How To Get Proper Gain Staging Levels Using Waves VU Meter
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 6. 09. 2024
- In this episode of Wavy Wednesday's I'll be showing you how to perform proper gain staging using Waves VU meter and a Peak Meter. By the end of this tutorial you should have a better understanding for how to set your initial gain levels for your 2-track instrumental, how to set the proper microphone input level, and how to create and maintain enough headroom in your mix.
#vumeter #gainstaging #wavywednesdays #mixingtips
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Time Stamps
0:46 The first step to a good mix = Gain Staging
1:28 1 of 2 plugins I like to use for metering - WavesVU Meter
2:27 2 of 2 plugins I like to use for metering - PAZ Meter
3:25 Analyzing the meters
4:26 A common mistake to AVOID when gain staging!
6:37 The correct way to gain stage (The First Way)
8:09 How to maintain gain staging and headroom throughout the mixing process
11:25 The correct way to gain stage (The Second Way)
12:44 How to set the correct microphone recording input levels
14:37 Two reasons to aim for 0 VU (-18db) when gain staging
More episodes are on the way! Make sure you subscribe to the channel and click the bell notifications so that you donât miss the next episode when it drops!
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Is waves VU meter sold calibrated to -18dbfs? Or do i have to calibrate it myself? Thanks for the info.
@@shaunblack3142 by default, it is calibrated to -18, but you can set it to whatever you like
@@FlyGuyJ Hi, nice to meet you I am Angelina....is this correct...would you gain stage to as close to zero vu as possible and around -6 VU for peaks? And should we still keep plug meter calibrated to -18dbfs because that equals 0 VU? Thanks for your help! Have a great day.
@@angelinagargano3940 Hi, I try to keep close to 0 VU and yes always calibrate to -18 since that = 0VU. if you were aiming for something other than 0 VU then you could calibrate it differently if you wanted to.
When mixing, everyone has there preferences as far as how much headroom to leave. Some are ok with their master peaking at -4, others -6, -8 etc...
As long as you are not clipping your audio when adding plugins you will be good to go! If you are sending it off to be mastered, check with the engineer to see how much headroom they would like.
@@FlyGuyJ thanks for taking the time to answer. My question. I have started this technique and seem to have a better response, more dynamic range and less distortion. Can't wait for your next video. Hope you a have a great day.
this is the best tutorial about gain staging I have till now thanks really I like the way you breaking all the steps
Thanks bruh! Glad you found it helpful! đŻ
@@FlyGuyJ a lot for sure
MAN, I have watched countless gain staging videos and this is THE ONE. thank you!
Thats what's up! Glad to help!
Another excellent video showing the differences between RMS and Peak metering and illustrating the critical importance of proper gain staging. I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in producing and mixing any genre of music, just starting out to get these basic fundamentals down pat right out the gate. It will save you potentially YEARS of bad sounding over modulated tracks. Trust me, I speak from experience. Start searching for "proper gain staging" and "RMS vs Peak metering" now and let this soak into your brain and never look back. Great video and clear explanation.
Facts!
To eliminate the loudness deception there is a plugin called Perception AB. I bought it and use it on the Cubase DAW. Nothing crazy, it just allows you notice the finer mixing without the loudness deceiving you.
Thanks, I may have to look into that
Very informative and patiently explained everything in noob terms. Thank you. Please make one for mixing and/or mastering.
Glad it was helpful! Im working on a mixing course!
Love how you have the ability to explain gain staging & audio & modulation levels pre & post settingsđđ
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
This is the best gain staging tutorial man!
Glad you found it helpful!
Man this info is gold and helped me on many levels. You just got another subscriber!
Thanks bruh, glad to help!
Clear, concise, âOutstanding!â
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful!
That was the best tutorial on gain staging on working on it through the whole process of tracking that Iâve seen, great job.
đđđ
Ur tutorial is absolutely straightforward and concise.....thanks a lot ..
glad you found it helpful! Any other waves plugins you'd like a tutorial on?
Yh ozone 9 advance
Good one. A nice and appropriate description of the gain staging necessity. Mixes today are seen with no head rooms and sounds woofy too. Proper gain staging may put some life and allows the mix breathe easy.
Definitely!
Best gain staging tutorial I've seen. Thanks for explaining outboard gear and plugins that emulate them.
Glad it was helpful!
You resolve my problem, which i work on for one week.. Thanks!
thats whats up. Glad I could help
Love your explanation..I have been using this in a wrong way for so long! Thank You!
Glad to help!
Excellent explanation of gain staging! Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you found it helpful!
DUUUUUDE!!!!!!! You are AWESOME... My mixes sounded decent. They are WAYYYY better now. Thank you sir!!! Keep up the good work. You're a natural teacher.
That's what's up! Glad to hear you were able to apply this to your own mix and see results!
thanks for the lesson. probably the best VU meter using lesson for my level :).
Wow, thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
Good job explaining the use of the plugin. I just got the vu metering plugin recently but was confused on the calibration part. I'll surely implement this on my next mix. I have a feeling it was the missing link to correcting a lot of issues with my mixes. Thanks fam!
Happy mixing bruh! đȘ
This is the best tutorial about the gain staging all over youtube an blogs..
Thankyou so much..đ
đ Thanks Anil! If you're interested... I'm putting together a paid training course which will be much more in depth and cover the entire mixing process. Would love to chat more with you about it. If this sounds like something you're interested in, reach out to me on Instagram @therealflyguyj and let's connect!
Thank you man. You explained this flawlessly without sounding like a nerd, as other do it. You're a very good teach. Keep it coming.
đ THanks man! Glad you found it helpful!
Fantastic tutorial, helped me get my head round VU metering after watching others you nailed it for me, thank you đ
Thats great man! Glad I was able to help you out!
3:10 "human hears ears"đđ love your videos man. Sufficiently elaborated
LOL, thansk bruh!
Thanks bro, I'm tracking at home and sending stems. Hopefully this will open the door to being a self made producer
Best of luck!
Best gaining staging video I have seen so far on CZcams!! love how you broke things down and made it so simple to understand.
Thanks bruh, I'm glad you found it clear and helpful!
Great video and explanation! Everyone should know this.
Agreed!
accurate and very helpful, no rocket science, just applying these basic rules and the mixes will reach a professional level - thx!
Yes sir! Half the battle is gain staging, levels, and panning!
Thank you for this wonderful and understandable tutorial. Perfectly explained and by far the best tutorial I have ever listened to. Thanks again.
Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for the intelligible explanation.
You're welcome. Glad to help!
Havenât even seen it all yet but commented to show love.
Appreciate the love!
@@FlyGuyJ np
One of the best videos on this -- thank you so much!
Thanks Frank, glad you found it helpful!
This is one of the best explanations I've seen so far. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you!
Well explained. Thanks
Thanks man, glad you found it helpful!
it's a very informative tutorials. Much appreciated dude!
You're welcome, glad you are finding them helpful!
thank you sir! very helpful, and easy to understand! Subscribed!
Thanks for the sub!
THIS JUST HELPED ME ON SOOO MANY LEVELS!
That's what's up. Glad to help!
This was super helpful! Thank you for sharing !
Glad you found it helpful!
Well done my friend! Great explanation and presentation. Just the right specifics to learn about leveling, meters and gain staging. I've been struggling with this part of mixing for a long time! But, not any more, thanks to you!
Yeah it can be difficult to understand at first. A common mistake is thinking you can just lower the channel fader! Glad you found it helpful!
Great explanation!
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you so much bro! This video really helped me with gain staging. It's the subtle things like this. Super important foundation of a mix. You got my thumbs up!
Glad you found it helpful bruh! Any other mixing techniques you are interested in learning more about?
Yes, and thank you very much.
Welcome!
When you found someone that can add to your music career you Subscribed
Thanks for the sub, glad you are finding it helpful. What other plugins or techniques are you interested in learning more about?
This was fire bro. I respect you work. You definitely taught me something new.
Thanks bro, glad I could help!
This is the best video on this matter that I have seen
Thanks
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
Very helpful. Thank you for laying this out in clear detail!!
You're welcome. Glad to help!
WOW thank u so much Sir! đđ SO helpful!
You're welcome, glad it was helpful!
information is power .... thank you
đŻ
Great video!! very clear and practical
glad you found it helpful!
Amazing tutorial! đ€đœ
Glad you liked it!
Absolutely helpful buddy. cheers
Glad to hear it!
Hi Fly Guy J, thanks for this tutorial. Very helpful. that moment around 6:00-6:40 when you gave a practical example as to why lowering the fader wont give you more head room is gold!! you should deff take that clip and post it on your ig and twitter too! Thanks for sharing your wisdom fam. Appreciate it. Just hit that Sub button!
Yessir! I might just do that! Thanks for the suggestion
Sooo helpful man. Thank u big time.
Welcome!
Your explanations are clear, detailed, and understandable. Whole channel is on point! Thanks!
Thank you! Glad you find the channel helpful!
great tutorial fly guy
Glad you enjoyed it
Totally brilliant info, thank you!
Thanks, Glad it was helpful!
New sub, iâve watched many videos on gain staging, this was the clearest.
đȘ Thanks for the sub!
Great video FGJ. Big love from the UK
Thanks for stopping by! Keep grinding!
Yeah, pretty clear tutorial. good!
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
Awesome my friend, although i produce psytrance music this video is the most helpful about gain and volume until now Congratulations.
That's awesome, I'm glad you found it helpful. Many others have been sharing similar thoughts. Gain staging can be confusing at first!
I appreciate da game brother!!!! đđŸđŻđŻđŻ
No doubt! Glad to help!
"Something closer to what the human hear ears" lol
I make those type of speech mixups more often than I'd like to admit! đđ€
Very cool explained! Thank you. The only thing I don't understand is how to calibrate the VU meter? -18 db seems too small, can I set it to -12 db? It seems that for the master channel and for individual tracks you need to calibrate differently
you can calibrate it to -12 if that is what level you are aiming for, I use -18 mostly for tracking vocals and individual sounds before they hit analog plugins. I usually try to leave about 4-6 db of headroom of my overall mix before sending to mastering
I'm using Logic Pro X and for some reason, I'm clipping on the dbFS meter but I'm not going over 0 on the Waves VU meter. And I have headroom set to 18 :(
This has only been a problem for one particular track. I have the VU Meter on the Stereo Out Bus and gain plugins on each of the tracks. When I solo this particular track and bring its gain level up so that the VU meter hits 0, then the dbFS meter clips. If I don't adjust the gain, the dbFS meter is fine but then the VU Meter is really low, around -20. Like I said, this hasn't been happening with any other tracks in the mix :(
I'd have to see your routing to help troubleshoot. My guess is that you probably have a plugin in your chain that is causing an increase in gain, or perhaps you are sending that track to an aux/bus which is leading to an increase in level. Lastly check your master bus and see if any plugins on that chain are causing the clipping. A good practice is to make sure the level going into your plugins, matches the level coming out of the plugin, unless your using the plugin specifically to get an increase in level or loudness.
Super helpful đđŒ new subscriber from india
Glad to help. Thanks for the sub!
thx dude!... i just learned something i didn't know before even though iv'e been mixing and recording for many years :D
You're welcome bro, thats whats up! There's always something new to learn!
Thanks a million. Well explained. Ronnie Davis Barbados
You are welcome! Glad it was helpful!
Really clear and well explained.
Thank you sir
You are welcome
more engineering videos bro your videos are sooooo helpful! Eq hiphop vocals, compressing hiphop vocals, mixing a 2 track to hiphop vocals, and mastering hiphop vocals with a 2 track, saturation on hiphop vocals. This would be SOOO helpful + it should give you more well deserved subs
Got you bruh, definitely will have some of those topics covered soon!
@@FlyGuyJ that would be so dope bro! keep up the amazing work
@@ajtoronto2006 Just uploaded a video showing a vocal compression technique using 2 compressors back to back
@@FlyGuyJ that's lit bro! sickk
this is important if you send the mix to the mastering engineer for later processing but if you are doing the mastering yourself on the output channel the most important thing is that the whole final process has no clipping, am I right?
Honestly, gain staging should be kept in check during each step of the process (recording, mixing, mastering)
The most important thing is to make sure you are not clipping, but honestly, some of the plugins that you use are designed to perform best when the incoming signal is at a certain range. It's best practice to keep your eye on your gain levels throughout the entire process. You don't have to be meticulous with it, but keeping things in the healthy range will result in a better mix at the end
Well narrated and on point plus! peak meter!! other videos don't mention Big Shout Out L8 TOXTETH LIVERPOOL
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
Really nice!
Thank you for the vĂdeo!
Wondering why thise VUs and other meters have more then -18db calibration like -12db and stuff.
I've saw some saying that they use -12db for gain staging and that's ok.
As long as you aren't peaking and distorting, you would be fine if mixing in the box. However, some plugins are designed to work best when the incoming signal falls within a certain range. For example, emulations of analog plugins. Also, some people send signal from pro tools out to hardware and then back into pro tools after processing it through their own analog gear. They may have a different preference for what level they want the starting signal in their chain.
@@FlyGuyJ yep!
That's why I keep my default tracks with a channel trimestre at -12dB...
Thank you.
You're welcome!
insane explanations.
đđđ
Great explanation thanks
Welcome!
This video classical thanks brotherđȘđż
Welcome! Glad you found it helpful ! đȘ
Nice video man!!. Thx
so much from Spain
You're welcome!
So incredibly helpful. THANK YOU.
You're welcome! Glad to help!
Thank you! Keep these great videos coming!
Thanks, def gotta get some new ones uploaded!
Hello Sr,thank you for this explanation !!!!! Hey I may need some help,are you able to do that for me ? I am stuck in my Mix Sound.THX !!!
How can I help you?
GREAT VIDEO!!!
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
You are the best â€
Appreciate you!
Bro can you make a video on vocal tracking with Rverb or Hverb on? Preferably one for singing and one for rap coz first of all my reverb skills suck. end up hating my vocals and i dont really know how reverb really works
Sure thing!
Keep making the vids, man! Just subscribed cuz you're easy to follow
Thanks Alex, appreciate the feedback! More on the way!
great explanation and examples. thanks man!
Welcome!
Ur more than amazing u just got another subscriberđđđ
Thank bruh!
Might need to make a class. This fye and helpful! đ„
Word, I might just do that!
Nice tutorial
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you đđż
You're welcome. Keep grinding!
Great thank you
Welcome!
Thumbs up! I finally understand how to gain stage my mastered MP3 beats using a VU meter by watching this video. Now that I get my beat file gain settings set to OVU on the VU meter which is -18dBFS in Pro Tools .. its time for vocal gain staging. Please correct me if IM wrong! Did you said add a mono VU meter as the first insert on my vocal track and as the singer sings I should watch the VU meter making sure the vocal level is hitting 0VU on the VU meter? Thank you!
Yes I am for 0 VU when recording vocals, however, you don't have to insert one on every track, just make sure you are in the ballpark initially and you should be good to go.
Thanks bro!
Glad to help!
Great video. Great explanation
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for this content ive learnt a lot im about to apply this
That's what's up, glad you are finding my videos helpful! Let me know if there's any specific plugins you'd like me to cover in the future!
@@FlyGuyJ if its plugins the waves ones do just fine but i would like to know how to gainstage well in a full song, vocals and beat thank you
Thanks sir! Very helpful. Liked and subbed.
Glad to help! Thanks for the support!
Well done. Peace
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful
Good fucking tutorial bro! Thanks for the info! earned a like from me!
Thanks!
Subbed mate !
Appreciate it!
Another great vid bro đđ
Thanks bruh đ
Thanks bro
You're welcome. Glad you found it helpful!