Volume leveling

[Xcaliber]

So when I'm mixing a song that someone else has recorded the first thing I do is leveling the volumes to make them all "sit" where I want in the mix. I normally just use the faders of each track to do that, but I read an article where someone had an idea of using a "gain staging" plug-in to reduce/boost the gain of the track to allow the fader to remain at 0.

I'm curious which of these techniques you use or if you have another one and whether there are pros and cons to each?

I find it easier to use the faders myself, but the concern that the article I read was presenting, and that I agree with, was that it cuts into the available headroom. I can't decide if that will limit me down the road or not though.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

In most modern DAWs you don't need a plug, just fix it with clip gain or whatever it's called in a given DAW. I do it all the time on tracks that were recorded a little high or low. It's the digital analog of using the channel gain control on a mixer to trim the level at the input of the channel.

 

[JMac52]

I'm not sure you're saying this is your problem, but I struggled with getting an initial, static balance while leaving enough headroom for proper mixing. Then I read this article that suggests using pink noise as a reference. So I generally follow those guidelines, and then when I have a fader that's a good ways away from zero, I put in a Gain plug to make up the difference and set the fader to zero. The idea is that the fader is more precise around zero, which is probably true in hardware mixers but I'm not so sure it is in a DAW.

J

 

[Farview]

I adjust the gain at the clip. I normally do this first, before I attempt to start mixing. Since I only do projects that someone else recorded anymore, I constantly get audio that someone either recorded way too hot or normalized before they sent it to me. I bring everything down, or up, to the level it should have been recorded at, then begin to mix.

I use a lot of hardware emulation plugins, as well as actual hardware, so having the signal at the proper levels is essential. If you hit a plugin that is emulating a piece of hardware, that plugin will emulate the distortion that you would get if you sent that kind of level to the real thing. That's the main reason I do it. Even though the faders are more sensitive around zero, you can always type in a value it it gets too hard to move it accurately with a mouse.

 

[Chili]

Faders.

Unless it is really low, then I retrack or I might throw a compressor on and use the make-up gain to bump it up.

 

[Xcaliber]

Thanks for the replies. I'm using songs posted here and on other forums/pages/web sites to get some practice so I don't have the luxury of re-tracking.