So I just look at the vu meter of the mixer and try not to just clip, leaving the history of the bypassed blocks alone, I hope I have understood correctly! One more thing, does the sound engineer use the right gain / trim to lower or raise my signal? But doesn't he distort the sound a bit regardless, or does he have to boost it to clipping? Excuse me if I ask silly questions, but before I was the type of analogue kick head and pad and I still miss a few things !!Thanks for the replies anyway