Setting Levels - Volume: Where to Start

[earthday]

Hello,

Sorry, this is a newbie question. I'm lost in terms of setting volume - there are so many options (example screenshots attached):

- within a plugin interface (normally related to mic from what I can see)
- on the contact instrument/slot slider
- in the contact mixer
- in my Cubase track within the mixer console

Then there is the actual velocity of the midi note as well.

Which one should I adjust primarily when writing a song - I'm just using midi instruments (not audio). I might be way off, but I thought I should be aiming for consistency as indicated in the Cubase mix console (for example most instruments peaking around -2db), and then adjust the plugin, contact instrument/slot slider, or contact mixer to help achieve this. But I'm not sure which one, and if there's standard practice in this regard.

If I do the above, then when it comes to mixing at the end, I can adjust the track levels within the Cubase mixer console.

I'm researching how to develop a template for orchestration, and am aware of sends and group tracks (e.g. send all stringed instruments to a group track so I can adjust their overall volume etc).

I've googled this, but must not be entering the right search criteria, as most of the results talk about 'gain staging' or plugins that help with volume - I'm not sure this is what I need though.

Appreciate any wisdom - thanks.

[thecontrolcentre]

Gain staging is what you're asking about. It's pretty straightforward. Nothing in your signal chain should be overloading and generally you would use a track fader set the final level when mixing. Here's a few tutorials ...

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... w-software

https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/gain-s ... do-it.html

[earthday]

Thanks thecontrolcentre, much appreciated

There you go... so 'gain staging' is the term. Look forward to checking out those youtube vids tonight.

Thanks for providing them.

[Keith99]

The note velocity should not be used to adjust volume as changes in velocity can often change the sound itself and not just its volume

[SNBeatz]

You want to try to eliminate internal clipping at every stage of volume levelling process (unless that's the effect you're going for for sound design). I'm not sure if many plugins nowadays have a "hardcoded" limiter built in anymore, but it's still best to be safe by watching your meters every step of the way and remain out of the red. This applies to both synths and effects, especially analog modelled types which very well COULD have the limiting or soft clipping built in.

As for mixer track faders, it's much less of a problem because most modern DAWs utilize something called 32 bit floating point math for their faders that allow for much more gain before any sort of digital clipping occurs, which is what happens when your levels surpass 0 db. The meter on your mix bus should NEVER cross 0 db though, because on export to MP3, or 16/24 bit WAV, etc. anything above 0 there will cause digital clipping as those formats don't utilize 32 bit floating point math.

In short, a good rule of thumb when you're starting out is to watch your meters and keep them out of the red every step of the way until you know what you're looking to achieve when pushing anything harder. Keep your mix bus below 0 db. Also if you plan on doing any volume automation you should also avoid using the mixer track faders for basic levelling because those are commonly used for the said volume automation.

[kenny saunders]

You want to set the general volume of a sound by the sound source output, because mixer faders has a higher resolution around the 0db mark than if the sound source was really loud and you turn the mixer fader down to -20, changes at that level are more coarse.

Also be sure to match the volume into a plugin that comes out so you know it sounds better on its own merit, not just because it is louder

Also some plugs have an input level that you can ramp up within the plugin to give character.

[Forgotten]

The note velocity should not be used to adjust volume as changes in velocity can often change the sound itself and not just its volume

Or it could be changed for that very reason. All of the steps in the chain can have an impact, but as thecontrolcentre says, it's all about gain staging, and while you work your way through it you need to be aware of whether any changes to have effects on the sound.