Volume control best practices?

[miami_vice]

I'm having a hard time keeping volume levels in line between my tube amp's volume knob, the master output on the Pod Go, and the various levels of amp and effect models.  Is the master output knob the only "loudness" control on the Pod, or can I do that in the patch settings?

 

I'm using 4CM, primarily to use my amp's distortion and reverb along with boosts/chorus/delay/etc.  I also like the idea of having flexibility to ignore my preamp stage and use a Pod preamp model.

 

I started by setting my two real amp channels to tolerable levels with no effects.  The gain channel has a minor volume increase when I switch on a drive (as expected), but the clean channel is much louder.  I'm stuck either backing off the amp's volume (which becomes too soft when I switch the drive effect off) or turning down the master volume on the Pod, which has the opposite problem.  Can I create two versions (or perhaps snapshots) of a patch with the loudness adjusted down for the clean channel without changing the tonal characteristics of the effects?

 

Next related issue is preamp modeling.  As soon as I attempt to do this with the Pod Go master volume set where it was before the output is obnoxiously loud.  I again have to reach down and manually turn the output down.  Is there a way to account for that in the patch settings?

[grdGo33]

In each of the patch settings, seems like you can set the input and output volume (page 13 manual), and the same for the FX loop (page 24), so you should definitely be able to do some adjustments from there!  Think it should also open some options like increasing the send volume and reducing the return, as to act like a boost, etc.

 

I also remember seeing a vid where instead of activating or de-activing an effect, you would go from going from a high setting to a low setting and vice versa.  Maybe you could configure this for the send return loop?  I can't recall from where exactly, but oh yeah!  I remember this only being configurable via computer & USB!   But in your case, like you were saying snapshots might be a better solution anyhow, since you could tweak multiple values at the same time!

 

For equalizing the volume, don't know why, but L6 has always been bad with equalizing the patch and effects volume... Guess you could try to fix the presets volumes yourself?  But for Go vs Amp volume, sorry, got my pod 2 days ago and not using 4CM so someone else will likely be better to help!

 

But from what I understand, the volume knob changes the 'main output', so should not affect the effects loop.  So in theory, you could blast your Go's fx loop out volume, lower the Go return loop, and that would normalize the volume but give your amp's drive a boost. (think the amp volume is after the amp's return loop).  And since you're using the main out of the Go, you should be able to control the volume of your Amp with your Go's volume.  Really not sure if it works in practice like that, but that would be my guess!  Again sorry totally new at this...  Hope it helps!

 

[spaceatl]

You need to perform "Volume Leveling" on your patches. People do it different ways. I will tell you what I do and hope it helps.

 

Take your primary favorite patch and make sure the amp is sounding like you like at a healthy volume (The closer to actual stage or recording volume the better)

Once the Master Volume is set, DO NOT TOUCH IT

Using this patch as a baseline, go thru each patch and only adjust the AMP CHANNEL VOLUME or FX LOOP LEVEL...Save, go back to your base line patch and check it

 

Be careful when selecting a patch as it might be really loud....Start by lowering the root cause...This will be the CHANNEL VOLUME or the FX LOOP LEVEL depending on the patch...

 

It's a process and the keep is going back and forth and NEVER TOUCHING THE MASTER VOLUME OF THE GO or YOUR AMP until you have finished the process...It's a pain in the A$$ for 4CM, but it is possible to perfectly level your patches relative to each other, it just takes time and a systematic approach only adjusting what i stored to compensate...

 

Good Luck

[miami_vice]

hey you guys nailed it, between patch loop volume level and patch output volume level (i didnt even realize that was an option until you mentioned it) im already well on my way here.  thanks for the feedback!

[milceb]

I just found one more interesting detail which might be useful for volume leveling: In Snapshot mode, the display shows the parameters of the block that was adapted last before saving the preset.

 

I started to use this to allow faster access to the preset´s output volume: Before saving, I always go to the output block and adapt the out volume. In this way I have always the out-volume visible in Snapshot mode when I switched to preset.