How to "normalize" volume for live set?

  • Last night I was playing with my band and each song I kept having to go back to my Kemper head and adjust the master volume (it's going to my Gemini cab), as it seems my profiles very in volume relatively significantly. Is there a way to get a more even volume throughout all of my profiles? Or do I just have to "play it by ear"?

    Zach

  • By ear is recommended most here. And: Always tweak your sounds at band/gig volume. The reason for this is Fletcher-Munson, if you like to google.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

  • Ear is definitely the best way to do it. However, before you go changing all the rig volumes experiment with the Clean Sens parameter.


    Do the amps with different perceived volume levels also have different gain levels?


    The clean sens is intended to provide an element of self leveling between gain levels. I find that a lot of the time I need to set the clean sens to like -5 to get the profiles to balance nicely. I rarely need to touch the rig volumes though.


    If it is only your onstage perception that is out of whack (i.e. FOH are happy with what they are getting) you could assign an expression pedal to control monitor out volume and always ensure you are hearing what you need.

  • Erm, why keep changing them? Have I missed something? Its not the master you should change its the rig volume. Master will affect all...


    I have all my rigs set up at relative volume, which I initially set at home and then tweaked during sound check at a gig, then never touched it. I do this with morph as well so I can boost for little phrases. Solo is obviously higher...


    The only other factor is ear fatigue, so you go more deaf later in the gig, although for some reason I don't this as much as I used to with a Valve amp...

  • This is another reason I have a rig for each song (cover band). Load them all into performance mode to match the set lists. I tweak each rig's volume (if needed) to fit together with the one before and the one after, both the main parts of the song and lead breaks. Leveling at rehearsal, but also have the sound guy make notes on levels if he has time and hears significant difference.

    Learn to Swim

  • THATS A GOOD QUESTION


    I adjust that all the time when I fine tune my rigs

    I mean every day... and there is always one that JUMP in my face

    So I wont live that situation

    I realise that the day I received the Kemper

    It must be done before a practice and saved !!!

  • I feel like that's somewhat of a flaw especially for performances. Given using 10/15 different profiles, tons of different patches/OD's, etc. there should be a way to easily make things more congruent with each other.

  • Clean sens is the first stage in making things more congruent at a global level.


    Thereafter, as V8 said, just load the sounds in your peformance/songs/sets etc and check for level. Adjust to taste with the big Rig Volume knob in the bottom right corner and hit save. Move on to next sound. It shouldn’t be any harder than setting the levels between the channels on something like a Mesa Mark series or Dual Rectifier. I think we guitarist have a tendency to over think things and make out live’s more complicated than they need be (I’m certainly guilty of that much more frequently than I would like to admin)

  • On some rigs I notice that dropping the volume from the guitar is not equal to others.

    Say, going from max volume (10) down to (7 or 8).

    Some rigs have to be dropped to (3 or 4) to hear a similar reduced volume ....


    Anyone else notice this ?

  • On some rigs I notice that dropping the volume from the guitar is not equal to others.

    Say, going from max volume (10) down to (7 or 8).

    Some rigs have to be dropped to (3 or 4) to hear a similar reduced volume ....


    Anyone else notice this ?

    Do these rigs have similar amounts of gain?


    Gain acts like a compressor. Turning down the guitar on a low gain rig will dropp the volume massively whereas turning it down on a high gain rig will make very little difference in volume but will clean up significantly.

  • guitarmniac After my first gig with my Kemper I started a thread in the "features we would like to see added" section. Asking if they could add a feature to level the volume across an entire performance. Unfortunately for now it all has to be done by ear which is a bit difficult when you have multiple gain levels from clean to brutal as I do. Fortunately for me, I have a great sound man and before a gig I have him listen as I run through each profile ( I only use 5-6) strictly for volume. I don't tweak much now that I have my main rig where I want it so not as much of an issue anymore.


    The feature I requested was actually one which would equalize volume of all profiles as they are upoaded onto the Kemper so that as you scroll through profiles, they are all at the same volume.

  • I plug my guitar rig into my DAW and get the level up on the first slot/performance so it's at around -4 on the meters. Where it's actually at doesn't actually matter as long as the signal is decent - it's just a reference point- I then go through the rest of the slots in the rest of the performances and get them to around the same place- boosting / cutting as appropriate for the song.


    KPA Unpowered Rack, Kemper Remote, Headrush FRFR108s, BC Rich Mockingbird(s), and a nasty attitude.

  • IMHO there's no reliable way in normalizing rig volumes automatically. It all has to do with the way the human ear is perceiving frequencies and volume. That's why even different normalized audio files can be perceived in different volumes. Regarding guitar sounds there's even another trap: Clean sounds tend to have a loud peak in the attack phase, while the sustain phase is often a lot quieter. Distorted tones are more even in this regard. Normalizing clean and distorted tones automatically can therefore lead to uneven perceived volumes.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

  • Different volumes according to different Locations (small club, party-tent, mid-size-hall, open-air) are a problem for the profiler's current concept. Due to the fact that Output-volumes are not supposed to be saveable , it is necessary to dial in the desired frequency-response of a Performance for each individual Location-gig-Level by ear. The possibility that Output-EQ-presets can be stored doesn't really help because they of course are used in combination with a certain volume-level, which is not storable.


    For me and my band a consecutive Problem occurs, since we don't have a technician for FoH-Mixing (we do this by ourselves during the soundcheck). When later the crowd is in the Pub the dialed in Sound of the soundcheck mostly suffers.

    Sometimes I get the Feedback that my guitar sounded dull and thin, sometimes they Hype my Sound (mostly when I could have played louder).


    I made a lot of threads on this, but just got the mothership-Response (even of CK himself) that Output-volume-Level-storage never will come because of ear- or Equipment-damage when scrolling through Output-presets.

    For me and my problem (since day one) a bit ignorant.


    When reading These Kind of postings (seeing that other users have the same problem) I cannot refuse to Reply on this. Sorry for that.