So can you tell me a bit about how you're setting up your output levels? I'm STILL having trouble getting my sounds from one patch to another to match and not clip the PA or my monitors through FRFR. I'm at around -20 DB on patches now to avoid clipping, and that just seems crazy low? Is that normal or about average? I'd love to ditch all my amps- this sounds amazing and very "3D"- I think I like the tone of some of my AX8 patches much more then my real amps (11 and counting) and I can get the great tone at bedroom volume and venue volume and it sounds the same (so much for Fletcher Munson- sounds just as good at lower volume as it does loud to me- and more importantly it feels the same!) There are so many "Outputs" on this thing, the Level, the Master, the Out1 etc. How should I be setting them?!?!?!
The VU meter is your friend for this! To access it simply page over 4 times on the front of the AX8!
You have to get everything the same with respect to preset levels first. In each preset use the VU meter to adjust your levels using the (LEVEL) control in the amp block.
The line about 2/3's across in the VU meter is what you want to aim for when setting level. The amp block is the most typical place for the adjustment though you can change it in other places but for now just use this location to set your preset levels as it makes things more consistent.
-20 db is really irrelevant as far as a place to set things. It's the level of the preset according to the VU meter that matters most, you can build every preset so you have a -20 setting for you level then go in and change the sene levels, output levels to make things louder or softer but if you are hot or cold according to the VU meter you will still be either bashing the daylights out of the inputs or not getting enough to your monitor / PA, mixing board etc... whatever the level winds up being is what it is.
You can make use of the other various level controls, Sene or Output-1-2 to help you get your levels normalized in the VU meter if needed!
I find setting up the clean presets first really helps because of how much level they need in order to get the volume required to be leveled with a dirty preset.
Then go in and setup you driven tones. Once these are set you shouldn't need to mess with them unless you edit your preset or change your level in the signal chain.
Not only will this will level your presets from one to the next but it prevents internal clipping as well!
The Master is just like the Master on a real amp and how it affects the tone and feel and volume. Turn the Master up and yes it's going to get louder but this also changes your levels so you need to account for this when your building the preset.
Lastly use the output knobs on the AX8 (out 1) (out 2) to control your volume, or use the volume knobs on your monitoring solution / sliders on the mixing board.
EDIT: The one other thing I forgot to mention is to check the output settings!
It's in the Setup menu under I/O > Levels > Out 1 (Main) nominal level . You can select either -10 or +4 db this will make a huge difference in your output levels running to whatever you are using to amplify with. This could be a large part of your issue if your not aware of what the setting is.
