gain staging
Amplitude management technique
Gain staging is the practice of managing audio signal levels at each point in a recording or mixing chain.
The goal is to keep levels strong enough to minimize noise but low enough to avoid distortion.
Proper gain staging ensures clean sound as audio passes through microphones, preamps, plugins, and other processing: Get your gain staging right before you start mixing.
- levelsHeights or ranked stages
- headroomOverhead vertical space
- sweet spotOptimal point or area
- dynamic rangeSignal amplitude span
- signalMessage-conveying cue
preamp · faders · meters · unity · loudness · saturation · mixing · console · dB · peaks · threshold · input · output · overload · dynamics · trim · calibration · analog
- audio productionDAW, mixing, mixing board, audio mixer, Foley
- amplifier circuitspreamp, power amp, tube amp, solid state, vacuum tube
- audio dynamicsdynamic range, compressor, limiter, expander, loudness
- audio masteringmastering, remastering, final mix, loudness, limiter
- recordingrecording, mixing, mastering, editing, overdubbing
- instrument setuptuning, calibration, alignment, positioning, adjustment
signal management approach
gain stagingclipping
Piece cut out
signal degradation · distortion · compression · limiting · attenuation
gain, gains, gained, gaining, gainer, gainful, gainfully, stage, stages