Cooper,
Hello! I'd like to begin by saying that I watched and purchased your class that you had recently given with Creative Live. Great job! I have been working with the AFX for a little less than a year now and your course really opened up the "how-to's" for me and helped me understand a lot of the thinking process that goes into creating a preset and such.
One thing that I have really been struggling with has been the actual speaker choice/setup for the AFX. Now I know there's a lot of discussions that have gone around concerning FRFR, guitar cabs, Matrix NL12's, etc. and I noticed that during the online class you were playing through a pair of monitors only, from what I could tell, which is exactly how I began when using the AFX. I spent a lot of time creating presets that sounded great, but once I began using my AFX with cabs for live scenarios, that's when everything began to "fall apart". For quite awhile now I've been searching for the best live setup using some sort of backline cab for stage monitoring and that's where I've been really wandering aimlessly.
I understand the benefits of the FRFR and how it works with the UR IR's. I feel the FR solution is the best way to maximize the potential and flexibility of the AFX and is a great way to hear exactly what is being sent to the FOH and what is being recorded in your DAW during a recording session.
In a guitar cab setup, you would turn off the "cab" block and run into a traditional cab, BUT that is going to add color to your tone, so you would be forced to mic your cab for a live/studio setup, as there are no IR's that you'd be using, thus limiting your use of the AFX to amps, but no cabs.
In comes the Matrix NL cabs.. which I believe you're using, as you made a video review of them, and you seemed quite happy. Now those are, from what I know, a traditional guitar cab, but with extended range and offers some FR qualities?? I also hear that some guys use those with IR's as well... which I think you did in the vid you made? In the case of those cabs, do you feel they offer the best mix of flexibility to use IR's within the AFX and yet still be able to run to FOH with your preset and not have to be concerned about too much a difference from what you're hearing from your backline?
Also, it seems like you were utilizing some of the "space" that enhancers, chorus and delay offers in your presets... so that leads me to believe that you're running in stereo when you perform live? I've never run stereo in a live scenario before, but with the flexibility of the AFX, I'm contemplating using it's power to do so, but I'm not sure what extra cabs and such would be necessary to do so successfully.
So far I've purchased a Xitone FRFR cab (1x12) and it's nice, but was lacking something. Somehow my tone just never truly came through... Alive. Sounded "sterile" all the time. Then I began using my traditional guitar cab (2x12 greenbacks) and used an EQ block to tweak my tone. Sounds really good actually, but now I don't get to take advantage of all those UR IR's that can really bring a tone to life and again, no matter what amp I use, I now have the "color" of my greenback speakers. I also would have to mic my amp in a live situation now rather than just send a signal to FOH and feel confident in my tone. So now I'm not sure what to do... buy an NL12 and try that one?? It's just turning into alot of buying cabs, when my AFX has hundreds. Haha!
Overall, I would like to be able to successfully create presets in the AFX and maximize those tones for all my situations (live, studio, etc.) and I'm not sure exactly how that would be achieved with the easiest setup, so I would love to hear about your setup and how you're using your AFX to cross-platform all your performing scenarios. My apologies for my confusion.
Thanks so much for your time and your knowledge!
Sincerely,
Jeff