Three minute reads for artists and producers
who want to make better records

By Thomas Dulin

Hey Reader, I hope you've been well.

Take Three is back!

It's been a few weeks since I've emailed you, but I'm glad to be back. As a reminder, you can opt out of these emails any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.

As always, please feel free to reply to this email and let me know what you think!

TAKE ONE: QUICK LINKS

• This Youtuber found that when it comes to new Macbooks, M3 or M2 is not necessarily better (and could perform worse) than M1, depending on your DAW. Youtube link here.​
• Don't use Logic Pro Mastering Assistant, hire a professional. But if you do, use these settings.​
• Audiomovers is the best way to stream your DAW output to a webpage for realtime collaboration. Sign up with my link and they'll give you $5.​

TAKE TWO: RECENT RELEASES

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Brick by Brick Drew Holcomb, Ellie Holcomb,... PREVIEW   ​

Drew and Ellie Holcomb "Brick By Brick EP"
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Thomas Dulin

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Stoned in Bridge Creek Cole Phillips PREVIEW   ​

Cole Phillips - "Stoned in Bridge Creek"
Produced by Pat Lyons
Engineered by Thomas Dulin

TAKE THREE: GAIN STAGE MANAGEMENT

“Gain staging” is one of those topics you hear about a lot if you’re exposed to audio content online.

When I was starting out as an engineer, it seemed like something I knew I should do properly, but few people were willing to give advice on what exactly it means to have “proper” gain staging.

That’s because the idea of gain staging is a very broad idea.

It’s also a bit confusing because the expression “gain staging” sounds like a verb — something you do — but in fact, there is no one single action you can take that can be described as gain staging.

It’s more accurately described as a set of practices that helps keep your signals from being overloaded at various points in a signal path.

A stage of gain is any point in the signal path where you have the opportunity to turn up or turn down the level. Maybe we should start referring to this idea as “gain stage management.”

My general philosophy for best practice in gain stage management is to follow these 4 steps:

1. Set the mic preamp gain level to be within 10dB of where you think it will be for the final mix.

For most things I’m recording, this means I am looking for the meter to peak between -12 and -6 dBFS.

The exception to this rule would be a situation where I am intentionally applying more than enough gain in order to achieve a certain sound, typically distortion, and then finding a way to turn that gain back down to a useable level.

2. Keep all plugins at unity gain!

This means that the level that goes in to a plugin should be roughly equal to the level that comes out.

Example: If you’re using a compressor plugin that’s doing some amount of gain reduction, use the output gain in the plugin to compensate and turn it back up.

This is typically done by ear and doesn’t need to be an exact science. But when you turn a plugin off and back on, the level should be roughly the same. Rinse and repeat.

3. Keep all channel faders between -10dB and 0dB.

Have you ever noticed that the physical distance between -10dB and -20dB is much smaller than the distance between 0dB and -10dB? If all your faders are at -20, it’s going to be difficult to make fine adjustments.

Keeping your fader in that sweet spot around 0dB gives you maximum resolution when moving the fader up or down.

4. Keep all bus faders and master faders at 0dB.

If your buses are clipping, turning down the bus fader doesn’t help! You will need to turn down the channel faders feeding that bus.

If your master fader is at 0dB, faders are all near the sweet spot, and plugins are at unity gain, you have a good handle on the gain staging in your session and you can be confident that all stages have a healthy amount of signal.

Does all of this make sense? Feel free to hit reply and let me know if you're struggling with this. I'll do my best to respond to issues.

Until next week, happy music making, Reader.

Thomas Dulin Producer / Engineer / Mixer