What is unity gain?

[bandcoach]

I said it above but you missed it probably because it did not reference using cubase

https://www.futureproducers.com/for...astering/what-unity-gain-509059/#post49936956

no nett loss of signal in each step in your processing chain means

what ever level goes into a plug-in should come out of the plug-in i.e. you maintain unity gain throughout your processing chain which includes eq and any other plug-ins.

this is also known as operating your signal chain at nominal operating level

 

[wisebaxter442]

If I use direct monitoring on my interface will this always tell me what my gain is before the signal enters my DAW? When I use direct monitoring the signal does sound quieter.

 

[bandcoach]

nope direct monitoring is to remove loop-back/feedback and latency issues during recording

 

[wisebaxter442]

Thanks for that. So unity gain is kept within the plug-in itself. So if I'm not using plug-ins I won't need to worry? I suppose there will always be plug-ins used within the mastering stage though. So, an example would be, I add some compression, make things louder, and then turn the gain up on my DAW to compensate? Does this mean I should bring the gain down on the DAW to begin with to leave myself from headroom to do this? Or is the volume on the Actual synth that determines the input?