What is Unity Gain? | Too Afraid To Ask
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Unity Gain is a term that confuses many musicians, but don't write it off as jargon! It has a real, mathematical meaning which is important to understand if you have an interest in audio production.
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Unity Gain is a term that confuses many musicians, but don't write it off as jargon! It has a real, mathematical meaning which is important to understand if you have an interest in audio production.
More details on how Science of Loud implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure
#unitygain #scienceofloud #tata
More from Science of Loud:
Support on Patreon: www.patreon.com/csguitars
Join Science of Loud Discord - discord.gg/uJHFgJRunb
Buy Science of Loud Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store
Website - www.csguitars.co.uk
Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk
___________________________________
*Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for Science of Loud at no additional cost to you.*
Pedal volume on=same as off, is unity 'gain/volume". DONE. NOT ANOTHER WORD NEEDED!
Quite simple to anyone. Even to the, EE's who'd laugh at it's run on diatribe, and also the non EE who'd be utterly confused, by your word salad, instead of the point.
SAME DAMN VOLUME!
Good job in alienating everyone, who completely understands the 'confusing', "Pedal volume on=same as off, is unity gain/volume"...without your gobbled goop, mush mouth tripe. You're worse than a 20 year old, community collage 'professor', who turns Ohm's Law, into a platitude laced diatribe, for 40 minutes.
@@kennethc2466 You don't seem to be using the word 'diatribe' correctly, I'd suggest taking some time to look up the definition and some example sentences so that you can come back and word salad a diatribe against my video some more.
@@ScienceofLoud I used it perfectly, explaining your useless, 'people be confused, because I can't explain sine waves properly, using emotional, lengthy drivel', DIATRIBE, in which it's absurdity makes it humorous...at your expense.
Sorry reality makes you lie openly.
Diatribe,
"A diatribe (from the Greek διατριβή), also known less formally as rant, is a lengthy oration, though often reduced to writing, made in criticism of someone or something, often employing humor, sarcasm, and appeals to emotion."
Your know, your BS laden, wordy, meaningless, emotional rant against the science of sine waves, which your DIATRIBE is posed over scientific fact =. I hope that helps you be less dishonest, instead of a person who deletes your factual refutation, and LIE about the definition of a word, that made you cry...and lie.
@@ScienceofLoud I'm sorry proper use of English words offends you, and makes you pretend reality is wrong, and you, alone, are right.Also, I'm sorry you had to censor (delete) my comment that shows the definition of your diatribe, twice. Is reality that offensive to you, 'teacher of science'? Fact time, that you are fully dishonest about, again.
"A diatribe, also known less formally as a rant, is a lengthy oration, though often reduced to writing, made in criticism of someone or something'
-you, ranting at everyone you pretend can't understand simple volume knobs
Humans with integrity would be ashamed of your dishonest conduct.
@@kennethc2466 You do realise I can see when you are liking your own comments, right?
You seem to be very much mistaken by which one of us is offended right now, and also by which one is pretending they can't be wrong.
That, paired with the irony that your comments fit far closer the definition of a diatribe than my video script, leads me to believe what you are doing right now is projecting your feelings and insecurities onto me.
In which case it makes sense that the concept of dishonesty is being brought up, because you are certainly not being honest with yourself about your grasp of language, or your own perceived intelligence.
Furthermore: I haven't censored any of your comments, in fact this entire thread is pinned as the 'Top Comment' of this video. It's the first thing everyone sees in this comment section.
There is a possibility that your comments were automatically removed if they contained racist, homophobic, sexist, hateful, or otherwise inappropriate language - so I do appreciate you owning up to that one.
As an Electronics Engineer (started in audio field) of more than 50 years it is great to find someone from the guitar world who understands this stuff - keep up the great work! :)
I think Colin works in your field off camera?
Um, you're a 4 year old bot account, showing the signs of a Media Mister account. "LOOK IT UP ACTUAL CZcamsRS". Your, "more than 50 years", as an "Electronics Engineer" (which no EE on earth calls it, as 'electronics' is not a recognized course in any ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEGREE on earth), is total make believe. Over 50 years in "Electronics", yet your CZcams is only 4 years old? YOU ARE A PAID BOT, from Media Mister.
Shame on you, and who purchased your tripe.
@@OzziePete1 I think he has a masters in physics, typically doesnt teach electronics, teaches you pretty much everything you need to learn electronics. Source: a guy with a bachelors in physics and another in electrical engineering.
You can read more about my education and experience on my website: www.csguitars.co.uk/profile
Idea for another TATA:
"low impedance signal", "high impedance signal", "input/output impedance". What does that mean?
Every youtube guitar blogger proficient in electric schemas often uses the terms, and they have never been clear to me.
Very nice suggestion actually, but a bit longer video I'd say.
Impedance is a circuit's opposition to Alternating Current (AC)
It's the counterpart to Resistance, which is a circuit's opposition to Direct Current (DC)
A circuit Resists DC, and it Impedes AC.
Impedance differs from Resistance in that there is a frequency dependent, Phase component to it (since AC alternates regularly). This phase component is mathematically Complex, so it doesn't get discussed often by musicians - compounded by the fact that when quoting Impedance we reference only the magnitude element, measured in Ohms (just like Resistance) - and people tend to wrongly conflate the two.
Since audio signals are AC, we encounter Impedance quite regularly; particularly when connecting two devices together - if those devices Impede AC differently then it can cause losses to our signal.
Buffers, as mentioned briefly in this video, are one solution to absorb that shock between two circuits of differing impedance.
Passive pickups tend to be High Impedance (they impede AC a lot; small amount of Current flows relative to the Voltage), whereas active electronics of Pedals tend to be Low Impedance (they impede AC a little; a larger amount of Current flows relative to the Voltage) and without a buffer between those two, there is the potential to lose certain frequencies from the signal (since Impedance is frequency dependant).
Impedance is non-intuitive and confusing if you don't have a working knowledge of the physics involved, so don't feel bad if it has never been clear.
Good suggestion.
If you want the 30-second version, then "impedance" is the term for opposition to electrical flow in an AC circuit. It's like "resistance" in DC circuits, and measured in the same units (Ohms), but "impedance" is used when the voltage level is changing. And audio signals have constantly changing voltage to carry the sound, so they're AC.
Impedance of a circuit element changes the signal going through it. And the difference in impedance between one part of a circuit and another -- or two audio boxes, like pedals and amps, or amps and speakers -- causes changes in the audio signal. Impedance mismatches can cause reflection of part of the signal back toward its source, which means the reflected signal interferes with the original signal and changes the sound. Mismatches also cause inefficient power transfer, which is another reason you care about matching the input impedance of speakers with the output impedance of power amps. You wanted loud when you cranked up the volume, not hot, so inefficiency is not only wasteful, but a hazard to electrical components. Impedance mismatches can lead to equipment damage.
Suppose you plug your guitar into a single pedal and that works fine. What if you plugged it into a long string of pedals and it sounds dull and the volume decreases. If instead your guitar plugs into a "buffer" of some kind and that buffer connects to the other pedals. There should be no loss of volume and the sound does not go dull.
The difference is your guitar is high impedance (it can't drive a lot of other things). The buffer's output is low impedance, so it can drive a lot of other things with no problem.
@@ScienceofLoud You're literally the first person on CZcams (that I've seen) that provided a basic explanation of how resistance and impedance is different. I've heard many of the channels I watch say "impedance isn't just AC resistance" without going any farther than that. Honestly just saying its frequency and phase dependent, and maybe a brief explanation of freq and phase, without going into the math would probably be sufficient.
You mentioned one of the buzzwords that bass players toss around; HEADROOM. I seem to always be chasing that myself, louder yet cleaner, especially lately. Seems like all the bass amps are embracing distortion of one kind or another, but i hate it. My holy grail is LOUD but CLEAN.
Could you discuss headroom in amplification? I know you pretty well explained it here, but maybe theres a bit more to it. Thanks for these great vids man! They really do clear up a lot of confusion.
I have a pretty popular video about Headroom from about 5 years ago: czcams.com/video/eWmMsB0ITOs/video.htmlsi=j14rAQLaweHn_PYf
Perhaps it's time for a remake?
@@ScienceofLoud ok cool, I hadn't seen it.
I got the idea when you mentioned it in the pedal. It's very much the same thing. Just thought it might be an idea for newer players. But na, if you've done it, don't do it again. The concept hasn't changed. Thanks!
Hello brother! You just need a bigger, higher wattage amp. In general, the higher the wattage of the amp, the louder the clean signal it can produce.
a good clean sound tends to need a lot more bass therefor far more amplitude and higer internal voltages to go with,
you can only really push pocket amps going like 19 volts internally so far when it comes to low frequencies
(that, or at least you'll need very large capacitors to buffer the load ahead like you would in a car stereo)
compressing the shit out of mids is a piece of piss comparatively, so yeah, crunchy sounds are fairly easy to attain, seeins as you have to filter out a lot of the low end for it not sound like hot shit, you're bandpassing the mids mostly before driving them up on any decent overdrive or distortion sound, right?
sure, modern distortion sounds are often a bit too boxy to my taste, and sometimes a bit too synthetic sounding with the overcompression, i usually like the UK style models on those modern amp modeling things, you can play your rhythmm chords and solos with the same setting and sound good, the dynamics are still retained great too, that also mean it doesn't mask mistakes all that well, but i like it that way
and sure, i like a gate to clean up things a little bit especially if you drive em hard
but some of these modern small amps are too ridiculous about their noise gates too though and they are hardly if configurable at all, where it chokes out single coil sustains... and then you have to bother with an extra gain stage in beteween again
As a retired audio engy/producer/workplace trainer for 27 years in radio, that tute was PERFECT! Young upcomings, I endorse Mr Science of Loud, you'd do damned well to listen to him!
No.
Thank you so much Colin! Again you made it very very clear and in layman's language!
TIL. That explanation makes a lot of sense, very clear. Thanks!
I never knew I didn't understand this, but now I know I didn't understand this, and now I DO understand it. Thank you!
I used the words "unity gain" to convince the maker of the Seafoam Trident (an OD with individual drive and volume controls for each of three EQ bands!) to install a master volume on the pedal. It was too hard regaining unity gain with the amp while still being able to tweak the controls for a different sound without it.
Thanks for explaining this so clearly and briefly. I recall reading that the Warren Haynes signature Les Paul was equipped with an onboard unity gain preamp and now I understand what that means. ( BTW, as a Yank I can tell you that in the USA we don’t even pretend to like each other anymore.)
Nice video Colin, one thing i notice regularly as a sound engineer is when guitar players set their levels that they often set their more distorted "lead" tones at a lower volume level than their cleaner "rhythm" tones. As soon as they're playing in a mix and kick it in they wonder why their guitar sound suddenly disappears in a mix. Human hearing perceives distorted tones as louder than a clean tone at the same volume hence i wouldn't trust my ears to tell the difference when setting up a dirt pedal. I tend to get them to kick it in and out while looking at a meter to get a proper idea of what the difference is.
As a sound gets more distorted and ends up closer and closer to a square wave, for the same peak level, the average level will increase. Also our ears are more sensitive to some frequencies than others and will perceive a sound that has more of those frequencies as louder even if it has the same peak and average levels as a sound with more of the frequencies we are less sensitive to.
That's what I've been doing all along. Now I have a name for it. Good bit as always - clear and to the point
Terrific explanation! Aside from explaining the context perfectly, not a single umm was uttered. Well done!
Haha! I just bought an Ibanez TS Mini and a Way Huge Green Rhino today... Fitting. (They BOTH kick ass)
It doesn't always occur, but many buffers that are "unity gain", and whose design demonstrably provides NO amplification, can *sound* louder. Why? Because, by not "loading down" the signal at the input, more of that input signal is effectively preserved; especially the high end. The result is that the output sounds louder. Not by a lot, mind you, but enough that you notice it immediately.
On that same note, let us acknowledge that *buffering* is distinct from unity gain. A device may provide input buffering AND be designed to provide gain as well. A well-respected example is the ZVex Super Hard On, which provides a nice high input impedance to buffer the signal, but can also provide gain, using that same stage.
These are great additional notes that provide an extra level of clarity to the discussion
@@ScienceofLoud My pleasure.
Well explained. I learned something today. I've used UG for decades without knowing that was a thing. When trying out pedals and such. Now I know why. Thank you!
Good video, thanks! I'm originally from an audio background, so "gain" to me has always meant "amount of amplification". Imagine my confusion when on CZcams some guy tried to diss me by saying "you are clearly not a high gain player" HAHAHA The man was right, of course. I tend to prefer a more cleanish sound. But I feel no shame :D
There are clean amps with more gain then an SLO 100.
I remember the video's on this channel "with ALL the GAIN". And me explaining that distortion =/= gain (does not equal)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The term "Gain Appreciation Videos" earned you a sub.
I learned a lot from you over the years and I still do. Big respect to your knowledge and easy to understand presentation. Many thanks!
I have been doing this Unity Gain bypass technique on my pedal board to have the same volume when all the pedals are off and not, without knowing that this is called Unity Gain! My soul's intuition to music was doing it right! Thanks for the new knowledge!
Always great explanations. Hope you start posting more often, you've been a little quiet of late.
Thanks for clearing that up. I always adjust this when I am channel switching, but I didn't know there was a name for it.
If you take a native English speaker and plug him into a synth pedal at unity gain you'll end up with this excellent video
a demo of your explanation would have been super cool.
Beautifully explained. This is the type of content that made me subscribe to your channel. 👍🏻🤘🏻
I love TATAs! Glad they are back.
Never seen back tata's... (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)
Unity gain implies the opposite process will take the signal back to one, however with a non-linear device (In other words, anything that distorts or has reached distortion), the opposing process doesn't get us back to one. So when we add 30dB of gain with an overdrive pedal, applying 30dB of attenuation doesn't result in the same signal, its always a much quieter one. Same with compression & limiting.
It's like starting with 1, multiplying 10 in a linear system will result in 10 and dividing by 10 = 1. In a non-linear system we may a max of 5, nothing can go beyond 5, so multiplying by 10 results in 5, so a division of 10 = 0.5. To get 1 we need to divide by 5.
Whilst it is possible entirely to set a device such as a distortion pedal to "unity", it's actually much more difficult to do so by ear than a device that is "linear" (In other words, clean).
Many people demoing pedals often make the mistake in assuming that an increase in gain in a non-linear device can be consistently matched by an appropriate decrease on the volume control. But with many pedals, there's a point on the Gain/Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz where its really not adding volume, just really high harmonics that the amp probably isn't reproducing and increasing the noise floor. However people will still turn down the volume and change how the pedal interacts with the amp, leading to claims that a pedal sounds too compressed and thin at maximum gain, even though the actual signal hasn't changed in any significant way.
An extreme example is a Big Muff, where from 10'o'clock on the Sustain knob to maximum, it's not creating any more output. Even a soft clipping overdrive pedal might not do all that much in terms of volume after 12'o'clcok.
However, thanks for the video! It's great to see the subject explained properly and hopefully guitarists can stop chasing something that is actually detrimental to why they bought a pedal or amp in the first place.
I've worked on some of the most interesting, antique pro audio equipment for years and yet there are still little nuggets that I come back to these videos for. Thanks for continually helping me grasp concepts of a relatively misunderstood section of electronic engineering. Cheers!
I was starting to realize this stuff myself. But your explanation pushed my understanding over the edge. It all makes a lot more sense. Thanks, man.
I'd love a video on impedance! It's something I've never been able to wrap my head around in pedal circuit analysis
Excellent video, Colin! Very concise TATA. I always appreciate how you show the maths, that is very helpful. Thank you
Darkglass bass drives have the clean signal at unity gain, which is helpful to dial in the right amount of drive without mistaking the amount of saturation with just a louder clean signal.
Word, absolutely. I understood this explanation. I've also realised I've been using the term unity gain, incorrectly as well. When setting multiple levels whilst recording or for gigs, I set each channel to run at 0db. This is all prior to then use my ears to boost, cut, eq, add mixer overdrive, to each channel, so it sits well in the mix. I used to refer to this initial 0db as unity gain, not anymore. I suppose I was perceiving the uniform initial setting as unity, everything at 0db.
Love the rebrand. I've learned a lot from this channel. Too afraid to ask, compression? What exactly is it doing? I know I like "squashing the transients" and I have a vague idea that it makes quiet stuff louder and loud stuff quieter. But I don't really understand how. Maybe you've covered this already. Great video!
You're honestly most of the way there with your understanding of compression.
I think what will help is if you realise 2 things:
1. Amplification isn't always making things bigger, applying negative gain will make the signal smaller. This is negative amplification.
2. Compressors are two amplifiers: The first applies negative amplification to any part of the signal that is louder than a set voltage threshold.
The second applies positive amplification to the whole signal to 'make up' for volume loss in the first process.
The result of those 2 processes is the loudest parts get quieter, and the quieter parts get louder - as you've correctly identified.
I have discussed compressors before, but not for a long time. It's very much a topic I'd like to revisit once I get a good compressor pedal to demonstrate it with (and preferably a sponsor to fund the video creation)
Great content as always! Your videos are always concise, informative, and entertaining, keep it up Colin! TATA idea: does adjusting pole pieces in pickups do anything sonically, what's an ideal setup?
Great video, as a resident of the United Kingdom though I can confirm nobody is pretending to like each other, we all make our displeasure quite clear😅
Great explanation!!! Simple, concise, and valuable information every musician needs to understand. Keep ‘em coming!!! 🤘🤘👍
Keep the tata's coming i think you explain things so well
The Scotsman in me loves your accent, I'm in the USA so no accent, but I especially enjoy the way you break things down logically, and with humor! I plug straight in and keep it clean, because that sound makes me feel good, for whatever reason distortion makes me feel bad. But a smidgeon of overdrive is tasty in the proper context, or maybe a little fuzz? Cheers!
Four countries that pretend to like each other! Said like a true Scot.
For me as a beginner this is the best channel on CZcams 👍
Yea, he really does have a ton of great subjects here. I've played quite awhile, and there's always more to learn. Hey, keep at it, its a tough road sometimes, but well worth the pain!
Thought this was a brilliant explanation. Well Done, Colin!
Excellent video. Perhaps a good lead in to a video on head room. 👍
Very well explained (since I could understand).
I would appreciate another TATA on presence though. I still cannot understand how it changes the shape...?tone...? of the sound.
I don't even know how to ask
This! Yes, please!
I almost needed an interpreter? -now all I need is an Aspirin and a lay down!!!! thanks!
Excellent video. Well done.
A TATA from me. I use reverb in post and it has a wet/dry mix knob. I've heard people using a wet/dry/wet guitar setup and have tried it. But I honestly can't tell the difference. What are my ears not hearing that everyone else can?
Well explained!
Smart man!!!! I really appreciate your content, Good Sir!. thanks!
Please do a video on compression; how to use it and where best to place it in the pedal chain. Thanks.
Thank you so much, I feel a little bit smarter now.
Great explaination BUT at the end you mention someone setting their pedal for unity gain. I promise that there will be confusion when listening to their sound with the DISTORTION tuned off AND when the pedal is turn on but adjusted to "sound the same". I REALLY wished you had shown this.
You are brilliant sir
I wish my Boss DF-2 could reach unity gain. I don’t wanna mod it, I bought it for sentimental reasons but more output would be nice.
You are a great teacher! Question. Wouldn’t a decibel meter be a great way to test unity gain? Before getting a decibel meter, I had two BM style fuzz pedals I was comparing. I thought I had them at the same volume. In reality, one was ~1.5 decibels higher than the other. I perceived this pedal as being “more articulate” than the other. The decibel meter showed me my error. Loud is more good haha!
Thanks Colin, this was a great explanation. You do a great job explaining things that are difficult to explain.
Very well done, this video is appreciated
Beautifully explained.
Another great video!! Thanks Colin!!
A way I dial in unity gain for pedals I want equal volume whether on or off so I am coloring the sound but not boosting it is to run my looper pedal at the front of the signal chain. This eliminates the variance of trying to set it through guitar given unequal picking and also makes it a lot easier physically to work with the knobs on a pedal for subtle adjustments.
Excellent explanation dude and good to see you again. 👍
Excellent explanation, as per!
Something Ive always worked on was keeping the gain the same whether my pedals were on or off. I didn't know there was an actual name for it.
Escuse me Colin, but America includes North, Central and South America, it's all the continent with Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Peru, Brazil, etc; the 50 states that you mention are the United States of America (USA, that is not a name, but let's not get complicated) only one big country of America... So, saying that USA = America, is equal to say that England = UK, and we know that it isn't true. Cheers, and keep the good work.
Thank you for explaining this topic of Gain isn't Distortion always.
An example of setting the unity gain (of the tubescreamer or other pedal) would be very useful.
Pendantry unnecessary, as context made it abundantly clear I was talking about the United States of America, not the continental Americas.
The USA refer to themselves as America plenty, just as England think that Great Britain and UK refer to England alone.
Trust me, I'm not the one who is trying to erase the identity and existence of the other countries of the Americas. I understand your desire for representation.
Great translation....Thank you!
always perfect, thanks Colin
Thanks for the explanation.
Colin, Good to have you back! And as informative as always!
I just learned a term for something I've always done, subconsciously...making sure when I put the pedal to the metal it's no louder than what I'm playing...
Colin. You got the right opamp up for a production tube screamer! Not that anyone is gonna notice...
Ah. You changed the name of the channel. I was looking through my subscriptions and was wondering when the hell I subscribed to "Science of Loud"
I dunno man, it’s Friday night, and I’ve understood the concept you’re explaining and I’ve learned something …..
You're explanation of unity gain is very similar to my theory about why people prefer tube amps. You said CZcamsrs set the pedals to unity gain because if there is an increased volume, we will hear something different, and we are more likely to prefer the tonality of louder things. Nobody ever runs their tube amps at a low volume because they don't sound as good, so they crank them and they get all the "feel" they want (I dont believe that feel comes from tubes, it comes from the speaker moving air). Solid state amps are usually made inexpensively, with a bad speaker, in a bad cabinet. What if we took a high quality preamp pedal, and put it against a tube preamp both set to unity gain, going through the same power amp/mic/speaker/cab combo....will we actually be able to perceive much difference? I don't think so.
I recently went to a blues band audition. The youngest member of the band was in his 50s, and I'm 34. I hooked my ampless pedalboard to the effects return of a Marshall JCM 2000. Nobody could tell I wasn't using the amps preamp. And there were 2 other guitarists there. One of them being the guitar straight into the amp type.
So glad to see you back!
Great explanation! Thank you!
Totally clear... love this series.... now wait... what does a volume knob do on a OD pedal? Do I have to consider that Gain is relative to where you are in the signal chain? For example: gain knob on tube screamer is set to 7, so signal is amplified, but then the clipped signal is limited by rhe volume knob set to 3 to not increase the volume of the signal the amp is cranking out. In this case, the pedal is at unity gain bc it's relative to the Amp), but the gain knob on the pedal itself is not set to unity gain, because it is amplifying the input signal.
Yeah, I think you've got it.
The Gain knob is typically controlling the signal gain through the amplification stage and the Volume knob is simply attenuating the signal right before the output by chucking part of if it to ground.
Your analysis is correct that, relative to the amp, you can use the volume control to attenuate an amplified signal to bring it back down to the original peak to peak level of the input, therefore maintaining 'unity gain' in the manner used in pedal demos, despite the opamp itself inside the pedal not being at unity gain.
The information in the video was great, but he should have put the different between gain and volume in the video as well. They are very different, but most people don't realize it because they appear to do the same thing. To save myself some typing, I'm cutting and pasting from another post I just made. If it seems a little off, that's why.
Gain controls are always on the input of a component, while volume controls are always on the output of an audio component, Only gain can alter or distort the signal, a volume control can't. That's why you always hear the term gain staging, and not volume staging.
A guitar amp is a good example to show the difference between the 2. Its the only type of product I know of where you try to get the signal to distort on purpose. If you look at your guitar amp, you should see both a gain and volume adjustment. They're usually right next to each other. Try setting the volume very low and the gain very high. You'll get distortion. What you are doing is overdriving the input with excessive gain. You also see that the overall volume is not very high, yet the signal still distorts. Now try low gain and high volume. As you adjust the volume, you'll notice that the signal stays clean. It doesn't matter where you put the volume. The signal will not distort no matter how much you increase it.
When doing the above experiment, keep in mind that while volume can't distort the signal, other things can. For example, if you have a clean sound and keep increasing the volume, the sound may distort for another reason, such as the speaker driver itself not being able to handle the volume. But that's not the signal distorting from overdriving the input.
love this new format, keep up the good things !
I really would have liked to see a demo of this at the end of the video with that tube screamer. For example: What if a pedal has both a level knob and a gain knob? What are those knobs doing?
I laughed when you said pretending to like each other!
I’ve always been a proponent of setting my pedals at unity gain with my bypassed signal, but I’ve found a problem in some cases. I find that some pedals don’t “open up” until they are turned to a certain level, and often times, that level is beyond unity gain. For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m describing, you will notice with amps, that as you slowly turn up the amp volume (or/and it’s preamp volume) from zero, you will hear a certain point where the signal goes from sounding thin, to filling out more in the mids and low end. It’s not necessarily at the point where it’s starting to break up - it can occur when the signal is still perfectly clean. I’ve found that the output level on drive pedals does the same thing; it has a point at which the signal becomes more full sounding and rich. So going back to my point, I find it a bit annoying when a pedal is at unity gain with the bypassed signal before it hits its sweet spot. I’ve had to compromise here and there in favour of having the tone I want despite my signal level getting boosted when I’d rather it not be. I know I know; I am really overly obsessive about the details of tone.
Here's what's going on with regards to what you're talking about in your post. Gain controls are always placed at the input of a component. Volume controls are always on the output. When it comes to distorting or overdriving the signal, it can only be done with gain. The harder you push your input tubes, the greater the effect. A volume control can't harm/overdrive/distort, etc.... the signal in any way. It can only attenuate the signal but not alter it in any way. When you raise the volume, you get a secondary effect. The volume can't alter the signal, but it can force your amp and speakers to work harder. So, with gain you distort the signal itself. With volume you're pushing the amp and speakers to distort. That's the change in tone you're hearing. Also, when I say pushing your amp and speakers to distort, it can be both, or just one. For example, the amp may distort, but the speaker is still playing clean.
When I said I was making gains on the guitar, people thought I was actually making progress. I was just turning the gain knob up. I need way more than unity gain to sound good.
This guy is one of the best damn teachers in the whole world
Perceived volume vs volume :) For example using a varitone on a Gisbon ES 345 / 355 (those that have them) which acts as a notch filter -- thus lowering perceived volume which is why some people don't like them (or I use a boost to compensate from drop in perceived volume when engaging). Also psychoacoustics. Something I have been wondering about is when gain goes into clipping, I'm assuming it isn't uniform across the frequency spectrum but peak-to-peak I guess that isn't true, I think what I'm hearing is different output amplitude based on a string may not be of similar peak-to-peak as the neighboring strings, therefore increasing gain into clipping on an amp or pedal could impact some freqencies more than others. Oooh, lots of questions....
~3:56
for anyone confused, i think he meant to say "four countries all pretending to like england"
I have a question for a future video - thrown up by this one. You say a buffer has unity gain but changes the impedance. What actually is impedance? I understand that you can't (or shouldn't) plug a guitar in to a line in 'because impedance'. but what does that actually mean to the signal. Thanks and keep up the good work :)
Its the output of the guitar itself. The standard, and most common type of signal preamp is line level or line stage. A CD player is a good example of a line level device. Other types of devices are not line lever. Phono cartridges, microphones and guitars all have different requirements. The pickup on a guitar, even an active one, doesn't have enough power to drive a line level input directly. It needs help. Just about any effects pedal or rack mount preamp, will output a line level signal. That's all you typically need. Another common situation with a guitar is you sometimes need to plug one directly into a mixer. Most of the time, the input on a mixer is balanced. Guitars are single ended devices, and since SE circuitry isn't compatible with balanced, you need to take care of that as well. I'm sure you've heard of something called a DI box. The DI box will take the guitar signal and get it up to line level, just like an effects pedal, but it also converts the signal to balanced to make it compatible with a mixer, or any other device that requires a balanced signal.
Great explanation!
Thanks for the clarification!
This raises a question though. In an active pickup context, how does changing to an 18v mod (or 24v even) the interaction with the pedals and output limits? And why do we percieve them as "more articulate" even though we are being still limited by the gear after the guitar?
Brilliantly done
Thank you for this!
What's Unity Gain? A song by Steve Morse on one of his solo albums, the name of my limited company when I was a computer consultant in London.
Or whatever you say.
"The average guitarist, who's just been using the word 'gain,' to mean 'distortion."
This is why my people, the engineers, and your people, the guitarists, will never know peace.
My Peavey Triple X has an de loop with send and return level pots, and the manual mentioned to set them oppositely for unity gain as to remain clean. I figured this is what that meant, but I wasn't sure.
Brilliant explanation. Well done.
Great vid man…thank u
What are the technical differences between overdrive, distortion, and fuzz.
This was excellent. Thank you.
awesome video!!
What does a Klon (or "transparent overdrive") actually do, and how is it different to other overdrive, if at all?
Great explanation! What means FET and/or Dumble?
Nice video. Not sure about the USA analogy. If my guitar signal was unified like the USA I imagine my guitar would instantly grow limbs to start tearing itself apart.
Well done