Gain staging.

F

frosty55

Member
I would like some advice on gain staging please.
I have a Teac 80-8 that I want to use to record our bands demo. So as regards getting the best possible, quietest signal onto tape, is it best to set all the input volumes to 6 or maybe 7? Then adjust everything else, the mixer etc.. to suit?
Any thoughts chaps?
 
You set the input volumes to match the level of what is coming in to the recording level you want. Quiet sources are going to need the input volume higher than loud sources will.

Your job is the get each tracks meter to dance around 0dbVU, a little less for drums and other short percussive instruments. In analog, 0dbVU is the optimum level that all the equipment is designed to run.
 
It's going to depend on what you have plugged into those channels - some mics needs more gain than others.
 
As far as input levels go, your highest peaks should be hitting no higher than -12dBfs. For me, this is usually the snare drum or other transient heavy sources so use that as a reference to which everything else is balanced.

Regarding what farview said, 0VU (+4dBu) can be an ambiguous term since, 1. converters/interfaces have varying calibrations to 0VU, and 2. VU does not reflect peak level and has a reaction time of 300ms, which is relatively slow. Because of this, if you're even a couple units (VU is not measured in dB but in Volume Units) over 0VU you will almost be at clipping point on a peak meter. You could think of a VU meter as sort of an RMS (loudness) meter.

Every piece of audio equipment has a different optimal operating range but suffice it to say that the standard designation for 0VU is as follows:

0VU = +4dBu = -18dBfs

The dBfs value will vary depending on the calibration of the unit and can be anywhere from -12 to -22dBfs.

So, keep your input peaks between -18 and -12dBfs for the loudest sources and balance everything around them and you should be fine.

Cheers :)
 
The Teac 80-8 is a venerable analogue recorder with traditional VU meters so discussion of dBFS is not relevant here.

Basically, with gain staging it's more about matching levels than have a predetermined idea of the numbers to set something at.

You mention a mixer but don't say what model. However, assuming it has a pre fade listen facilitiy...

Hit the PFL button for each channel one at a time and adjust the channel gain trims so that the levels are averaging around 0dBVU/-18dBFS (depending on the metering on your mixer).

If you're using pre fader direct outs on the mixer, the faders don't matter at this stage--just set the gain on your Teac so the meters are also averaging 0dBVU with only occasional peaks going higher.

If your feed to the Teac is post fader in some way, set the faders so the mixer meters are averaging 0dBVU/-18dBFS then adjust the Teac as above.

But the main thing is to balance S/N and headroom and not have any big boosts or cuts in level happening in the system and being compensated for later.
 
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