Strudel gain stacks multiplicatively and clips — several loud voices distort, so keep per-voice gain well under 1

In Strudel, .gain multiplies through the signal chain rather than summing headroom-safely, so stacking several loud voices compounds into clipping distortion at the master. The remedy is gain-staging discipline: keep each voice’s .gain well under 1 so their sum leaves headroom, and mind the overall master level. This is the pattern-language equivalent of setting fader levels — there is no automatic limiter protecting you, so unbalanced per-voice gains audibly break up the mix.

Examples

Four voices each at .gain(1) sum to clipping. Set each to roughly .gain(0.5) and the stacked mix stays clean.

Assessment

A four-voice Strudel patch distorts when all layers play together but sounds clean solo. Explain the cause and give a gain-staging fix.