Setting Levels

    Could someone point me to a thread that addresses setting levels properly. I am wondering if there is an order. For example, Clean/Distortion Sense, Amplifier Volume, Cabinet Volume, the various volumes in the Master section, the master volume knob, the Gain knob and finally the volume knob. Besides all these, there are volumes associated with pedals, Reverb, Modulation etc..


    I'm asking because I switched to another Clean rig and the M<aster LED was clipping Red. It seems that I can eliminate it by (1) reducing input clean sense (not distortion sense probably because it's a clean sound) (2) reducing Amplifier Volume (3) reducing Cabinet Volume etc.


    I'm thinking that reducing some of these vs. others affects the original profiled tone where other methods do not.


    I'm looking for a simple procedure (if one exists) that says: Adjust Clean and Distortion sense as follows, if Master LED is clipping do this; if you want to hear more cabinet sound do tho, less cabinet do this etc..


    This has probably been discussed a lot and I tried some searches but only seem to find bits and pieces which confuse me further.


    Thanks in advance.

    You should leave clean and distortion sense out. Clean sense is for balancing clean vs. distorted rigs in general and distortion sense is a master gain, so they both have nothing to do with balancing rigs against each other.


    Amp volume and cab volume are the ones you should use.
    Personally, I prefer to leave cab volume neutral and do all my adjustments on rig volume because it got its own illuminated pot and I can see at a glance what's going on.
    (Also I don't do a lot of cab changing so I don't need to influence this parameter per se, but people using their favourite cab with a lot of different amps may choose to use it more to have a better balance).


    I choose a factory profile as a reference, in my case the 69 profile, and do all the balancing against this profile using rig volume.
    When the output LED goes constantly red lowering the rig volume will help.

    If an imported rig is clipping the Output LED, the first thing I look at is any EFFECTS that are engaged. Sometimes these have added volume settings that are pushing the signal. In general, you don't want to reduce anything in the STOMPS section, as these will indeed impact your tone.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer