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Gain Staging In Logic Pro. Gain staging mixing logic pro x free
We often try to avoid this distortion, though some engineers like to court just a little of it from time to time to get a certain kind of aggression. This choice should be made with the utmost care—but more than that, this choice is made by how we choose to gain stage in the digital domain.
Before the advent of digital, records were made with analog equipment. 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.
One of the most difficult stages of music production is doing a correct mix. However, a lot of problems come from overlooking one crucial step in the mixing process. One step that, at simple sight, may seem too simple and easy to do in order to remove it from your to-do list. We are talking about gain staging. In this article we will show you some easy steps to follow to perform this process to its fullest and, therefore, maximize the quality of your mix.
Mixing is the art of balancing the relative levels of your Clips, Tracks, effects and Master output. However, what do we mean by levels? The term level refers to the amount of electrical current entering or exiting a circuit. The word does not imply a boost or attenuation, so we need to have a look at more specific terms. The term volume refers to an audible increase or decrease in apparent loudness of something you can hear, rather than an electronic or digital level adjustment.
The term gain , on the other hand, refers to the boost or reduction of an incoming signal. It is the ratio of an amplifier. Therefore, volume and gain are two terms that are related but are not the same.
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 your headroom! Likewise, if you use 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 faders, try to preserve good Gain Staging practice.
The newly created VCA 1 fader — found on the right-hand side 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 auditioning purposes that peak at 0dBFS, consider using the Normalize feature as part of the Bounce dialogue box. For more Logic tutorials and workshops, check here. Get the latest news, reviews and tutorials to your inbox. Logic Pro X. Apple Logic Pro Production.
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