Pre Fader Metering on Producer Kits (drummer)

[xmacvicar]

I am recording my own midi drums with an e-kit into logic over USB and using the Producer+ kits; I am using the 'heavy' preset as this is a heavy metal type project. I learned about pre fader metering a while back to help in proper gain staging for a mix. I notice in pre fader metering that the various drum tracks (kick, snare, etc) are very heavy on volume, almost all of them peaking around -2, 0 DB. Do I need to insert a gain plugin to bring the levels down? With my limited knowledge I was told to keep things around -12DB so you had more headroom to mix.

[David Nahmani]

I learned about pre fader metering a while back to help in proper gain staging for a mix.

I keep hearing this type of comment, and I have yet to understand how pre fader metering helps in proper gain staging for a mix?

 

I notice in pre fader metering that the various drum tracks (kick, snare, etc) are very heavy on volume, almost all of them peaking around -2, 0 DB. Do I need to insert a gain plugin to bring the levels down? With my limited knowledge I was told to keep things around -12DB so you had more headroom to mix.

There's no need to keep things around -12 dB or to keep more headroom to mix or to use pre fader metering or to insert gain plug-ins.... I'm afraid there is so much misinformation out there that when you're new to it you start feeling like everything "needs" to be a certain way, the more complicated the better. It's not so. Keep it simple, dial in your levels however you see fit to get the mix you want, try not to go into the red. And before you resort to any solution, ask yourself which problem you're trying to solve first? If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

 

Here's a suggestion for easy gain staging: determine what one of the strongest element in your mix will be. Sometimes it's the kick, sometimes it's the lead vocal, sometimes it's another element. Try to get it to peak to around -3 dBFS. Dial in everything else BY EAR and ear alone. If the original element truly should be the strongest, everything should normally peak below that and you should be able to mix without having to look at your meters without any gain staging issues.

[xmacvicar]

Thanks David.

 

I did see a video where the guy utilized pre fader metering for mixing and it seemed to make so much sense. Letting everything be around -12 db gave so much room to ensure volume balance without clipping the main out.

 

What I found odd is by default, the Heavy producer kit was so maxed out (I didn't make any changes) I thought to myself "this can't be right, its so close to clipping!"

[David Nahmani]

I did see a video where the guy utilized pre fader metering for mixing and it seemed to make so much sense.

Why? What is the argument for using pre fader metering?

 

Letting everything be around -12 db gave so much room to ensure volume balance without clipping the main out.

Do you need that much room? With everything around -12 dBFS, what is your Stereo Out peak level?

 

What I found odd is by default, the Heavy producer kit was so maxed out (I didn't make any changes) I thought to myself "this can't be right, its so close to clipping!"

Is that an issue? Why?