3-Step Guide To Perfect Gain Staging

Let’s talk about one of the most fundamental parts of mixing: gain staging.

It’s not the flashiest or most exciting part of music production, but it’s really important. In simple terms, gain staging means managing the level of your audio signals at various steps in the recording and mixing process.

Done right, it gives you clean recordings, headroom, and optimal sound. Done wrong, you risk distorted recordings and mixes that clip. Here’s a quick three-step guide to getting it right:

1. Don’t record too hot.
This is where good gain staging begins. In digital recording, you don’t need to push levels near 0 dB like you did in the analogue days. I aim for my recordings to hit around -18 dBFS. That way you’re well above the noise floor but far enough below the upper limit that you shouldn’t experience distortion or clipping when you record.

2. Trim your signals.
Even if you’ve recorded at conservative levels, once all the tracks in your mix come together they may still overload your master fader and cause it to clip. Instead of just turning down all the faders, use the clip gain on each track to lower the signal. This lets you fine-tune each track’s level, so your master fader isn’t overloaded and gives you a solid foundation before you touch the faders.

3. Gain stage your plugins.
Manage the level that each signal enters and exits your plugins. Unchecked, a signal may come out of a plugin much louder than it went in. Try to ensure your signals come out of plugins at a similar level to how they entered, so you’re not accidentally overloading the next stage. Also, many plugins that model analogue equipment have a “sweet spot” where they sound their best, so be intentional about what level you send the signal in at.

If you follow these three steps — sensible recording levels, smart trimming, and mindful plugin gain — you’ll avoid potential clipping and digital distortion, helping your mix sound its absolute best.