Fun way to level between patches

[Tboneous]

It seems so clear to me now! What took me so long?

 

Here is the fun way to balance your volume across all of your patches.

 

Go to YouTube

Pick a backing track in the style that you most commonly play.

I am a funk, blues fusion kind of player so my banks are set up : clean, rhythm crunch, lead.

Turn up the amp and turn on the backing track and have fun!

 

I start with rhythm and level all of those so i can switch between them without any volume difference.

I move to cleans. My cleans typically are the Eric Johnson style: chorus, 2 delays and comp. I arpeggiate a pretty chord and make sure it cuts properly in the mix. I tweak all of the cleans until I can switch between all of them with no volume difference.

 

Repeat for the other banks and patches

 

A couple of observations in this process...

 

This process assumes you have patches set up that you like. You don't want to get side tracked "fixing" a patch. This is about volume adjustment only.

 

Sometimes you don't need more volume to get a patch to cut through the band mix. Sometimes a simple boost in the mids or other eq adjustments will do the trick.

 

Only use one guitar. Pick the one you use the most.

 

Don't use multiple YouTube videos: pick one and stick with one. That way there is no moving volume target since one video may be louder than the next

 

Works with any guitar: Going from Strat to Les Paul? After you have finished leveling your patches just turn down the overall volume of the amp when you pick up the Les Paul. The patch change volumes are in relation to one another. Should be fine! For Variax players, you can level the volume of your modeled pickups so you won't have to deal with any amp adjustments.

 

I use blue tooth through the amp for the backing track, then I'll put the backing track through the P.A. to confirm that my patches are good.

 

Playing with the band is the final confirmation.

 

Uber fun and useful cause you are playin a boat load of 🎸! And that is always good!