The Mastering Show #39 - Digital Gain Staging: what’s the point ?

Gain staging used to be a crucial consideration for analogue recording and mixing - but you’ll hear plenty of people saying it doesn’t really matter, in a modern digital audio workstation. And they have a (floating) point. But you’ll also hear lots of other people, me included, saying it IS important to understand what gain staging is and how it works, even in a digital environment. So who’s right ? In this show we dig into the details, and discuss: * How much peak headroom should you leave before mastering ? * What IS gain staging, anyway ? * Why do people say it doesn’t matter in digital ? Or: * What’s the point of floating point ? * How does it work ? * When digital gain staging does matter Full show notes on the website: http://themasteringshow.com/episode-39