Stop guessing where your levels should sit.

The signal path. The sweet spot — -10 to -5. The six-step routine. The golden rule. One page that ends the guesswork — sent to your inbox now.

One-page HiRes PNG · printable A4 / letter
Drawn from 20+ years mixing in my London studio

Gain Staging Cheat Sheet — one-page reference

/ WHY THIS MATTERS

Too little level = noise.Too much = distortion.Just right = clean, powerful audio.

Mix sounding muddy. Plugins choking. Master that won't get loud without distorting. It's almost always levels.

Fix the gain staging first and everything downstream — EQ, compression, the limiter, the master — gets easier. No expensive plugin will save a chain that's been smashed from the source.

/ WHAT'S INSIDE

Three rules. One page. Zero theory.

THE SIGNAL PATH

GAIN STAGING IN PRACTICE

Hit your DAW at –10 dB with peaks at –5. The sweet-spot range that keeps the next piece of gear downstream happy.

THE QUICK CHECKLIST

Six steps to run every time you start a track. Tape it above the desk. Don't think about levels again.

/ LAST CHANCE TO GRAB IT

Get the sheet. Mix louder. Sleep better.

/ WHO IT'S FROM

I'm Claudio.

I've mixed, mastered and produced records out of my London studio for twenty-plus years. 820,000 of you watch me on YouTube. I teach what I actually do every day — no theory for theory's sake.

— Claudio