Thanks Dom this was really helpful! It made me aware that had a lot of too high inputs while mixing. Should have seen it before but .... Anyhow you helped me again thanks!
You know what...it would be great to have a nice video that explains all those metering scales, their case uses and also what are the best practice for loudness since the mastering has ended (if it has ended at all anyways). Would be very very good to refresh this knowledge Thanks man❤❤❤❤
@@LeChapeauMusic which Pro Tools converter? In my opinion it's miles better than the 192! Lynx make some of the most transparent converters on the market.
@@DomSigalas well I had the MTRX Studio in mind, cos it's really popular within small studios... I should definitely check Lynx out! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Dom! Your videos are great! I have a question - why do you choose to start the mix on -12 and not on -18? Isn't it better to have more headroom? Please make mixing tutorials or maybe a course 🙏
Minus 12 is my actual peak at the loudest parts with all instruments in. :) Around -18 is my overall RMS level. I wouldn’t peak at -18 though it’s way too low for me- don’t need to go so low.
@@DomSigalas Thank you! Do you mean when you start mixing you make sure that minus 12 is the actual peak at the loudest parts *on every meter of every channel?* Or do you mean minus 12 is the actual peak at the loudest parts *on the master channel* (right zone) of all the channels played together?
Nice vid.I noticed when customising your channel meter that you mentioned the top red section so you know your clipping the channel, but I always thought you cannot actually clip cubases channels internally? But instead the clipping will occur on your converter outs? Or have Steinberg changed the software's architecture lately?
You are technically right. But even though you cannot clip the channels you *can* clip the plugins that are in the channel. Some will sound very nasty when fed with levels over 0dbfs. So you absolutely need to keep your levels in check unless you absolutely know how every single plug-in behaves or you don’t use any plugins. Also, if you clip your channels systematically your gain staging is going to be immensely hard to manage.
@@DomSigalas I always thought the channel metering was post fader and that any insert plugins are seeing level from the audio clip on the arrange page as well as the gain nob on the very top of the mixer channel strip.
@@madmuso5 the meter will show you what level will go into the plugin at the end of the chain. Unless you set your plugins to be post-fader, whatever the meters shows you, this is what goes into the plugins and what comes out of them of course.
Thank you with all my heart for all these tutorials: I'm slowly discovering your channel and... and I'm rediscovering Cubase (which I've known for 25 years!). Thank you and long life to your channel!
You are technically right. But even though you cannot clip the channels you *can* clip the plugins that are in the channel. Some will sound very nasty when fed with levels over 0dbfs. So you absolutely need to keep your levels in check unless you absolutely know how every single plug-in behaves or you don’t use any plugins. Also, if you clip your channels systematically your gain staging is going to be immensely hard to manage.
@@DomSigalas, yepp, there are Plugins that sound horrible when the signal is too hot but I basically don't use them if so. 😁 I always try to keep a not too hot level but I don't stress me out for this because I always use the prep gain feature to take care of such things, so everything is alright even if all the single channels signals are pushed to the max. There is no clipping at all in single channels when the signals are red. I even changed my signal covers too green only so that red colors can't stress me out. 😁
Chris Selim had a video about this a while ago and I started to you use it like this. It works perfectly! It great that it is that customisable and you can make it as clear as you want! Thanks Dom!
QUESTION: I had seen meters that were displaying on a remote tablet while mixing and mastering on the main computer monitor(s). Is this possible? It cannot have much latency either. Monitoring is important, but monitor real-estate is as well. Thx!
@@trip83 I'd recommend checking your plugins and remove everything that is not needed from your session. Most of the crashes I experienced is somehow related to VSTs. And I'm talking iZotope and Waves here, not random free VSTs from the internet.
Also cracked Cubase crashes a lot! If it fits your workflow, you better just buy it. I'm mainly using Cubase's stock plugins so I haven't got a single crash in years...
@@LeChapeauMusic I've paid for every piece of software I have. I admit I didn't 20 years ago but built a setup from scratch this year and I've spent a lot. It crashes almost daily! It's pretty depressing as other than that it's a great piece of software.
These are the most informative cubase 12 videos in this channel man. Recently upgraded from an ancient version to cubase 12 and your video tutorials are better than reading the manual.i never thought to change colours on the meter but will be now I've seen this.
Great work (again) Dom! SUCH important info. I use tracking with K-20 (thanks Bob!) but the trap I found was I didnt realise that ONLY the channel is relevant to the mixer...prob because you can just select any and use as a basis; not realising supervision etc could refer to this globally. Be nice if you could simply copy the eg K-20 to the actual channel mixer instead of from scratch everytime your defaults.xml gets corrupted.
Gain staging with VST ampsims... That usually affects the input to the plugin rather than turning down the volume like any other audio tracks How to solve that ?
The myth of mixes being at minus 6 dbfs is not correct. Every bit counts. Mixes should be as max as possible below 0 dbfs as to avoid clipping. If you are recording 32 bit then you will get away with occasional slight clipping, However, it's recommended to stay below 0 dbfs. Minus 6 dbfs makes mastering easier for those using hardware at the expense of mix quality. However, they also should be prepared to master mixes reaching to zero dbfs For those who master entirely in the box, then Their mixes should reach very close to maximum digital ceiling level. Summary: Minus 6 dbfs mix level is false rule as every bit counts.
It’s interesting how careful people are with gain staging and peaking. Meanwhile guys are making 6-7 figures making beats and have no regard to how bad they’re clipping haha
Not in Cubase 13 Artist version only pro can you customise the type of metering. Sure you can chage the colours and the fall back ballistics but you cant change to BBC or Din or any oither standard. Why does he never mention this? Dom I appriciate your video's but most of them are only relevent to Studio's and not the people that make most of Steinbergs audience.
anyone know why if I did customize the color, the combination that change only at the mix console, but not for the big metering on the right side. It stays as templates color.
Please help me understand. I thought the pre-gain controls the input level just like clip gain. However, I noticed that when the meter position is on input pre-gain doesn't affect the meter reading at all. This is with the channel strip in pre position as well. Could someone please clarify?
Metering plugins are common, there are even good free ones, but a DAW that does anything any other DAW can do? a ta fraction of the hard disk space and with stability that beats every other DAW? , for only $60? only Reaper does that
Default is 12dB for the fallback - clearly I had never changed it! lol PS> Your hair! I'm so jealous! :) QUESTION: You adjusted the colors for the +3dB Digital Scale but your channel settings meters indicates a notch for 12. Which scale do you usually use in the Meter tab (Right-zone/Control Room) - is it the +3dB Digital Scale? Also, how did you get the meters to show +12 in the channel settings one... I don't see an option to change it here.
Hahaha thanks man! You cannot change the scale for the channel meters. It’s always the Digital scale (channel). :) the rest of the meters you can see in the control room and Supervision where they actually make sense. I wouldn’t use K-Scale for channel meters for example.
The channel is set by default to +6 dB. If you to see the +12 dB, you set this in the project setup under the project menu. Set the volume max to +12 dB and Boom ! Sorry Dom. Lol 😂😂
Wow, not knowing about this I do almost exactly the same, although I set them slightly differently: green up to -18dB, yellow up to -6dB, orange up to 0dB and red above 0dB :)
Great videos thnx Dom. One thing I really need in Cubase is a second time clock. As separate from the project timeline. Is there such a thing? For example... some projects will have multiple songs laid out in sequence. Song 1 starts at 00:00 Song 2 starts at 05:23 Song 3 starts at 08:44 Etc But I may well mix these separately and the client will remark... please make these ** changes to Song 3 at 1min 23 and 2min13... etc. Right now I have to work.out where those timings are. But I Cubase had a second time clock. in minutes and seconds that I could set to stsrt from the left locator ( regardless of tempo ) that would be great. Does this exist already? Cheers, Michael
Great Info. Thx Dom. For the Supervision i use alot but in combination with Vision 4X from Excite Audio. Their Spectrogram is way better then Steinberg once. For Drum & Bass Music Productions a must.
Hey man, it is soooo useful and so cool! Especially for me doing the first steps in Cubase, when every simple operation can be real creativity killer, hehe )))
