Hi axefx level vs hi monitor level

B

bossredman

Inspired
I'm struggling to get the same quality of tone that others seem to get.
Im using my axefx II in conjunction with powered monitors.
I'm purely a bed room player and not at loud volume levels.
Was wondering if there is a preferred setup up method of between:
maxing the levels in the axe and using lower monitor levels
OR
Lower axefx levels and higher monitor levels.
 
You typically don't want to turn the Axe all the way up. This concept is called gain staging. The Axe sends great signal levels with the Out knobs between 9 o clock and 3 o clock or so, but for home playing you shouldn't need to turn it past 12 o clock. So set that and then adjust your speakers for the loudness you want in the room.
 
Thanks Chris..
yes I'm already setup at 12 o'clock for the output knobs. .
But what about individual block levels.the same question pls .
Is it best to have the axe levels as high as possible and reduce monitor volume.
Or keep axe levels low and crank up monitor levels..
 
bossredman said:
Thanks Chris..
yes I'm already setup at 12 o'clock for the output knobs. .
But what about individual block levels.the same question pls .
Is it best to have the axe levels as high as possible and reduce monitor volume.
Or keep axe levels low and crank up monitor levels..
Click to expand...
Use the VU meter to balance your Amp Level.
 
As far as I have understood and experienced myself it depends greatly on the setup and equipment used. When you have AXE FX connected direcly to your active monitors (no mixer) you have to consider what the monitor can handle as line input as the AXE FX can deliver quite some output.

Same applies and gets more stages to take into consideration when you include a soundcard/mixer in between.

1. have axe fx balanced presets where there is no internal audio (digital) clipping
2. the output from axe to first input (either active monitor, mixer or soundcard) should not be on or surpass the max of the input this device can handle. this will have for sure distorted and clipping when it does. even if your axe fx is setup correctly.

for example: i connect to a soundcard before it goes to my monitors (route= axe - komplete audio 6 - krk 6).
I have set my levels in axe fx (master volume, amp level, output level) quite high but not surpassing the VU meters to avoid any internal clipping. BUT this has impact on the levels I am able to use in the next gainstages (as mixer and monitors also have either gain or amplification).

In my situation I am not able to have high level output frome axe fx to my NI komplete soundcard as it shows already clipping when using very dynamic amps (and therefor very dynamic output from my AXE FX). As my soundcard can not handle that high output from my axe fx. The NI audiocard starts clipping and distorting the sound of the xlr input. This is NOT the axe fx, but the NI. But to fix this i have to lower the output of the axe fx.

bottomline:
you want a signal chain that starts with high level without digital clipping, BUT not too high for the next in line. And this continues all the way down to next n line of the chain. Especially if you also have gain/input controls on your input (i have and have it to zero on my soundcard as input is already very high).
 
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