Re: GAIN STRUCTURE

[van Sinn <vansinn@post.cybercity.dk>]

L.Angulo wrote:
> This is what confuses me,ive heard the complete opposite,get your input 
>signal as strong as possible without any clipping and then turn the ouput 
>gain for the cleanest signal...
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>>A good rule of thumb is that output gain should be as
>>
>>hot as possible with
>>
>>>input gain as low as possible.


None of the above is generally true.  The output driver circuitry in 
some device may sound less clean (not really distorted..) or be a bit 
noisy; thus, setting the output as hot as possible may not be good.
Likewise, the input preamp in some device may exibit the same behaviour; 
thus, it may not be adviceable turning the input high up.

In other words, whether the output should be high and input in the next 
device set low, depends on the devices in question.

Generally, it's usually said to turn the input level up till the input 
LED just starts to light up on peaks, indicating the threshold of 
clipping.  But how the respective outputs and inputs are set relative to 
one another depends on how the quality the two devices.

Further, just about all devices have an input level control, but not all 
have an output control.  In the latter scenario, all one can do is set 
the input on the succeding device.

This may cause problems if the *driving* device has line-level out and 
the next device has an instrument-level input which cannot be set low 
enough to handle the line-level it's being presented.

Most often, devices cope pretty well with these scenarios.
The manual will tell how they're meant to be hooked up, and will have 
the in/output specs at the end of the manual.


Doctor's joke: "Always read the manual before operating" ;D

-- 
rgds,
van Sinn