Driving my self crazy trying to find the correct effect volume levels/tones.

[fendertelemusik]

I bought myself this https://www.thomann.de/gb/valeton_dapper_indie.htm as I thought its going to be the simplest way to achieve what I'm looking to do but getting nowhere and hoping someone cant point me in the right direction.

Right now I'm not plugging into an amp but just using it with headphone output reason being I plan to take it to different studios to rehearse and each amp will be different.

My aim has been to plug into it and then use the first switch for a very slight od followed by the second switch for full distortion basically forming three steps clean > slightly do > full distortion and with this I've been trying to match levels whilst adding each one. So far I've been failing badly.

I tried using a level meter and this still didn't work as I'll explain.

When i played a single note with the clean sound it was reaching two bars, So I then set the OD to a level to maintain that two bar level on the meter when playing a single string and thought I was all good.

However when I went back to clean to strum it was hitting 5 bars which is fine as its a full strum however then when I hit the OD expecting it to be also hitting 5 bars it was only hitting 3 which made no sense as the level has been set to match the single string 2 bars so should increase now by 3 bars like clean would ?

So I had managed to match levels with one single string plucked over and over again with the same force however with the same settings the result wasn't the same when switching to full strumming.

So this was my first fail and soon got peeved off and moved onto another part.

At this point I thought I would just test the Clean sound with just adding the Chorus switch - there is no volume for the chorus effect just rate and depth - when I clicked the chorus on it was nice and clear and was very cose to blending in nicely on the level meter.. However when using the OD the moment I clicked the chorus button on it sounded like I had turned the volume up 2/3 gains which again confused me as it was the exact same settings being applied to both clean and the od so not sure how it boosts one but not the other.

So as you can imagine I'm a bit confused how the chorus didn't seem to add much to the clean volume level when turned on yet it when added to the od it raises the volume.

My hope is to maintain the same volume through out and keep the tone as close as possible so that when I switch in and out of OD/Fuzz/Clean there is no massive dips or jumps in volume and similarly when adding Mods/Reverb etc.

thanks for any advice.

 

[Gtoboy]

I'm afraid it's pretty typical to have volume variance when you have a single output level. Overdrive creates harmonics which add volume and it also compresses when pushed which reduces apparent volume. Strumming a clean signal is all kinds of dynamic range and transients that read high on db meter. The only thing i can suggest would be to get some kind of limiter or compressor and put it after your pedal to keep the total output reasonably similar. There is no way that i know of to keep them sounding the same volume when using only one level control at the end of multi effects, unless you have a software control available that writes volume changes to patch changes such as a digital multi effect might have.

 

[fendertelemusik]

I'm afraid it's pretty typical to have volume variance when you have a single output level. Overdrive creates harmonics which add volume and it also compresses when pushed which reduces apparent volume. Strumming a clean signal is all kinds of dynamic range and transients that read high on db meter. The only thing i can suggest would be to get some kind of limiter or compressor and put it after your pedal to keep the total output reasonably similar. There is no way that i know of to keep them sounding the same volume when using only one level control at the end of multi effects, unless you have a software control available that writes volume changes to patch changes such as a digital multi effect might have.

Thanks is this a normal request or do most players not try to have an overall equal sound output ? Also would putting the compressor just before all the OD/Distortion have a similar result If I just compress the clean tone then all the Od/Distortions are getting are a level clean tone coming through ?

 

[pj11]

I agree with Gtoboy. Your not going to get even levels out of each patch/settings on your box as is. If you mess with it enough you can come close. Each effect in the chain have effects levels. And will affect your overall gain in some respect. Being your box did not include a compressor/limiter which could have assisted you in this, getting one would come in handy. You can squash them all to a level you want. I'm guessing this is for recording as leveling is a concern?