Gain Stage

Gain Stage 101

In audio engineering, the term "Gain Stage" refers to a point during the audio signal flow where an audio engineer can adjust the audio signal's level. The parameters for this kind of modification are usually gain faders. You can find them on the analog mixing console. Additionally, virtual gain faders can be found in DAWs. In other words, gain staging can be observed as managing audio levels in each part of the audio signal flow to avoid unwanted noise or distortion. The ideal gain stage occurs when each element in the audio signal flow receives and transmits the signal in the optimal region of its dynamic range.  

Now and Then

In the early days of audio recording, the signal was recorded in high gain values to prevent the hardware gear from creating unwanted noise. For some reason, this is still done today, but it is entirely unnecessary. Digital audio behaves very differently from analog. Therefore, there is no need to record on high levels in order to avoid noise. There are several disadvantages that you might experience while recording on high levels. Some of them are lack of headroom, less accurate performance of the preamps when approaching 0dB, and so on. The mentioned lack of headroom can be one of the worst disadvantages. You might get a quieter final mix when applying a limiter on your master bus.  

The Digital World and DAW's

In the digital world, a value of 0dB is considered a ruined or disabled recording. Therefore, you want your recording at -12dB up to -6dB to have plenty of headroom for further processing. This means the maximum level you see on your DAW's input meter should not exceed the mentioned level range. If we are talking about DAWs, one way to introduce proper gain staging to your mixes is to use a trim or a gain plugin. It would be best to place it right at the beginning of the plugin chain. By doing this, you can adjust the gain of the instrument or a vocal just about to a point when it starts hitting the so-called "sweet spot." You can do this to every single channel moving forward.  

Gain Stage Advice

The loudness of the recording does not determine a loud final mix. It treats the audio signal by applying compression, EQ, limiting, etc., in the process. Some advice for a proper gain staging would be :

1. Try to accurately capture the performance with a good signal level and avoid clipping.
2. You can apply volume adjustments, effects, EQ, compression, and limiting to shape the sound of individual tracks. The goal is to make them fit well (sonically) with the other tracks.
3. Balance all the recording elements (tracks) about one another to get the best possible complete picture.
4. Apply adjustments to the final mix (stereo or surround sound), including eq compression and limiting to maximize the recordings' overall volume and ability to play well on various sound systems (car stereo, home stereo, etc).