How to PROPERLY GAIN STAGE | Maschine Tutorial

Welcome back to another Maschine tutorial. In this video we show you how to properly gain stage inside of Maschine software. This is a way to ensure that you are not clipping your plugins. This tip will help you improve mixes and help you get that loudness you are looking for. Have any questions or comments please leave them down in the comment section below. Don't for get to subscribe and press that bell notification so when we drop a new video you are the first to be notified. Enjoy !

 

Hi YOung Fizz,

Thanks a lot for creating the above tutorial and posting in this forum. If I understood correctly, during your video a slide/message pops-up:

I am unclear as to why you did this (and when it must be done--before you enter your original notes/composition OR after the song/patterns have been created). Can you please elaborate? It seems like you are gain staging (or "adjusting levels?")--BEFORE you enter your notes in the pattern editor. And if you are pre-adjusting these levels before you enter your notes, is this actually "gain staging" or should this be called "pre-adjusting" audio levels????? (Sorry if I this is a dumb question, I am still learning.)

I have a project I have completed as far as the creative composition. All my notes are already entered and my velocities set. Can I not gain stage at this point (after the notes are already entered)?

I am thinking this is like "which came first, the chicken or the egg" . . . in other words, when developing a composition, do you adjust your velocities while composing/playing the notes/entering them into the Maschine grid, or do you develop your composition with ALL velocities set at 127, then gain stage, and then go back and enter ALL the proper velocities? Sorry, if this does not make sense (I am sort of a novice and confused).

P.S. Any idea if you can enter the fixed velocity 127 directly in the software, or must I enter it in the hardware? I tend to compose mostly in the software . . .

Thank you for your help.

Dean

 

Hi Dean,

Thanks for tuning in. Yes so allow me to break it down a bit further. The reason why i set the velocity to 127 is so that i can get an consistent reading as i strike the pad each time.127 is its highest point, so as i adjust the gain i'm looking at the meter and trying to register it around 0dB or down to even -10. For example, lets say i aim the kick for for 0dB. I know that when i turn of fixed velocity. when i strike the pad at its hardest will will not go past 0dB. You are saving yourself from clipping plugins you might add down the line as well. (Once you gain stage you can removed "fixed velocity")

When you say "pre-adjusting audio levels" that is basically what you are doing. Think of it as setting microphone levels. In audio we have mic level , instrument level, line level and speaker level. Microphone level is so low that we must give it a boost to get it to an operable level. so we use a mic pre-amp. In audio signal flow, this is what we refer to as gain staging. In other words we want to make sure we have good levels going into the "console" which is this case is Maschine Sampler.

Once your levels are all set you can have the velocity at whatever you like. The idea is not to go past 0dB unless you are wanting that clipping effect.

Keep in mind by doing this you have all the sample level coming in to Maschine and then we use the mixing faders to balance our signal. There is not any physical place to type in fixed velocity that i am aware of, but you can always go to the arrow at the bottom of the screen and draw in a quick pattern and raise velocity to 127 as track plays back then adjust the gain.

As for you session, i wouldn't necessarily say that you are doomed but setting proper levels should be high priorty. As long as you are not clipping and your audio sounds good, its all good.


Hope this helps clear any confusion.


Fizz

 

Hi Fizz,

Thank you for your speedy reply and detailed explanation. The analogy about setting the microphone level with the preamp really helped.
I need to absorb all this. I seem to be reading a lot of different ideas on gain staging in general (how and when to do it).

It seems that a sample provider like NI, would set all the sound levels to a certain target level in dB to be consistent across all their offerings. And since we mostly work in the digital domain, as long as we don't push beyond this level, the signal to noise ratio should be relatively ok (I'm thinking most of the gain stage tweaking maybe due to the "loudness wars" ????)

Thanks again for your help/tutorial.

 

So is it safe to assume that you do this to each sound before you make the beat or the track you are currently working on and not after you've made it already? Also, how are you adjusting the clip gain for VSTi plugin instruments because I assume this is for individual sounds or samples.

 

Yes, I normally take a couple of minutes to make sure each track is hitting at decent level to where i'm not clipping my plugins. As far as the VSTi most of them have a master volume switch in which they can be adjusted.

 

Nice! I've also noticed on your YT channel that you don't seem to use a VU meter, especially one with gain reduction. I've been watching many channels lately that suggest using something like VUMT especially because of it's trim function.

 

That's correct, Using VU meters can get us a step closer to perceiving what we actually hear. When working in Maschine, I rely on the reference numbers/meters that are given in the software while making sure the audio sounds right. When working professionally, i use them in pro tools and on my audio equipment such as the Drawmer 1973. If you choose to use a VU meter the important thing is to make sure everything is calibrated, otherwise the reading on the meter will be inaccurate.

 

I see. Now I have to figure out how to calibrate it.