Gain Staging: 4 Tips You Need To Know To Make Great Mixes

Have you ever experienced this before?

You start working on a mix, throw the faders up, add some eq and compression, you’ve got the track feeling good…

…But then you look at your master levels…

… You’re clipping the master buss.

…So you pull all of the channels down to prevent it from going in the red.

…But now everything just sounds… different.  Your compressors aren’t quite reacting to the signal the same way, the mix feels different, your mind feels like it’s playing tricks with you, and it takes you some time to adjust to the new overall level.

Does this sound like something you’ve gone through? We’ve all been there at one point.

It’s frustrating and time consuming to have to reset your mix after putting in so much time.

But what if there was a simple way to prevent this from happening before starting the mix?

There is.  And it all has to do with gain staging

I recently put together a video with 4 simple tips to help you with gain-staging so that you can get the best results out of your tracks and save you tons of time and frustrations as you work.

Check it out here….

Gain-staging doesn’t need to be a super technical, difficult process. A lot of people over-think it. If you follow these 4 tips as you work, you will eliminate a lot of back-and-forth in your workflow. They’ll also help you prevent clipping and ensure that you get the cleanest results out of your mix.

Mike

Looking for more tips on how to create better recordings and mixes from your home studio?

Check out The Ultimate Mixing Blueprint: A free guide on how to use EQ and compression across a variety of instruments so that you can create great mixes quickly.