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What is Gain Staging?

Gain Staging is the process of setting and managing the volume levels of different elements within a track.

Gain staging is the most important element of a professional mix. There is just no way around it. No matter how much processing you do, no matter how many fancy plugins you employ, no matter how good your sound design is, your mix will still sound like trash if your levels are not set correctly.On the other hand, if you nail this part, the remainder of the mixdown and master process will be a breeze, and the result will be a clean, loud, balanced track.

If you don’t want to take it from me, look at what Porter Robinson had to say about the importance of gain staging: 

“Getting the relative volume levels of each instrument correct is more important than EQing. New producers often prefer a sound after it’s been EQ’d, and in many cases it’s only because the levels have changed.”

Porter Robinson

Unfortunately, simply knowing the importance of getting your levels right doesn’t help you get you any better at it. We need actionable steps to take in order to improve our gain staging.

14 Proven Techniques to Improve Your Gain Staging & Balance

Luckily, there are techniques to use that will make a measurable difference on the quality of your gain staging and the professionalism of the resulting mix. Employ these in your workflow, and I guarantee your mixes will improve. Here they are:

  1. Reference, Reference, Reference
  2. Bounce a Rough Mix and Reference It
  3. Use a Referencing Plugin
  4. Level Match Your Reference Tracks to Your Mix
  5. Zero in on one element at a time
  6. Pay attention to relationships (kick vs. snare, etc.)
  7. Know Your Monitors
  8. Listen to Your Mix on a Variety of Different Systems
  9. Always Monitor at the Same Level
  10. Monitor at a Low Level (Between 70 dB and 85 dB SPL)
  11. Use metering plugins (list best metering plugins)
  12. Take breaks to avoid ear fatigue
  13. Prepare your mixdown file on a different day than your mixing session
  14. Listen to something you know before you start

1. Reference, Reference, Reference

Referencing is the process of comparing your track to one or more professionally mixed and mastered tracks to aid in making decisions regarding composition, sound design, mixing and mastering.

If there is one thing to take away from this article – it’s the importance of referencing. Reference all the time. Reference when composing. Reference when mixing. Reference when mastering. Reference in your sleep. All the pros reference a lot, and you should too. It’s an easy way to improve the quality of your music fast.  

There are four types of referencing:

  1. Referencing for Composition – using reference tracks to gather inspiration about structure, arrangement, and instrumentation
  2. Referencing for Sound Design – ensuring your sounds match up to professionals
  3. Referencing for Mixing – gain staging, saturation flavors, dynamics
  4. Referencing for Mastering (Loudness, Inflation, Commercial Polish)

2. Bounce a Rough Mix and Reference It

A rough mix is the version of your track’s mix at the point in time before you begin the official mixdown stage. Always use your rough mix as a reference. It’s an easy process; simply bounce the master to a .WAV file and drag it onto a track in your mixdown project file.

Using your rough mix as a reference has several benefits, including:

  1. It serves as a starting point for your mix and measuring stick to see how far you’ve come
  2. It helps draw a firm boundary between the production stage and the mixing stage
  3. It assures that your mix is getting better and not only louder (continually level-match as you go to compare apples to apples)

3. Use a Referencing Plugin

We know how massively important referencing is. Luckily for us, there are some awesome plugins out there that help us to more easily and effectively reference. I have been very vocal about how much I love ADPTR Audio Metric AB. A lot of the concepts that I outline in the following techniques (level matching, etc.) are made easier by incorporating a high-quality reference tool like Metric AB into your workflow. Choose one referencing plugin and learn it inside and out.

The following are all great options:

  1. ADPTR Audio Metric AB
  2. Sonarworks Reference 4
  3. Reference Section in iZotope 8

Whichever you choose, make sure to learn truly master it. Knowing how to use a quality referencing plugin is an invaluable tool in any mix engineer’s arsenal.

4. Level Match to Your Reference

In order to properly reference, we must compare apples to apples – that’s the whole point. We also know that our ears love to trick us into thinking that louder sounds are always better (check out the Fletcher-Munson Curve if you want to nerd out on the science of this.)

Therefore, in order to use reference tracks in the most effective way possible, we must level match to our references. Put simply: we want to make sure that our reference tracks are the same volume as our mix. Doing so makes it far easier make more well-informed mixing decisions since we won’t have to worry about falling into the “louder is better” trap that our ears love to play on us.

This usually involves turning down your reference tracks to match your mix. You can do this manually by using metering tools, but I prefer having a referencing plugin do it automatically for me.

5. Zero In On One Element at a Time

Zero in on one element at a time when you’re gain staging and start with the most important element in the mix. Listen to that element in the mix, then quickly switch and compare it to the reference. It’s easy; if you deliberately try to zero in on the kick, you’ll find yourself hearing the kick quite clearly in both your track and the reference tracks.

When comparing against the reference master, try to focus on one element of the music at a time. Listen to your snare and quickly compare it to the reference. It’s not hard: if you tell yourself you’re listening to that snare, you’ll find you’re listening to that snare.

6. Pay Attention to Relationships

Focus on one element at a time, but don’t neglect important relationships within the mix. How do the kick and the sub interact with one another in the reference? How much louder is the lead vocal than the harmonic elements?

These are the types of questions you should be asking yourself as you set your levels.

7. Know Your Monitors

It’s imperative that you “know” your monitors. Don’t believe me? Take it from 5-time Grammy winner Chris Lord-Alge:

“The most important thing is to use what you know — that’s far more important than the brand of speaker you use. Familiarize yourself with your speakers by listening to a ton of material on them — a good mix is a lot easier to create if you know what you’re hearing. If you’re used to your laptop speakers, then use those. If you always mix on headphones, use those. Earbuds, stereo speakers, studio monitors — they can all work if you know them well.”

Chris Lord-Alge

This is insane. CLA is saying that you’re better off mixing your track on laptop speakers than professional monitors if you know them better. That’s how important it is to get to know your monitors well by listening to a ton of material on them.

8. Listen to Your Mix on a Variety of Systems

A well-mixed track sounds good wherever it’s played, whether it’s on a professional venue system or an iPhone speaker. Thus, it’s imperative to bounce your tracks at different points in the mixdown stage to monitor how it sounds on different types of systems and make improvements accordingly. There’s no point in creating a great mixdown if it only sounds great in a studio.

Listen to your mix in your car. Play it in your earbuds at the gym. Try to mimic the environments in which your end listener will enjoy your tracks.

Not only will this help ensure cross-system compatibility, but it will also help you identify problem areas in your mix that you were missing before. Take notes and bring them back into the studio to further fine-tune your mix.

As a bonus, repeating this process will help you to better learn your monitors and be better-suited to apply tip #7.

9. Always Monitor at the Same Level

I first encountered this tip when I read Bob Katz’ Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science.

The idea is simple: if we always monitor at the same level, we reduce the number of variables present in the mixing process. With fewer variables to distract us (namely – gain changes), we can better focus on the mix and make better decisions throughout the mixdown process.

10. Monitor at a Low Level

We know that we should always mix at the same Sound Pressure Level in order to be as consistent as possible.

The next question is obvious: what level should I set my monitors at?

The short answer: quiet.

Our ears are most sensitive to mids – that is, frequencies around 3–4kHz. However, lower and higher frequencies are accentuated at high volume levels. This creates an illusion of power and clarity. In other words, we think we have a great mix, but we really don’t. The track will sound weak and midrange heavy at lower volumes.

Conversely, if you can get your track to sound great at lower volumes, it will still sound amazing when you turn up the gain.

If you really want to get specific about your monitoring level, science says that 83 dB is the perfect level to mix at. However, I’ve found that to be pretty loud, especially for smaller studios. Anywhere between 70 and 85 dB SPL should do the trick.

Here’s how to calibrate your monitors:

  1. Make sure both monitors are set to 0 dB.
  2. Open your DAW
  3. Put a mono pink noise on your master that reads -20 dB RMS
  4. Place your SPL Meter (or smartphone with an SPL Meter app) in the listening position – the spot where your head is when you’re mixing
  5. Play the pink noise on a loop
  6. Pan the noise all the way left
  7. Turn the volume on your audio interface up until you reach somewhere between 70 dB SPL (small room) and 85 dB SPL (large room.)
  8. Pan the sound all the way right. If you get a different reading, adjust the monitor’s gain accordingly.

Once you do this, you’ll want to periodically check to make sure you’re still at a good level – dynamics processing can increase the mix’s volume.

11. Use Metering Plugins

Check out this article to learn about the 5 types of metering plugins and how to use them. It covers everything you need to know about metering, and I list which specific plugins are my favorites – a couple are even free!

12. Take Breaks to Avoid Ear Fatigue

Have you ever been completely happy with a mixdown, only to listen to it at a later point and realize it’s hot garbage? This is most likely a result of listening fatigue.

Listening fatigue: the phenomenon that occurs when the human ears reduce their sensitivity during prolonged periods of excessive volume in order to protect themselves. Listening fatigue causes havoc on your mixes because it makes it nearly impossible to make smart, calculated, deliberate mix decisions.

There are two easy ways to combat ear fatigue:

  1. Take breaks!
  2. Mix at low volumes (we covered this already!)

13. Prepare Your Mixing File on a Different Day Than Your Mixing Session

Prepping your mixing file on a separate day than your mixing session allows you to approach the mx with a fresh ear. Additionally, you don’t want to waste your energy organizing the file – we all know what mixing when you’re in a bad mood feels like. Prep the mix file, get everything just how you like it, and come back the next day (or in a few hours) and crush your mix.

14. Listen to Something You Know Right Before You Start Mixing

This tip goes back to monitoring yet again. Listening to a reference track that you’re very familiar with RIGHT before you begin your mixdown session calibrates your ears and serves as a basis for mix decisions. It’s easy to get lost in the mix (see tip 12: ear fatigue) but listening to something you know right before you mix is an excellent way to get grounded and ready yourself for a successful mixdown.

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