PRODUCTION INSIGHT: SOME OF MY MASTER / GAIN STAGING TRICKS, TIPS & MISTAKES (Patreon)

Hello dear Patreon fam,

I am starting this month with a new production insight. This one does focus deeper on the topics of gain staging, clipping and master of a production. For all those fields I already presented some insights in the past, which are still up on my feed in case you would like to check them.

This insight here does focus more on the relation between these things, and on some personal trips, tricks and mistakes maybe better to avoid. I hope the following doesn’t feel like TLDNR for you, and I hope you can get something cool out of it being a help for you and your music.

I did choose to present this insight in written form, simply as it will be easier for you to get back to it. Also it is more about a general approach to things and does vary in reality with every track (sometimes more, sometimes less). So, the following outline is sort of collected experience over all the years I wanted to share with you. It is NOT a detailed advice to ALWAYS follow. Patrons on here supporting me for a longer period of time should know by now that I am no friend of presenting you “YOU ALWAYS MUST” or “THE ONE AND ONLY WAY TO DO THINGS” type of advice. Stuff like that can be found online pretty much endlessly these days. I rather want to help shaping your skills, and maybe help changing views on certain topics or maybe just open up new rabbit holes for you to explore.

So, summing things up, all thoughts here should be somewhat seen as a good starting point, especially when you have difficulties to set a mix up properly. Please note that more detailed values mentioned are also just good starting points. Please do not take them as strict values, as every element/sound/track is different and could possibly be executed also at different levels. So really just see them as a starting point or as an inspiration to make your own sense out of.

Especially in more electronic dancefloor orientated music, when you are working on your mix or master the next time, maybe consider trying out or remember some of this:

Gain stage your mix wisely from the get go, so you try to not clip into your master channel/master limiter /or not too much. Reason for that is simple. When a master limiter has to work too much, it usually puts your mix, dynamics and transients on jeopardy, so to speak. Also unwanted distortion is introduced you will not really be able to control in the end. So, setting things up properly from the get go will help you to keep control over your mix, rather than running into constant issues by working with crazy levels from the very start.

Here a few other mistakes summed up to maybe better avoid when gain staging:

- Try to not set your faders too loud, so you avoid running into OVERS (signals above 0 db) to feed your master channel input with. Even though in electronic dancefloor music clipping is an essential part, try to not ignore clipping levels too much. If all your signals are clipping f.e., you maybe should do smth to control things better and not have every element to clip/ be as loud. Things might easily end up to sound squashed/plastic and will eventually lose its soul/contrast/dynamic and also tend to sound too functional, purely loudness driven and maybe even about you just aiming for the maximum impact on the floor. If that is what you are in for/after, fair play, go for it. I just feel music sounds more pleasing, even though when its loud and impactful, when there is some contrast in and not everything is pushed to the max.

- But also, try to not set the faders too low either. I understand many producers are careful about not clipping channel levels, leaving enough headroom to ensure the mix is dynamic. In the end, if you choose a too low level, out of own experience, it usually won’t help too much either to achieve a well-balanced mix. I usually try to have my audio or recordings around -6 db as a starting point, or -10db if you want to be extra careful and leave more space for the premaster of final master units to do smth. In case you want to go for a more aggressive sound because it is your creative style, just make sure they do not clip (as much) :D

- Try to not ignore plugin input and output levels totally. This is probably why elements often might end up distorting the signal. When using too many plugins and you do not really care about the input and output levels, you might lose control over the sound itself and about the context it is put in, meaning the mix/gain staging strategy, and the track might end up sounding not as good as you want it. To me it never is about using as many plugins you can when I look at mixing or mastering, but about using only as much you really need to shape a sound and still keep control of things. If you work on creative sessions aiming only for sound design and you get lost in plugin chains from hell (happens to me), that is cool. Maybe just render things afterwards and try to make sense of it int he mix, so it fit to the context and other levels. Just try to avoid to have those endless plugin chains to deal with when focusing on the mix, especially on premaster, master channel but also on busses/groups.

- Try to not use the master fader for volume control. I often do see some producers still doing this. It’s a rather basic tip, but doing this will usually mess up the track/mix. Always leave the master fader untouched as it is on 0 db and use the volume knob of your monitor control to change your listening volume. Even if you want to reduce the amount of level of your master input, just go with a utility unit before all master channel effects and adjust the level this way when needed and see if you achieve a better result. You can always just mute it later if you didn’t.

Here a few more tips/tricks:

So, as we now know, you will usually notice when the gain staging of your mix is somewhat out of control when input levels into your master are too high or too low. But especially when a master limiter has to work too much. Even though sometimes you want exactly that glued/compact/aggressive sound in your track, as it is more of a creative style to you, next time maybe try to amend that “effect” only on those one or two elements or bus/es within the mix that you think are essential to have that character, so all the rest is somewhat unaffected and things can still run into a ”clear” and more "controlled" master.

When I personally peak into my master a little (which does happen), I either try to "control" or clip individual channels within the mix causing that effect, or if you are sort of already happy with the overall mix, I often just add a clipper on the premaster, before the master limiter, to help the master limiter not to work too much. This clipper is just used to gently touch and clip the highest peaks in the track. 

If you would like to “color” or saturate your track further, you then could also simply add a second clipper as well, again just before the master limiter unit, if clipping the track slightly more aggressive/upfront is wanted/what you are after. I personally do not really do this, but it is an option I wanted to mention for coloring things further/differently. A cool thing is that this second clipper could actually give you even more headroom, so the actual master limiter can be capable of pushing the track a little louder without distorting. To me this approach might lead to touch the initial sound/dynamic/transients/punch of the production/mix too much, so I personally usually leave that step out.

To sum up it all up: To me it is helpful to have a sort of gain stage strategy for the mix/track elements from the get go and ensure to check your levels once in a while. It does help to keep control. Maybe don’t overdo it, things still have to sound good to your ears and make you happy, and watching levels and analyzing things only, at least to me, doesn’t make me too happy when writing music. The cool thing is, when you avoid the very last master limiter has to work too much, you avoid it to be the main instance that defines or negatively alters/compromises the character/sound of your production, but only control it a little. When it does not have to deal with too high input levels, you are giving your limiter a smooth signal to process, so you can use super short lookahead and slower attack and release times, which in the end affect the audio less as in comparison fast attack and release times do, which are required to deal with unclipped signals for the limiter not add too much distortion to the signal.

I hope this does help!

Next up on here, there finally will be new early access music coming to you this month. The return of LINKED, stay tuned! 

Also, there will be PHACETIME S03E05 with special guest POSIJ, probably a new production live stream, and a new inspiration support video post too. 

I am also thinking about launching a new category of posts within the next two months. 

But more to all that later on, am wishing you all a great start into the month! <3

Flo