Digital 18db = 0db, adding a hardware volume control?

[Ariosto]

YES, it's all dead simple really.

[Martin Walker]

The number of times I've bypassed an EQ plug-in to have the source's peak drop by 8dB...

That's one of the reasons I love PSP's Xenon Mastering Limiter - it features an Auto output mode switch, which alters output level in real time to match that of the input (even while altering the amount of limiting). You can thus perform quick A/B comparisons between original and limited audio using the Bypass button, to hear any compromise in dynamics as you make your music louder.

My SOS August 2008 review is here:

www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug08/articles/pspxenon.htm

Martin

[alexis]

Could I get a quick pointer about gain staging please? I'm having a hard time getting my group tracks that are the "recipient" of multiple parallel tracks to not be extremely hot.

In most other circumstances I'm having good success in keeping my tracks to not be so hot, starting by recording with a lot of headroom. I generally wind up with faders not too far from zero and signals not in the red too much (with top of the meter set to 6 or 12 dBFS, Cubase if that matters).

One problem I seem to always or almost always have though, is keeping the signal from peaking way high in group tracks that are the routing destination for multiple tracks. For example, I might have a signal routed to multiple comp tracks, and all of those routed to a single "Submaster" group track. It's that track that is always very hot, and I don't know how to keep it low when it has so many tracks feeding into it.

I could I guess have the output each of input tracks turned way down, either via the channel fader or an insert fader ...

Is it important that a group track like that stay low? To keep inserts on that group track from getting hit too hard, I'll often put a fader into the first insert slot, and bring it down.

Thanks for any advice -

[Zukan]

Ok, I am in the midst of creating a video for one of the FB groups I chill in and will link to it from here. It is about summing, pan law, gain staging etc.. It will be free but will form part of a book.

There still seems to be confusion on how best to structure your gains across the whole DAW. It's not just about leaving headroom at the channel stage, it is far more than that.

[The Elf]

Could I get a quick pointer about gain staging please? I'm having a hard time getting my group tracks that are the "recipient" of multiple parallel tracks to not be extremely hot.

When you say 'parallel tracks' are you talking about duplicates/mults? If so then it's not surprising that you will find them pushing the Group - each raw duplicate is potentially doubling the peak. If I create a mult (say for parallel compression - although I have my own ways of doing this...) then I will treat the combination as a new composite source (from a Group Track) and bring it back to -10dBFS peak. I would, for example, deal with a top/bottom snare combination in this way too.

If we are not dealing with mults then it suggests that your source tracks are maybe still a bit hot. When I track I'm looking for peaks no higher than -10dBFS - if I am significantly over or under I may use the channel gain to get back to this. This way, even when I group my drum mics I'm rarely over -6dBFS on the Group meter.

It's worth occasionally tapping the peak reset on your channels as you work. A quick glance will tell you if something has seen a spurious peak while it's been playing. Thinking about it, a definable channel peak report/flag would be a useful tool... Hmmm, Cubase 9...

Zuke's video will be worth a watch - I bet I learn something!

[zenguitar]

Zuke's video will be worth a watch - I bet I learn something!

Yes, especially that you shouldn't speak with a mouth full of Minstrels

Andy

[Pitchfork]

Some great info and replies to my post..

I just need to get my head around the analog to digital thing, with a mixture of plug ins which work optimally at -18db and hardware (that i was running at close to 0db) that i still use.

I probably need a lesson in gain staging with my hybrid setup of hardware and ITB vst's (fx and synths) plus setting up K-Metering properly so that I can monitor at a decent level and overall, get a much better mix!