Proper Gain Staging Of Other Equipment - Alesis Studio 12R Reference Manual

Operating Instructions

Proper gain staging of other equipment

The total noise performance of your system depends on proper gain
control of all the elements. A "noisy mixer" is usually a quiet mixer
in a system whose gain structure is incorrect. As a good starting
point, set most volume level controls of other equipment at 3/4 or
75% of full. This will decrease the possibility of overload distortion
and keep the amount of background noise to a minimum.
Turn down amplifier levels: In particular, don't set the input
controls of a power amplifier "wide open" if you have to run the
faders of the mixer in the bottom half of the travel (and the meter of
the Studio 12R well below the "0" mark) to keep the system from
being too loud or feeding back. It's better to run the mixer at its
normal level, and turn down the amplifier's controls for the
desired level. By turning the amplifier's own volume controls
down, you turn down the residual noise of everything that precedes
it in the signal chain, resulting in a quieter, more controllable
system.
However, if the mixer output is too loud, and the input stage of the
amplifier being used is an active circuit (instead of a passive voltage
divider type), it is possible to clip the preamp stage of the amplifier
and cause nasty distortion even if the amp level is low. Use good
judgment and consult the manual for your amplifier for more
information.
Distortion caused by EQ: If a large amount of EQ is used, it may
become necessary to decrease either the trim control, or the channel
fader, or both. The EQ is capable of adding quite a bit of gain and is a
frequent cause of overload distortion problems. The PEAK LEDs
monitor the signal after the EQ circuit, both pre and post fader.
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Studio 12R Reference Manual