Gain Staging with Plugins

Here’s an interesting article on gain staging with plugins.

Here’s the beginning of the article on the Universal Audio website:

What is Gain Staging? The Subtle Art of Signal Chains

For those of us who toiled over faders back when the earth was still cooling, the concept of gain staging was fairly easy to grasp. Each separate box was a link in the audio chain, visibly connected via patch cables, and analog distortion was easy to hear and identify. In today’s all-digital, in-the-box world, it’s not that simple. Signal paths can be unconventional and convoluted, and digital distortion can be subtle and sneaky.

But while the dawn of the DAW has fundamentally changed the way we make records, proper gain staging is no less critical to good recording. The user-friendly, forgiving design of computer audio programs can make it all too easy to overlook a poorly-thought-out signal chain, and the results can sneak up and bite you.

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