My gut instinct is that it is 'damaging' to components or circuit performance to overdrive / overload an audio circuit. But I'm wondering if this is true. I'm thinking specifically of preamp circuits. For example, deliberately setting the gain 'too high' on a mixer so that the signal distorts, because I like the sound. If I do this, does it have long term consequences for the channel's ability to operate cleanly at 'good' / 'proper' levels. If it is damaging, which are the components most likely to suffer? When I first learned to operate a studio mixing desk, I was shown how to optimize the gain stages for minimum noise levels and clean / undistorted audio, Damaging the signal was something to be avoided, and I associated damaging the signal with damaging the (expensive, precision) circuit. I'm not talking about insane overloading, but more in the region of adding distortion to a kick drum or bass by running the input too hot and continually lighting the red lights. Would doing this right-off the channel for delicate / precision work like a clean vocal or stereo pair?

 

' setting the gain 'too high' on a mixer ' won't damage anything (except your hearing, if the power amp and speakers are connected ).

 

If it were true, then guitar distortion pedals would be the most unreliable product on the planet!

 

If it were true, then guitar distortion pedals would be the most unreliable product on the planet!

Thanks, this is what I was thinking.

[lingering doubt: on] ...But are the distortion FX circuits not just designed that way, whereas the channel strip is designed / optimized for clarity / high fidelity without clipping? I can't help thinking that if I drive a channel to distortion, that somewhere along the line, something must be getting worn down / out. And maybe distortion pedals are not a good example because they're not meant to sound clean / hifi at any point, and if the circuit was deteriorating it would be too subtle to be noticed in a distortion context e.g. a slight increase in noise floor or slight change to dynamic response.

If I hired an expensive recording studio and then red-lined lots of channels on the classic high end desk, wouldn't the owner / house engineer just be wincing and never want me back?

 

Thanks, this is what I was thinking.

[lingering doubt: on] ...But are the distortion FX circuits not just designed that way, whereas the channel strip is designed / optimized for clarity / high fidelity without clipping? I can't help thinking that if I drive a channel to distortion, that somewhere along the line, something must be getting worn down / out. And maybe distortion pedals are not a good example because they're not meant to sound clean / hifi at any point, and if the circuit was deteriorating it would be too subtle to be noticed in a distortion context e.g. a slight increase in noise floor or slight change to dynamic response.

I know that the LM324 is a dreadful op-amp but it is almost identical internally to an LM393 comparator, and that spends all its time in clipping.
Same argument applies to better op-amps.
Power amps, if badly designed, don't come out of clipping gracefully, but it doesn't tend to make them fail.

Just think about what happens if you connnect a resistor and two back-to-back diodes to the signal. Does anything come to any harm?

If I hired an expensive recording studio and then red-lined lots of channels on the classic high end desk, wouldn't the owner / house engineer just be wincing and never want me back?

Only if the signal were going to his speakers. ATC studio monitors don't come in cheap!

 

The input doesn’t know that it is an audio signal, it just has a particular voltage being applied to it. If you exceed the maximum voltage (and current) so that the part heats up enough, you can damage it.

Can a mixer do that to the input on another piece of audio gear? Not in any reasonable case I can think of.

If you took a speaker output and connected it to a line in, you have a good chance to overloaded that line in to the point of destruction but that’s obvious.

A line output could certainly make a mic input distort but I don’t see how it could physically damage it—if the mixer is at all close to being properly designed.

 

You won't create any "damage".

The Kick-Drum "may" sound OK with Op-Amp-Clipping,
but any other Instrument is going to sound like complete garbage.

You should use an external "Effects-Pedal",
or a purpose-built Rack-Mount-Device, to create the distortion.
.
.
.

 

Clipping occurs at the output of a preamp or amplifier, not at its input. Clipping at the output of an amplifier does not damage it.

 

You are more likely to damage the speakers than the audio preamp. Yes, if you tried to put 100V on the input it would likely damage something, but the mixer cannot output that kind of voltage.