Gain Staging Guide: Analog vs Digital Levels

In the analog days, we pushed levels into the red to get "saturation". In digital, red means clipping, distortion, and ruin. Understanding the relationship between the two worlds is key.

The Magic Number: -18dBFS

Most professional digital converters are calibrated so that -18dBFS equals 0VU (+4dBu). This means if your meters in your DAW or digital console are hitting -18, you are driving the analog outboard gear at its "sweet spot".

Don't Track Hot

There is no benefit to recording your tracks as close to 0dBFS as possible. You are just risking inter-sample peaks. Record conservatively. You can always turn it up later without adding noise floor (thanks to 24-bit/32-bit audio).

Plugin Input Levels

Many analog-modeled plugins (like Waves compressors) expect an input level of roughly -18dBFS. If you feed them a signal peaking at -0.1dB, they will sound choked and over-compressed before you even touch a knob.