Gain Staging and the Static Balance

Before EQ, compression or effects, a mix is a set of volume relationships. Most mixing problems are balance problems in disguise, and most balance problems are easier to fix with a fader than with a plugin.

Peak, RMS and LUFS

Three ways to measure level, used for different jobs:

Measure	What it reads	Use it for
Peak (dBFS)	The highest sample value	Avoiding clipping on export
RMS (dBFS)	Average power over a short window	How hard a signal hits a plugin
LUFS / LU	Perceived loudness, weighted like the ear	Comparing parts, mixes and references

A snare and a pad can peak at the same level while the pad sounds far louder, because the snare's energy is a short spike and the pad's is constant. That gap between peak and average is the crest factor, and it's why you balance by ear and LUFS rather than by peak meters.

Headroom in a modern DAW

Old advice says to keep every track low "so the DAW doesn't clip". Modern DAWs mix internally in 32-bit (or 64-bit) floating point, which cannot clip inside the session; you can push a channel well over 0 dBFS and pull the master down without damage. Clipping only becomes real at:

• The converter — your audio interface output.
• The exported file, if it's fixed-point (16- or 24-bit).
• Plugins that model analogue gear, which are designed to expect a level around −18 dBFS RMS and saturate differently when hit harder.

So the practical rules are:

1. Trim sources so they sit roughly around −18 dBFS RMS going into analogue-style plugins, with peaks well below 0. Use clip gain or a trim plugin at the top of the chain, not the fader.
2. Leave the mix bus peaking around −6 to −3 dBFS when you bounce for mastering. That's not because of clipping inside the DAW; it gives the mastering stage room to work and keeps the export file safe.
3. Never let the master channel clip on playback — what you hear is what comes out of the converter.

Faders first

Build a static balance — no plugins at all, or just the instrument itself — before reaching for processing. A method that works:

1. Pull every fader down.
2. Bring up the most important element — the lead vocal in a song, the kick and bass in club music — to a comfortable level, peaking around −10 dBFS on the master.
3. Add the next most important element and set it relative to the first. Then the next.
4. Pan as you go (more in a later lesson), because panning changes how loud things seem.
5. Loop the densest section — the chorus or drop — since that's where balance is hardest.

Starting points from measured mixes

When researchers had experienced engineers each mix the same songs, the engineers disagreed about most levels but agreed on one: the lead vocal sat about 3 LU below the whole mix. The kick, snare, rest of the kit and bass all sat lower, with no consistent order between them. Genre moves the vocal: released country and rap records put the lead roughly 3–4 dB above the accompaniment, pop about 3 dB, rock near level with it, and metal a few dB under it.

Treat these as a sanity check, not a target to dial in. If your vocal sits 10 LU below the mix, it's very probably buried.

Fix volume problems with volume

If a part is too loud in one bar and fine in the next, that's an automation job, not a compressor job. Clip-gain the loud word down, ride the fader into the chorus. A compressor fixes continuous dynamic problems; it's a blunt tool for one-off ones.

Once the static balance sounds like a convincing rough mix, save a copy or a snapshot. Every later decision gets compared against it: if a plugin doesn't make the mix better than the rough, take it off.