Am I the Only One Not Using High or Low Cuts Anymore?

Don't use cuts, I have some in the past but don't think I have since switching to the III.
 
I never used high cuts. If it sounded too shrill or treble-y, I just changed the settings or went to a different amp model. I haven't re-evaluated my low cut setting since FW 10... I usually turn down the low speaker resonance and realized I needed to start putting some of it back after FW 10.
 
I played with this a bit more and with the Ownhammers I prefer with the cuts. They have a little more bass/treble than some others but with the cuts it sounds great.

One thing I did like was playing around with the input EQ of the amp to do more aggressive cutting for say a Friedman BE which took care of a lot of the boominess.
 
That's because the tone is not organic as other types of sounds, even a clean tone, because of magnetic pick-ups.
As a sound guy myself, I have to disagree. Apart from maybe vocals, there’s nothing particularly “organic” coming through most FOH systems. Even vocals are augmented and changed.

i think the reason that sound people tend to go for the high pass filter immediately is because someone once told them to, and it became force of habit. You usually don’t have time to dial in everything perfectly, so you look for shortcuts that you know worked before, like this one. And for most guitar cabs that are mic’d, this is a safe bet. But i try to make my patches so the sound tech shouldn’t have to do much more than adjust gain and level.
 
I noticed this going from the II to the III. All the cabs seemed more usable across the board. Now it mostly comes down to using the correct mic choice only (rarely use any cuts)
 
Now that I think about it, I havent really touched them in the cab block in a while. I mainly do everything in the amp and just go from there. I have been hooked on using a single 57 IR for my more "Metal" patches lately.
 
One reason I think cuts are more prevalent today is we are using IR blends with ribbon mics. Traditionally if you throw an SM57 on the amp it doesn't have overwhelming low end. And you don't typically shape tone with the high cut but more make room for other instruments in the mix.

So it would make sense to me if you have a FOH guy or if you're tracking, go full range and let the engineer do his job. And if you're playing by yourself it's probably not going to be an issue. But I could see it being useful if you're running your own stage sound or during rehearsals.
 
So it would make sense to me if you have a FOH guy or if you're tracking, go full range and let the engineer do his job. And if you're playing by yourself it's probably not going to be an issue. But I could see it being useful if you're running your own stage sound or during rehearsals.

ALWAYS best to get things right at the source.
Garbage in = garbage out
If you start with a boomy sound the sound guy is going to have a hard time. A lot of mixers don't offer anywhere NEAR the tone and eq shaping options the axe has, and even with a fully loaded FOH mixing desk, the engineer has a ton of other things to worry about rather than making YOU sound good-the venue sound, the standing waves, the feedback, the bleed through in the mics, the random buzzing that's coming through suddenly, the faulty cable that you ran over with your amp, reverb, the overall sound of the band, the vocalists, the second voice mic that you have to ride the fader constantly cuz the singer has no control and keeps dropping the mic to face the speaker, the kick and snare, the bass, the keyboard, the shrieking violin, the loud horn section, the sampler with all those tracks that were not normalized, and so much more......if you've been a sound guy you'll realize that the loud guitar player with the boomy sound who insists he needs more guitar in the main is the LEAST of your concerns.

Matter of fact, I'd just chop out most his bass and move on to something more pressing.

Most pro players and the sound engineers here would agree that the better your sound fits into the band and mix is the less the soundman has to fiddle with, leaving you with a grand tone that just fits the mix and is more consistent venue to venue.
 
no cutting in the amp block. sometimes in the cab block but usually already at the Cab Lab level or later at the mixing stage. extreme cuts never sounded natural to me.

have you ever thought of implementing a Linear Phase EQ ? I know, it's got its downsides as well, but usually sounds better for low cutting...
 
I never used high cuts. If it sounded too shrill or treble-y, I just changed the settings or went to a different amp model. I haven't re-evaluated my low cut setting since FW 10... I usually turn down the low speaker resonance and realized I needed to start putting some of it back after FW 10.

That works when you're using a single output to FOH. But if you're using multiple, different kinds of outputs, like one to FOH and another to a power amp and guitar cab, this requires another approach.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jon
no cutting in the amp block.

OP didn't specify location of cut use, but your post reminded me of recent discovery in the Rectos, if you turn down the preamp input hi cut super low to around 2k Hz, it feels just like the roadster/roadking. Not sure if that's the difference between it and a dual rec or not (it could just as well be a different value bright cap on the gain pot, same ultimate effect). Also if you take the input high and low cuts off of the AC-30 type amp (or any other amp) you can get some really obscene distortion characteristics if you're into that messy type sludge tone.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/do-this-for-mesa-boogie-roadster-roadking.153367/

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...a-boogie-dual-rectifier-non-multiwatt.153568/

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/mesa-boogie-ta-30.153480/
 
I'm new to 10.02 I've been so distracted by the sound quality that I haven't done any of my normal speaker tweaks. I did attempt to use the low cut, but ended up setting the cabs to flat.
 
As a sound guy myself, I have to disagree. Apart from maybe vocals, there’s nothing particularly “organic” coming through most FOH systems. Even vocals are augmented and changed.

Drums and voice are acoustic sources. As were the instrument sounds in soundtracks of television and movies in days of old. They sounded like what they started as, however idealized by post-production.
 
Does it matter if you do the cut in the Cab section or in the preamp section?
It matters only if you use the preamp sim, the cuts in the cab section are pre-preamp, those in the preamp section are post-preamp

PS: and obviously those in the cab section are applied to the individual IRs while the ones in the preamp section are applied to the overall IR mix
 
Last edited:
Does it matter if you do the cut in the Cab section or in the preamp section?

Yes, makes a difference, depends on what you are going for, the preamp cut will give you a nice cut of the muddiness and flubby sound before it gets virtually amplified, the cab will cut AFTER it's amplified, which reduces much of the 'boom' and feedback inducing frequencies, and giving you a much better space in the mix, as you are not fighting with your bass kick and bassist.

Some amps benefit from cuts in both, but with the latest FW there is little need for it.

I'd recommend trying a preamp cut with say a fender or Mesa styled amp and see wha it does, and a cab cut to your personal taste.
 
Back
Top Bottom