I live in the south of France and I am a guitarist in a Cover’s group and I also record on Cubase Pro 12.
From my home studio I’m looking for a quick way to adjust the sound level of all my Scenes/Presets with the Output of the amp.
Here’s what I do and correct me if I’m wrong or if you have a better solution: I send the 1/2 outputs of the QC to my Steinberg sound card and then, in Cubase on the right and left Guitar inputs, I add a “bx_meter” plugin from Brainworks so a very large view meter.
For clean and crunch sounds during vocals I set all levels to >> -18db with the volume of the ‘OUTPUT’ amps
During my Overdrive Lead or Clean Delay (U2) solos the vocals are no longer present on >> -16db.
I’m thinking of going back to the settings during rehearsals and then also in Live with a volume pedal with the 80% Volume Button in order to have a little high reserve?
those should be good practices for getting started- the only difference you’ll probably notice is that when you’re playing live thru whatever sound reinforcement system is provided, the live venue volume levels will probably require some EQ tweaking (you might be able to use your Global EQ for this if your presets have the DSP available).
The perceived signal levels and EQ response will always be different at performance volume, so you should definitely be prepared to make some quick adjustments at the gig. The meters can get you close to a starting point at home, but expect to do more dialing in once you’re dealing with PAs or stage monitors. You probably know to expect this already though. Let us know how it goes!
I generally use a VU meter to calibrate my volumes at 0 dB using a K-14 calibration (Bob Katz calibration system).
For sounds with more distortion (mid-gain “drive” and hi-gain “heavy”), I tend to reduce down a bit from 0 dB to -1 or -2 - distorted sounds take more sonic space than clean stuff, even though peaks may be higher on the clean sounds.
My lead boosts are typically 4-5 dB - you’ll be surprised how far down in a mix a guitar is mixed compared to lead vox, so for a solo to cut through without the sound tech raising the guitar channel for every lead part, it takes quite a hefty boost for the guitar to be heard well.
This approach takes a bit of getting used to if you’re used to having your guitar monitor relatively high - solos tend to scream at you then… So you’ll have to get used to hearing your “comping” sounds a bit more quietly (that actually helps listening to the rest of the band…), so your solos aren’t deafening. But it’s great to have your lead parts stand out even if the sound tech has fallen asleep (or if you don’t have one…).
You should consider using a LUFS Meter instead of a dB meter.
LUFS is more likely to humans hearing than dB which just measures the “loudness” of something. With LUFS you are referencing to the humans ear. As far as I know this is also the unit pro’s are measuring and mixing their music.
There is a YouLean LUFS Meter you can also add as vst (or standalone) in your daw.
