Gain staging from guitar through interface and in DAW

[mickeybravo1984]

I have recently purchased an Axe IO and full version of Amplitube 5. First- I love the clear dedication to guitar players you guys demonstrate.

With that said, a question about gain staging and managing signal flow to ensure the best sound in and out of the AXE IO. For input, I am playing on a modified (with custom PAF) Dean Deceiver, through an unbalanced Mogami gold cable into port one on the IO. My output is on a stereo set of JBL 5” studio monitors through balanced Mogami gold TRS to XLR.

As it pertains to gain staging to ensure the input is at the right level at each stage, I understand and wanted to verify it goes in this order:

1. Guitar volume and tone knob at 10

2. Play the guitar at my hardest stroke pattern and Adjust AXE IO gain from zero up until I see clipping (red on both the hardware and on the AXE IO control panel), then back off the gain knob until I am no longer clipping (but question-do I need to go to low yellows, or is it ok to see a lot of yellow as long as I don’t clip into red?)

3. Adjust input level in Ampltitube until I see clipping when I am playing at volume 10 with hardest stroke, then back off until I am not clipping but the input is close to max
——-
Then I can adjust my guitar volume knob to either drive the amp (max) or back it off to decrease drive but still get a processed signal all the way from the IO through Amplitube.

Thanks in advance, I look forward to the response!

[rspst14]

This is generally how I do it on my Axe I/O Solo, although I don't adjust the Amplitube input beyond the default 0 db. You should also set the monitor knob so that it's fully turned toward the DAW position. I didn't figure that out at first, so I was getting the clean direct sound of the input mixed with the Amplitube tone. I believe the -3 level is what you want to aim for, you should be fine as long as you're not going into the red.

[mickeybravo1984]

@rspsr, thanks. Yea I also was not getting any effects or amp simulation at first for the same reason. The biggest thing I wasn’t sure about was the input level on Amplitube, assuming you have set up the gain on the AXE IO correctly. At 0 do it was hard to get a “feel” for whether my guitar was really pushing the amp the same as a real one would, but if I bring it too high I definitely get unwanted clipping and distortion.