Gain staging and levels

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calum666
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Levels

Post by calum666 »

Hi everyone. I am using ableton live and was wondering what levels you set you set your kick track and bass track to if you are wanting these to be your main focus of the track. Do you just judge everything else from there or whats your preference on how work your track in terms of levels. I have my tracks to default at -12 to prevent clipping on master. Is this too low?

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Levels

Post by Lost to the Void »

Everything is relative.

There are no "this setting always" for anything in mixing.

Have your master set to 0db and mix in to it.

Everything will change as you add more tracks. You will have to constantly pull down your track levels to keep your master at a reasonable level.

Every tune will probably be different due to the combination of sounds, amount of sounds etc.

Your kick and bass sound right when they sound right in context with the overall piece.

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Re: Levels

Post by Mono-xID »

Lost to the Void wrote:Everything is relative.

There are no "this setting always" for anything in mixing.

Have your master set to 0db and mix in to it.

Everything will change as you add more tracks. You will have to constantly pull down your track levels to keep your master at a reasonable level.

Every tune will probably be different due to the combination of sounds, amount of sounds etc.

Your kick and bass sound right when they sound right in context with the overall piece.

Ears ears ears.

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Re: Levels

Post by Planar »

As a personal framework I make my kick peak at about -12 and mix around that. I generally try to make my bass a touch lower than the kick. My aim is to hit -6 on the master channel with all elements playing, but I don't worry if I'm below.

This works for me as I level as I compose, but there are no rules.

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Re: Levels

Post by Mslwte »

Drive everything hard into the red!
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Re: Levels

Post by Mono-xID »

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Re: Levels

Post by Mslwte »

I'm being serious btw. Turn your master down first!! Group a load of tracks, each track with a series is effects eq distortion etc within, on the master group (not master channel) have a compressor. Smash it to fuck! (Critical!) map some of the effect parameters to midi. Run everything into the red (super critical) then with compressor sucking away pull back some of the faders until you get a beautiful blend of distortion, tweak the midi and hit record.
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Re: Levels

Post by mainst09 »

Planar wrote:As a personal framework I make my kick peak at about -12 and mix around that. I generally try to make my bass a touch lower than the kick. My aim is to hit -6 on the master channel with all elements playing, but I don't worry if I'm below.

This works for me as I level as I compose, but there are no rules.

I do it exactly like this. before i didn't but my new tracks are always like this now,a lot more quality sound now
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Re: Levels

Post by Alume »

This is soooo usefull on soooo many levels.

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Re: Levels

Post by mainst09 »

Alume wrote:This is soooo usefull on soooo many levels.

in my case and planar's you have to achieve that through the EQ and not just putting the fader on -12
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Re: Levels

Post by Alume »

I was making a really shitty joke about the thread. It had to be done.

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Re: Levels

Post by mainst09 »

Alume wrote:I was making a really shitty joke about the thread. It had to be done.

ahahahhahahah
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Re: Levels

Post by calum666 »

Thanks for the input for those being serious. And i apreciate the jokes from others haha

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Re: Levels

Post by Mono-xID »

really man, it's all about balance of all elements.
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Re: Levels

Post by Alume »

Like seriousness vs jokes and kicks vs hihats.

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Re: Levels

Post by Lost to the Void »

Mono-xID wrote:really man, it's all about balance of all elements.
Exactly, as soon as you set parameters up like "kicks must be -12db" etc, you are placing restraints that can cause problems.

What if the kick is very mid without much sub?
What if the kick is massive in the sub?
What if your bassline sits above the kick and what if it sits below?
What if the other elements force all faders down to keep headroom for the master?

Everything is relative to everything else.
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Re: Levels

Post by SquareTheCircle »

calum666 wrote:Hi everyone. I am using ableton live and was wondering what levels you set you set your kick track and bass track to if you are wanting these to be your main focus of the track. Do you just judge everything else from there or whats your preference on how work your track in terms of levels. I have my tracks to default at -12 to prevent clipping on master. Is this too low?
Where the yellow is hitting about 2 thirds up the meter. Is a good place to start.
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Re: Levels

Post by Mslwte »

It's not "how does it look" It's all about "how does it sound" and that is your decision
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Re: Levels

Post by Barfunkel »

I call it the Youtube syndrome. People look at videos and ape what they see, instead of doing things the old school way and experiment with gear/software, using their own ears and finding their own solutions.

Nothing wrong with education of course, it's just the visual part that can mislead. What music looks like is completely irrevelant, yet I've seen threads on Gearslutz like "How do I make this kick" and then there's just a picture of the kick with no audio at all.
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Re: Levels

Post by Planar »

Lost to the Void wrote: Exactly, as soon as you set parameters up like "kicks must be -12db" etc, you are placing restraints that can cause problems.
Without these kind of guides, people who have no idea about balancing and gain staging just whack everything up as high as they can. I work to that kind of idea as I know it leaves me plenty of room to work with. It's not a rule.


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