[Bookerv12]

Hey there,

I don't want to make it seem like it isn't important, but don't be to scientific with the gain staging.
What does help is...
Consider the yellow meter in PT red. (Yellow is the new red)
There was a time when we had to have pretty healthy levels hitting tape decks and such to push the noise floor down and saturate the signal, but that time is over.
Even at a pretty low level, your tracks are pretty high resolution.
It's a good habit to get into in a daw to keep the levels a little more sane.
There is no benefit to hitting things hard. (For the most part)
Turn your monitor volume up.
If you see any of your plugins hit red, rethink your levels.

One of the first things I do when I sit down with someone who is learning is, Make a group out of all of the audio tracks and turn them down 5-10db.
People tend to start out too hot.

Good topic though.
about 70% of everything we get is way too hot for no reason.