AFX3 vs other guitarist's amp & cab

FarleyUK

FarleyUK

Inspired
My old band are getting together for a reunion show this weekend, and we had the first rehearsal last night - everything sounded great, but I noticed the AFX3 seemed to get overpowered quite easily by the other guitarist's amp and cab. Normally I'm the only guitarist in the band, so it's something I've not encountered before.

Are there any tips anyone can give me with regards to how to deal with that? And yes, I turned myself up more ;)

Running from the AFX3 into 2 Laney FrFr 112 cabs as a backline. I've got a PEQ on my presets with a hi and low cut sets at 90Hz and 6500kHz, with a steep 36dB shelf.
 
IMHO you got to equal the number of speakers. If the other guitarist is running a, say, 4x12" cab you will have a hard time keeping up with two tiny 1x12"s. It´s only about projection surface. And the 4x12" will provide more oomph, esp. since you cut the low end.
 
You might need some mid boost? Start with 400 to 800hz?
Add mids until you think it's too much already. A tiny bit too much can be the right amount. Play with that sound and notice how your ears get used to it, they will. These mids make you cut through better. Real amps always have some prominent mids, frequencies change though. When tweaking sounds at home, these mids seem unnecessary and seem to hinder you from getting perfect highs and lows, so you get tempted to lower them some. But they are important.
When you go back afterwards to your old good known preset after playing with more mids for a while, you might judge it as shrill and boomy, that's just how our ears work.. ears are poor tools.
 
FarleyUK said:
My old band are getting together for a reunion show this weekend, and we had the first rehearsal last night - everything sounded great, but I noticed the AFX3 seemed to get overpowered quite easily by the other guitarist's amp and cab. Normally I'm the only guitarist in the band, so it's something I've not encountered before.

Are there any tips anyone can give me with regards to how to deal with that? And yes, I turned myself up more ;)

Running from the AFX3 into 2 Laney FrFr 112 cabs as a backline. I've got a PEQ on my presets with a hi and low cut sets at 90Hz and 6500kHz, with a steep 36dB shelf.
Click to expand...
Weird, I have no probs to keep up with my two RedSound 8 inch speakers against the 4x12 Orange cab from the other guitarist. And we are playing very loud.
 
If your volume is similar it shouldn't matter what speakers you're running, I'm thinking projection and positioning and EQ is probably making the difference. The only way a 4x12 would make a big difference like that is a slant would project upward and forward helping fill the room.
 
Can you record the band? Ideally multitrack, so you can reamp yourself and work on your tone, see if that helps?
 
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Thanks all - however, it appears that (because I noticed the other guy's amp was making a lot of 'ticking' noises - and it was the first time he'd used in 3 years...!) I've managed to convince him to use my AFX3 as well; so it'll be 2 inputs, going to the same output, just panned hard left and right accordingly.

Assuming that's all done just via the OUT1 block for the panning per row?
 
OK, so I'm about 95% there on these patches; the part that's tripping me up is that for rhythym, I want me panned -90, and the other guy at 90; that's fine, I can do that in the cab blocks.

However, for lead, I want to be more central - which I can't do in the cab block, as I have the 4 channels with seperate cabs for the 4 main scenes in the preset (I have scenes 1 - 4 as different amps with different cabs, and scenes 5-8 as the solo version of those main scenes).

Tried the mixer block, but there's a huge loss in volume when adjusting the balance on the mixer block vs the pan control in the cab.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
FarleyUK said:
OK, so I'm about 95% there on these patches; the part that's tripping me up is that for rhythym, I want me panned -90, and the other guy at 90; that's fine, I can do that in the cab blocks.

However, for lead, I want to be more central - which I can't do in the cab block, as I have the 4 channels with seperate cabs for the 4 main scenes in the preset (I have scenes 1 - 4 as different amps with different cabs, and scenes 5-8 as the solo version of those main scenes).

Tried the mixer block, but there's a huge loss in volume when adjusting the balance on the mixer block vs the pan control in the cab.

Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...

Two ideas come to mind,

1. Use a Vol/Pan or Trem/Pan block post cab and use a control switch to set your pan to center. Not sure if that'll actually do it as I've not tested it.
2. Other guitarist goes out Out2, you are each effectively mono to a monitor, and let the FOH take the other channel and mix as needed.
 
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