Gain Staging Explained - 3 things you need to know - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro 

Hi Friends, Gain staging is a very hotly debated topic around the internet! When I first got started in music, gain staging meant something completely differently than it does now. In Ye Olden Days (only a few years ago!) we were concerned with signal to noise ratio and tape hiss. We were always trying to print a signal that was super hot so that we would be well above the noise floor of the console and the tape machine's hiss. Today in the Digital world we don't face those issues in the ways we used to! I hope you enjoy the video and thank you for the great discussion!!

For some reason, even though I've been mixing for a few years, I always treat myself as a beginner and listen to diffrent pieces of advice. Gain staging is no exception! There's always room for improvement. Always like hearing what you have to say, thanks a lot Warren!

What has occurred to me about the knowledge you pass along; is that you have the advantage of doing it the old way & the new so it provides a unique perspective that cannot be gained by only mixing 1 way!!!🙏🙏🙏

Great vid. Lots o useful info. I would consider using clip gain to reduce volume if things are too hot instead of faders so that you aren't slamming your plug ins causing them to distort.

This might be a concept that is a little beyond a beginners experience but should be discussed. Turning down the signal that is too hot is entirely right however the signal is best turned down pre fader via a gain plugin rather than the fader itself. Turning down a hot signal from the fader doesn't lower the signal strength, it lowers the output volume of the signal. For example if your fader is clipping and you turn the signal down at the fader you are still left with a clipping track, just quieter. This is something that cleaned up my mixes dramatically once I understood the concept and would love to hear thoughts on the tactic.

Love this Warren! Simple yet needed! Thanks for all you do!

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the work you do and the information you share.

Great stuff! I feel like this is usually the first thing you need to worry about but most people overlook it especially in live settings. Love the quick simple steps of getting a better sound! Excited for 2018! Thanks

Oh wow. Probably the best simplest video on gainstaging I’ve watched and it just came up as a suggestion after me watching loads of them two weeks ago and still being baffled. Feeling a lot more confident about this “when you’re recording just watch your master bus/give yourself loads of headroom” ...So simple, thank you mate you’ve unpickled my head

yep. still learning more here than I did in school. ty sir

Great content as usual...have a beautiful day!

Thank you so much Warren for the tip .Yes from the school of tape.All your videos very helpful .Have a great day. Cheers!

it sounds obvious but some of us, mainly me, take ten years more than others to understand basic stuff, and i'm thankfull i stumble upon this video, because i was making SO much mistakes and didn't even realize how simple the fix was! THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!

I asked you on facebook a few months ago to try to make a gain staging video, THANK YOU!! :D

Not to imply that you've misspoken, but I just wanted to clarify the difference between 32-bit and 24-bit as they're colloquially referred to in the recording industry. "32-bit" is not technically any higher precision than "24-bit" with respect to sample resolution because there's a difference in how samples are represented between the two formats. A "32-bit" sample is represented as an IEEE floating point number whereas a "24-bit" (and "16-bit" and "8-bit") sample is represented as a signed integer. A 24-bit signed integer uses 23 bits to represent an integer value with an extra bit used to indicate sign, positive or negative. We treat this value as having the range -(2^23)..(2^23)-1. A 32-bit floating point number uses 23 bits to represent an integer value (multiplied by 2^-23) while 8 bits encode an exponent that the value is raised to and finally a sign bit for positive or negative (23+8+1=32). You still only get 23 bits of sample resolution; the other 8 bits are there to allow representation of samples outside of the -1..1 range so that they do not have to be digitally clipped as in the 24-bit signed integer case. The bottom line is that it's just a change in representation of samples and doesn't offer additional sample resolution. The benefit of 32-bit floating point is to allow the *representation* of samples outside of the normal -1..1 range. Representation space is increased, resolution is not.

Wow I love the new style of video editing! Great as always, Warren!

Great video!! Very informative! Being self taught, to me these videos are priceless! I'm learning something new with every video! My mixing has gone to a whole new level and much better! Thanks for doing these videos Warren. I hope you are having a marvellous day too!

Lot's of great wisdom in Warren Huart's videos -- just found this little gem from a few years ago and it's spot on with what I needed to hear.

This is what i needed! Been watching several videos about this subject and they are all to long and complicated things! Thank you for sharing!

I sooo appreciate this subject.....I need to improve gain staging, pre mix on my songs...I will watch this 73!! times...:) :)

Many thanks for this! As someone who is hoping to get back into home recording for the first time in about 15 years, there were some seriously valuable information in here.

As always Warren is the best at helping all levels understand the art of modern day recording techniques💯

The most best explanation on the subject!

Digging the new intro music Warren... If you ever want some SRV / Albert King style riffs over the top... drop me a line :-)... It's funny, I just saw a video in my feeds the other day from Graham on gain staging as well. I never realised it was that big of an issue for people. However, for anyone out there that doesn't already use it, waves came out with a really nice, extremely light weight VU meter that you can throw on each channel and your stereo buss etc... that will give you a much better visual reference. Leave the VU set to stock (-18dbfs) and then use 0db to +3db on your VU meter like we did back in the day of tape... that way you'll always be in the general area... and your vintage plug-ins will love you for it! Keep up the great work Warren! Cheers!!!

Great as usual. God bless you for all the free info you are giving.

OMG, this was so helpful! I too grew up long ago and had this signal-to-noise ratio hard-coded in my music DNA. I never even considered that this was due to tape hiss. Glad to stumble on this.

Extremely helpful info presented supremely well!

This was needed info for me . Thanks.

Thanks Warren, this is definitely one of the better explanations ive come across to understanding this process.

best practical advice on gain staging

Been in an educational lull. This gets straight to the point: make full use of headroom and, my takeaway, save final levels for mastering.

i love your channel :) it is simply helpful ... everytime

Your voice sounds more warm and transparent than usual .... Marv!

Thank you for making this. Watched alot of videos where people are trying to explain this like rocket science. Thanks for explaining it way simpler and better to understand.

These are such basic principles, but so important. Great job Warren. some of your older videos are really great (new ones too). Thank you mate.

Those “obvious” suggestions are all ones i am guilty of doing. Thanks so much for this explanation of process and intention! Big help.

Wow! - This is great! I've been wondering about gain staging lately after watching a few videos! I like how you included the stats in the pop outs on the side!

Great information! As always it's a pleasure watching and listening to your advice. You are so passionate with lots of energy which makes learning from you a blast. Thank you for your time to post this video

I LOVE this new intro... It's so Pro!

legend. subscribed for sure . always great to hear from a professional who has worked with 90s tape recorders. thank you for information

The 2017 uploads were all over the map. I tried them all. Learned that those hot ones clip on different playback situations. The -3s sound good, a bit raspy on cheaper TVs. The -6s can be cranked. I like -6 because you can push the playback most everywhere and it sounds better on the worst of situations. The second part of my learning's was low end information and how much of that disappears situationally. I had to adjust my ears to hear more mids and try to pronounce those specifically. Most of that, Warren was doing videos and I would listen deep to his words when he would be studio touring and discussing gear usage. I have yet to succeed, but I think I am better prepared to listen.

Hey Warren! I’ve been busy the last couple of months (new place and stuff), so i haven’t seen much of your new videos lately. But may i say it is looking sleek, sir! :) Thank you so much for your awesome content and your sharing of experience! All the best and have a wonderful day! :) Greetings from Holland, Nick

Great video! well presented and concise! I hope to see more of these quick informational videos from your channel.

ITB gain staging in Ableton Live is remarkably easy. As long as a channel's plugin chain is not grouped, Live shows meters between plugs. This is invaluable IMHO, I don't like to clip anything at all if I can help it (save for colouration / effect within a plugin). I just wish Live would keep these inter-plugin meters with grouped plugins. Another superb video Warren, many thanks.

Thanks for the tips Warren! Btw, nice to see that you're now compressing your voice, in the past it was hard to hear some words.

Hi Warren, I'm doing marvelous, thank you! First of all: great and useful video about gain staging. You make these video's very understandable and simple. That's the way it should be. And second: I have great respect for your skills about music producing. I've signed up to your site a while ago. And I follow this RU-vid channel. I'm looking forward to see a new and great video from you! Have a fantastic day! Friendly regards, Emiel

Excellent video! I believe we just talked about tape and noise floor. I remember recording to reel to reel four track tape in the early 80's. I've too have been guilty of cooking the master bus in the digital realm ALL thru the late 90's and some of the early 2000's. Thanks to you, and a few others, my mix game has really come up! Well past what I ever expected! Thank you very much Warren!

You and Rick are the best : ) Thank you for super advice : )

Thanks Warren, i heard so much crazy stuff about something so straight foward...

Gain staging is an essential concept to understand. With contemporary digital audio recording and mixing, it's fairly straightforward, and this video addresses it beautifully. Understanding gain staging in the analog world (say a guitar into a tube amp with a few gain pedals before that), can become more complex and I have a hard time explaining it to my fellow guitar players who struggle with their tone and their levels in a live context... Maybe a topic for another video? Anyway, great video. Thanks Warren!

Great vid... One of my my solution i used to get an a nice polish sound here at home. Is when i am happy with the song and the way it sounds , I will compressed to a wave as a finished product......... Then i reload it back into my daw and duplicate the track ....Locked them together and turn down to 20 and turn one to right side and one to left .... Then start compressing it up ...You be surprise how full and solid it will be.... And i accidentally discovered this and have been using this method ever since... Daws are all the same you just got to learn how to master the one u used .... Just wanted to share not saying this is right but I have come up with some awesome mixes doing this...Happy mixing its a learning process for sure takes time ...

I needed this advice on my last project! Now to apply it on the next ones!

amazing video warren !!

I've been really relying on my digital vu meter here lately and it has helped me out tremendously

I believe in you because you've lived 80's and have much experience.. Glad you are still doin the thang.. 😳✌

Nice intro and outro music Warren!!!!

I think this is confirmation, I’m still learning loads, but I felt this is exactly what I needed to know 2 years ago when I started. I’m also wondering whether you’re gonna debunk some master bus plug-in overload habits in the near future?...

Useful tip: send all your tracks to a mixbuss, and only then to the general masterbuss. That way, if you are using too high levels at the individual tracks, you can turn the whole mix down before it hits the masterbuss, allowing you to use your usual masterbuss plugins and control the level coming in. Of course, it also applies the other way around, using the mixbuss to turn up the whole mix volume to hit appropriately the masterbuss.

Never disappoints...I like the way Warren delivers the info. I've been a clip gain guy since it was implemented in Logic. I leave the faders set at unity as long as I can...for last minute finer level tuning...is it micro mixing? ..I'm pretty loose with the terminology...anyway it's another great video.

You really are great, Warren.Thank you for your time and talent !

Great! Love your videos!

The best thing about 32bit floating and even more with 48bit mix consoles (like pro tools have) is you can use digital gain (either clip gain or with a plugin like bluecat gain). In the analog domain (before you hit your converters) make sure you have decent signal from your source so that you dont need to push your mic gain and add hiss but because digital has so much headroom you don't need to crank your preamps that high. Basically in the analog world try and stay around 0dbvu, in the digital stay around - 12-18dbfs (total on the output) to give you headroom. If you feel you need to put your faders in stupid positions to get the volume (too loud or too quiet) use clip gain or a plugin like I mention to get it sitting right. A good way too start a mix is go through and get the mix roughly where it makes sense with the faders at 0 and leaves you with headroom on the master bus before you add plugins this way itll be easier to gain stage compressor and emulating plugins and till have unity afterwards.

Thanks Warren great advice.

Great explanation

Thanks again Warren for a brilliant video! I really appreciate you giving so much info for free on youtube, it's more than some of the paid courses i've bought... Now to wait until I can afford your premium stuff aswell!

Great Video thank you ... I like your monitoring system

I needed this RIGHT NOW! :D

Thank you for the video Warren! Love

Thanks Warren. My faders (Cubase) aren't linear, so I use the gain adjust to tame recorded levels to keep my fader where it has a finer resolution. Cheers. Michael

Thank you. This was a good one!

This is gold. Thank you!

I was hoping to hear a little about if you use any meters before your plugins to see how hot you are going into them. I’ve read a lot about how -18 is the sweet spot for most plugins to “behave” as designed. Thanks for all the great vids. I finally finished my first mix of an original and used many of the things I’ve learned from you. It sounds great.

Thanks so much, you are like yoda, a real master of this art

Thanks Warren!

Lot of thanks, Mr. warren

I am going to make the best album ever recorded using the information you provide in your channel. And I will credit you when it is done. THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge. You have truly helped me.

This is great practical advice, but I think it shouldn't be taken as a fact within the digital audio world. S/N ratio is what it is. So, in theory, the hotter the signal, the better. As long as your highest sample value is 0 dBFS, you're fine. After recording you can even clip every damn track inside your daw. As long you don't clip your bounce, you're safe. DAWs work in 64 bit float. DAWs don't ever clip. I know this is another topic, but still good to know (seeing red lights all around your DAW doesn't mean anything). Thanks for making excellent content!!

Awesome stuff yes sir I've been doing that my fist mix was a disaster because I did everything I wasn't supposed to do lol. Cheers mate

Super, thank you!!

Thank you much God bless your work

Great info!

Good stuff Warren.

Yeah Warren has some great ideas and understands the big picture!

3:49 Thank you for saying this. A lot of the gatekeeping elitists out there will vehemently berate digital at every turn and say that it isn't "real" unless it's all vintage and all analogue.I have one bit of outboard gear, but apart from that I mix in the box, so it's refreshing to hear someone who worked in the vintage era praise digital.

Great video, mate! :D

Thanks for that.

Hello Warren thanks again for another awesome video! have you considered making a tutorial on how to use bus send returns for using external hardware like compressors?

Great video as usual...!!!

Great vid

Great guy!

Warren. you definetely remember Rosetta 800 right? it had a soft clip button.If that button was engaged.Then your theory about sound degradation is true so you had to print hot to get a good signal but soft clipping is not an issue anymore.Lots of interfaces now can go up to even -12dbfs without single distortion.The most important thing is to know your equipment well I believe so please read your audio interface's manuals to find out your interface's head room folks

4:33 "Use logic" - kinda reminds me of that saying(?), "The problem with common-sense is that it's not so common anymore" :P

Great intro, I suppose pre-fader is the way to go when mixing, and then insert a gain plug to control a to hot signal.

I Looooooooove that intro tune! Please release the track online! As always good stuff in the video as well ;)

Yes! The Dennis Dunaway book in the back!

You're my man Warren

The faders in Pro Tools are POST, not pre. If you're hitting your master bus too hard reduce the PRE GAIN input of your tracks in the edit window by selecting them and reducing them all with the little volume control to the far left on each track. This gives you better resolution with your effects on each track AND the master fader. Leave all post faders at zero.

4:32 “Use Logic” Great endorsement from the main man, there 😂😉

Beginner here; thanks for the tip about turning up the monitors instead of turning up the master. I'm really guilty of that. I end up spending time messing with the levels of the mixer instead of walking across the room real quick and turning up the monitor controller.

I always make sure I have my master hitting an average of -10db when I first put up my static rough mix. Once I add plugins to the tracks, I should be around -5db on the master. Now I've got 5db of headroom left for any processing I want on the master fader for mastering and I can push the level up a little into the maximizer and adjust to taste. I generally mix and record at 96KHz/24 bit.