Finding the right output volume

[DaveStarns]

The Helix seems to have a lot of leeway, patch-volume-wise. I'm not just talking about the process of evening out your patch levels, though that's important. I'm saying that a few of the patches others have made that I've downloaded were vastly louder than my own, without any noticeable digital clipping. 

 

I've only had the Helix for a month, but I've been a Fractal player since 2011, and you have to be careful with the output levels of Axe FX II patches, or they'll create a nasty-sounding digital clipping. There are green/yellow/red output lights on the front of the unit, so you can "eye' it. 

 

I mention this because I'd just made a fairly heavy patch that i noticed was considerably louder than my other patches, so I looked at the edit section for the output. You can add a tremendous amount of level to these patches. Not that I want to, but I do want to know that I'm in the ballpark of "best practices" output volume. Is there any sort of meter somewhere in one of the windows (or in Helix Edit) that lets you know when you're in the right level zone? 

 

I did notice that I couldn't get nearly as much volume out of my Powercab 212+ as I expected to, that is, until I raised the output levels of some of the patches.

[waymda]

With the PowerCab - make sure the input gain is set appropriately.  From what I remember my PC+ cabs were set to a minus something large -db input gain from the factory.

 

Re Levels - the PC+ LED can help making sure you're not sending too hot a signal - LED green = good, LED red = bad - but it can cope with red 'spikes'

 

Otherwise run into a DAW or physical desk and monitor levels with a meter that matches your global output levels.

 

My impression is that even when sending hot signals there's headroom in the Helix.