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I agree. All I said is be cautious using this method. Especially if you don't know what a limiter does, because it would be easy to overdo it.

I'm usually on the appropriate track in a sequencer or Combi as the IFX turn on the amplifier (tube stereo) and add it to gain by 3-6 dB. This additionally added to tube sound

In combi if you can turn up the drive of a single channel in the tone adjustment tab which is essentially turning up the volume of that sound.

I always end up with some kind of volume issue when making combis out of factory preset programs.
I tried the limiter & compressor options via ifx and actually have a combi or two where that was used to boost volume. But then i had issue with a wave seq. program using the limiter. Wave seq. has changing tides in the sound flow and the limiter was hard to set for that.

Now i don't even bother with that. I do all my volume increases in the timbre EQ page. There is a trick to get volume increases. I turn down the high and turn down the mid to a certain low point and then i can get serious volume boost by turning up the low.
Or do i have it backwards? I am not at kronos now and too tired to get up and check.
Any way, timbre EQ page has been a better option for me than using drive and boost in the program parameters. Also more stable than using limiter which is no fun when the combi has all kinds of sound dynamics and beats to confound the limiter or compressor.

Even my self limiting studio monitors are no fun on some sounds because of how it dulls out the sound at certain points once the built in amp heats up. Great protection to the monitors but not great for my sound design experience.

There is a volume raising trick to be had in Timbre EQ and then TFX-eq, MFX-eq or Setlist EQ can come in over the finished product to sort out the bass and highs without losing the volume gain created using timbre EQ.
Timbre EQ is what i always use now and i never again go to ifx, boost, drive or gain for added timbre volume.
I still think it can help to check the program itself and look at any levels in exi/osc setup just to be sure a low volume program was not purposely set below the bar of decent volume levels where there is plenty room to go up.

The "trick" to successfully using a limiter (or compressor) to boost the volume A LOT is to use the Stereo Limiter (or Stereo Compressor) and set the ratio to 1:1. With this setting, there is absolutely no compression or limiting or squashing of the dynamics. It does nothing to the sound. Then, you can use the Gain Adjust to increase the volume however much you need.

To the user who suggested boosting "Drive": yes, it will boost the volume, but it also colors the sound and introduces subtle distortion that you may or may not like. But sometimes it sounds good as well.

I have noticed a great difference in the organ program volumes. It is primarily the drawbar settings which are responsible for this. There are a couple of ways to correct this without having to change the sound (all discussed in this thread). The most successful method I have found is using a multi-band compressor insert FX in the organ program (if you have the room). This allows you to enhance the mid-range volumes (where most of the softness seems to be) without over amplifying the highs and lows. This creates a more balanced volume throughout the program and can keep it more stable through the volume pedal travel. Hope this helps.

SanderXpander wrote:Also, as a general tip since you mentioned fluctuating volumes, make a habit of putting all your sounds for a gig in setlist mode. Every setlist slot has a volume control if you take, say 90, as base level, you can boost and cut easily to level things out within your set.

This is a great tip.

The answer to the original question is definitely to treat this like setting up a mixer.
Find the level of your loudest patch, reduce it to a medium (ODb on a mixer) setting and then bring up the rest of the patch volumes to match.
This ensures you have headroom to increase the quieter sounds.

Here's another different take at it,
If you are using a mixer connect and route it (the program) to a different output set and tame/balance it there.

But as suggested earlier try bringing everything down a bit and have proper gain staging.

Some things I do:
- I never put the main volume during a gig more than about 2/3 by default, if I need for whatever reason a bit more volume (like in a solo which is not programmed well for sound balance) I have some headroom. Do not use harsh sounds because the PA mixer will not like it if you make the sound clip.

- I use a volume pedal normally so mostly (specially for organ patches) I have headroom, by lowering it by default (so I set the volume reasonably high and lower it down with the volume pedal).

- I keep all my combis in a set list where all set list slots are by default 100 (90 is ok too as written above). The problem starts when I want to get beyond 127 ... maybe I could build an option in PCG Tools to automatically decrease the volume of set list slots by a percentage.