USB Recording - Direct Signal Level Question

CodePoet

CodePoet

Fractal Fanatic
I was playing with the Axe II direct recording last night into Logic and reamping - very fun and cool. My question is - what type of levels should I expect from output 3 - the dry signal? The levels I record are very low on those. Is there a way to increase the levels? Should I be concerned about it?
 
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They should be the same level as your guitar signal going into the axe-fx. That should be very low. That way the reamped signal will be the same as your guitar was to begin with.
 
You would want your dry signal on the low side in order to prevent clipping once you start adding amps and effects to it. My dry signal is low (not even hitting yellow on the meters in PT), but I find after I reamp the level is in the same ballpark as if I had recorded the wet track directly (around -6 dBFS).
 
Ok - I realize the dry signal is originally very low compared to the effected one. I'm just not used to printing a low signal - we usually hear it needs to be maxxed out to make the most of your bit depth. Maybe there's some mojo in there that makes it all work.
 
No there is not. You want unity gain. If you hit the amp block with a louder signal it will change the tone. It should be the same level as your guitar is sending the axe-fx. You are not going through the A/D converters at this stage, that has all been done. It is in the digital realm, just like passing the signal from one block to the next.
 
Yeah, I understand the unity gain idea and that pumping a hot signal in there would be louder and mess up the levels on the reamp. But I still can't get my head around the fact that saving the dry signal at a low level is a good thing. But perhaps as you say it's all handled in the digital realm and the instrument input on the Axe is happy with that level. When I've reamped before, I've saved the dry guitar as a hot signal and fed Guitar Rig or whatever that signal (and adjusted the levels accordingly). I see why you wouldn't want to do it this way and keep it unity gain all the way through, and if it works and there's not a quality loss on the reamp, I can move on :).
 
Adjusting Input Levels On The II Versus The Ultra

This brings up for me a distantly related question, namely how the unity gain on the II compares with the non-unity gain ultra.

One thing a friend pointed out to me is that when he rolled down the volume pot, he would lose the highs. He actually had a guitar tech install a hi pass filter that would gradually come in as the guitar volume knob was lowered, compensating for that.

For me, since I don't have a circuit like that, and have very little room to adjust guitar knob volume, I just leave it all the way up. I have at times raised and lowered the input on the ultra to have a similar benefit, although obviously its not the same at all as lowering the volume knob on the guitar.

The unity gain idea is to make auditioning and writing presets more stable, right?

But tone of course still varies with different guitar volume and guitars/pickups as well as patch settings.

My first question is, assuming I understand the unity gain idea, is there a practical way to set some template patch on the ultra that works towards this unity gain concept in the II? Maybe with a filter in the front, and modify the "level" setting of that filter so that you can sync up the best level for how you want your guitar volume knob, and how you want the drive levels and so forth?

Secondly, do people feel that having this feature in the II is a big improvement?

On the Ultra when building up a library of patches, rather than tweaking a patch fully, I've just found myself adjusting the INPUT knob on the front of the axe fx to quickly compensate when needed for changes in the guitar volume knob.

And that would do nothing on the Axe II if it is unity gain (or am I misunderstanding this?), meaning the adjustments would truly need to be made via axe edit, or the front panel, into the unit's software.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but in my confused mind I see this long chain of fx blocks standing side-by-side on the "performing stage" of the Ultra LCD screen, each one trying to play louder than the other, and I haven't a good understanding of how all this works or relates to physical signal input into the Ultra and the newer unit.
 
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the idea of the unity gain is to allow the simulated blocks like amp, drive, etc. react more like their real-life counterparts.the purpose of the input knobs never wasvtomshape your tone or gain levels. itvwas to optimize your signal to the A/D converters to allow for the best signalnto noise ratio. The axefx2 accomplishes this by lowering levels after the A/D conversion for any increase in level before the conversion. the result is the level your guitar puts out is what the amp blocks and/or effects see in the grid.There are new parameters if you want to adjust the input levels like the axefx 1. globally there is amp in gain ( in the global menu) and trim in the amp block.
 
Perfect. That makes a lot of sense having a global "amp in gain" and trim in the amp block, and just use the level in to ensure the right volume for the A/D conversion.
 
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