Real GAINchanger v1.8
Precision Gain Control for Mixing & Mastering
Overview
Real GAINchanger takes the guesswork out of gain staging and loudness matching. It automatically measures your signal’s true peak level and applies precise gain adjustments so you hit your chosen RMS target every time – with zero latency and no change to your tone.
No more “louder sounds better” bias. Whether you’re comparing plugins, gain staging a mix, or prepping masters, Real GAINchanger keeps your levels consistent so you can make decisions with confidence.
By instantly matching perceived loudness, it frees you to focus on the creative choices that matter – not the volume knob.
Key Features
🎚️ Target RMS Headroom
- Set your desired output level by typing any RMS value you want.
- Complete control over output levels while preserving dynamic range.
⚡ Adaptive Peak Learning
- Automatically tracks the highest peak level of the incoming signal.
- Relearn button ramps gain smoothly (~200 ms) to recalibrate without sudden jumps.
🛠️ Controls
- Target RMS – Set the desired output loudness.
- Relearn – Resets peak detection and ramps gain smoothly for new material.
- Bypass – Temporarily disables gain processing with a click-free ~5 ms crossfade.
📊 Meters & Clip Indicators
- Input and output meters with smoothed peak readings.
- Built-in clip indicators for both input and output.
🔀 Gain Matching with Other Plugins
- You can give any plugin without gain matching the ability to match perceived loudness by positioning Real GAINchanger before and after it.
- Ensure the levels going into and out of the other plugin are identical to prevent bias from gain differences when adjusting its parameters.
Technical Details
| Plugin Type | VST3 (64-bit) |
| Supported OS | Windows 10 and above |
| Space Required | 5 MB |
| Version | 1.8 |
Neolyth (verified owner) –
Straight to the point, and highly practical.
This plugin isn’t about gain leveling or dynamic processing—it’s designed to measure audio peaks in real time and automatically set the highest peak to ‑18 dBFS. Think of it as normalization tailored for analog emulations, and it works instantly.
Setup takes seconds, and the correction holds no matter how much you drive the signal. If you need to reset, a simple “relearn” button recalibrates the algorithm—usually only necessary when the input is quieter than the original source.
What makes it so appealing is its simplicity. No clutter, no over‑engineering—just a tool that gets straight to work the moment you load it. For me, it’s eliminated the hassle of manual gain matching and streamlined the workflow