Initial setup questions about A/D Sensitivity

[Ajegwu]

I'm finally getting around to migrating from FM3 to FM9, and this part of setup is confusing me a little.

First, since I use multiple guitars, like a single coil Telecaster, a McCarty with 57/08's, and a Custom 24, which one should I use for this? Surely I'm not supposed to adjust every time I switch guitars? How would I then compensate in presets for my other guitars?

Second, the manual states " In general, you should set input levels as high as possible without clipping."

Is there somewhere to check? Does it just mean don't have the red light on too much in the Input 1 column? Because nothing I do here makes Output 1 clip light come on.

Thank y'all for your help!

 

[2112]

Just set it up for whatever guitar has the hottest pickups - it's all about optimizing the signal/noise ratio of the A/D converters. Here's how I do it.

 

[DaveO]

best place to look for input levels is in the "meters" section of your preset, from there you can see the overhead across all of the paths, (page right a few times) or in the FM9 edit you can easily see headroom for the amp block though I generally use my ears for levels, I'm not a expert but I set my patch at the loudest level well below any headroom max input and output. every guitar and rig is different so you need to know your gear. Cant go wrong with any of the tutorials mentioned from @2112.

 

[Ajegwu]

Just set it up for whatever guitar has the hottest pickups - it's all about optimizing the signal/noise ratio of the A/D converters. Here's how I do it.

Thank you! I was watching this video when I made the post, I must have missed the part about using the hottest guitar. But your video was a perfect visual reference for tickling the red.