Glossary: Gain Structure | Sweetwater.com

Expert Center > Glossary > Gain Structure

«Back to Glossary Menu

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0-9

Gain Structure: When multiple pieces of electronic audio (or video) equipment are used together, the gain structure of the system becomes an important consideration for overall sound quality. This basically refers to which pieces are amplifying or reducing the signal how much. A properly set up gain structure takes maximum advantage of the dynamic range and signal to noise ratio of each piece in the chain. No one piece is doing a disproportionate amount of the amplification unless it is a piece designed for that function (such as a mic preamp). An example of poor gain structure would be a setup where a mixer's master fader is near the bottom, while all of the individual channel faders are near the top. The resulting level out of the mixer is the same as it would be if all faders were at some mid setting, but the chances of distortion are much higher because of limited available headroom in the circuits preceding the master fader, while the S/N ratio of the final output isn't as great as it could be were the master fader at a more appropriate level. Part of assembling a system with good gain structure is making sure all the pieces can operate at the same reference level. This is where people go wrong combining -10 dBV equipment and +4 dBu equipment. It can work under the right circumstances, but sometimes the resulting gain structure severely compromises the signal to noise ratio of the final result (or in some cases causes it to be distorted). Gain structure must be considered to optimize any system where levels can be adjusted in more than one place.

G-Cadillac Tailpiece

Gaffer Tape

Gain

Gain/Fader Riding

Gain Before Feedback

Gain Reduction

Gain Stage

Gain Structure

Gap

GAS

Gate

Gauge

Gauss

GB

G Brand

Gear Acquisition Syndrome

GearFest

GearFestive

General MIDI Lite

General Pause

Generational Loss

Genlock

German Carve

Germanium

Gesture

GFI

GHz, Gigahertz

GiB

Gibibyte

Gibson L5 Archtop

Gibson Style O

Gig

Gigabit

Gigabyte

Gigaflop

GigaFLOPS

Gig Bag

Glass Armonica

Glass Master

Glide

Glissando

Global

General MIDI (GM)

GM2

GM Reset

GNU

GoBo

Gold-lip Pearl

Golden Ratio

Gold Master/Golden Master

Golpeador

Gooseneck

GOP

GPI

Grab It and Go

Grace Note

Grain

Grand Central Dispatch

Grand Rights

Grand Staff

Granular Synthesis

Graphic Equalizer

Graphics Controller

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Graphic User Interface

Graphite

Graticule

Green Book

Gretsch Ronnie Lee Model

Grid

Grid Mode

Grille

Grille Cloth

Ground

Ground Bass

Ground Lift

Ground Loop

Ground Wound

Group

Group Delay

GSIF

Guard Band

GUI

Guide Track

Guild Thunderbird S200

Guitar

Guitar Organ

Guitarron

Guitorgan

Our Customers Say...