Gain assistant remains low.

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  • #119779
    Profile photo of MandelMandel
    Participant

    When my signal becomes louder, the ‘auto gain’ knocks down the gain, which is good. My problem is, that it remains to be low, even after the signal is back to normal. This will cause the gain to stay low all the time , so if for 5 seconds, the signal became very loud, from than on, all the sound will be low, unless I manually turn up the gain. Is this how it supposed to be? In the manual it seems that the gain will be knocked down ‘only while the signal became louder’. Is my machine defective? It’s not easy to have to turn up the gain again every few minutes.
    Thanks for any help.

    #119785
    Profile photo of Lee7Lee7
    Participant

    Gain assistant should after a period of time return the gain back to where it started off from, or at least that is how it works on my unit when I used it for the first time. Maybe your peak loudness is not coming down enough for the assistant to increase the gain back?

    #119789
    Profile photo of KeithJ A&HKeithJ A&H
    Moderator

    @Mandel

    That is normal and how Auto Gain works.
    From the user guide:

    Auto Gain
    This can be used independently of Auto Set and turned on or off at any time. Auto
    Gain constantly checks the input signal level in the background and if the preamp
    gain is set too high (e.g. an instrument or voice get louder than they were during
    sound check), it will reduce gain until the signal is back to an optimum level.”

    There is no way to tell whether the 5 seconds of increased level you mention is abnormal and only a one off, or if the preamp gain is set too high for the source, and therefore needs to be reduced.

    We did look into increasing gain as well, but the main issue is how long should it take to do so?
    If too short a time, then the level would be bouncing all over the place.
    Too long a time and you could end up with a passage where, say a vocal, cannot be heard and then gradually comes back, but in the meantime, the performer cannot hear themselves and pushes harder, thereby triggering the auto gain to pull back again, so there is no benefit.
    It may be something we revisit in future, but as it is, the Auto Gain simply pulls back the preamp gain to prevent peaking and distortion from the preamp stage if the gain has been set too high.
    It generally works best when used alongside the auto set, e.g. set gains on channels (individually or all at once) then play through a track at soundcheck to ensure nothing is peaking when everyone plays together. Then leave Auto Gain active on any channels where you suspect someone might turn up or play louder later.

    Thanks,
    Keith.

    #119819
    Profile photo of MandelMandel
    Participant

    @lee7 Wow surprised that it works like that on your machine. Usually it will reduce 2-3 dB, and not go back.

    #119820
    Profile photo of MandelMandel
    Participant

    @Kaith Thank you for being so helpful. You relieved me!

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