Personally, I find these input level discussions a bit academic - unless you absolutely need to reproduce the sound and behavior of a physical amp, this can be too theoretical for my taste.
Never having owned one of these tube monsters in their physical form, my approach is a bit more pragmatic:
- I use a special active DI box (Rupert Neve RNDI) between my guitar and my audio interface for impedance reasons
- set my interface gain so that the level of my loudest guitar (humbucker pups) is safely below clipping and so that I hear no adverse effect on tone from the interface gain. The Babyface / Fireface preamp is very transparent across a broad range, so thatâs rarely an issue. Now I have a healthy, un-distorted clean guitar DI signal - good so far!
- inside Cantabile I use plugin and route gain levels on the way to the guitar amp rack to get a reasonable level to my guitar and pedal plugins - whatever that reasonable level may be, depending on the amp / pedal sim
I donât really care if the level is âperfectâ - to me, there is no âperfectâ input level. Do I really want my Strat to come in far quieter than my PRS? No - in âreal lifeâ, Iâd probably boost it with an EQ pedal to not have to constantly change my amp settings to accommodate to the lower pickup output of the Strat. Inside Cantabile, this is far easier: just turn the route gain up by a couple dB for the songs using the StratâŚ
So, to me there is no âperfectâ level - just one that makes the guitar amp do what I expect it to; if a clean sound isnât clean enough or an overdriven sound becomes too âwoolyâ due to too-high input levels, Iâll simply turn the gain down on the route to the plugin so that things clean up a bit - done! Itâs all in the ears and in knowing (roughly) how an amp works, and how it sounds when driven too hard.
And of course things become a bit more complicated when using your guitar plugins in different setups with different audio interfaces - that will actually require adjusting input gain using a metering plugin, so that the plugins get the same input level on both setupsâŚ
This âperfect levelâ discussion makes sense when you want to re-create a sound from a âreal-lifeâ amp in a plugin - thatâs where the âcorrectâ input level really matters - input level too high makes clean sounds driven and gainy sounds too driven; input level too low will make everything sound too anemic.
I find the content Rhett Shull video a bit too complicated in thinking: you have a healthy un-distorted signal from your guitar, and your plugin sound is too âdrivenâ - why would you start fiddling with audio interface gain to bring the level down (and de-grade your signal by reducing the bit depth)? Why not simply use the nice and friendly âInputâ knob within the plugin? This achieves the same effect: it reduces the level that goes into the plugin processing - and it doesnât require you to fiddle with your interfaceâs gain.
Itâs really all about what level your plugin âexpectsâ - a lot of plugins expect -18dB âdigitalâ as the âzeroâ for their dynamic processing. So if this is what your plugin expects and your levels from your interface are higher - simply turn them down inside the digital domain - no need to turn down your interface input gain! This is really what gain staging inside a digital environment is about: give each plugin along the chain the level it âexpectsâ to work best - thatâs where Cantabileâs route gain sliders come in handy!
Some plugins tell you what they expect - with others it will always be trial and error - especially when chaining plugins from different vendors. Trust your ears!
Cheers,
Torsten
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) but it sounds pretty nice to my ears and (at 29.9$ intro priceâŚthough you have to add VAT to that, in EuropeâŚ) it was a no brainer for me.