Gain
Overall boost or cut of a signal's level, the basic quantity of any signal chain
Related
Gain is an overall boost or cut of a signal's level, measured in decibels. It happens at one stage of the chain: a preamp, a plug-in input, a bus output, and every stage adds to the total.
Gain and a volume fader are not quite the same. Gain usually sits at the input and changes the level entering processors, which can alter distortion and compression behavior; a fader usually sits at the output and changes only how loud the result is.
The usual mistake is to treat gain as volume. Pushing gain feeds later stages a hotter signal and can clip; the better habit is to leave headroom at each stage and save loudness for the end.
Sources
- 增益与电平结构，参 Bob Katz, Mastering Audio 与 Huber & Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.