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00:00 Intro
01:15 The Decibel
01:47 DBfs Levels and working in your DAW
02:12 Noise floor and Peak levels
02:52 Dynamic Range and Headroom
03:46 Gain Staging best practices
04:14 Gain Staging in a Signal Chain
05:18 Walkthrough
11:44 Outro
12:10 Bloopers

The Decibel (dB)

- The decibel is defined as one tenth of one bel, named after the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell.
- Decibel is a term used to represent the ratio of one signal level to another, or to measure the change in a sound’s level.
- Raising a sound 10 dBs will increase the power of that sound ten times.
- Decibels measure change rather than absolute volume, which is why 0dB (unity gain) represents no change rather than zero volume.
- DAWs use an objective scale called DbFS - decibels measured relative to full scale. This refers to the maximum level of signal the audio software can handle before clipping occurs.
- Values below 0dBFS are measured in relation to full scale, for example -12dBFS is 12dB lower than clipping volume.

Signal Levels

- The smallest signal an audio device can accommodate is determined by the background electrical noise of the system.
- The highest level is determined by the level the system can handle before starting to clip.
- Maintaining optimal levels between equipment and software is referred to as ‘gain staging’.
- Best gain staging practice is to set a channel fader at around -12dBFS then feed the signal into plugins at unity gain. This will allow for level adjustments afterwards, and ensure the signal is going to plugins at the sweet spot for audio processing.

Headroom

- Dynamic range refers to the difference in dB between the quietest and loudest signals. It also describes the difference between the quietest and loudest parts of an audio signal.
- Headroom can be defined as the unused dynamic range above the highest audio signal level.
- There is no use in pushing an audio signal above 0dB in a DAW because, unlike analog gear, saturation isn’t added to the audio.
- When CDs were popular and digital audio was recorded in 16 bits, engineers would push the signal to 0dBs in an attempt to maximize the peak audio level of 96dB (120dB with dithering). Now that 24-bit audio is the standard this practice doesn’t apply, as 24-bit is capable of peak levels of 140dB or more.
- Leaving 12-15dB of headroom ensures there is enough room to add EQ and dynamic effects during mixing.
- Leaving lots of headroom also allows us to preserve the super fast peak transients at the beginning at the start of a percussive sound. Setting the level too high will clip the initial transient, making the sound dull and less realistic.

Gain Staging

- Optimizing levels as they pass from one hardware and software device to the next is an important concept to grasp that contributes to professional quality recordings.
- If an audio signal is distorted at the start of the signal chain, it will be distorted at every point in the signal chain afterwards. The same happens if an effects processor is overdriven in the middle of the signal chain, carrying forward the saturation in the following processors.
- The opposite is also true, if a preamp is driven too softly the signal will need to be boosted excessively, introducing noise from the system.
- Gain staging is the proper setting of the gain of each processor so that no section overloads individually or in total of all the processing effects.
- Use care when inserting processing devices on the signal chain, ensuring that any gain added with EQ or dynamic processing is compensated for by adjusting the output level.

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