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That Pesky Little Thing Called "Gain Staging"

For a long time, my songs would feel super punchy and loud in my DAW, only to sound tragically quiet after being bounced. Eventually, I realized that my ears were not a reliable gauge for volume. Producers must use precise measuring tools and strategies to orient themselves properly. This is where the practice of gain staging enters the picture.


The term "gain staging" refers to the process of maintaining a suitable volume level at each stage in the signal path. This journey begins at the microphone or preamp, extends through the recorded waveform, includes all plugins and effects, travels to the track fader, potentially passes through a group or bus, and finally arrives at the master output. 


During the infamous "loudness wars" era, consistently pushing sounds to the 0dBFS limit (a.k.a. as loud as a signal can go without clipping) was the name of the game. But this approach, even in compressed music styles like EDM, creates a confined working environment. When there is no dynamic range in a mix, a sense of claustrophobia creeps into the listener's experience. It's like riding a roller coaster with no highs and lows; just an endless, high speed conveyor belt.


With this in mind, the purpose of gain staging is to ensure that your mix sounds as powerful as possible without sacrificing headroom, which refers to the amount of available space or amplitude above the nominal or average signal level before distortion or clipping occurs. It is essentially the difference between the highest level a signal can reach without distortion and the maximum level that the system can handle.


A common practice is to keep individual track levels around -12dBFS to -18dBFS, ensuring there is ample space to accommodate peaks without clipping. The final mix should ideally peak around -6dBFS to leave room for mastering.


Now that we’ve covered the overall purpose of gain staging, let’s get into the specific steps you can implement in Logic Pro X: 


  • Set Your Levels at the Source – Ensure that your microphone or instrument levels are set correctly before recording. Aim for an input level that peaks around -12dBFS to -18dBFS in Logic Pro to provide enough headroom and avoid clipping. When you’re measuring your input levels, be sure to select Mix > Pre-Fader Metering. This will ensure that your level meters reflect your input before it’s run through any plug-ins on your channel strips. After you’re done recording, toggle Pre-Fader Metering off. 

  • Adjust Gain + Balance Track Faders – Using the volume faders on your channel strips is a telltale sign of an amateur workflow because it often leads to imbalanced mixes and reduced headroom. Instead, keeping your track faders at unity position (0dB) ensures a consistent gain structure and optimal signal flow throughout your project. If a track's levels are too high or too low after recording, use the Gain plugin as the first insert in the signal chain and adjust the gain to an appropriate level. You can also adjust the gain of individual audio regions by selecting the region, then using the "Gain" slider in the Region Inspector. This helps normalize levels before any processing. I use this most often when importing samples into my sessions (they usually run way too hot).

  • Monitor Plugin Output – As you add plugins (EQ, compression, etc.), ensure that the output levels of each plugin do not cause clipping. Adjust the output gain of each plugin to maintain the desired level range. This is also useful because our imperfect human ears often perceive an increase in loudness as an increase in quality, which is usually not the case. Just because something sounds louder doesn’t mean you’ve actually improved the clarity, resonance, or texture of a sound. By adjusting the output gain within every plug-in to maintain consistent volume levels and using the bypass button to quickly toggle the effect on and off, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about whether it’s actually worth adding to your signal chain.

  • Manage Busses – When routing tracks to busses (more on this later, but a "bus" refers to a signal path that combines multiple audio tracks and routes them to a common destination), ensure that the combined levels of the tracks going into a bus do not cause the bus to clip. Adjust individual track levels or bus gain as needed.


By paying attention to proper gain levels at every stage in your music creation process, you can avoid common issues like distortion and excessive noise in your recordings. Taking the time to set and monitor gain levels accurately ensures that your audio captures the nuances and dynamics of the performance while maintaining a clean and professional sound.

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