LOL - Thanks! Appreciate the comment! Lots more to come!

Awesome - you made my day with your comment - this is exactly what I was hoping for in creating these videos. Really appreciate the feedback!! Much more to come!

My pleasure! More to come!!

My pleasure - much more to come!

Great!! Glad this was helpful!

You are very welcome!!

Great! Makes me happy that you are liking the T.A.B.S. method - let me know how your mixes turn out! Thanks for the comment!

Thanks SayMan!!

Analog is a whole other animal with so many factors. I should plan some analog videos for the future!

My pleasure! Let me know if you have any questions!

@@GGabrielMusic Yes! Thank you for being willing to answer questions! At the moment, I do have several. 1) Are you planning to cover monitoring and custom headphone mixing? I almost understand it... 2) Back to the Autoload: regarding the monitoring that we set up there. Is that specifically for the engineer and 3) recommended for what I think of as pre-mixing (if you can imagine what I mean by that? Otherwise I can elaborate.) I really appreciate all your series and willingness to help us understand.

Answers: 1) Yes - I will be covering monitors and headphone mixing as I have added that to the list last week (great minds think alike!) 2) Please define what you mean by 'the monitoring we set up there' for your Autoload question - I'm not sure I understand 3) Please elaborate Thanks for reaching out - I will do my best to answer any questions on this once it is clarified. Thanks!!

​@@GGabrielMusic 1) YEEHAAAAAA, hallelujah! thank you Great Mind! I am making great progress since you've been creating these series. 2) from The AutoLoad- Part 2: after 8:01, "adding auxiliaries, the first are just monitors for our (8:04) audio interface let's just for the sake of argument saying we're using a two-channel Scarlet so our first two auxes are going to just be Dem monitor" 3) Elaborating: my question should have been, how do we use the Dem monitor? Mine is still muted as per instructions for set up. BTW, I'm working the Scarlett 18i20, and I am recording pretty much every day, with what I think of as practice mixing (adding EQ, Compression, etc, as per the T.A.B.s map) to train my ears to distinguish what these entities add to the sound.

AHHH - ok - So, all those do is give you direct access to monitor your Scarlett IF there is even an occasion to do that. The only time I actually unmute those is if there is a lot of stuff in my session and let's say I want to play the bass over it but the bass level is too low (this works for vocals too). So...unmuting the direct monitoring of that gives me not only the level from the track I am trying to record, but also the raw signal of the bass (or vocal) so I can hear it better while tracking. I use it about 3% of the time - but I have the option if need be. It is fair to point out that it doesn't really work if you are using and amp simulator or something on the track level. It is really only if you want to boost the raw signal coming in from your interface if you need to. Hope this clears up what that does.

Good question - thanks for reaching out! I pretty much manage gain throughout the entire signal flow. I think the thing is, using a utility to keep your pre-master at -12 db may cause some additional distortion or less desirable limiting / compression depending on what you are using for a gain utility. What has worked well for my workflow is managing all my gain at the track level (plugins included) then keeping by busses at -12 and then sending them to the stereo out. Although I may mix my busses up to as high as -6db, they never end up going over zero. That said, I also compress and EQ all my busses so it is important to manage your gain in all those too. My gain structure goal is to have everything under zero collected together to hit my stereo master at -3 db - then I add my mastering chain. My suggestion is manage your gain throughout the entire signal flow. Hope this is what you are looking for in an answer. Thanks for your questions and if there is anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out!

@@GGabrielMusic this is exactly the advice I was looking for. The clipping inside the virtual instrument was an eye opener. Now, I do produce more electronic stuff that uses clipping as sound design, but I’ve been struggling with where I let that happen naturally vs unintentionally. Thank you so much!

You can always have the original sound NOT clip and use clipping plugins to do that for you - that way you get to keep your actual gain below zero and clip and distort using plug ins designed for that purpose.

Thanks for your input! In giving it the label 'gain structure' I am meaning the structure of your gain throughout your signal flow, which includes all the pathways your signal goes through. While I agree that you have tons of headroom, the reality is once your plugins, tracks, or busses peak, you can audibly hear the distortion and my goal was to point those instances out to ensure users get the cleanest sound possible without added distortion. Thanks for commenting!