If you’re using a professional microphone, chances are that you’ve got it connected to an audio interface. The knobs on your audio interface include “gain” and “volume”. Increasing the gain will make your microphone louder, but increasing the volume will also make it louder.
Does this mean gain and volume are one and the same? The short answer is no. Read on to find out what gain is and how changing gain affects your microphone recording volume.
Gain vs. Volume
You’re already familiar with volume and what it does from experience. Increasing volume essentially increases the loudness of sound. In recording, you can define volume as the output dB (decibel) of an audio device.
Since volume changes the strength of a signal after it’s been processed, changing volume does not affect the tone itself and only alters its loudness.
Gain, on the other hand, is a different matter. Gain is the input dB and so gain alters the strength of a signal before it’s been processed. This means that changing gain changes the signals that the audio device works with and processes. Thus, gain can make a difference to the very characteristics of a sound.
You can see a good example of the difference between these two parameters in guitar amps. Maximizing the gain on a guitar amp overdrives the amp in a way that it can’t handle the audio signals. This gives birth to the distortion sounds you hear on electric guitars.
With gain and volume combined, you can maximize the gain to get distortion, and then reduce the volume so that the building doesn’t tremble with every chord you play.
How Does Gain Affect Recording Volume?
The effects of gain depend on what sort of processing your audio device does. In a microphone, you can usually describe gain as its sensitivity. Increasing the gain will increase your microphone’s sensitivity and enable it to pick up quieter sounds.
Considering the nature of gain, and that it is the input signal strength, altering the gain starts to affect recording volume at specific thresholds. Also, gain can affect recording volume because it is the input strength, but volume cannot affect gain as it is the output strength.
So, if you reduce your microphone’s gain, then the input signal going to your microphone’s preamp will be weaker and its output won’t be as loud. If you reduce your microphone’s volume, its output won’t be as loud, but its gain—and effects caused by it—will remain unchanged.
Utilize Both Gain and Volume on Your Microphone
People can sometimes use gain as a fancy way of saying volume. But if used in their correct meanings, gain and volume are two very different things. Gain is the input signal strength, while volume is the output signal strength.
Changing gain might affect your microphone’s volume, but this isn’t true the other way around. Being the input signal, changing gain can also change the characteristics of your microphone’s sound.
So, next time you use your microphone remember to use both gain and volume effectively.
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