Help with Input Gain?

Kelleys Heroes

Kelleys Heroes

Experienced
I think I messed up a bunch of presets by having my input gain set all the way down, and then adjusting them to sound loud enough through the usual leveling methods.

Basically I have about a dozen presets, half sound good with input gain super low, and the other with input gain higher.

Is input gain on 1.0 the default, and should I retweak my presets using that as a starting point? What is the best practice here? I was surprised to find only one reference to Input Gain in the manual, and most of the hits I found for Input gain point to firmware threads.
 
Kelleys Heroes said:
Is input gain on 1.0 the default, and should I retweak my presets using that as a starting point? What is the best practice here? I was surprised to find only one reference to Input Gain in the manual, and most of the hits I found for Input gain point to firmware threads.
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I leave it a 1 when I'm making presets. I use that control to counteract the difference in the guitar's output when switching to single-coils IF I want more gain in the presets instead of letting the guitar's sound shine at the stock setting. Sometimes I want my Strat to scream. (I have that control in my Global Performance Controls to make it easy to get to.)

If there's some consistency in the Amp block models used, you can use Edit's "Set in Multiple Presets" to adjust them to the same level, then tweak to taste. ("Set in Multiple Presets" is the result of a right-click on a parameter.) At the same time though, it'd probably take just as long to tweak them afterwards so using the Preset Leveling Tool is how I'd deal with it.

It's a pain when we do something like that, and you're not alone in having done something that forced a bunch of fixes. I've done it many times. :)
 
Greg Ferguson said:
I leave it a 1 when I'm making presets. I use that control to counteract the difference in the guitar's output when switching to single-coils IF I want more gain in the presets instead of letting the guitar's sound shine at the stock setting. Sometimes I want my Strat to scream. (I have that control in my Global Performance Controls to make it easy to get to.)
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Same for me...
 
I would suggest setting the Input Gain using a clean amp like the Band-Commander or one of the Double Verb models. I was struggling with a couple of guitars I used to love but hadn't used for awhile so I decided to revisit the Input Gain. Using one of the Double Verb models, I discovered that it was too low for any of my guitars.

When previously adjusting the Input Gain, I used a 'past the edge of breakup' tone which left cleaner presets, and lower output guitars, sounding weak. I discovered that I had become more and more reliant on Advanced parameters to put back what the Input Gain was taking away. With the new setting, @ .800, it has changed how amps with different levels of gain are tweaked but all presets are sounding better with any of my guitars with less time dialing them in.
 
Input Gain is a gain multiplier control. The default is 1.0 or 1x the signal level (unity gain). The minimum of 0.1 would be 1/10th the signal level (-20 dB) and the maximum 10.0 would be 10x the signal level (+20 dB).
 
JoKeR III said:
I would suggest setting the Input Gain using a clean amp like the Band-Commander or one of the Double Verb models. I was struggling with a couple of guitars I used to love but hadn't used for awhile so I decided to revisit the Input Gain. Using one of the Double Verb models, I discovered that it was too low for any of my guitars.

When previously adjusting the Input Gain, I used a 'past the edge of breakup' tone which left cleaner presets, and lower output guitars, sounding weak. I discovered that I had become more and more reliant on Advanced parameters to put back what the Input Gain was taking away. With the new setting, @ .800, it has changed how amps with different levels of gain are tweaked but all presets are sounding better with any of my guitars with less time dialing them in.
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I don't get this - if a given guitar is weak / strong or whatever @ input gain=1, then the given guitar IS weak / strong or whatever - the guitar is what it is - it's not that way because input gain @ 1 has "taken something away". That's the beauty of Axfx - it perfectly allows most any guitar to be what it is.

I understand sometimes wanting to boost a weak guitar, or cut the output of a strong guitar prior to hitting the front of an amp or drive pedal, and input gain is one way to do that, but imo, not the greatest way since input gain is not modifiable, its not bypassable, its global, and its kind of out sight so easy to forget about (as in the OP's case) - better I'd say, to use the output level of the input1 block, or, my favorite, put a filter block at beginning of chain to adjust or shape initial guitar signal if needed (I like this because I can turn it on and off, vary it by scene, use the eq if I want in addition to level, vary its attrubutes or existance by preset, and save different variations in global slots for different guitars or pairs of guitars.
 
sprint said:
I don't get this - if a given guitar is weak / strong or whatever @ input gain=1, then the given guitar IS weak / strong or whatever - the guitar is what it is - it's not that way because input gain @ 1 has "taken something away". That's the beauty of Axfx - it perfectly allows most any guitar to be what it is.

I understand sometimes wanting to boost a weak guitar, or cut the output of a strong guitar prior to hitting the front of an amp or drive pedal, and input gain is one way to do that, but imo, not the greatest way since input gain is not modifiable, its not bypassable, its global, and its kind of out sight so easy to forget about (as in the OP's case) - better I'd say, to use the output level of the input1 block, or, my favorite, put a filter block at beginning of chain to adjust or shape initial guitar signal if needed (I like this because I can turn it on and off, vary it by scene, use the eq if I want in addition to level, vary its attrubutes or existance by preset, and save different variations in global slots for different guitars or pairs of guitars.
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I didn't say the Input Gain set @1.0 was taking anything away from the tone, the previous setting did, which was much lower than 1.0 (@ .5 if memory serves). Reducing the Input Gain that much took too much away from the character of cleaner amp tones.
 
sprint said:
I understand sometimes wanting to boost a weak guitar, or cut the output of a strong guitar prior to hitting the front of an amp or drive pedal, and input gain is one way to do that, but imo, not the greatest way since input gain is not modifiable, its not bypassable, its global, and its kind of out sight so easy to forget about (as in the OP's case) - better I'd say, to use the output level of the input1 block, or, my favorite, put a filter block at beginning of chain to adjust or shape initial guitar signal if needed (I like this because I can turn it on and off, vary it by scene, use the eq if I want in addition to level, vary its attrubutes or existance by preset, and save different variations in global slots for different guitars or pairs of guitars.
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From someone who learned this the hard way, I can't agree more! :tearsofjoy:
 
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