When it comes to mixing there’s one thing you must know about yourself. You will always prefer louder sounds over quieter ones. If we compare two vocal passes, we’ll pick the one that’s louder. If we compare two plugin settings, we’ll choose the one that is louder. It’s a well documented phenomenon, but how do we fight it? Gain matching.
Via Andrew Butitta Flickr
Compressors And Makeup Gain
Compression is one area that I feel we can easily fool ourselves into thinking a compressor is either hurting or helping our tracks. In one scenario, we’ll slap a compressor on something like the mix buss, dial in a preset or some standard settings, and we’ll think, “Man this makes my mix sound better already!” Could it be that the compressor is simply boosting the signal by 3db and it sounds more exciting? The same could be true if the compressor setting makes your mix quieter. You think, “Where did my mix go?!”
What you should do is simply grab the makeup gain knob and tweak it until your mix is hitting the same volume up the meter with the plugin on or bypassed. You’ve matched the gain so that the plugin’s output is the same volume as it’s input. Now you can simply listen to see what the compressor is doing to the sound, the tone of your tracks, untainted by the allure of louder (or quieter) output.
Boost Happy With EQs
The same problem happens with EQs. Since a lot of us are in the bad habit of boosting a lot with EQs we tend to like the sounds we’re getting initially. Why? Well, we’ve simply turned up a track at a pleasing frequency. It’s louder, so we think it sounds better. But if you’re going to boost a frequency, you’d better off turning the whole EQ output down to compensate for the amount of boosting happening.
By gain matching the EQ output to it’s input, you’ll be left with a signal that is the same volume as before but now is emphasizing a specific frequency that it wasn’t before. That way you can bypass it on or off and here an actual difference being made, not just a volume boost. This will help you determine if the EQ move was worth it at all. If not, then you take it off and save your mix some precious headroom.
Referencing Other Mixes
One super helpful practice is to pull in your favorite pro mixes to your DAW of choice and reference it every now and then as you work on your mix. The problem generally is that these references are already mastered, so they are loud as beans! This will always make you feel worse about your mix. You’ll like the louder mix better, which is just silly.
Instead once you pull in the reference track, simply pull down the fader and match its output volume to your main outs to match that of your current mix. This way you can flip back and forth and simply hear the reference for it’s tonal qualities and punch, not it’s volume. Your mix can get plenty loud later in the mastering stage, so don’t let volume get in the way of your work.
Check Yourself
As the great poet Ice Cube once said: “You better check yo self before you wreck yo self.” This couldn’t be truer when it comes to gain matching in mixing. Just because a plugin or a preset seems to make your track sound better, check the output volume and make sure it matches the input volume before you decide whether it is helping (or hurting) your mix.
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Thanks for the reminder Graham, keep up the good work
You bet!
Great article(s), Graham. On many of your points, I agree. That said- where can I hear any work you’ve created?
Thanks,
Volta
My recent EP can be found here: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/grahamcochrane
OK, this concept is going over my head. What do you mean by the “makeup gain knob” sorry for my ignorance, kind of a beginner here. This is my first post but I’ve been reading the site for a while now. Awesome stuff Graham. Thank you!
Hi Nate,
It wasn’t long ago I wondered the same thing. Makeup gain is simply a “volume knob” on a compressor or an EQ. Compressors lower the volume by squashing the peaks of a wave form, so turning up the volume a little helps to maintain the overall level. EQ can go either way. If you cut a lot of frequencies, you may need to turn up the overall volume of the EQ, and vice-versa.
Like Graham is pointing out, the goal is keep the volume of your track’s meter the same whether the plugin effect is bypassed or not. You will be able to better judge the before & after without being influenced by changes in volume.
Hi Nate, check out my Compression Basics video here: http://therecordingrevolution.com/2010/03/29/compression-basics-video/
Taken from Melda Production plugins description (many very cool freebies there, most of them have AGC):
“Automatic gain compensation (AGC) – most plugins can change loudness of the output audio, which makes browsing presets not convenient, not mentioning randomization. Our plugins include automatic gain compensation, which quickly adapts to current settings and ensure the output sounds as loud as the input. This even protects you from thinking that something sounds better in cases it’s just louder.”
Interesting, no?
– Mario
Thanks Dan.
So after compressing, is it common practive to raise the volume (makeup gain) in the compressor? And just so I have this right, we’re saying that the track should sound the same, volume-wise, regardless of whether the compressor is active or not?
That’s the idea!
Yep, that’s how I do it Nate. Then I hover my mouse over the bypass button, close my eyes while the track is playing, click, listen, click, listen. Helps me hear what the effect is really doing.
I like the Melda plugins Mabian mentioned. MEqualizer is one of my favorite EQs because it has a mode where I just hold down the mouse button to hear the frequency the cursor is at. It’s great for sweeping around to find troublesome areas. MAutoPitch is a simple, effective auto-tuner. MTremola is good for automatic panning. I use those three often.
Haha! I was just pondering to myself about “make-up gain” on a compressor (for awhile I thought you HAD to set the make up gain to match the gain reduction meter. So if I had lost on the GR 3.5db I should set the make-up gain 3.5). Recently I was questioning this method because it’s taught all over Youtube/online places and forums (and I was thinking if this method was truly correct one might ask why not throw a gain plugin instead of a compressor since all your REALLY looking for is a Volume boost to excite your ear). Now I know you are originally suppose to match the Audio level of the compressed audio to the uncompressed audio (Basically, A/B bypass the compressed version and the uncompressed audio and set the gain knob until it matches equally. So that means my GR can say 3.5 reduction, but if i set the gain to 1.5 and both the uncompressed audio and compressed audio are relatively on the same audio level it’s correct. Use your EARS! Not your Eyes!)
Long story short, I clicked on your web and your discussing the exact thing that was bothering me today lol.
It’s fate! (I wish I knew this sooner. No One ever talks about the gain knob on the compressor and that’s the one mistake most people who are starting off with compression make the most mistake in setting correctly. They’ll just boost the heck out of there audio without really asking why).
thanks for the article! =)
Glad I could read your mind 🙂
Hi Graham, I just wanted to say thank you to Joe and yourself for all that you do to educate the masses, it is appreciated. Dueling mixes is dope.
later
jim
Thanks Jim! Pumped for next month’s mix!
Thanks again Graham (and Dan)!
Blessed day sir Graham. are you familiar with the waves vocal rider? do you recommend that plugin? Thanks.
I’ve heard people like it. Never used it.
Thank you sir.
great post G. my concern now is how one would compensate for boosting + cutting frequencies on the same Eq.
Thanx
I just solo the track and watch my master levels (or judge by ear). However, there are EQs out there with auto-gain compensation, though not too common yet. I paid to upgrade the Melda Productions free plugin bundle just to get that feature on their MEqualizer plugin. Works great when you just want to sweep over frequencies without being influenced by volume changes. I think the EQ built into Presonus Studio 1 does that too, but not positive.
I have Studio 1 Pro and have not found any hovering feature with the EQ. Maybe that I have looked in the correct place yet.
I swear Graham! No matter if it’s an advanced stuff or you taking us back to the basics, I ALWAYS seem to walk away a better engineer after reading one of your posts.
Please keep up the amazing work! And thank you for all you do!
Great to hear!
I’m sort of in a small dilemma. I’ve been using CLA signature series on my mixes because it saves me a ton of time on mixing and produces quick results that sound really good. When I mix using my own eq/compressors etc…. I try to get my sound as close to his as possible but (for now) mixing with his plugs always sound better.
So the dilemma is……I’m becoming very lazy at mixing because I keep using his plug-ins which already has his eq/compressor/saturation/reverb presets. Well…..maybe lazy should be called more efficient. I’m not sure. Part of me thinks I should at least be practicing the art of mixing but then I think…..my goal is to write great sounding tracks. Who cares how I get there. Any thoughts on this approach?
Your last sentence says it all: “Who cares how you get there.” If you have a go to plug that really gets you the sound you like quickly, then keep rocking it!
Whenever I sum to Mono, the volume is drastically lower and the C50A distorts at a lower level. Is this normal?