Glossary: Gain Structure | Sweetwater.com

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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	Gain	Gain/Fader Riding
Gain Before Feedback	Gain Reduction	Gain Stage
Gain Structure	Gap	Gate
Gauge	Gauss	GB
General MIDI Lite	Generational Loss	Genlock
German Carve	Gesture	GFI
GHz, Gigahertz	Gig	Gigabit
Gigaflop	GigaFLOPS	Glass Armonica
Glass Master	Glide	Glissando
Global	General MIDI (GM)	GM2
GM Reset	GNU	GoBo
Golden Ratio	Golpeador	Gooseneck
GOP	GPI	Grace Note
Grain	Grand Rights	Granular Synthesis
Graphic Equalizer	Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)	Graphite
Graticule	Green Book	Gretsch Ronnie Lee Model
Grid	Grid Mode	Ground
Ground Bass	Ground Lift	Ground Loop
Ground Wound	Group	Group Delay
GSIF	Guard Band	GUI
Guitar	Guitar Organ	Guitarron