A few words about live sound

Zaemo

Member
Vendor
Hey Guys,
Chad here. I just finished the TSO tour with Angus et. al. on the TSO West tour. Metallica is in the studio so I returned to the West tour in October with a few Fractals in my luggage. Not really but you get the idea.

I've seen a number posts in the past about difficulties translating custom user presets to the live stage. With creating these presets for use in a live situation, I feel that you need to resist the urge to create a sound that is too "high-fi." That means too much very high and low end. Playing a tone matched sound from a record might sound cool by itself or playing along with the record but it is not a realistic sound in a live band setting. You need to go for realistic. Reality is that the guitar tone needs to sit in the mix or it's useless. The audio guys need to get something familiar to them down the XLR's. The musician who is used to his tube amp rig needs to hear something familiar. That does not include a guitar sound that has been compressed and mastered and tweaked for radio.

Our Hetfield audio channels are NEARLY FLAT at both the front of house mix desk and the monitor desk as well. This means that the audio guys aren't having to use their EQ to get what they need. That's a good thing. There is some minor compensation (1 to 1.5 dB around 2K) at the monitor desk due to the physical properties of the in-ear monitors. This is achieved by using the high and low pass filters at the CAB. 15K on the highs is reasonable I've found. 5 K is the frequency that hurts your ears and 1K to 2K is where your clarity will sit. 250hZ is always a tricky one. You'll most likely pull a dB or two to open up the sound.

Both with Metallica and TSO, everyone was used to hearing the speakers in some sort of isolation box with a mic or two in it. The iso box tends to build up in the low-mids and compress the mic capsule. Particularly when using in ears, the guitar direct from the AxeFx can be so "In-Your-Face" that it doesn't feel natural. What I do is to add room sound to put the cabinet in a "space." I especially like the proximity parameter to simulate the mic capsule compression at loud volume. Adding "air" as Angus states in Micheal French's TSO video is not the "Air" parameter but rather removing the speaker from your inner ear using the Room parameter. Keep a moderate size to avoid any delay and try the room level around 18% to 22%.

Again, try bringing the low pass filter down to about 14 or 15K. If you look at the actual frequency response of a guitar speaker, they drop off severely after 5K. Having to listen to a guitar tone for 2.5 hours at a time will tell you if there is too much high frequency information. Too much 5K and your ears will be fatigued. No one ever asks for more 6K in their guitar, ever. If you concentrate on the frequencies that the guitar sound is known for you will be headed in the right direction. Check out this frequency response chart for the Celestian Vintage 30 and keep it in mind when you're tweaking.

Have fun and don't forget to level match all of your presets and scenes before heading out to the gig.

Z
 

Attachments

  • graph.gif
    graph.gif
    29.8 KB · Views: 709
I just have a question about the low pass:
most people here seem to low pass around 6-8k, which seems very aggressive compared to the suggested 14-15k in the post?
 
The freq's above say 8K are more for overtones and things that you may not hear directly but will add to the natural sound of anything, really if that makes sense.

Z
 
That room parameter has been one of my favorites since it was added. If I'm using headphones (which is almost always) it's going to get used because it opens it up. Cliff did say that it's very similar to the early reflections in the reverb block.....which is probably my only go to effect.

And you aren't kidding about 250Hz just being a bear to figure out sometimes.
 
Interesting read, thanks. I'm curious where you're generally cutting of the low freqs with the high pass in the cab block?
 
good info...pretty much what I do except that I don't use item's at most gigs so I've never used the room parameter. I might experiment with the Null mic and proximity, but I've never really felt it would add anything I was missing...
 
The Null mic was a result of my wanting to use the proximity feature without having to use a mic profile. Thanks M@!
Z

Now that's a good idea! This could be used on IR cabs that have the mic captured as well then.
 
The Null mic was a result of my wanting to use the proximity feature without having to use a mic profile. Thanks M@!
Z

Thanks for your tips!
Where do you like to set the proximity frequency, and how much do you usually boost the proximity?
 
Thanks so much for this post, I was starting to get stuck in a rut with my preset building and this has given me a whole new way of looking at my sound.
 
Great to see some tips & tricks from the horse's mouth so to speak.
Thanks Zaemo!! :encouragement:
 
Now that's a good idea! This could be used on IR cabs that have the mic captured as well then.

Yes

Not sure if you know, but it's been in the box for that last few Firmwares
thumbsup.gif
 
Back
Top Bottom