Best way to level scene outputs?

Plato67

Plato67

Member
I just spent 4 hours using my ears and the channel levels on my mixer to level out my setlist scenes. I'm going into an x32 rack and coming out of 2 EV ELX15P's.

Played the gig and the soundman said the levels between scenes are still not consistent.

What do you use to level out scenes; especially between different amp models?
 
I always look to make final tweaks to patches/scenes at rehearsal. i.e. at gig volume.
Makes me really popular for 20 minutes or so with the rest of the band but any other method (db meter, vu meter) doesn't seem to translate to the real world when speakers are moving air and the dynamics of a patch shine through
 
Mids tend to define how much you stand out in the mix. So the VU meter alone will not automatically indicate where your guitar is, in the mix.

I know this is sacrilege, but for general live use, it would probably help to use as few amps as possible to get the job done. And even then, try to occupy the same frequencies in the mix with any different amps that you use.

If you're in a cover band that requires a lot of different sounds/amp tones, it may come down to EQing the the band's mix for every different sounding song in rehearsal, then stick to that when you're in front of a crowd.
 
I use the VU meters and then my ears at gig volume. I actually do not want all my scene levels equal. I use Scene 2 in all my presets for leads and I want the leads to cut through the mix (it really is all about the leads). So I boost Scene 2 a bit louder than the rest of the preset. Works for me. I just started adding Scene 2 to my go-to presets. So far, I am very happy with the result.
 
As others have said, the VU meters are your friend here. The key for me has been to get the amp and effect volumes balanced in a preset before creating scenes. Check you effects levels, I've found it helpful to keep them at zero as much as possible. If you adjust the level of the effects, they will add that increase or decrease in volume to the scene as they are activated. The only blocks I've needed to have at different levels than zero or default are the drives and Multi Delay, I very rarely adjust the level of any other blocks. As far as scene volumes, I personally haven't needed to use them for anything other than as a boost for a lead scene. If everything is balanced in the preset, there should be no need to use them but they are nice to have if there are level issues that can't be fixed any other way.
 
Wigam2 said:
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/video-ax8-tutorials-tips-and-tricks-compiled-list.116158/

Scroll down to the LUFS meter video.

I haven't done this yet, but it seems like it works.
Click to expand...

I use a similar concept - AX8 into pc with zoom u44, load up reaper, set the plugin for the track to be the ozone plugin for lufs measurement, set the level to aim at in the plugin to be -20, play the same riff several times (normally the riff from “Stiff Competition” by Cheap Trick) and see what the ours level is. Then just adjust the amp output accordingly and recheck.
 
Setting scene levels can be quite difficult. I plan on doing a video on my whole approach to these things, but it might be awhile before I get to it, so here is a summary.

In the end, your ears are king. VU and LUFS meters will get you in the ballpark, but you have to listen at gig level and preferably in a mix to make the final adjustments.

My intention is to build all my future presets around a few three-channel amps (the gain levels of the three channels are achieved using scene controller 1). Each amp has a corresponding cab block and I tie scene controller 1 to the cab block level and use that to set the levels of the three channels appropriately. If I were running all purpose presets, this would be enough.

But I run one preset per song, and each scene correspond to each part of the song. So I use a filter block after the cab block tied to scene controller 2 to set the levels of each scene to fit in the mix and fit the song. For a lead I might switch to the y-state of the filter block to give me a slight mid boost.

To actually set the scene levels, I bought a Boss FS-6 and set it up to go +/- 1 dB on the main output scene level slider. This allows me to play with the band, and change my scene levels in 1 dB increments. When rehearsal is finished, I will go through my presets, and all adjustments I made to the scene main slider will be moved to the filter block.
 
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