Tickling the red on the inputs??

ratsgym

ratsgym

Inspired
I have my guitars going in the front instrument input. Everyone talks about raising input levels to tickle the red. I have my input up to 100% and it still doesn't tickle them. Anyone have any ideas what I am not doing right?
 
There are three Input Gains: Input1, Input2, Input Front. Confirm, you have raised up the used one. Guitar volume is fully up? you pull the strings hardly? no tickling red? Perhaps your Pickups are very low output ones ... If the yellow LEDs are blinking i would not think to much about it .... that`s enough input gain to get decent levels with less SNR ...
 
Same here. The input is max and the reds do not light up. I tried several guitars (single coils and humbuckers) with same result. Some guitars are louder than others, but even the loudest one does not each the red level. Orange is the max on my axe. Good tone though.
 
hmmm, .... i set up my Strat with Ray Gerold Pickups to 60% Input Gain and it tickles the red when really hard pushing a D-chord on brisge postion (i mean... really hard!) .....
 
Morphosis said:
hmmm, .... i set up my Strat with Ray Gerold Pickups to 60% Input Gain and it tickles the red when really hard pushing a D-chord on brisge postion (i mean... really hard!) .....
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I wonder what the difference is. Are we not doing something right or what.
 
If it is hooked to a computer....is there any program running that would be sending controller #10 messages
 
You are ok. I have mine at 100% and only one of my humbucker guitars tickles the reds and that is a very rare occasion. I have to really it hit hard to do it. None of my single coils hit the red.
 
This has been discussed many times. Some guitar pickups won't reach red but there's no harm / no loss of tone or signal level. It's just signal to noise ratio.

Manual: "INPUT LEVELS are set with “soft-knobs” on the INPUT page of the I/O menu. Adjust according to the level of input source material until “hot” signals “tickle” the red LEDs on the front panel INPUT meters. The red LED lights at -6 dB (below clipping). Some sources may not reach ideal levels but can still be used with no problems."

If you're running mono, set Input to Left Only to prevent attenuation.

Input: levels - Axe-Fx II Wiki
 
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Here is something interesting... I've only had my Axe II for a couple weeks, but I had no issue hitting the red until I started loading/auditioning user IR's and/or patches. Now I cannot hit the red with any of my guitars - even with the setting at 100% using guitars with PRS-HFS, Seymour Duncan Distortion, or EMG 81 pickups.
When my Axe II first arrived, I actually lowered the factory I/O setting to 28 to compensate for the hot pickups in my primary guitar (PRS CU24) because it was hitting the red excessively when set in the 40+ range. Now it does not matter where I set it - anything between 15 and 100 will only hit the two green and one yellow, but no red. I'm tempted to try the factory reset to see if it fixes it since I've only saved a few patches so far.
 
sgplayer76 said:
Here is something interesting... I've only had my Axe II for a couple weeks, but I had no issue hitting the red until I started loading/auditioning user IR's and/or patches. Now I cannot hit the red with any of my guitars - even with the setting at 100% using guitars with PRS-HFS, Seymour Duncan Distortion, or EMG 81 pickups.
When my Axe II first arrived, I actually lowered the factory I/O setting to 28 to compensate for the hot pickups in my primary guitar (PRS CU24) because it was hitting the red excessively when set in the 40+ range. Now it does not matter where I set it - anything between 15 and 100 will only hit the two green and one yellow, but no red. I'm tempted to try the factory reset to see if it fixes it since I've only saved a few patches so far.
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IRs will have absolutely nothing to do with the input levels. They are pre A/D conversion.
 
javajunkie said:
IRs will have absolutely nothing to do with the input levels. They are pre A/D conversion.
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Same for user presets? - I've replaced three factory presets with user presets I downloaded here. If they are not related, can you think of anything that may have caused my input level to suddenly drop off? Thanks!
 
Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I just changed Input 1 Mode from "L+R Sum" to "Left Only" and guess what... the RED LEDs are back!!! I'm not sure how I managed to change the setting to L+R Sum, but changing it to Left Only or Stereo fixes the input issue I was having. Hopefully this is all that is needed for everyone that posted in this, and other threads.
 
sgplayer76 said:
Sorry to bring up an old topic, but I just changed Input 1 Mode from "L+R Sum" to "Left Only" and guess what... the RED LEDs are back!!! I'm not sure how I managed to change the setting to L+R Sum, but changing it to Left Only or Stereo fixes the input issue I was having. Hopefully this is all that is needed for everyone that posted in this, and other threads.
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Now I'm sorry for the necrobump. But this is becoming "relevant information" to me now.

Setting up 2 active wedges today (CLR). Till now, I've been DI and headphone with my A2. This "tickling the reds" business, am I to assume that it needs to be more or less re-calibrated every time I pick up a different guitar? I ask because I know pup output is key in all this - I run guitars that have old style low output PAF pups, all the way up to triple ceramic magnet metal monsters. I'd like to think I could just sling a different ax over my shoulder and not bother with the front screen. But something tells me....??

Thanks for any input.
Mo
 
Possibly, but it's an incredibly quick process. Plug in a guitar, strum, if it tickles, you're good, if not, hit the I/O button and adjust the input level. Additionally, once you change the input mode from L+R SUM to Left only, it will be fine across the board globally. The process would take all of 5 seconds so you're in no trouble at all :)
 
This topic popped up several times last week, now here's a short summary:
  • The instrument level does not affect gain, unless you're using extreme settings. If the upper limit is reached, a hard limiter will kick in, which might lead to a "compressed" feeling.
  • Set the level according to your loudest pickup. Don't care about the rest, unless the difference was enormous (1 green light vs. almost permanent red light).
 
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