Glen Sorrentino
Inspired
Ok, I am going to post this despite feeling and looking like an idiot in the hopes that it will inspire others to keep working to find their sound.
Tonight i decided to look at the back of my Focal 6be monitors and switch both to the -10db input level instead of the +4 db. With my Ultra i had the +4 input by default. This actually raised the output level substantially instead of the opposite! Fortunately this is not the only thing that changed! Suddenly all my own presets sounded like total garbage and all the stock factory presets sounded absolutely glorious!
This prompted me to go back through my high gain presets and rework the gain structure and EQs. The result was nothing short of AMAZING! I swear i almost cried at the improvement in detail. The harmonics, sustain and reverb tails floored me. I really thought i had found some great sounds with quite a few improvements from my ultra before this discovery. I went back and plugged my Ultra in with the -10db input only to find that it did not happen for me. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps someone would care to postulate.
The bottom line is even my wife hears a huge difference. Night and Day folks! I realize setting levels is basic to signal processing but can be easily overlooked. This is where i took a big peace of "Humble Pie". I hope somebody can gain from this.
PS: There is more to this here than the Fletcher-Munson curve
Tonight i decided to look at the back of my Focal 6be monitors and switch both to the -10db input level instead of the +4 db. With my Ultra i had the +4 input by default. This actually raised the output level substantially instead of the opposite! Fortunately this is not the only thing that changed! Suddenly all my own presets sounded like total garbage and all the stock factory presets sounded absolutely glorious!
This prompted me to go back through my high gain presets and rework the gain structure and EQs. The result was nothing short of AMAZING! I swear i almost cried at the improvement in detail. The harmonics, sustain and reverb tails floored me. I really thought i had found some great sounds with quite a few improvements from my ultra before this discovery. I went back and plugged my Ultra in with the -10db input only to find that it did not happen for me. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps someone would care to postulate.
The bottom line is even my wife hears a huge difference. Night and Day folks! I realize setting levels is basic to signal processing but can be easily overlooked. This is where i took a big peace of "Humble Pie". I hope somebody can gain from this.
PS: There is more to this here than the Fletcher-Munson curve
Last edited: