Autogain, Gain Control & Volume Editing

Sometimes, you will find that one track is much louder or quieter than others - even when the track volume controls are set to the same position. This is because some tracks are naturally mastered louder or quiter than others.

As a DJ, you want to make sure that tracks have a consistent and controlled volume throughout your mix. This ensures a smooth listening experience, so the audience doesn't need to constantly reach for their volume control.

This guide explains how you can use DJ.Studio's gain control features to get the perfect volume balance across your entire mix.

There are several gain stages in DJ.Studio's signal flow, giving you total control over the individual and combined track outputs.

When importing your tracks you can use DJ'Studio's Normalize individual tracks during import. DJ.Studio will automatically adjust the track level to balance loudness across your mix. These gain changes are visibly applied to each track and can be refined in the master tab.

The main controls for balancing the volume are Track Gain, Track Compressors, and Master Limiter.

Each track in your mix has an independent gain control. This is useful for manually balancing the volume across your mix. For example, if one song is notably quieter than the others, you can turn it up with the track gain control. Note that the gain only affects the selected track, not the entire deck. Next to the Gain label, you'll see a small dot. When the dot is yellow, the gain is locked and the value can't be changed.

Click the dot to unlock the gain, and click it again to lock it back in place. This is useful if you've set the perfect level for a track and want to make sure it doesn't get changed by accident.

Each track also features an independent compressor. This is used to control the dynamic range of a track individually. Some tracks will be more dynamic than others, or sometimes you want to make a track louder, but avoid distorting it by overdriving the signal. This is where the compressors are useful. Simply set the compressor threshold to determine the max volume output, and then crank up the gain to match.

The Mastering section gives you control over the shared and final output of your mix. This gives you one Gain and one Ceiling (limiter) control, which affects the combined output of all tracks.

In this section, you will also see the Gain and Compression of all individual tracks in your mix.

You can use this to set the maximum volume output of your mix, which is the perfect tool for making the volume consistent.

General Auto Gain is the yellow A below the VU meter and can also be found via Settings > General > Auto Gain.

When enabled, DJ.Studio instantly analyzes the incoming audio at the exact moment playback starts and determines the playback gain level so the mix starts around 0 dB.

General Auto Gain is designed to create a smoother playback experience overall and can be especially helpful if you are not yet familiar with managing gain levels manually. However, it also slightly masks what is really happening with the actual volume dynamics inside the mix. For the best results, it is recommended to first balance your individual track levels by using the Normalize Track Gain function.

When General Auto Gain is enabled, it also affects the export of the mix.

Please note that this can sometimes interfere with:

During export auto gain effectively:

We've removed the autogain feature to give you more powerful manual controls. This provides you with greater precision over the gain consistency of your mix, allowing you to find the perfect balance. Autogain was inaccurate, and we weren't satisfied with the results.

To balance the volume of your tracks, use the Gain Control located in the Effects or Master tab. This gives you independent control over each track's volume. If some tracks are louder or quieter than others, use the gain control to balance them out. You can also use the master limiter to apply some compression, putting the tracks in a similar dynamic range.

You can make all tracks the same volume level using the gain control as described above. Alternatively, you could use the master limiter. Make sure that you see the gain reduction indicator being activated for each song to a similar level.

When you change tempo or pitch using high-quality algorithms like Rubberband or Elastique Pro, the audio is recalculated sample by sample. This process can slightly reshape very short transients (like drum hits). Even though your ear perceives almost no difference, these tiny waveform changes can cause the VU meter to register slightly higher peaks.
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In other words: the sound isn’t actually “louder” to your ears, but the mathematical resampling may produce inter-sample peaks that meters catch. This is completely normal, and the overall sound quality remains transparent and musical.

If you want to avoid the VU meter showing higher peaks when stretching, you can do one of the following things:

If the gain control isn't responding, check the small dot next to the Gain label in the Effects tab. If the dot is yellow, the gain is locked. Click the dot once to unlock the gain, and you'll be able to adjust the value as normal. Click it again to lock the gain back in place.

In some situations, you may notice a short spike or louder transient during the very first millisecond after pressing play.

This is most noticeable at the start of a mix or when pressing play from a random position in the timeline, especially when playback starts exactly on a strong beat or transient.

This is generally related to the 'Auto Gain' function. This is the yellow “A” below the VU meter and can also be found via:

Settings > General > Auto Gain

When enabled, DJ.Studio instantly analyzes the incoming audio at the exact moment playback starts and determines the playback gain level so the mix starts around 0 dB.

'Auto Gain' is designed to create a smoother playback experience overall and can be especially helpful if you are not yet familiar with managing gain levels manually. However, it also slightly masks what is really happening with the actual volume dynamics inside the mix. For the best results, it is recommended to first balance your individual track levels by using the Normalize Track Gain function.

Because the gain is determined at the exact moment playback starts, a short overshoot can sometimes occur when playback begins directly on a loud transient, kick, or peak, or simply on a track that is individually gained too loud.