Someone explain the gain staging in Logic

There is more than one fader setting, which one do you have?

Have you used the utility Io plug in and the 1k signal to calibrate?

I’ve never had to calibrate Logic in 22 yrs. Sounds like whoever sent you the Project file did something weird with gainstaging

Johnkenn , first make sure you've got the fader metering set how you want it, whether pre-fader or post-fader. (If you right-click in the transport at the top of the page, then click 'Customize Control Bar and Display', you'll see one of the options in the far right column is 'Pre Fader Metering'. Add that to your control bar / transport and you can toggle where the meters are reading from.)

I usually use Post Fader metering when mixing, personally. if you're on Post Fader metering and the faders are down super low like how I think you're describing, then my guess is whoever tracked it tracked with their levels too hot. You could bring down the gain on all channels by selecting all the faders in the mixer and inserting a Gain plugin and gain it down there. Or you could select all regions in the Arrange page and go to the Inspector on the top left and gain everything down there.

I'm just guessing based on what it sounds like you're saying is going on...



EDIT: Peter beat me to the punch on the Pre/Post fader metering...

I just meant to check what is going on, never had the problem you described, so like Mark said, must be in the session.

Was thinking, if you check, then you could let client know, so it doesn’t happen again ?

In project settings, under “ Audio” you can change the pan law , standard is -3 compensated, switching to the -3 (non compensated setting) gives a little extra headroom too!