kruzty said:
So far, I've only used the stock IRs and almost always need to use the PEQ. Do you find it necessary to use the PEQ with other IRs (like redwirez)?
"Necessary" is a qualifier that I'd not attach to anything, even the stock IR's. To me, it's simply taste/preferences and creating the 'fit' for the sonic timbre in the mix.
I have the same basic starting PEQ for every preset, adjust to taste depending on that preset, and have a IA control to turn the PEQ on/off as needed in my presets. That's independent of using User IR's or Stock IR's. To me the PEQ is a tool that everyone should be familiar, or get that way, with using. Part of the 'cut' in the mix is more of what you are
not hearing, ie. mud, than jacking any given level with EQ. Note that I rarely if ever 'boost' with GEQ or PEQ. That's a very important point. You'll find if you study mixing a band or a recording that you almost universally shelf the low and (to a lesser extent) high end to create the 'clarity' a good mix can impart. With the Axe-FX you can essentially 'pre-mix' your entire sonic picture and present it to FOH (or recording) allowing for little or none 'corrective' EQ.
You need to 'define' the guitar's portion of the sonic mix, focused on the mids. What you see with guys that don't have the experience or mixing chops is that they jack up the mids... or worse, cut them out. Alone in a room, it sounds massive. In a real mix situation, where you actually play with other musicians, you disappear. Jacking up the mids works, but sounds nasal and boxy. By simply rolling off the lows and highs, you leave room for the lower register instruments and upper register highs without actually sacrificing anything other than what we have become accustomed to hearing (and feeling) from a big 212 or 412 cab. What's funny is that if you took the 'massive' tone that you are feeding to a board, (recording or live) that is properly mixed and EQ'd, your 'massive' tone is actually shaped to be very small and 'focused'. Guys seem to never get their heads around the reality of it; guitarists are the worst for this sort of sonic 'efficiency'.
In the room, just jamming or having fun I turn the PEQ off and soak in the big massive thing we all dig. It's primal and visceral. Every guitarist that has ever cranked up an amp and just reveled in the power and impact of the tone and volume 'gets' what I am describing. The key to a proper mix is taking just enough of that wall of sound and fitting it in with the rest.
For a guitar to cut AND have 'body' against keyboards and especially vocalists (the damned hogs of the sonic world lol) you don't need to boost or cut mids as much as watch your bottom and top end and the mids - assuming you are not some 'scooped' mids junkie - just sit better because the overtones from the muddy bottom and 'sssss' from the extreme top aren't stacking up and clouding those mids.
It's easy to show it in practice, if you jam along with recorded music out by mixing your signal in with the recorded music and played back over a good flat studio monitor. Turn the PEQ off and you 'drop back' in the sonic picture and you can 'sense' you are in there, but will feel the need to turn your volume UP to compensate. Then click in your tuned PEQ and viola, your 'focused' and more 'efficient' sound just 'fits' and you can actually turn down your volume in the mix and still cut and fit.
