The wonderful world of gain staging, or: how to balance your Eurorack signals

Today we'll introduce the topic of gain staging because yes. We'll explore the concepts of gain versus volume, headroom, and saturation. We'll also do some examples, like how to interface a modular synth with guitar pedals and how to interface a guitar with a modular synthesizer. At the end, a bonus tip on saturation.
frap.tools/cgm/
00:00 Introduction: unity gain, saturation, gain, volume
03:11 Example 1: modular synthesizer through guitar pedals
05:36 Example 2: guitar through modular synthesizer
06:57 What is headroom? A demonstration with the Frap Tools CGM Eurorack mixer
13:13 Headroom and saturation when mixing multiple sources
15:53 "Wrong" mixing: feedback and no-input mixing board (bonus tips)
#fraptools #tutorial #eurorack #modularsynth #mixer #electronicmusic #equipment #musicstudio #audio

[@sokei4670]

10/10 video with perfect explanation. spent 2 years at uni in sound production and it is crazy how many audio technicians/engineers i have met who have no idea about how this works. and i learned a few things!!!

[@FrapTools]

Thank you very much, glad it was still useful! As Neil deGrasse Tyson once said: "we often know a topic enough to tell when we're right, but not enough to tell when we're wrong"

[@RubenSainiuc]

"No signal is loud or quiet per se, there aren't right gain values, there are just appropriate ones." This is the phrase that made me understand the whole video. Thank you!

[@FrapTools]

Thank you very much! As a matter of fact, I borrowed that from an article on dressing habits I was casually reading that said, more or less, "elegance is not dressing expensive or dressing fancy, it's dressing appropriate"!

[@RubenSainiuc]

@@FrapTools That's a nice correlation.

[@CatFish107]

My lovely beardy, this was just the topic I was curious about. Stumbled into learning a lot from your channel after I picked up a 321 module and looked for a tutorial. I found a treasure trove!
Thanks much.

[@FrapTools]

Haha thank you so much! We've weekly videos coming up on modular stuff and music in its broader sense!

[@dubmaverick69]

This is a must watched video, for anyone merely interested in sound period. So many people who have even gone to school can explain this properly, super important video, I think its time for you guys to make a nice Analogue Mixer, desktop and rack mount, the non modular industry will embrace it, there is nothing out that has quality like your CGM series. I wasted so much time with all the eurorack mixers and they are all pretty much below standard, specially when you start adding several channels of audio into it, these mixers just can not handle it, your stuff is top notch. Thank you.

[@FrapTools]

Thank you very much for the kind words and the suggestion on the mixer, it really means a lot to us. Glad you found the video interesting! ❤️

[@CapriciousBlackBox]

Once again, a highly informative video…..these are very much appreciated!

[@phxx3054]

your videos are gold! 🖤

[@FrapTools]

Thank you so much!!

[@nero_di_seppia]

Super useful, thanks 🙏

[@FrapTools]

Thank you so much! ❤️

[@TheNormalUniverse]

Loving your educational vids! Please keep them coming

[@FrapTools]

Thank you so much, we publish them weekly and we've already filmed stuff for a few months, so let's keep in touch!

[@modularbias]

No pain, no gain (staging)... too funny 😅

[@spuckwith]

surprising choice of shirt

[@FrapTools]

Hehehe