Recommendation on MAIN volume control going direct to the board on Pod GO

[Jerryb13]

I'm going directly into the board with my Pod Go.  does anyone have a recommendation on where to set my MAIN volume to establish a baseline volume and does that volume control at all influence the quality of the presets, or does the preset sound the same at any MAIN volume setting. thanks in advance!

[silverhead]

Main volume should be set to max or close to it. Max level sends what it commonly referred to as ‘unity gain’ to the PA/mixer/speakers. This minimizes the signal noise level that is increasingly present in the signal at low levels. And yes, it does impact the quality of the presets that will be heard from the speakers. More noise = reduced quality.

 

And no, the preset will not sound the same at lower vs. higher volume levels. This is due to the Fletcher Munson effect which applies to human hearing regardless of the sound source.

[amasteve]

OK, this took me by surprise.  I am currently going into a Powercab 112 and adjusted the PC112 input according to the manual...BUT, I have my PG main volume set to about 2 o'clock and used generally the preset volumes from the Factory and downloaded presets with some minor output volume adjustments.  If I heard you right, I need to take the PGo volume up to about max, re EQ and adjust my preset output volumes and re dial back into the Power Cab to get optimum S/N ratio? Thanks, I think :-)  I use the output on the PC112 into my mixer.

[silverhead]

You don’t ‘need’ to do anything really unless you are dissatisfied with the sound you are currently hearing. What I said is correct as far as the S/N ratio goes but if you’re not noticing any noise now you probably won’t hear any improvement by increasing the POD Go output and dialing back the PowerCab.

I would suggest you just experiment a bit and find out what sounds best to YOU, in YOUR environment. All theory aside, go with your own ears and preferences. Adjusting preset output levels individually is the last thing I would try, because that will get tedious.