Gain Staging: What It Is and How to Do It.Gain Staging In Logic Pro

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Using pre-fader metering in Logic Pro X is essential to practice gain staging. With pre-fader metering on, the levels indicated in Logic’s mixer are pre-fader. Giving yourself plenty of headroom when recording will help you get the most out of your plug‑ins and give you greater flexibility when mixing.
 
 

How To Properly Do Gain Staging in Logic Pro X.

 

Panning This is the natural next step after fader work. It really helps to understand the psychoacoustic nature of stereophonic sound. Bussing I like to make life as simple as possible. Simplicity is something I feel is highly undervalued in audio today. Bussing can help us here.

Problem-solving This is where common processes such as compression and EQ come in. These processes should be seen as problem solvers. For example, if there is a resonant frequency in the vocals, deploy an EQ.

Committing This is the big one. Come back to the printed mix the next day and listen with a fresh perspective. No distracting project lanes and plugins, just listen. Take notes and execute them. Unlock Your Sound Ltd uses cookies to improve the experience and the content of this website. Functional cookies Functional cookies Always active The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Microphones, outboard EQs, compressors, console desks, tape machines—every piece of gear had to be leveled properly for the next piece of the chain, in order to achieve a good result.

In the analog world, gain staging refers to adjusting the level at each point of amplification to ensure an optimal signal-to-noise ratio, without unusable distortion. With analog gear, you have to think globally—you have to consider everything from the source to the mix bus. Overdrive one piece and sure, it might sound good in a vacuum.

But the combination of a bunch of processes all driven too hard could overwhelm the final result of a track, or negatively impact the whole mix.

You have to think about the level of a track, all its channel-based processors compressors, EQ, etc. Furthemore, you have to think about all the tracks going through each path as it pours into the final pipeline of the stereo bus.

You need a buffer or safety zone that can accommodate transient spikes or loud moments without causing horrible distortion. This is headroom. Respecting and fearing 0 dBFS was the norm back in the day. General guidelines included:. Aiming to avoid going higher than 0 on the faders whenever possible assuming the tracks were recorded at a good level. Making sure no digital, non-analog equivalent plug-in clipped within the module, as that could cause unwanted distortion.

Those were the days of primarily using fixed-point audio interfaces—when crossing the digital ceiling marked a fixed point of no return; the audio would always be degraded in some way, which I will illustrate in a moment with audio examples. One by one, however, DAW and plug-in developers alike turned to floating-point processing, and now we find ourselves in a new reality. Most DAWs currently operate with floating-point processing, often bit or bit. This allows for handling audio in ways unthinkable in the days of analog, and impossible in fixed-point digital systems.

Then, I can bring it back into the DAW and show you what it sounds like level-matched to the unaffected test tone. If I were to bring this bus down on the fader, I can get it to sound like the original, undistorted test tone. But what does this mean for you, the mixing engineer?

Simply put, freedom—a freedom to move faders around in ways unthinkable in the olden days, so long as certain conditions are met without exception. Here they are:. This fault would be the point of analog distortion. Sometimes this is what you want—sometimes this is why you employed the plug-in. Other times, however, you wanted this at the beginning of your mix, but by the end of the process, a horrid noise trips you up; such distortion could very well be the culprit. The rules of squashing dynamic range still apply in this crazy floating-point world.

So it still pays to watch your inputs and outputs, as we did in the days of analog. Does this have anything to do with clipping against the digital ceiling? Not really. This is very important, because a file exported at bit that exceeds 0 dBFS will fossilize, petrify and otherwise immortalize that distortion going forward. Now, it is becoming more and more commonplace to export bit files, and theoretically that can ameliorate distortions going forward, but bit files are not at all the norm in streaming audio platforms yet.

This means you should still shoot for a file that plays nice in a bit fixed-point world, where 0 is really 0. Who knows, this may change, but right now they’re the rules.

How should you use gain staging to your mixing advantage? When each track is at unity on the faders, it plays roughly around dBFS. I mix in a hybrid system, using a summing mixer to feed a line-level preamp, some EQ, compression, or whatever the track needs.

This means I also need to take good old-fashioned analog gain staging into account. In a practical way, this means a second round of gain staging: after all the instruments have been calibrated to dBFS, I route everything through my analog chain, and I calibrate the outputs of each submix the inputs of each channel on the summing mixer to dBFS. From measuring my system with test tones and music, I know this level is perfect for my chain.

This is a lot of work! Why do I do this? The balance is great, the processing sounds awesome—but the drums push the whole mix into undesirable distortion. The result of these methods will get you to similar places, but each has its own benefits and drawbacks:.

The walkthrough illustrates a number of contrasting solutions you can take in Logic Pro X so as to actively Gain Stage your mix correctly.

Of course, the inevitable question for those that enjoy their music sounding hyped or compressed, is that whether good Gain Staging results in productions that lack edge? In the long run, therefore, something as relatively innocuous as Gain Staging could be the workflow change that makes all the difference! Good metering is essential for effective Gain Staging, so try placing an instance of the Level Meter plug-in across the main bus.

Adjust the threshold to your preferred working level, which is usually dB. Once instantiated, lowered the Gain control paying attention to the levels on the Pre-Fade channel meters. Arguably the most elegant solution for Audio Tracks is the Region-based Gain control, which adjusts Gain on a region-by-region basis.

If you got a lot of tracks to correct, Logic includes a handy tool for setting region gain. The regions are then adjusted to dB on a per-track basis, rather than as individual regions. Opinion varies on what the optimal levels are for good mixing, but most solutions fall between dBFS and dBFS, and you can also take different views of whether this is average or peak levels.

 

– Gain staging mixing logic pro x free

 

Streaming has actively changed the way we produce music, in this case, driven by the Loudness Correction used by the likes of Spotify and iTunes that actively turns down overcooked masters. Put simply, gain staging mixing logic pro x free is being put back in our hands — we can choose between our music is pushed to the limits or an alternative where we give the arrangement room to breathe without fear the listener hears a dramatically quieter mix.

One of the big problems of the Loudness Wars was a tendency to work consistently up to 0dBFS — in other words, pushing everything in the mix, even the mix itself, as close to the top of the meter scale as possible. Of course, this methodology is a guaranteed route to producing a loud mixbut even in the case of more compressed music styles like EDM, for example the lack of sonic headroom makes for a confined and restricted working environment. As a result, many engineers are returning to a mixing and смотрите подробнее workflow that values dynamic range and headroom — the art of Gain Staging, in other words.

Assemble a collection of these loops into a composition, therefore, and before you know gain staging mixing logic pro x free, the Master fader is clipping red. A simple sign of bad Gain Staging, therefore, is either a Master Fader, or individual channel faders, stagint attenuated below their unity position.

Put simply, Gain Детальнее на этой странице is all about allowing Headroom in your mix, both on a track-by-track basis, but also in subsequent buses and, of course, stagung main stereo bus. The walkthrough illustrates a number of contrasting solutions you can take in Logic Pro X so as to actively Gain Stage your mix correctly. Of course, the inevitable question for those that satging their music sounding hyped or compressed, is that gain staging mixing logic pro x free good Gain Staging results in productions that lack edge?

In the long run, therefore, something as relatively innocuous as Gain Staging could be the workflow change that makes all the difference! Good metering is essential for effective Gain Staging, so try placing an instance of the Level Meter plug-in across the main bus. Adjust the threshold to your preferred working level, which is usually dB.

Once instantiated, lowered the Gain control paying attention to the levels on the Pre-Fade channel shaging. Arguably the most elegant solution for Audio Tracks is the Region-based Gain control, which adjusts Gain on a region-by-region basis. If you got a lot of tracks to correct, Logic includes a handy tool for setting region gain. The regions are then adjusted to dB on a per-track basis, rather than as individual regions.

Opinion varies on what the loic levels are for stabing mixing, but most solutions fall between dBFS and dBFS, and you can also take different views of whether this por average or peak levels. With the tracks correctly Gain Staged to dB, you can piece together a mix with plenty читать headroom.

You might even want to add-in the Loudness meter to see how dynamic or not your mix is. Hain the Compressor, for example, avoid overcooking the Make-Up control post-compression. If you use Auto Gain — which automatically compensates the output level in respect to the gain reduction applied — use the dB choice rather than 0dB option, which could seriously compromise logif headroom!

Likewise, if you ,ixing EQ, ensure you check your eventually levels, especially if the setting is additive. The Gain control on the right-hand side can be apply any level adjustment after the equalisation has been applied.

When it come to the use of Bus stxging, try to preserve good Gain Staging practice. The newly created VCA 1 fader — found on the right-hand mising of the mixer — can be used as a gain control between the channel faders and the input of the bus, preserving the overall headroom. Your mastering engineer will enjoy the extra headroom!

However, if you want to export mixes for gain staging mixing logic pro x free purposes that peak at 0dBFS, consider using the Normalize feature as part of the Bounce dialogue box. For more Logic tutorials and workshops, check gain staging mixing logic pro x free. Apple Logic Pro Tree. Tone Empire Firechild compressor review: The vari-mu king gets frfe.

 
 

Mixing in Logic Pro X — The Basics.

 
 

Of course, this methodology is a guaranteed route to producing a loud mix , but even in the case of more compressed music styles like EDM, for example the lack of sonic headroom makes for a confined and restricted working environment. As a result, many engineers are returning to a mixing and production workflow that values dynamic range and headroom — the art of Gain Staging, in other words.

Assemble a collection of these loops into a composition, therefore, and before you know it, the Master fader is clipping red. A simple sign of bad Gain Staging, therefore, is either a Master Fader, or individual channel faders, dramatically attenuated below their unity position.

Put simply, Gain Staging is all about allowing Headroom in your mix, both on a track-by-track basis, but also in subsequent buses and, of course, the main stereo bus. The walkthrough illustrates a number of contrasting solutions you can take in Logic Pro X so as to actively Gain Stage your mix correctly. Of course, the inevitable question for those that enjoy their music sounding hyped or compressed, is that whether good Gain Staging results in productions that lack edge?

In the long run, therefore, something as relatively innocuous as Gain Staging could be the workflow change that makes all the difference! Good metering is essential for effective Gain Staging, so try placing an instance of the Level Meter plug-in across the main bus.

Adjust the threshold to your preferred working level, which is usually dB. It comes from the analogue days where it was essential to get a good signal-to-noise ratio whilst preventing clipping distortion.

More info on that. Gain staging was also needed to make sure that the level going into each hardware unit was optimal. Using pre-fader metering in Logic Pro X is essential to practice gain staging. However, if we remain in post-fader mode default , we may be unaware of how hot those levels were before the fader adjusted them. For example, if the level shows dBFS, but our fader is at dB, that means the level before fader is at 0dBFS, which could be giving the plugins we use on that channel a very hard time.

So with pre-fader metering on, we know the level of the tracks even with the fader all the way down. From here we can do some simple pre-mix housekeeping. As early in the signal flow as possible. Attaining the ideal level in your audio tracks is as easy as using the clip-gain feature in the region inspector.

I would play the track through, get a rough idea of the level at which it is peaking, and simply apply the maths to the gain control in the inspector with all of the regions on that track selected. See below. Giving yourself plenty of headroom when recording will give you greater flexibility when mixing. The best of these emulate every part of analogue circuitry, including the input and output gain stages, which means that they will expect a certain amount of headroom.

Many hardware processors have input and output gain meters, and the signal they need to be fed can depend on several factors — which were expertly covered by Matt Houghton and Hugh Robjohns in SOS September www.

Gain staging in Logic can help make processor emulations sound closer to their hardware inspirations, or can be used as a creative effect.