I've followed along with another producer through four complete songs and he never really mentioned gain staging. He wasn't a famous producer, lol. He said before you master you want to have at least -6db of headroom. He went into the red a lot during his production. In the end he selected all tracks and reduced the volume until he achieved the -6db.
I have been recording my first solo project on Live. I've been working on it for over two weeks. I'm not expecting it to go on the radio but I have taken the production seriously.
A video popped up about gain staging and the guy talked about his method of achieving a perfect -6db mix. He created a default track with everything -16db and then at the end added on +6db. People commented it was brilliant. It went over my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM3cjFmjOi0
I played a different video trying to get some clarity. The guy put Utility on each track and adjusted it until the output was -18db.
Was he using Utility to adjust the output on every track to -18db before even setting the levels? In other words the hi-hat would output -18db with the fader at zero?
I was confused and went back to my current track I've been recording to check my numbers. The overall average of the master channel is right around -18db and the peak is about -5db. My strategy from the start was to keep the peak of the master at -6db. I worried about the drum group first and everything followed. I don't really hear anything needing to go louder. The bass group may be a little too hot.
I was thinking of using the method I learned by mixing it to the best of my abilities, selecting all tracks and adjusting the output to -6db. But now that seems lame. And in the future I want to understand gain staging and apply it effectively from here on out.
Thanks.