Default Gain Staging of Clips

[djyogurt420]

Does anybody get the distinct feeling that most clips and samples come in at WAY too high a gain by default? I'm always importing a clip and then subtracting 12db of gain before I even start to do anything else. Why eat up so much headroom at the input by default... I just don't get it?!?!

[borg]

Indeed! I don't understand either. I guess it's a remnant of the beginning of DAWs (16bit, noisy convertors,...), and a mixup of scales and techniques.
everything peaking at 0 dBFS, and then leveling with faders (end of chain) = bad
everything at 0 dBVU at the input stage (and throughout chain) = it practically mixes itself

especially important for all the 'analog' emulation (these devices from them olden days were designed to operate best when feeding them levels around 0 dBVU).

Made the same mistake for years myself.

[chrk]

I'm always importing a clip and then subtracting 12db of gain before I even start to do anything else. Why eat up so much headroom at the input by default... I just don't get it?!?!

Watch your a$$, you're a dying species.

Look around any audio forum. They're being swamped by questions á la, "Why is my sample/recording so low, how do I get it louder?"

[[jur]]

I'm always importing a clip and then subtracting 12db of gain before I even start to do anything else. Why eat up so much headroom at the input by default... I just don't get it?!?!

Watch your a$$, you're a dying species.

Look around any audio forum. They're being swamped by questions á la, "Why is my sample/recording so low, how do I get it louder?"

Yep, and I'm pretty sure that it's the reason why anything you'll get from packs, libraries and so on are so loud. I don't think this is going to change soon.

[justanametouse]

My guess would be a mix of a sort of "loudness war" and it just being easy to say "make everything hit at 0 db" for the sake of consistency when scrolling through. Could they have everything hit at -8db? Sure, but that's not the way it is. Like chrk mentioned, most people want stuff to start loud and turn it down rather than the other way around.

[chrk]

and turn it down

If only.

Next question you'll get is "Which compressor or limiter?"

[justanametouse]

and turn it down

If only.

Next question you'll get is "Which compressor or limiter?"

True. I guess a pretty popular mindset is to start loud and figure out a way to make it 10x louder.

[chrk]

eleven