Nucleus - Using Six-Input Mixer as up to x24 Gain Stage

[utdgrant]

You can use a Six-Input Mixer (from Nucleus) to give DC and AC signals a boost.

Each channel input gives you up to +6.0dB boost (x2 gain), and the master output gives you up to a further +6.0dB boost (x4 gain in total).

You can also feed the same source signal to multiple inputs to get further gain. By feeding the same source to all six inputs and boosting input gain to +6dB, you get a total of x12 gain. Turning up the Master output to +6dB increases total gain to x24.

The multiplied voltages shown in the image are a little below the expected values, if you treat +6.0dB as x2.0.
However, x2.0 voltage gain is actually +6.0206 dB. +6.0dB gives a voltage gain of around x1.995.

MixerAsGain.png (1.24 MiB) Viewed 6138 times

[ColinP]

There's an even easier way...

cableTrick.png (124.05 KiB) Viewed 6135 times

The example above looks impossible but the yellow "cable" is in fact two cables.

So you can do integer multiplication of a signal by patching multiple cables between the same source and destination.

The problem is that you can't tell there are multiple cables. CA ought to make a simple modification so that each cable droops by a slightly different amount so that one can see what's happening.

As the implementation stands I'd classify it as almost a bug but it's a handy tool sometimes providing you can remember that some cables are only visible when you click on the socket to reveal the multiple.

[ColinP]

I should add that so long as you have cable shadows enabled you can actually tell there are multiple cables by the shadow being darker but it's such a subtle effect that most people wouldn't notice it.