| "Gain" vs. "Distortion": a friendly plea for term accuracy
Sign in to disble this ad
I seem to be wearing my Captain Terminology Stickler shorts today.
It seems some musicians (and product manufacturers) mistakenly refer to a pedal's "gain" when they are discussing "distortion", but they're technically not the same thing.
Gain = signal amplification
Distortion = signal waveform alteration
Some effects pedals can provide tons of signal gain while imparting little to no distortion (e.g. a clean boost). Other pedals can heavily distort a signal even when the pedal's output level = input level (unity gain).
Granted, some pedals have enough signal gain to cause whatever follows it to run out of headroom and create distortion, so the terms can be related, but they're not interchangeable.
Why is this important? When we try to use words to articulate musical concepts (such as on TalkBass), meanings can often be vague or misconstrued. When there is room to be precise in our terminology, I think we ought to strive for that precision -- it helps everybody involved in the conversation.
I have a few ideas about how this terminology confusion came to be somewhat common, but I'm curious what others can offer on this topic.
As the great Jimmy James (NewsRadio) once said, "I find when I have a bee in my bonnet, it helps to take my hat off." I'll take my hat off now.
Yours in terminological accuracy,
Capt. Stickler | 
)
