VU Meter and Levels Help

M

msmith886

Inspired
I have been having trouble lately with levels on my AX8. I have gone through and made adjustments to the VU meter on various presets however some of them still sound a lot louder than others. I finally fixed the clipping issue I was having now I just want to get the levels adjusted.

The sound man last night said some of the presets sounded amazing and others needed a lot of tweaking as far as level and drive wise. Still trying to find a good drive or two I like. Even was recommended I could push old pedals into the AX8 if I wanted if there was a drive I liked a lot that wasn't on axe edit and could also do two drives on the AX8 to help even out some tones.

I have been running stereo which I have loved but really want figure out this volume thing and find a few good drives out there that will work for what we play.

I have gone back to re-watch Chris's video and read up on somethings but wanted to see if anyone may have any advice on either one of these things ?
 
Analog mixers are cheap. It helped me a lot once I picked one up - no surprises for the sound guy that way. Another thing I noticed were some drives to my ears sounded way louder but the mixer said no, and vice versa. I'm all about trusting your ears but in my opinion they lie when levels are involved LOL.

To get what you want exactly you may have to make adjustments at the venue - if you can.
 
I use the VU meters as a starting point, but then I always level my presets with my ears.
 
I spent some time leveling my presets with the VU meter before my last gig... but they still needed some tweaking at the last rehearsal. Create a boost\cut using a filter block, comes in handy when you need a little more or little less volume.
 
If you have an audio interface and a DAW, I recommend levelling your presets using a LUFS loudness analyser. This analysis is much closer to perceived loudness than a VU meter. At the same perceived loudness, clean sounds will peak much higher on the VU meter than distorted sounds due to the inherent compression of distortion.
 
Smittefar said:
If you have an audio interface and a DAW, I recommend levelling your presets using a LUFS loudness analyser. This analysis is much closer to perceived loudness than a VU meter. At the same perceived loudness, clean sounds will peak much higher on the VU meter than distorted sounds due to the inherent compression of distortion.
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Going to try this too... Anyone use an iphone VU meter app?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/decibel-10th-professional/id448155923?mt=8
 
What would be the easiest and best way to adjust at a gig with this.

Doing it at home by yourself vs on stage through the system with the band has made me realize how totally different they are.

I am going to create a few good presets and try to go with those instead of so many but just want to find a way to get everything level.

I noticed the green lights on master and level changed a lot but I never peaked or clipped either.
 
msmith886 said:
What would be the easiest and best way to adjust at a gig with this.

Doing it at home by yourself vs on stage through the system with the band has made me realize how totally different they are.

I am going to create a few good presets and try to go with those instead of so many but just want to find a way to get everything level.

I noticed the green lights on master and level changed a lot but I never peaked or clipped either.
Click to expand...
Master is used to adjust the amount of Power Amp distortion. it also affects the overall volume, but don't use it to adjust volume specifically.

Amp Level is used to adjust overall volume specifically. due to Drive and many other settings, the Level in one preset/amp could be -24dB, and in another it could be +4dB and they could have the exact same perceived volume. don't worry about what number that Amp Level parameter ends up being. it is there to balance all the changes you've made with Drive, Master, and other parameters.

in other words, if you set 2 amps to the same Amp Level number, they might not (and usually never) have the same perceived volume.
 
I have found the best way to get an almost even level is to purchase SPL Meter like you would use at FOH at a venue. Such as this one: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/galaxy-audio-cm-130-check-mate-spl-meter Now granted, this will only be successful if you are using some FRFR Monitors to make your patches and are running them at Gig Levels when you are trying to measure. That is yet another important aspect....you need to be doing this at gig level volume to get them as close as possible.
 
So will the VU level's help if I adjust or is there a good way to fix this issue on axe edit. I know not all presets will be the same volume but has to be a way to get them close.

Also if I understand right then y'all are saying the green lights are basically acting as amp levels or what I would use to control that if I just wanted to turn it up a little like I would on my amp or whatever vs the VU meter
 
msmith886 said:
So will the VU level's help if I adjust or is there a good way to fix this issue on axe edit. I know not all presets will be the same volume but has to be a way to get them close.

Also if I understand right then y'all are saying the green lights are basically acting as amp levels or what I would use to control that if I just wanted to turn it up a little like I would on my amp or whatever vs the VU meter
Click to expand...
the presets CAN BE the same volume. you need to adjust it manually, and it's not about the actual number on the Level parameter, but how loud it sounds and looks on the VU meter.

the VU meter shows how loud something is. the controls with the green lights around it are just that - controls. you would turn them while looking at the VU meter to adjust them. have you watched the VU meter video i shared in your other threads?

 
Gotcha. Yeah man I am going to rematch a lot of them over the weekend. It sounded better last night but still not where it needs to be. Made me feel good though to talk w someone else and hear about it taking them a long time to to learn it all.
 
msmith886 said:
So will the VU level's help if I adjust or is there a good way to fix this issue on axe edit. I know not all presets will be the same volume but has to be a way to get them close.

Also if I understand right then y'all are saying the green lights are basically acting as amp levels or what I would use to control that if I just wanted to turn it up a little like I would on my amp or whatever vs the VU meter
Click to expand...

AX8 Edit will do nothing to help you in getting your presets leveled visually. You can get in the ballpark using the VU Meter on the AX8 for a visual representation, but then you will have to rely on your ears or something that is more accurate to get you the rest of the way there.

What green lights are you referring to? If you are talking about the green lights on the AX8, those are you Input levels....they have nothing to do with your Output levels. You will control or adjust your output volume in just a few places. You can adjust the output level easiest using the Level knob in the Amp Block. You can also adjust the output volume using the level in the Drive Block if it's getting louder when you kick on a Drive Block. The last place you could do it would be using the Output Mixer at the end of the chain, but I honestly would not use this because then you are going to have to do it on every preset.

First step I would do it go through all my presets and turn off all my effects and just leave the Amp/Cab blocks on. Level all the presets output volume using the Level Knob in the amp blocks. Once you have them all leveled audio wise, then you will need to go through and kick on your Drive Blocks one at a time and level the output volume by using the Level Knob in the Drive Blocks(so that when you kick on a Drive, the output volume doesn't jump up). Then after you have done that for each Drive Block, in each preset, move on to your other blocks and do the same thing for each one. It's a process that takes a while to get the hang of, but once you get it down....it becomes easier. It's also why most folks get this done and them save that layout as a Template to build other Presets off of. The Drives will interact a little differently with each amp, so some minor tweaks will need to be made, but you won't have to start from scratch each time.
 
Cool and yeah I was referring to the green lights gain, vol, drive, depth, etc. I have some templates. Think I have been trying to download too many and not do my own instead and go.
 
msmith886 said:
Sorry I wasn't clear. So those basically act as my amp on stage then I assume
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Those are you Direct Amp controls. No matter what screen the AX8 is on, those will control the Amp Block parameters in the the preset you are in directly. They allow you to make quick adjustments to your Amp should you need to without having to dive into a menu. Now, they are the basic parameters, but are what people use the most. So YES, its like having the amp sitting on stage with you and being able to adjust the knobs on the Amp. You still will only generally adjust Level to change the output volume of the Amp. If you mess with Master, then that is going to not only affect the output volume, but also the drive of the amp as well where your signal is hitting the power tubes. ...... just like the master volume knob of a real amp.
 
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