interesting ideas there … i recall that the best way to discern between various OT test sound files ie original, reduced/gained and so on was in the presentation of the noise floor, so yeah a bit like the notion that it would be more evident in a cymbal tail - i think this would be more a problem if the OT was specifically a studio/fidelity tool, but as an improvisational/performance tool it’s not an obstacle
previous thread on gain ‘recovery’