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Avoiding clipping in the PC212+


rwinking
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I still have not gigged live with an all digital rig but I am getting close as it is that good. I use a QC into a PC 212+. The clean tones tend to put the PC into the red zone easily.For intance, if I use an AC30 set up pretty bright it pegs the clip light at a much lower volume as the EV. I figure that the higher gain might compress the signal a bit or something. but how do I get a clean tone to compete with a higher gain tone without clipping? I don't really hear the clipping  but I assume if I send it to FOH via and XLR, it my clip there. Any ideas?

thanks in advance!

rick

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The clip LED indicates that the signal at the PC input is too hot. That means, conversely, that the signal at the output of the QC is too hot.

Turn down the signal from the QC at the QC's output. Keep in mind that a distorted tone is a compressed tone. A clean tone has more dynamic range and will be easier to clip with changes in picking dynamics, so the "keep the clip LED in the yellow/amber" rule might need to be viewed more as "just when picking hard".

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If I turn down the master volume on the QC there is no problem. However, pretty much everyone says to keep that knob dimed. In trying to balance different presets, If I get the clean twin style tones to where they are not clipping they are too quiet compared to the gainy tones. Using the master volume turned down works. So why does everyone advocate turning it up all the way? Same with the Helix...

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On 6/27/2023 at 11:58 AM, rwinking said:

…. Using the master volume turned down works. So why does everyone advocate turning it up all the way? Same with the Helix...

I believe it’s because having the device’s master volume knob at max delivers the cleanest signal downstream, in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. The lower it is, the more ‘noise’ will be introduced in the signal if the receiving device has to compensate by increasing input gain. However, I have never really noticed that to be an issue. I typically have it around 12:00 on my Helix Rack and have always received an apparently clean and strong signal at my mixer or speakers. I say do what works for you.

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On 6/27/2023 at 9:58 AM, rwinking said:

If I turn down the master volume on the QC there is no problem. However, pretty much everyone says to keep that knob dimed. In trying to balance different presets, If I get the clean twin style tones to where they are not clipping they are too quiet compared to the gainy tones. Using the master volume turned down works. So why does everyone advocate turning it up all the way? Same with the Helix...

 

That's not what I meant. Doesn't the QC have an Output Block Level parameter (I just looked at the manual - it does)?

Turn it down there and save the preset.

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