Most people understand that if they want to get the best audio
performance out of their studio equipment, input levels from
sound sources must be high enough to ensure that noise levels
remain very low by comparison, but not so high that they
overload the equipment and cause distortion. However, for the
best results, this optimisation process must be carried out at
each stage of the amplifying chain, and this is where the
concept of gain 'structure' comes from -- the tweaks are carried
out from the very first input, all the way along the signal
path, right to the end of the chain, whether the signal is being
recorded onto DAT, or emerging from a loudspeaker. |"Those with
golden ears say that solid-state amplifiers start to sound
'edgy' in the final few dBs before clipping sets in."| If you
record with acoustic instruments, the first stage for you will
be to ensure that the input gain of your mixer's microphone
input (or one of the fashionable stand-alone mic preamps) is set
correctly for the levels coming out