Monter Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Hi I have used PODs since the first one and have never cracked this old chestnut. When you use a number of presets, each preset has a volume setting assigned by you, and your ear tells you roughly where those settings should be to get a balance that sounds right between the presets be they clean clipped crunch or crazy. However when you get onto stage with drums and bass the volumes that you thought were 'there or there abouts' can be way out, some are loud, some weak, and it can be surprising how the best musical ear can be proved wrong. In the past I have just had to set the volumes as I go playing live, and that takes some time. Soooooo, does anyone know of a method of setting the 'preset' volumes so that they balance in terms of 'perceived sound' ?? I appreciate you 'll never get the perfect balance between the presets until you test them on stage, but I suppose I am wondering whether anyone has plugged into Cubase or Logic and set up a loudness meter or perhaps by way of some other alchemy to speed the process up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverhead Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 The perception may have as much or more to do with tonal frequencies as with volume levels. Two presets/patches may be the same volume when heard in isolation, but one may have a deeper overall frequency - more bass and less mid/treble tone. Adding drums and bass means you are adding more sound to the lower frequency range, which will mix with and overwhelm the low range of your guitar tone, meaning you are only hearing the less audible mid/treble tones from the guitar. Compared to the guitar tone that emphasizes the higher mid/treble ranges, the latter may sound louder because it cuts through the drums/bass tones more easily. You can experiment with this. Take one of your presets that seems to be lower volume when the drums and bass are added. Try increasing the mid/upper frequency ranges of the guitar - you can do this with the guitar's tone knob, its pickup selector switch, or the amp tone stack settings. You may be able to hear the guitar come to life and be be perceived as 'louder' as less of its overall tone is 'lost in the mix'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joemama78 Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 I went through all of my patches with audio metering and found the same thing as silverhead said - different patches respond differently in a live setting because of the tonal frequencies in band context. Audio metering will get you into the same general arena, but only live tweaking will get you a final level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lectricfrets Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 I record practice off of the mixer, take it home and play it back through the same amp that I am playing my guitar through, and then tweak my HD's virtual Mixer, Amp Channel Volume, and/or Volume Pedal preset to eqaulize the perceived volumes between patches. Works well for me...not so much for my wife. I use a small Roland amp on a mic stand in front of my face so I don't have to do this at concert levels. B) :wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monter Posted October 13, 2013 Author Share Posted October 13, 2013 Thanks to all who have responded. It is a tricky affair, and one you dont have to the same extent when playing through a traditional amp. It has just occured to me that I do actually know how to get the presets to a semblence of balance: I will play and adjust against pre-recorded backing tracks that I have used before on stage succesfuly with an older POD and just keep tweaking until i get it right. After that, as you say, it's seat of pants live tweaking!! Maybe one day our frinds at Line 6 will come up with some alchemy which dials in the requisit ingrediants to help POD users balance their presets quicker... after all, look at where they are going with StageScape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjnette Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 Ccustomtone patches will wreck havoc with your levels. But as above is the way to do it. Ideally at performance volume. As there is plenty of space to save patches in sets, You can have a set or two for live and different sets for recording and another for patch creation and only upgrade a patch to your sacred live sets once it has proven itself so too for custom tone downloaded patches. Don't forget to Save your patches. The trick is having patches work at a consistent level and tonality from patch to patch and from each FX on to FX off to patch to patch. It is alot of work to get it as good as you can nut a few time thru your set list. What works safe to start is duplicating a few amps that you like with your live setup and working around those rather than a huge array of amp choices. I too use the amp mixer mostly but also check the amp sub menu pages as some amps default the sub master at 50%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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