why are factory patches so LOUD?

[fas1piano]

i have the above question - my monitoring and levels are adjusted to e.g. a solo piano or rhodes sound. so i need lots of clean headroom. i turn up my monitoring and turn down my instruments at the source so that e.g. kontakt does not show me clipping - this way i can use comps, amp sims and whatnot comfortably.

every time i open a u-he synth and forget about this, i get my eardrums shattered by a saw lead at near 0 dBFS. why? is this loudness war 2.0?

i have to turn down the synth master volume so much that it becomes more difficult to adjust.

and i would have to do it on every preset. or i can insert a fader plugin which will then operate at the very bottom of fader travel, and then is difficult to manipulate with a midi controller.

why not just make quieter presets?

- just wondering.

[Urs]

Every DAW has a fader for the current instrument track...

The initialize preset is at -24 dB for one voice (Zebra) and -4dB (ACE).

Afaik all factory presets are comfortably below 0 dB, some solo sounds just so reach 0 dB. Some might peak above that.

All other presets are out of my responsibility

[mauseoleum]

LOUDER == BETTER

[fas1piano]

Every DAW has a fader for the current instrument track...

true but, as stated above, there are the issues of input sensitive fx and fader travel. and i admit i keep forgetting taking the fader waay down before playing a note.

it is just good practice to have peaks reach around -10 db and -6 db on recorded tracks, it's where you end up following the
0 dBVU= - 18 dBFS rule of thumb, so it would be convenient if synths preset were like that.

The initialize preset is at -24 dB for one voice (Zebra)

which is fine IMO. can still be loud on a pure saw but no damage done.

some solo sounds just so reach 0 dB. Some might peak above that.

that's too loud!

All other presets are out of my responsibility

yes, of course-

/rant - good thing we talked about it, though.

[Lotuzia]

i have the above question - my monitoring and levels are adjusted to e.g. a solo piano or rhodes sound. so i need lots of clean headroom. i turn up my monitoring and turn down my instruments at the source so that e.g. kontakt does not show me clipping - this way i can use comps, amp sims and whatnot comfortably.

every time i open a u-he synth and forget about this, i get my eardrums shattered by a saw lead at near 0 dBFS. why? is this loudness war 2.0?

i have to turn down the synth master volume so much that it becomes more difficult to adjust.

and i would have to do it on every preset. or i can insert a fader plugin which will then operate at the very bottom of fader travel, and then is difficult to manipulate with a midi controller.

why not just make quieter presets?

- just wondering.

Yeah I think Urs advice is the best cos it will allow you to browse all presets of a given soundbank at the desired average gain.

Our soundlibraries, have a single gain test to ensure compatibility ( As certain hosts have a particular wy to handle volume like FLS ) : A polyphonic patch shouldnt clip when played with a wide six notes chord.

The volume in some synths will vary more or less, according to the number of simultaneous notes played. This is btw indicated in our ACE manual.

The problem with an average lower volume is that the instruments would often become barely audible in a full mix, so you'll have to once again turn your Daw mixer, this time in the opposite direction.

But I agree : there's no real good_for_everyone solution to this problem

LtZ

[trimph1]

mmmmmmm--I've always turned faders down before playing anything---