#07

Being in control of your levels is a vital aspect of mixing, but how should we approach this when mixing in the box?

> If you want to be certain that your DAW and plugins are processing the way they should be, then you need some control and understanding of signal levels. We often refer to this overall concept as gain staging.

The term originated in the analogue realm and refers to setting your gain in order to maximise the signal to noise ratio. The idea is you keep your signals loud enough throughout the signal path so that the system noise is less significant, but also not so loud that they lead to distortion. This is still an important concept when setting the preamp gain on your interface to record signals into your DAW. However, once your signals are inside your DAW and you’re mixing, there’s no analogue noise floor to worry about. But what about signal level? In theory (check out the Pro Tip), the 32-bit floating point audio used by modern DAWs delivers massive dynamic range. However, making use of this in a plugin-rich session, and bearing in mind we still need to end up below zero full scale at the output, is less clear-cut. For example, many plugins use internal level thresholds for processing, and this is particularly true for analogue emulations. In this masterclass we’ll look at various techniques we can use to stay in control of levels, hopefully leaving you free to focus on the important task of balancing your mix. Right, let’s get to it.