Reversing Gain

[FabDJ]

Hi All

Can someone explain how my music sounds better if the Amp is on 8

and the mixer on 1-2 than the mixer on 8-9 and the amp on 1-2

Thanks FabDJ.

[Tomy]

could have something to do with your speakers. i have a pair of speakers that sound like crap at low volume but sound nice once turned up.

when the mixer is on 8-9 are there red lights flashing? red lights = cliping, clipping = bad sound.

[FabDJ]

The volume is the same as I am attenulating upstream not at the amp. Upstream gives fuller sound than reducing the volume at the amp.

[CBG]

You can holiday in the reds, but you don't want to live there

[JonnyB]

i know the is a reason for this, but i cant remember, i think there is like a thread on a similaer topic whioch may explain it, ill try find it

[JonnyB]

http://www.ausdjforums.com/modules.php? ... pic&t=1425

ok so basically the gain, is how strong the signal being sent to your amp is, and the amp turns that signal strength into sound, and you can then alter the sound volume with the amp.

Now if the gain is too high, your sending an signal that is damaging to the amp. so the signal is bad before it gets to the amplifier, so when the amp turns that signal into sound the sound is going to be a bad sound regardless of the volume. if you know what i mean?

Ok so the gain sends the signal, the strength of the gain determins how much quality the the sound will have. the amp only controlls how loud the sound will be.

so the reason it sounds better when your gain is down and the amp is up, is because the gain is sending a clear signal, and the amp is trunign that clear signal into a loud sound, that is clear.

but when you have the gain up and the amp down, the hain is sending a shit signal so no matter what volume the amp is on, its gonna sound craper.

i hope that made sence. cause honestly im not to sure what im talking about. just going off what that post said.

[LabRat]

i flash red. on occasions, i hang around on 1 red. usually, my channels flash red and my master holds 1 under (depending where im playing or what im doing)

[FabDJ]

Dont have any reds on the mixer as pc is on 0db or less. dead flat on I tunes equaliser but with mixer on 8-9 and amp on 1-2 sounds flat

With mixer on 1-2 and amp on 8-9 sounds better with more detail in sound. Must be a reason amp can perform better when given more headroom

8-9 with a lower input signal 1-2.

[SourceRaver]

Assuming the signal path goes like this:

Pooder - mixer - amp - speakers

Maybe the signal from the pooder is clean but has too much signal strength (gain). That why it sounds good comming out of the mixer at lower levels. Because of this lower level, the amp needs to be turned up to reproduce it at a good listening level.

When you up the levels on the mixer, you increasing the gain on an already hot signal and are therefore distorting the audio. The amp then compounds the problem by trying to reproduce a distorted signal = bad sound.

Try reducing the levels from the pooder and let us know what happens.

What you'll be doing is trying the match the gains at every point in the signal path, better known as 'gain staging'.

[FabDJ]

Have reduced levels from pewter and mixer to get good sound from amp. Noticed massive distortion on bob sinclaire song and adjusted i tunes gain levels First time I found the I tunes gain contol cause it sounded shit.

Sound is not distorted with hi mixer, low amp levels

just does not sound as good with detail as the other way around .

I might ask my little brother as he is a audio engineer.but he thinks my stuff is crap and will say "told you so."..

[SourceRaver]

Mmmm...

Maybe its something to do with your speakers? Maybe your getting reduced trebble from the tweeters (or horns?) at low amp levels. It could something to do with the crossovers in your speakers if their two or three way.

I'm also wondering if your source (MP3?) is causing the variation.

Let us know what your brother thinks!

[CBG]

this thread makes me think way too hard to give a proper answer. When i have a couple of hours, il think about nice and hard lol (providing SR hasnt given you an answer allready)

[FabDJ]

Aswer from little brother, will download article to figure it out

Hi Vince,

I hope this explains it.

Scenario 1

Source level ? + Mixer level 1~2 + Amp level 8 = good sound

Scenario 2

Source level ? > Mixer level 8~9 > Amp level 1~2 = poor sound

Senario 1 has a better gain structure. On paper it looks like you could be clipping at the mixer level.

http://www.recordingreview.com/articles ... Page1.html

Cheers

[SourceRaver]

"There is another form of complaining, which is a little more “violent” sounding. It's called “clipping”. It's when you cram more signal into a preamp or mixer than it can stand. In other words, you are boosting the signal way too much. This creates distortion"

[DjNikko]

lol at cbg, YOU CAN HOLIDAY IN THE REDS BUT YOU DON'T WANNA LIVE THERE. loved that saying hahaha.