Gain Staging in the Digital Audio Realm Pertaining to Audio Recording and Mixing
"How hot should my levels be when I'm recording or mixing?" is a question that is asked quite frequently on all sorts of internet forums and in general conversations with aspiring recording engineers and those new to mixing.
Gain staging refers to one's signal path, going from the source through the microphone pre amps, converters and finally to your DAW.
This is a very critical moment for your signal; the goal is to have the cleanest signal possible.
(also refers to S/N ratio on your mixing console).
How you calibrate your converters will play a heavy role in this equation.
Generally, you hear "record as hot as possible without clipping" this is true to a point, what I mean is, yes you want to record as hot as possible, but that does not necessarily mean being in red/orange! In the digital realm, one is able to record at 24-bit which offers an astounding amount of headroom (144dB dynamic range to be exact); as such you do not have to push the signal as hot as you normally might with an analog console and tape machine.
0dBu is equivalent to -18dBFS digital, so that is something one should keep in mind when calibrating their converters for recording.
A good recommendation would be to have your signal peaking around -6 to -5 MAX.
no more than that or you risk creating square waveforms which is a big no-no in digital audio! You may be questioning this, however every console is different, so finding the proper balance of signal to noise will also depend on the console you are using, you may need to go a little hotter or a bit less, that's fine! Do your best to peak around -6 or less though.
When mixing try to keep your levels in the -18 range on your faders.
Kicks, snares and vocals can peak around -6 which is fine.
All of this is leading you into the mastering phase so it is a good idea to leave plenty of headroom for your mastering engineer to do his/her magic.
In general, you want to keep your master bus peaking around -3 which will give the mastering engineer plenty of headroom to work with.
Some engineers will make their mixes so hot and squashed there is almost no dynamic range left! Just a big giant brick for a waveform after mastering (or sometimes before) which is totally unnecessary.
However, a client may claim "The tracks aren't loud enough!".
It is part of your job as an engineer to explain why it is not advisable to have the tracks so hot.
Most musicians don't think about levels as we do because they forget that what they are listening to is already mastered! They are unable to hear or see the final mix and just believe it needs to be super hot.
Inform them otherwise and stand firm about this subject.
The tracks will sound much cleaner and clear when all is said and done.
Never forget that dynamics are what makes music interesting, so make sure those tracks have plenty of breathing room! All of these tips and steps will help you to avoid distortion and noise in your tracks so I do hope that you follow this crucial step in the audio recording/mixing process.
If you are only mixing and get hot tracks, use a trim plug-in to get the gains under control as well or use the fader, either way works, but a trim plug-in will never steer you wrong.
I certainly hope that this was an informative read for everyone involved in the music industry in some form and I hope this may open your eyes a little bit as to why "recording hot" is a misunderstood statement.
Gain staging refers to one's signal path, going from the source through the microphone pre amps, converters and finally to your DAW.
This is a very critical moment for your signal; the goal is to have the cleanest signal possible.
(also refers to S/N ratio on your mixing console).
How you calibrate your converters will play a heavy role in this equation.
Generally, you hear "record as hot as possible without clipping" this is true to a point, what I mean is, yes you want to record as hot as possible, but that does not necessarily mean being in red/orange! In the digital realm, one is able to record at 24-bit which offers an astounding amount of headroom (144dB dynamic range to be exact); as such you do not have to push the signal as hot as you normally might with an analog console and tape machine.
0dBu is equivalent to -18dBFS digital, so that is something one should keep in mind when calibrating their converters for recording.
A good recommendation would be to have your signal peaking around -6 to -5 MAX.
no more than that or you risk creating square waveforms which is a big no-no in digital audio! You may be questioning this, however every console is different, so finding the proper balance of signal to noise will also depend on the console you are using, you may need to go a little hotter or a bit less, that's fine! Do your best to peak around -6 or less though.
When mixing try to keep your levels in the -18 range on your faders.
Kicks, snares and vocals can peak around -6 which is fine.
All of this is leading you into the mastering phase so it is a good idea to leave plenty of headroom for your mastering engineer to do his/her magic.
In general, you want to keep your master bus peaking around -3 which will give the mastering engineer plenty of headroom to work with.
Some engineers will make their mixes so hot and squashed there is almost no dynamic range left! Just a big giant brick for a waveform after mastering (or sometimes before) which is totally unnecessary.
However, a client may claim "The tracks aren't loud enough!".
It is part of your job as an engineer to explain why it is not advisable to have the tracks so hot.
Most musicians don't think about levels as we do because they forget that what they are listening to is already mastered! They are unable to hear or see the final mix and just believe it needs to be super hot.
Inform them otherwise and stand firm about this subject.
The tracks will sound much cleaner and clear when all is said and done.
Never forget that dynamics are what makes music interesting, so make sure those tracks have plenty of breathing room! All of these tips and steps will help you to avoid distortion and noise in your tracks so I do hope that you follow this crucial step in the audio recording/mixing process.
If you are only mixing and get hot tracks, use a trim plug-in to get the gains under control as well or use the fader, either way works, but a trim plug-in will never steer you wrong.
I certainly hope that this was an informative read for everyone involved in the music industry in some form and I hope this may open your eyes a little bit as to why "recording hot" is a misunderstood statement.