I’ve got both RNC and RNLA sitting here, and hoping someone with experience with either can give me input on a gain staging issue.
When I disengage bypass (on either unit), I get about 10-15db decrease in volume, with the gain knob set to 0db, and compression settings such that no gain reduction is taking place.
This makes A/B’ing a compressed vs bypassed sound infeasible, since the gain knob only gives me ~15db increase at the max setting, so max non-bypassed gain (with no gain reduction) is about level with the bypassed signal. Effectively this leaves me with no makeup gain option, since all compression at this point is reducing volume from the dry signal.
Is this usual behavior for these units?