Metering, unity, best method

[tahiche]

Hi,

With the absence of a level meter on Helix floor I find it hard to know what's going on with the signal level. I find this important for:

a) try to keep unity gain. As I'm playing into a tube amp (no amp simulation) I want to try and keep the signal level as close to the guitar level/traditional stomp pedal as possible to control feedback, etc.

b) consistent level between patches

c) set compression and effect block levels and see how they affect the signal level.

¿How doy get around to doing this?. Here's some questions...

1) Helix native: since it has a level meter (it does right?). Setting up patches in Native would translate accurately to Helix floor?. To mimic a guitar into Native on a DAW scenario, Helix input should be set at full knob , I'm assuming... any help or tips?

2) Ipad on USB: in this method I'd use the actual Helix floor and connect the iPad via USB and set Helix as audio interface on a iOS DAW app. Then check the meters going in. Is this accurate?. The level in the USB input resembles the signal that would go into the tube amp?.

 

thanks!

 

[cruisinon2]

Oh goody! We haven't had one of these threads in at least 12 minutes...;)

 

 

[zolko60]

There is no unity gain in case of amp modeling. After the amp peak level is likely reduced and rms level is rised. You put about -30LUFS (integrated) signal from a guitar and get -20LUFS at the output. Sometimes you need to be +/-5LUFS louder/quieter in the song context and loudness is heavy playing style dependent, so thinking of the absolute loudness equality hardly makes sense.
Hx Native can mimic Helix hardware when input and output are set the same. Guitar Input +11dBu full scale (+17dBu with pad) and +11dBu full scale instrument level (+19dBu line level).
-20LUFS output target is safe, it gives you a reasonable headroom. You can learn to target such a loudness level using any type of metering your DAW or mixer has or even  your ears and compare it eg. to the factory patches of the same type.
The volume knob is just a digital attenuator used to set the monitoring volume. The main reason of using it set clockwise at building patches is to prevent clipping, but if you keep -20LUFS output loudness level whatever method you develop or choose, it is unlikely to happen.
There is a thread people present various methods of dealing with their loudness: 

 

[tahiche]

Thanks. Believe it or not I have read numerous posts and researched this matter. That's why I was pointing out specific methods and stuck to metering.

Sorry to bother you @cruisinon2

 

@zolko60@zolko60 I like your idea about comparing against factory presets. It's a bit taunting all those 17dbu,witj or without pad... But factory presets are probably well balanced. Reading a level against those is probably a safe bet. 

I'm still unclear about how to match Native and Helix floor input gain. Obviously the Ntive input is gonna be determined by the input level in the soundcard, so it seems like it won't be of much help. I'll try the factory preset approach.