The Guide
The Guide
The foundation. Everything else on this site — the how-tos, the cheat sheets, the playbooks — hangs off the ideas in here. It's written to be read start to finish, but you can also jump to the part you need.
Two ways to read it
Learning it properly? Start at Part 1 and go in order — it builds. Looking one thing up? Jump straight to the part that covers it; every page links to its neighbors and to the hands-on how-tos.
Four parts
Foundations
The mental model: how a channel flows, gain structure, analog gain vs. digital trim, and how signal gets to the channel. Read this once and everything clicks.
The Channel Walkthrough
The repeatable, step-by-step process for setting up any channel, top to bottom. The spine of the whole guide — and the hub the how-tos link back to.
Starting Points by Source
Starting settings for vocals, drums, bass, guitars, keys and more — starting points, not gospel; the room and the player always get the final vote.
Reference Appendices
The quick-glance stuff: frequency cheat sheet, gain-staging targets, compressor reference, common mistakes, and scenes & show files.