on

how to do it. Now it's not beyond most

people to be able to do this, it's one of

the more straightforward things you can

do in your home studio and it brings

about some really good results in your

mixes. So without further ado, let's get

stuck in.(...) Okay folks, so here I am

in Studio One and I'm about to start gain

staging. It's not going to take very long

at all but I do urge you to watch right

to the end because after the main part

I'll be giving you a couple of tips and

tricks which could really give you an

advantage in gain staging and therefore

in your mixing. So do hang around to the

end and look out for those.(...) So here

in the console the first thing I want to

do regardless of what door I'm in is

start with the faders all at zero. So

across the board here you can see I've

got all my faders at zero. Now I'm going

to start off by gain staging on this

guitar which is the first track here. I'm

going to set it to solo so that I'm only

going to be listening to that one and I'm

going to insert a gain plugin. Now here

in Studio One that gain plugin is

actually called Mix Tool and it's just a

very very basic plugin with just mainly a

gain control. Now in your door it's going

to be called something different. In

Logic it's just called gain. In Pro Tools

it's called trim and Reaper it's called

volume pre-effects and whatever door

you're using it'll have a different name.

Now if you're not happy with the plugin

that you've got with your door or you

can't find it then stick around towards

the end because I'll tell you about a

free one that you can download which

actually has some

really really cool features.

Now the next thing I'm going to do is

make sure that my gain plugin or Mix Tool

is right at the beginning of the effects

chain. So I'm going to drag it up there

so that it's the first one there and

that's because we want to set the gain

both pre-fader and pre-effects. So that's

a very very important phase guys don't

forget to do that. The next thing we want

to do is actually switch off or bypass

any other effects we've got in the

effects chain. So I'm going to switch off

my fab filter Pro-Q there and easy mix.

The only one I'm going to leave on is

this one and it's called level meter and

that's because it doesn't affect the

signal or the sound at all it's just a

display plugin and it's going to be

really handy for us to see exactly what

kind of levels we're getting. It's not

necessary guys if you haven't got

something like it in your door it doesn't

really matter you can just look at your

normal meters.(...) Now the next thing

I'm going to do is actually play the

track and I'm going to be setting the

gain and I'm going to be trying to get it

to peak at around about minus 12 dB and

to try and have the average or the RMS at

around about minus 18 dB. So let's play

the track and do that. (Music)

Now you can see it's sometimes peaking at

around about minus minus nine so I think

that's a little hot so I'm just going to

drag it down perhaps one or two decibels

and the peak is now sitting somewhere

around about 12. It doesn't need to be

absolutely precise guys it could be minus

11 minus 10 or minus 13 and you could

have the odd peak here and there which is

a bit higher it doesn't really matter you

just want to be trying to get most of

your peaks at around about minus 12.(...)

Now you can also see here

that when I play the track

where these white lines are here that

shows the average level and they're

hovering moving up and down obviously but

hovering at around about minus 20 minus

18 and that really is all there is to the

first stage of gain staging. Now why did

I set it at those levels?(...) Well minus

12 is a really really good level for the

peak because you're nowhere near clipping

in a door.(...) You are going to clip at

zero dB and it's the last thing you want.

The reason why we're doing it as low as

minus 12 is because once you do all of

your tracks the cumulative effect of all

those tracks are sort of summed up in the

master fader and you don't want that to

be clipping at all and you can pretty

much be assured that if you set most of

your tracks are peaking around about

minus 12 you're rarely going to be

clipping in your master fader.(...) So

that's the reason for that.(...) Now why

the minus 18 for the average? Well that's

more to do with the plugins which are

going to come after. For a lot of plugins

they're really optimized to be used at

around about minus 18 dB. This is

especially true for plugins which have

been modelled on old analog gear so like

compressors or saturation plugins.(...)

Not all plugins need that it's just and

it's just a rough guide so you don't need

to be exactly on minus 18 dB.(...) So now

that we've set the gain at the beginning

of the chain the next thing which is

really really important is to make sure

after you've used your plugin the peak

should still be around about minus 12 the

average should be about minus 18. So in

this effects chain here I have got

fabfilter pro so I'll just bring that up

and it's what I've done here on this

particular one is mostly subtractive

EQing so it's likely that it's actually

reduced the level of the track a little

so let's have a listen and see.

Okay so you can see that it's hardly

getting up to minus 12 dB there at all so

I'm just going to go to my output gain on

the plugin and just push it up a little.

So I've added another one and a half dB

there that should be fine again it's not

an exact science you don't have to get it

exactly right just roughly in the

ballpark and the next one is I've put on

there is easy mix let's just have a look

at that that's got a compressor and EQ in

it as well so I'm just going to play

that.(...) Okay and this one has actually

made the signal just a little bit too hot

or hotter than I want it so I'm just

going to reduce the output on this one

until I start to see those peaks around

about minus 12 just a little bit down and

that's that now that's really all of the

process involved in gain staging you

actually need to go ahead and do that to

all of the instruments and vocals in your

track.(...) It can be a laborious process

but I'll give you one little tip and that

is do this as you're tracking I actually

do this after I've tracked each

instrument so I'm not doing it in one big

long laborious task just before I start

mixing however you may be getting tracks

from other people which are recorded a

bit too hot or a bit too cold and you may

need to go through it before you start

the mixing process.(...) Now just a

couple of variations to doing it in this

way the first one is that what I've seen

some people do is rather than using a

plug-in to set the gain they actually use

the clips and they set the clip gain now

in studio one you can do that by

selecting the clip and using this little

white square in the middle here I can

drag it up and down and you can see the

waveform changing there I think in Pro

Tools for example there's a little

control in the bottom left corner I seem

to remember where you can control the

clip gain there now that's okay it's not

a bad method to you and saves to use and

it saves putting a plug-in in the chain

however the one big drawback for it for

me is when you get something like this

vocal track down here which has got lots

of little clips making up the track to

set each clip individually is just going

to create a lot of unnecessary work so

that's why I prefer to use a plug-in in

the console.(...) The next thing to

mention is the fact that you don't have

to do this on virtual instruments so for

example here I'll just switch to part of

the track where I can play it I've got a

virtual bass guitar just on this track

down here and it is actually a contact

library called Core Bass now if I solo

that now why wouldn't I need to put the

mix tool in there or or a gain control

well because the instrument's actually

got its own volume control and I could

use that just to set the initial gain

before any effects I might put on there.

(...) I personally still use the mix tool

because it just keeps the whole flow sort

of consistent.(...) Now as mentioned

earlier you may not want to use or you

may not have a gain plug-in available to

you and there are a few free ones that

you can download some of them are very

simple and I'll put the links below in

the description.(...) There was one that

I found which I thought was really cool

actually and it sort of takes out the

need for my level meter and my mix tool

at the same time. Now I'm not sure if I'm

going to pronounce the name of it

correctly but it's by a company called

Sonal cases possibly I hope I've said

that right and it's called 3G.(...) The

reason I like this plug-in is because if

I play my guitar track again you can see

a little red triangle here that's showing

the peak level and this yellow triangle

here is showing the RMS it's just a

little bit clearer for me than some other

plugins and you can actually get a

readout up here of the last peak and the

last sort of peak RMS level.(...) All

you've got then after that is this trim

control which is just like a gain knob

and you can use that to control your

levels.(...) For a free option I just

think that's marvelous so definitely give

that one a try and you should get some

good results from it. Now one last thing

just one of the advantages of gain

staging is that now that you've got a

basic level for each track you can then

go ahead and create your mix using the

faders.(...) Now faders are not linear

things so what I'm trying to say here is

for example on my fader here on the

guitar track to get a reduction of around

about 6bd is quite a big movement. Did

you see that there? At the top end it's a

big movement. At the bottom end of the

fader to change by 6db is actually a

really small movement.(...) So what that

means is that when you've got your tracks

up to a decent level and they're almost

at a correct level when they're at zero

then you can make just fine adjustments

from there on and you'll get a really

fine control over the track. So that's

one of the advantages of gain staging. So

I hope this tutorial on gain staging was

of use to you. If you're confused about

anything at all then please do ask in the

comments below and I'll try and answer

any of you and you never know your

question may help someone else who's

reading. Now if this is the kind of

content you're interested in and you'd

like to see more of it and you haven't

already subscribed then please do now and

ring the bell on YouTube so that you get

notified about my future videos. With

that said look after each other stay well

and I'll see you next time.