tricks to make amplifiers sound better

kostas Look

Member
hey guys im new to fractal world so can anyone tell his ''tricks'' to make a sound better when i play low volume but also loud through PA!!!thanks
 
What sounds good in isolation at low volume levels rarely translates to playing louder in a group situation. This is true of digital just as much as traditional amps. My live rig sounded great on stage at high volume levels, but quietly at home it sounded like an AM radio.
 
The basic rule of thumb I follow is more midrange and less gain for live playing. That scooped, heavily distorted sound that works great at home pretty much disappears with drums and bass guitar.
I too have disappointingly found this to be true. I have been amazed when hearing the naked tones of guys like Nuno and Paul Gilbert, to find how they actually sound, sans the band.
 
Honestly, I'm surprised by the comments of what sounds good at home won't sound good live. Don't get me wrong, that WAS my experience with the Helix and Kemper, but hasn't been my experience with the Axe III. I guess with the Axe I have a tendency to trust the low end in the model, and don't dial it out like I might have with the Kemper and Helix.

I dial in all my presets on my monitors at home (Kali LP6's), and rarely change anything live (especially since Cygnus released). I'm using the DC30 EF86 most, but also dabble with the Bludojai, 5F8 Tweed, JTM, AC20 and a couple others.

My #1 tip is to not tweak too much. Start on the "Authentic" page and dial it in like you would the amp. #2 would be to dial them in how YOU want them to sound. Your FOH tech should be able to work with that.
 
Honestly, I'm surprised by the comments of what sounds good at home won't sound good live. Don't get me wrong, that WAS my experience with the Helix and Kemper, but hasn't been my experience with the Axe III. I guess with the Axe I have a tendency to trust the low end in the model, and don't dial it out like I might have with the Kemper and Helix.

I dial in all my presets on my monitors at home (Kali LP6's), and rarely change anything live (especially since Cygnus released). I'm using the DC30 EF86 most, but also dabble with the Bludojai, 5F8 Tweed, JTM, AC20 and a couple others.

My #1 tip is to not tweak too much. Start on the "Authentic" page and dial it in like you would the amp. #2 would be to dial them in how YOU want them to sound. Your FOH tech should be able to work with that.

It's not gear specific, it's all about how we perceive things at different volume levels, plus how each instrument works together in a band setting. Guitars are largely midrange voiced instruments, and when you scoop too much midrange out the high and low end of your signal is competing directly with the cymbals and bass guitar.
 
It's not gear specific, it's all about how we perceive things at different volume levels, plus how each instrument works together in a band setting. Guitars are largely midrange voiced instruments, and when you scoop too much midrange out the high and low end of your signal is competing directly with the cymbals and bass guitar.
Yeah, totally agree with that, but that's different than what I'm talking about. Someone said what sounds good at low volume at home likely won't sound good at live volume, which I inferred to be Fletcher-Munson related. That's not been my experience with the Axe III.
 
Yeah, totally agree with that, but that's different than what I'm talking about. Someone said what sounds good at low volume at home likely won't sound good at live volume, which I inferred to be Fletcher-Munson related. That's not been my experience with the Axe III.

That was me, and I wasn't referring as much to Fletcher-Munson as I was to how guitars sit best in a band mix. Low volume versus high volume obviously does involve F-M, though.

Weird thing, but I got so used to the way my live rig sounded at lower volumes at home (I tried to not mess with the tone controls at home so as to avoid having to remember how it was set up for the band) that I tend to dial in things in that direction still to this day, and I quit gigging over twenty years ago. I love me some midrange...
 
Honestly, I'm surprised by the comments of what sounds good at home won't sound good live. Don't get me wrong, that WAS my experience with the Helix and Kemper, but hasn't been my experience with the Axe III. I guess with the Axe I have a tendency to trust the low end in the model, and don't dial it out like I might have with the Kemper and Helix.

I dial in all my presets on my monitors at home (Kali LP6's), and rarely change anything live (especially since Cygnus released). I'm using the DC30 EF86 most, but also dabble with the Bludojai, 5F8 Tweed, JTM, AC20 and a couple others.

My #1 tip is to not tweak too much. Start on the "Authentic" page and dial it in like you would the amp. #2 would be to dial them in how YOU want them to sound. Your FOH tech should be able to work with that.
I use good headphones that I've used a GEQ block to flatten, and dial in the sound like I want, and I expect that what I'm hearing will translate through the Out blocks.

It's like when I was doing photography, once the systems are calibrated you can trust the workflow from the camera through the editing software to the printing process.
 
Honestly, I'm surprised by the comments of what sounds good at home won't sound good live. Don't get me wrong, that WAS my experience with the Helix and Kemper, but hasn't been my experience with the Axe III. I guess with the Axe I have a tendency to trust the low end in the model, and don't dial it out like I might have with the Kemper and Helix.

I dial in all my presets on my monitors at home (Kali LP6's), and rarely change anything live (especially since Cygnus released). I'm using the DC30 EF86 most, but also dabble with the Bludojai, 5F8 Tweed, JTM, AC20 and a couple others.

My #1 tip is to not tweak too much. Start on the "Authentic" page and dial it in like you would the amp. #2 would be to dial them in how YOU want them to sound. Your FOH tech should be able to work with that.
This, I can completely second that.
I tweak almost nothing between live and home presets.
Cheers
Sash
 
a good guitar player doesnt know how to use these stuff axe fx kemper etc !! all these years he tries to learn how to play the guitar through spider line 6 amp and not that much to an axe fx !!now its time to learn the axe fx so that jokes with better player goes maybe to all these modeller maniacs and not to us !! :)
 
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