★ NEW ISSUE DROPS WEEKLY//READ: THE UNDERGROUND SOUND REPORT//DAW WARS — WHICH PLUGINS ACTUALLY MATTER//HOW PRODUCERS ARE GETTING PAID IN 2026//FREE COURSES WORTH YOUR TIME//SCENE REPORTS FROM THE FLOOR//THIS WEEK'S RELEASES & COLLABS//★ SAMPLED — SOUND × STYLE × SCENES//★ NEW ISSUE DROPS WEEKLY//READ: THE UNDERGROUND SOUND REPORT//DAW WARS — WHICH PLUGINS ACTUALLY MATTER//HOW PRODUCERS ARE GETTING PAID IN 2026//FREE COURSES WORTH YOUR TIME//SCENE REPORTS FROM THE FLOOR//THIS WEEK'S RELEASES & COLLABS//★ SAMPLED — SOUND × STYLE × SCENES//

SAMPLEDEST. 2026 · UNDERGROUND SOUND × STYLE × SCENES

#loudness normalization

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Gain Staging Explained: The Producer's Guide to Clean Headroom, Honest Plugins, and Louder Mixes

Gain Staging Explained: The Producer's Guide to Clean Headroom, Honest Plugins, and Louder Mixes

Everything you actually need to know about setting levels in a modern DAW — the physics behind 0 dBFS, why -18 dBFS is the magic number, DAW-by-DAW steps, and a worked example you can copy on your next session.