Comparing GAIN to frequency changes

[singeryadig]

So as gain increases--it makes the mic more sensitive or makes it pick up lower dB sounds correct?

So if someone records with too much GAIN then the outcome would be picking up unwanted sounds and/or clipping the mic?

And if a person recorded with not enough gain--then the vocals would be quiet and muffled?

 

[Greg_L]

So as gain increases--it makes the mic more sensitive or makes it pick up lower dB sounds correct?

Yes

So if someone records with too much GAIN then the outcome would be picking up unwanted sounds and/or clipping the mic?

Maybe

And if a person recorded with not enough gain--then the vocals would be quiet and muffled?

Not necessarily.

 

[Ethan Winer]

So if someone records with too much GAIN then the outcome would be picking up unwanted sounds and/or clipping the mic?

Microphone preamps are (hopefully) fully linear, so whatever sounds in the room the mic picks up, they will all be amplified equally. Yes, too much gain will distort, but that's a different issue.

And if a person recorded with not enough gain--then the vocals would be quiet and muffled?

Quiet maybe, but not muffled. A good preamp will have a flat response at all gain settings, so tone quality should not change.

--Ethan

 

[Bobbsy]

So as gain increases--it makes the mic more sensitive or makes it pick up lower dB sounds correct?

Well, being pedantic, not exactly. The mic itself has a certain fixed sensitivity that never changes. However, the pre-amp that the mic is fed into has variable gain (usually) and adjusting the gain controls how much the microphone output is amplified before feeding into the A to D and your DAW.

So if someone records with too much GAIN then the outcome would be picking up unwanted sounds and/or clipping the mic?

Yes and and no. The unwanted sounds are always there; they just become more audible as you turn up the gain to bring up the wanted sounds. To change the ratio between wanted sounds and the background rubbish, you have to make the wanted sound louder in relation to the background--usually by getting the mic closer to the source. Physics works in your favour on this. Sound diminishes in an inverse square of distance...so if you put the mic half as far away you get four times as much sound from the wanted source...or, by comparison, only a quarter as much of the background. However, yeah, too much gain and you get to clipping.

And if a person recorded with not enough gain--then the vocals would be quiet and muffled?

As been said, in theory it's just quieter. However, this is also where the distance thing rears its head again. If the mic is farther away from the source, the ratio between the direct sound and reflections of the same sound gets closer and this can add to the "muffled" impression.

Bob

 

[sjjohnston]

Generally speaking, when talking about setting the gain on a mic preamp:

- "Too much" means the mic pre is distorting, or overdriving the input of whatever's after it. Clipping/harmonic distortion is, of course, a common result. Pick up of unwanted sounds really isn't.*

- "Too little" means the signal-to-noise ratio is lower than it should be. "Quiet" in the abstract (i.e. not just relative to how loud the noise is) isn't really an issue: you can always amplify something later on (assuming you're recording here, which is kind of a reasonable assumption given the name of the forum). I'm not sure what "muffled" means: if it means obscured by noise, then yeah. If it means something else, probably not (unless you have a bad preamp).

_________
*Though: if there's a compressor or limiter built into the signal chain after the mic preamp - which is sometimes the case, occasionally without the user even knowing it - more gain could to bring background noise up relative to what you're trying to record.