Patch volumes

Hey folks, question about what the best way of determining and leveling the variety of presets I've programmed into my GM36?
I have a set-list of around 20 or so songs, I have programmed one set in 5W and one set in 36W modes. I'm finding however, switching between presets within a single bank I'm consistent, however when switching between banks I can have differences in volume between clean and dirty modes.

I get that using your ear is the easiest way, but would a decibel meter be the most precise method of ensuring all my levels are consistent?
Thanks!

Hi Larcos_Unal,

You raise a good question, which IMHO is not easily answered. For me there are a number of factors that go into setting the volume of my playing. It is all very well to ensure all patches/presets are at the same level using either a dB meter or by ear - and that's fine, if all you really want is consistency. However, I have found that some patches need to be louder than others based on how loud the rest of the band plays the songs. For example I have found (perhaps not surprisingly) that my rock/metal patches need to be significantly louder than my pop/rock ones. But how much louder? I can only guess and then see what happens on the night. Rehearsals aren't much help as we play at different levels than we do live; and  on the night, in their enthusiasm, drums and bass hit their instruments significantly harder, and for them that means louder, but as I'm overdriving already, for me, not so much.

Another factor is that I have presets for lead and backing. For the best sound I'll set the output power to 20W on my GMD40. However, when I'm playing live and pushing the amp harder, when I switch to a lead preset the relative volume increase is much less than for rehearsals. Again, it comes to some guesswork and trial/error.

All the above leads me to think of options that will help me correct the levels of my playing on the night if the patches aren't quite right. Solutions I am considering are to have I volume expression pedal plugged into my MIDI footswitch controller so I can boost the volume. But that requires headroom on the volume dial for each channel and there is still the question of where to set it to begin with. I am also considering having a dedicated button for sending a MIDI PC message to switch up to 40W if I need to. another option is an external boost pedal in the send/return loop which I have used successfully on more basic amps, but that seems like admitting defeat on what is such a capable amplifier.

I have tried taking my iPad to a gig so that I can make the settings there, but the wifi connection tends to be much less reliable and it becomes a liability.

Like you Larcos_Unal I'm keen to hear of any suggestions, especially from anyone who has had the issues I have listed above.

Cheers!

I have had the same issue and the best solution so far is for me to put a volume pedal in the effects loop to compensate for the varying levels of the band. I set my patches to the levels I want, and set my volume pedal at the midway/3/4 point. If I find that the band gets louder or quieter, I can adjust my overall volume to compensate. Since the volume pedal is post-gain, there’s no-impact on gain level. The levels go up and down on all patches equally. I also use a visual volume pedal so I can see how far I’ve adjusted it from the origin point. This way, I can adjust it back to the initial volume afterwards. However, I typically will discuss this with the sound person before a show-it’s not ideal for a sound person to have me changing volumes throughout the set. So I try to keep the volume adjustments as minimal as possible.

I realize my solution isn’t really a solution as much as a workaround. Happy to hear how others have addressed the same situation.

Hi @Rullian
Your solution is similar to having a volume expression pedal in the loop as I was planning to do. I'm sure you/we can make it work but if you are aiming to drive the output tubes as I do, then it will change the drive and tone as well as the volume. That is where the dedicated buttons for switching between 20W and 40W come in. It's not likely to be perfect, when you're not going through the PA (as I'm not) but should help.