What's the best way to balance input level between guitars?

Stringtheorist

Stringtheorist

Fractal Fanatic
My two main guitars are a Les Paul Custom and a Fender Custom Shop Super-Strat. To balance their input signal strengths the input level knob needs to be set to maximum for the Strat, and dialled back to 2 o'clock for the LP. It's a pain to have to remember to do this during performance. I always forget to do it during guitar changes and then have to go back and reset the level while playing. What's the best way of modifying my presets to take care of this automatically? Would a filter block at the beginning of the chain have the same effect as altering the input level? If so, should I boost for the Strat or Cut for the Les Paul?
 
Set it for your hottest guitar, and leave it there - never touch it again.

If your rig was a conventional tube head (which doesn't have an input level adjustment), your two guitars would sound different in that rig, as intended. Well, set your Axe-FX the same way... make sure it doesn't clip with your hottest guitar, and leave it well enough alone.
 
Dpoirier said:
Set it for your hottest guitar, and leave it there - never touch it again.

If your rig was a conventional tube head (which doesn't have an input level adjustment), your two guitars would sound different in that rig, as intended. Well, set your Axe-FX the same way... make sure it doesn't clip with your hottest guitar, and leave it well enough alone.
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+1
 
Personally, i would have separate patches for each. They are quite different beasts that could require different eq and gain settings. I do realize you are going for a much simpler approach.
 
Originally Posted by Dpoirier
Set it for your hottest guitar, and leave it there - never touch it again.

If your rig was a conventional tube head (which doesn't have an input level adjustment), your two guitars would sound different in that rig, as intended. Well, set your Axe-FX the same way... make sure it doesn't clip with your hottest guitar, and leave it well enough alone.




+2
 
Or, you could use some form of DB boost in your patches that can be turned on when you are using the guitar with less output.
 
Stringtheorist said:
Would a filter block at the beginning of the chain have the same effect as altering the input level?
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No, it would be after the fact. Input knob is for optimizing signal to noise ratio for the converters which are before the matrix.

Stringtheorist said:
should I boost for the Strat or Cut for the Les Paul?
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As stated above, set it up for the Paul and play. If it's a volume issue when plugging the Strat in setup a mixer or GEQ block after the cab block and adjust for a volume boost. Assign it to an A/I and step on it when playing the Strat.
 
If, let`s say two guitars (one with single Coils -> strat, one with HB -> Les Paul) should use the same Preset(s), i put a PEQ in the first row and a filter in the last: With PEQ a adjust lows and highs and gain (=level) before amp, with the filter block i align the two different output volumes for both guitars. PEQ and filter is switchable with the same CC via MIDI. works ...
 
i prefere to level the volume at the output if necessary.

a SC and HB guitar should not drive the amp block (or a real amp either) the same. Thats why we have different guitars.

If it is a volume issue - that is the strat is too quiet v the LP using the same patch, use a method of increasing the volume at the end of the patch. That way the guitars sound and react with the amp block the way they should, but you dont get a volume issue.

IMO of course.
 
Stringtheorist said:
That's exactly what I needed. Thanks.
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This solution will not address the difference in gain structure though. You will have quite a bit less gain and the patch won't respond the same way at all as it does with the LP in most cases. Place the boost before the amp block if you want to maintain the gain structure of the patch.

While most of the guys here are recommending the conventional set it for the hottest guitar and forget it approach, I don't necessarily agree. When I switch guitars I want the timbre of the instrument to shine through as it really is, but I don't want a dramatic gain change. I switch to a strat because I like the way the strat sounds on a song, not because I want a cleaner sound (that's what the volume knobs on the guitar are for). I address this by changing my input knob when I switch guitars although you could do it just as easily with the footswitch (I don't want to sacrifice a CC to that though).

Do it however makes the most sense to you and in the way that fits your performance best, but I just wanted to let you know there's nothing wrong with how you've been doing it. Should you decide to keep your current setup and use a footswitch for the volume change, set the Axe input knob for the hotter guitar and then boost the strat with a footswitch tied to a block at the very beginning of the signal chain.

D
 
dk_ace said:
This solution will not address the difference in gain structure though. You will have quite a bit less gain and the patch won't respond the same way at all as it does with the LP in most cases. Place the boost before the amp block if you want to maintain the gain structure of the patch.

While most of the guys here are recommending the conventional set it for the hottest guitar and forget it approach, I don't necessarily agree. When I switch guitars I want the timbre of the instrument to shine through as it really is, but I don't want a dramatic gain change. I switch to a strat because I like the way the strat sounds on a song, not because I want a cleaner sound (that's what the volume knobs on the guitar are for). I address this by changing my input knob when I switch guitars although you could do it just as easily with the footswitch (I don't want to sacrifice a CC to that though).
Click to expand...
That's what I thought.

dk_ace said:
Should you decide to keep your current setup and use a footswitch for the volume change, set the Axe input knob for the hotter guitar and then boost the strat with a footswitch tied to a block at the very beginning of the signal chain.

D
Click to expand...
Is it a filter block I should be adding?
 
Stringtheorist said:
That's what I thought.

Is it a filter block I should be adding?
Click to expand...

A filter block is probably the least CPU intensive choice and that is what I would use.

Other options that might interest you are using either a grapical or parametric EQ block and using that to shape the strat's sound to make it work better in the patch (assuming you dialed the patch in intending to use the LP). I don't do this as I like to just dial the amp block in in such a way as to make it work with a variety of guitars, but I know others prefer to dial in to one guitar and use an EQ for other guitars. Either way is perfectly valid. I build a patch that will work with a variety of guitars and adjust each guitar's controls to compensate. That leaves me typically running strat tone controls in the 5-8 range and LP style guitars close to 10.

D
 
Another thing you might try is attaching a CC or A/I to the gain parameter in the amp sim, set up the sweep to add that little extra gain you need when switching to a single just like you would with a real amp.
 
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