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‘Splain me, please... diff between input and output Gain adjusting
Please inform me!
Comments
To my knowledge, the only real difference is the impact to gain staging. If the input is hot then you have less headroom while gain staging, but if it’s too low and you have to crank the gain on the output, then you’re likely to degrade your signal to noise ratio.
In the digital world it's no longer a complicated subject. Goal one is to eliminate clipping. Goal two is to reduce noise floor. Clipping is generally only going to occur when coming into or leaving a DAW or other host. Noise is only going to come from an input source such as an audio interface or microphone.
If you're recording from a mic or line-in there is usually a practical maximum amplitude that either the interface or the host can handle without clipping. Clipping is distortion where the peaks are chopped off because they exceed the maximum amplitude that can be handled at that point in the signal chain.
If an input source has noise, then adjusting the gain as high as possible without clipping will improve the signal to noise ratio.
Internally in a host you're not likely to get clipping unless there are FX in the chain designed to distort on high input. Generally no need to be overly concerned there.
Exiting the host, or when saving to files, then you can get clipping. Whether you adjust input or output gain is only important if you're using a limiter or compression. Input gain affects how hard the compressor is driven. Output gain does not.
Pretty simple now days. There are only three places unwanted distortion will happen in a digital DAW: at the input interface, in FX that distort with high input (relatively rare), and output to audio or file.
I'm not an expert in this subject, but I do play one on TV.
Context?
Gain just means a change in volume. Input gain is adjusting volume at the beginning of the chain. Output gain is volume adjustment after all other processing.
Without discussing a particular context, there isn't much more to be said than that.
What causes you to ask?
In general (and in practice it hardly ever applies like you think it should), I’ll gain stage by adjusting the input trim so that the level is about -12dB when the fader is at 0. When all the channels are added up, this should result in a mix out signal that has enough room to breathe. Then you can start automating.
I think some apps (RX950?) increase saturation as the input gain is increased.
Virtually any app that produces saturation or distortion will increase it with higher input gain.
Lots of apps that you might not think add distortion do add saturation for "analog" sound. Anything that is trying to sound like classic analog hardware might be designed purposely to do this. Of course compressors and limiters react differently according to input level.
Right. I am thinking some deliberately code in the increase as well as the natural gain result.
Thanks for the info, guys. I think I’m good without messin’ with my input gain.
Please, mess with it... "MIDI Learn" it to a pendulum controller and generate musical
seasickness. Have you seen MusicKraken? You could be the Laurie Anderson of the ABF.
Seriously, thanks for asking a good solid question for the experts (who admin that the subject is vast and beyond the knowing of most of us) to clarify.
Poor Gain Staging used to be really easy and hard to manage... now it's hard to mess it up
and you'll probably hear it right away, I suspect.
A good example in the tube amp realm is a guitar plugged into an amp. With amp gain set at a point where some breakup up is occurring then dialling the guitar volume down results in a cleaner tone. Full volume will achieve the maximum breakup/overdrive based on the gain setting. Volume at the output stage will drive the speaker which depending on the quality should only affect the audible signal volume.
One man’s input gain is another man’s output gain