Eli5: What is gain (in sound and music production, amplifiers, etc)? How does gain alter a sound? What’s an example of how it sounds?

Question

Hi. I don’t really understand what gain is, in this context, but I’d really like it to know. How would you describe what it sounds like? Or what it does to the original sound? (An audio example would be good.)

Fyi, I have looked it up before, but I don’t really understand so far.

What does it mean if some amps are made to have a higher-gain sound? Why is that more suited to some types of music than others?

Ty. 🙏🏻🤗

In: Other

Answer 1

Gain in audio applications is how much a signal is boosted by. A typical microphone has a very low voltage output, so needs to be amplified many times in order to reach nominal operating acting level. ‘gain’ is used to get the signal up loud enough.
Other times a signal might be dropped, like in a compressor, so the ‘output gain’ is used to boost the signal to compensate for the ‘gain reduction’ caused by a compressor.