Gain Staging Made Easy Using a VU Meter

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bxbrkrz
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12 Mar 2021

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jam-s
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12 Mar 2021

Wasn't VU = virtually useless in the digital realm?

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guitfnky
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12 Mar 2021

whenever I start to wonder if I should worry about gain staging, I go back and re-watch this. the only gain staging tutorial worth the time, if you work in the box.

I write music for good people

https://slowrobot.bandcamp.com/

chaosroyale
Posts: 734
Joined: 05 Sep 2017

12 Mar 2021

"Gain staging" is a meaningless concept when talking about working in-the-box in a modern DAW.

Mix however you feel comfortable, because Reason's internal audio will not color, distort, or clip.

Hit your VST plugins with inserts or sends at whatever level sounds good. *Every plugin from every maker reacts to different levels in its own way, so there's no point worrying about a "correct" level for all plugins either.

Master export at whatever spec your client/mastering engineer wants.

That's it.

Reason made a very good video about this too.


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selig
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12 Mar 2021

I made this video to show how simple it is to keep levels under control. No “gain staging”, no “virtually useless” meters. Just use a consistent peak level of your choosing for all audio tracks.
Selig Audio, LLC

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Loque
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12 Mar 2021

selig wrote:
12 Mar 2021
I made this video to show how simple it is to keep levels under control. No “gain staging”, no “virtually useless” meters. Just use a consistent peak level of your choosing for all audio tracks.
Thanks. I saw this in the past and it helped me a lot to keep my mix under control.
Reason13, Win10

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integerpoet
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12 Mar 2021

selig wrote:
12 Mar 2021
I made this video to show how simple it is to keep levels under control. No “gain staging”, no “virtually useless” meters. Just use a consistent peak level of your choosing for all audio tracks.
The way you put it here, it seems like a way to protect one's own sanity while maintaining a long signal chain rather than a quasi-technical superstition.

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Noise
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12 Mar 2021

I just slap "Selig Gain" in every mix channel and aim for -6db. This changed my life. Thank you.
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moggadeet
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Location: Stuttgart, Germany

13 Mar 2021

Noise wrote:
12 Mar 2021
I just slap "Selig Gain" in every mix channel and aim for -6db. This changed my life. Thank you.
Changed mine too. I go for -15dB peak on all channels.

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