Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Why You Want to Level Ampire Presets

27/11/2021

It's great we can store presets, trade them with other users, and download free ones. But when selecting different Ampire presets to decide how they fit with a track, you want their levels to match closely. Then, your evaluation of the sound will be based on the tone, not by whether the preset is softer or louder. However, consistent preset levels are not a given.

Having a baseline level for presets, so you don't need to change the level every time you call up a new one, is convenient. You can't really use VU meters for this, because you want sounds to have the same perceived level, which can be different from their measured level. For example, a brighter sound may measure as softer, but be perceived as louder because it has energy where our ears are most sensitive.

My standard of comparison is a dry guitar sound, because I want the same perceived level whether Ampire is enabled, or bypassed. You might prefer to have Ampire always be a few dB louder than your dry guitar-whatever makes you happy.

Enter LUFS

The LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale) measurement protocol measures perceived loudness. LUFS measurements allow streaming services like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and others to adjust the volume of various songs to the same perceived level. This is why you don't have to change the volume every time a different song shows up in a playlist. The system isn't perfect, but it's better than dealing with constant level variations. Fortunately, Studio One has a Level Meter plug-in that gives LUFS readings (fig. 1).

Figure 1: The Level meter can measure levels based on a variety of standards, including LUFS.

The Process

Record at least two Events-one for chords, and one for single-note leads. If you use bass presets, you'll also want an Event with a bass line. Record about a 15 second clip of continuous guitar chord progressions, and another clip with 15-30 seconds of single notes (and/or bass lines), also without pauses.

Insert the Level meter after Ampire, and enable its LUFS and R128 buttons. Set the appropriate event to loop, and start playback.

With Ampire bypassed, adjust the Event's level for a nominal LUFS reading. I use -18 dB because that works well with Ampire, Helix, and other amp sims. After setting your standard level, it's a good idea to lock the Events from editing (context menu > Toggle Edit Lock).

We interrupt these steps to bring you an important bulletin: The Level Meter reading that matters is the INT field. This averages out the audio, so you'll see the reading change at first, and then settle down to a consistent LUFS reading. When you change levels, call up a different preset, or make any changes, click on the Reset button to re-start the averaging process. When doing any LUFS measurements, you can't be sure the reading is correct until you've a) hit Reset, and b) played the event several times, which is why we want to loop it.

We now return to the step-by-step procedure.

Enable Ampire, and call up a preset. Hit the Level Meter's Reset button, and after the Event has played through a couple times, check the LUFS meter reading.

In my case, an LUFS reading of -20 would mean the preset level is about 2 dB lower than my standard -18 dB level. So, I'd raise Ampire's output control (fig. 2) by 2 dB. On the other hand, if the LUFS reading was -14 dB, it would be about 4 dB louder than my standard. I'd instead need to lower the output level control by 4 dB.

Figure 2: Use the output control to obtain similar levels from different presets.

After adjusting the level, hit Reset on the Level Meter, and play the loop a few times. If the reading is the same as the nominal value done! Otherwise, re-tweak.

The final step is to click on Update Preset (fig. 3), so you don't have to do this again.

Figure 3: Save your work for future sessions.

And while you're at it, save the Song you used to do this testing. Then you can call it up again in the future, when you want to match preset levels.

Okay, so it took a little time to balance all your presets. But when deciding what preset to use in the future, you'll be glad you set them all to a baseline level.
LINK: https://blog.presonus.com/index.php/2021/11/26/want-level-ampire-prese...
See more stories from presonus

North America Stories

10/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Team Whistle's Joe Caporoso on Building World Cup Content Around Fans, Culture, IRL Experiences

DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...

10/06/2026

Clear-Com Appoints Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager

Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...

10/06/2026

Caretta Research: 2026 World Cup Revenue Growth Due to More Matches; Rights Revenue Up 32%

An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...

10/06/2026

Women Without Boundaries Awards Are Back!

The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...

10/06/2026

On Eve of World Cup Kickoff, FIFA and HBS Offer Deep Dive into IBC Operations, Commentary, and Ref Cam

Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...

10/06/2026

SES Supporting World's Biggest Soccer Tournament Broadcast Distribution Worldwide

SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...

10/06/2026

BirdDog Achieves Full NDI 6.3 Compatibility Across Entire Product Line

NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...

10/06/2026

Emmy Award-Winning Audio Team To Present at SVG Audio Symposium

Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...

10/06/2026

FOX One Set to Deliver World Cup in 4K; Personalization via AI Drives Experience

FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...

10/06/2026

PWHL Scales Broadcast Operation in Season 3, Relying on World-Feed Model and Key Vendors

Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...

10/06/2026

NFL Films Application Deadline for Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship, Augusts 26-29 in Mount Laurel, Closes June 18

The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...

10/06/2026

NBAs In-House Broadcast Ops & Engineering Teams Power Global Finals Coverage From NYC, San Antonio

The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...

10/06/2026

MoonPay X Games League Winter Draft Set for September 16 at Cosm Los Angeles

The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...

10/06/2026

University of Oklahoma and Learfield Extend 30-Year Partnership, Announce Sooner Evolution Center

The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...

10/06/2026

VSF Releases RIST Satellite-Hybrid Out-of-Band Specification

The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...

10/06/2026

Riedel Artist Intercom Powers Live Neurovascular Conference in Lisbon

Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...

10/06/2026

Sundance Film Festival 101: Films by LGBTQ+ Directors

A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute) By Lucy Spicer Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...

10/06/2026

Nielsen launches Four-Screen Ad Deduplication measurement on YouTube campaigns in Japan

Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...

10/06/2026

Ecoflow X Launches as Experimentation Arm for Sustainabil...

Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...

10/06/2026

Frequency Appoints James Smith as General Manager - Monet...

Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...

10/06/2026

Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurova...

At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...

10/06/2026

Globecast Unveils Content Exchange Platform Powered by Or...

Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...

10/06/2026

Venues and integrators shift toward professional recharge...

Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...

10/06/2026

VSF Releases Specification for RIST Satellite Hybrid Out-...

The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...

10/06/2026

Microphone Maker Audix Adds Eric Reese as VP

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

10/06/2026

Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC

Back to All News Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC Product 10 June 2026 GlobalSouth KoreaJapan Link copied to c...

10/06/2026

Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions

Back to All News Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions Business 10 June 2026 Global Link copied to clipboard Download all assets N...

10/06/2026

June 10, 2026

Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...

09/06/2026

Kiswe Expands Partnership With ONE Championship To LaunchGlobal Subscription Platform

Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...

09/06/2026

SiriusXM to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches via FOX Sports Commentary

SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...

09/06/2026

EVS Broadcast Equipment Rebrands as EVS

EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...

09/06/2026

FOX and NFL Announce Multi-Year Agreement for NFL Coverage in Mexico Starting in 2026

Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...

09/06/2026

FOX Sports and ReachTV to Carry All 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches Across U.S. Airports

FOX Sports and ReachTV, an airport media network, have announced an agreement to...

09/06/2026

Cosm Atlanta Opens with Private Preview, Public Opening Set for June 10

Cosm Atlanta, a 70,000-square-foot, three-level immersive entertainment venue located within Centennial Yards adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Sta...

09/06/2026

NESN Wins Five New England Emmy Awards

NESN captured five awards at the 2026 Boston/New England Emmy Awards, including four program honors and one individual award. These awards reflect the passion...

09/06/2026

Ateme Referenced by Apple at WWDC26 for Apple Immersive Video Workflow Support

Ateme has announced that its support for Apple Immersive Video workflows was referenced by Apple during its 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC26). Atem...

09/06/2026

Axel Springer Deploys Bitmovin Player Web X for WELT Audio News Experience

Bitmovin has announced that Axel Springer SE has deployed Player Web X, Bitmovin's web video player, to power audio readouts of news articles and an audio-o...

09/06/2026

Grass Valley and Lawo Announce Technology Collaboration on AMPP and HOME Integration

Grass Valley and Lawo have announced a technology collaboration to validate orch...

09/06/2026

LiveU Deploys Remote VAR for Oceania Football Confederation, First in Pacific Islands

LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) t...

09/06/2026

Globecast Launches Content Exchange Platform Powered by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Globecast has announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform, powered by ...

09/06/2026

OT7 Championship Weekend to Air on NBC and Peacock for First Time

NBC Sports will present live coverage of Overtime's OT7 football league Championship Weekend from Sullivan Field at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angel...

09/06/2026

UFC Freedom 250: Inside the One-in-a-Lifetime Production Behind the White House Fight Card

We're in three different locations, three different production teams. Coveri...

09/06/2026

Murray States Brandon Banks on Firing Up Racers Basketball Fans Through Creative Video

The intro video for Men's Basketball won Outstanding In-Venue Video in the C...

09/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down, Part 2: FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Paul King Dive Deep Into IBC Operations, Commentary, and Ref Cam

Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...

09/06/2026

Designing the Modern Scorebug: How Broadcast Graphics Teams Are Rethinking the Most Important Element On Screen

Since their debut, the clock-and-score graphic has drawn the affinity and ire of...

09/06/2026

Nielsen launches Four-Screen Ad Deduplication measurement on YouTube campaigns in Italy

Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...

09/06/2026

Andrew Beaudet Joins Brompton as Head of Sales, Americas

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Mediaset Italia Deploys Mediagenix Platform To Modernize Scheduling

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/06/2026

Mediaset Italia Modernizes Content Supply Chain and Chann...

A project aimed at modernizing scheduling operations across Mediaset's channel portfolio Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitab...

09/06/2026

ACT Entertainment Debuts tvONE 4RU CALICO PRO at InfoComm...

tvONE, an ACT Entertainment brand, debuts its most powerful video processor ever built: the 4RU CALICO PRO (C7-PRO-4200), at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N6813). Engine...