Sound for Video Session: Setting Gain & Leaving Headroom

In this week's Sound for Video Session, let's explore the question of how to set gain for various situations. We'll also discuss headroom, it's importance, and how much to leave in different situations.

If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini, Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio, and Mixing fundamentals in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight.

Gear I often use or that we mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:

- Mackie DLZ Creator adaptive audio mixer (the original, bigger one)

- Earthworks ETHOS microphone

- Allen & Heath SQ5 digital mixing board

The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.

Copyright 2025, Curtis Judd