Gain staging is the key to clean, professional mixes. Learn how to set levels at every stage to avoid distortion and preserve headroom.
Explore content
Gain staging is not a ritual of hitting -18 dBFS everywhere; it is keeping every stage from clipping while leaving room for the next move.
Gain staging is mostly about keeping each signal in the range where your gear and plug-ins behave predictably — not about hitting one magic number. Here's how nominal and peak levels differ, and why trimming before compression changes everything downstream.