How to Gain Stage

When you’re recording music, gain staging is the process of making sure the recording is being captured at the most ideal volume. It applies to any instrument, or group of instruments, being recorded, regardless of it is being mic’d or captured through a DI.

The most ideal volume for recording is as loud as you can capture the recorded instrument without the audio clipping.

Clipping is when the audio is captured at a volume that is too loud and therefore sound waves in the recording are literal clipped away by digital distortion.

On the flip side, you don’t want your recording to be too quiet. This makes it more difficult for the mixing engineer to blend the track within the final mix and can contain excessive room sound or white noise when gained up in post production.

Your gain staging varies from each recording, but I typically try to capture recordings no quieter than -6db and no louder than -3db. This ensures that the recording is loud enough but also not clipping.

To ensure you gain stage at an optimal volume, you will want to do a test performance. Here, you (or someone else) will do a run through of the performance you’re about to record and watch the faders for how loud or quiet the recording is being captured.

Adjust your input volume as you go through your test performance until you’ve achieved the perfect gain stage settings for what you’re about to record.