I am trying to bring down the volume only . Please see this screenshot
I am trying to just bring down the volume without changing the overall tone .
Basically, yes, in this case (with some caveats).
“Volume” usually refers to the output power of the whole system as received by your ears. It’s a measurement of sound pressure level.
“Level” can mean a couple of different things.
In this case, “level” is the output signal level from the pre-amp model. This isn’t, strictly speaking, the same as “volume” as it is a signal level, not actually sound at this stage. However, the level in this case will directly impact the sound pressure level coming from the speakers. So it can be thought of as a “volume” control.
It’s sometimes useful to understand the difference between “level” and “volume” though.
Note also that the output of the preamp then goes through other effects. Whilst, in most cases, a change in pre-amp output level will make little difference to the tone, it is possible it does with some effects, as it’s affecting the input level to the next tone block, and some effects blocks are sensitive to this.
Also, on guitar effects pedals (multi FX or otherwise) the “level” control on some effects may impact how much “wet” versus “dry” signal is output, which will definitely affect the tone.
That’s not the case on the pre-amp and, in your case, I believe it will, effectively, be a volume control. However, it’s best to consult the manual and also simply to try it out and see what impact it has at different settings.
Cheers,
Keith
I will add that, due to the way our ears and brains work, reducing the overall volume can also affect the perceived “tone” due to our ears/brains perceiving “loudness” differently for different frequencies.
Cheers,
Keith
Excellent explanation but I wonder: Most often a player might change from clean to distortion on pedal now on multi-effect itself there is no knob called volume. I have two premade effects one is clean and one is a rock effect the loudness is different one is much louder so If I am going to play a song that has two sections as soon as I switch from clean to hard rock the sound is too loud and I have to reach for the volume on my guitar knob. So if changing the level eventually does have effect on overall tone then what is my options ? What do all other guitarists do when them are in my situation?
Do you mean two premade presets? or effects? I’m not sure what you mean when you say Clean and Rock.
Ignoring the MFX element for a moment I’d generally have my “amp” setup for how I’m going to play rhythm so it might be clean it might be a little dirty (which would be modified by the gain knob on the amp).
If I then want to modify the sound for a lead for instance I would probably have a distortion/drive/boost pedal in front of the amp. The drive pedal itself will have gain and level controls (and others) which will alter the signal from the guitar and almost certainly boost it…this signal going into the same amp will increase the volume coming out of the amp. So I’m controlling the increase in sound using the distortion/drive pedal and doing nothing on the amp.
When I’m playing Rhythm the pedal is OFF and when I want to play lead I tap it on.
The principles above are the same in the MFX world although generally you would have more options on how you achieve some of these things (for instance on some MFX you can use a foot switch to not only turn on and off a pedal but also adjust parameters on your amp etc.).
Getting the volumes balanced between “clean” and “dirty” settings is a common issue in the world of electric guitar, regardless of your setup.
On a typical multifx pedal, you can set the overall output level of each patch in some way and store it with the patch.
On the ME-80 it seems the pre-amp level can be stored with the patch, so it should be possible to create “clean” and “dirty” patches where the levels of each is adjusted so that the resulting volume level is similar.
And as for level changing the tone, it’s not that dramatic and you can simply tweak the tone settings after you have set the levels to get the tone you want.
Cheers,
Keith
