Any tips for cutting through live with FRFR

There's some great advice here for you in this thread. Trying a different IR - may just be the best answer , but there's one thing I don't believe I've read yet......
Try to clean up your tone a little if you want to stick out and be heard. A cleaner distortion is much louder in the mix , than a heavily distorted guitar , both with the same levels going into a mixer.
While playing alone , it can be fun to rip up the frets with lots of dirt , but with a band , in the "cut thru the mix" wars , the cleaner guy wins - EVERY TIME.
Mind you , any sloppy playing will now be heard , but if you've got your act together , it's all good.
Here's a Joe Perry interview.

http://www.woodytone.com/2010/11/08/joe-perry-less-gain-rocks/
 
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rickgk said:
I use an atomic clr live with the axefx2 and have always had good results playing live with a previous band that was one guitar and used e-drums.
I'm now playing in a band with another guitarist and live drums and am finding that my tone doesn't cut through the mix, obviously I've done the usual and cranked the mids but with limited success.
My tone seems to have very little low end compared to the other guitar, and leads in particular are getting lost even with a 4db boost.
I just purchased fremens presets and have found very little difference between my raw amp tones and his except his generally have more gain than mine.
Please note I don't run through FOH, just the one clr.
I'm hoping everyone that uses FRFR in a full band situation can chime in with their tips for cutting through a dense rock mix.
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What Cliff said in #19 and #57.
Try this factory IR combination for gainy sounds:
No 064 4x12 30W (Ultra) and No 105 4x12 Rumble EV12L RNR1 50:50 both panned center (a simple equally weighted mix of both which can be done within the axe using the "Stereo" cab option).

I tried many different IRs and made many CabLab IR mixes but always came back to this combination after trying to get heard well and balanced in a band context live. No 105 gives the type of focussed midrange center you need for the "body" and for cutting through in my opinion. No 64 offers a well designed, warm high and low end addition to this and you should vary the degree of addition / mix depending on your guitar / pickups. It may sound a little bit unspectacular and middy when playing at lower volumes, but it shines when it gets loud and live with a CLR (and through FOH !).

For clean sounds I add No 038 4x12 1960A G12M(RW) instead of No 064 for a bit more sparkle.

Besides that you should keep in mind that the CLR is a completely closed back cab with no bass reflex system and a relatively small rear internal volume, so it may be a good idea trying to add some 120-200 Hz at about 3db or so depending on your guitar / pickups for even more warmth and "body" if you want more. This applies for a passive CLR (I use) or an active one set linear. I can't comment on the equalized presets of the active version because I have no experience with these.

Hope that helps a bit.
 
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yek said:
It'd be even better if the 5-band Passive GEQ would be available in the Cab. Or as a Global EQ mode.
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I agree. I've been experimenting with the GEQ placed after the amp+cab vs using the one in the Amp Block and I prefer the GEQ block after the amp and cab; it seems a bit clearer to me.

For the moment I just use the GEQ tied to an external controller, so I can quickly enable it via the front panel and know that it's on across all presets and all scenes.
 
rickgk said:
I'll post my main patches later, you'll see I have cut the lows and the highs drastically and boosted the mids greatly, they don't sound good on their own because of this.
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@rickgk, I'm glad I found your post. I went many years having the perfect sound coming out of my 4 x 12. However the sound engineer would always come up and say "I need more high" or "I need more presence". It used to get me irritated. It's a big mistake most guitar players make. Then many years later, I saw a Brian May interview, where he basically said you have to sound crappy playing by yourself. Otherwise the bass and the drums will drown you out in the mix. Now, I pretty much roll off everything below 250hz and above 2k, and EQ from there. There's no boominess, the mids kick in, and I get good tight highs with no shrill. I also created duplicated presets, so when I'm practicing alone, I like my sound.
 
luke said:
I bet there is a spectrum analysis app, which you could use while they play without you. Look for the valleys, that's where you can fit in.
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If you want an RTA app
Try Octave RTA, its an iPhone app for $4.99
Will give you a RTA of the sound in the room...I use it a sound engineering gigs, work great.
 
One other issue not explicitly mentioned yet... are you all mature and flexible people in the group? If so, it should be easy to experiment and carve out reasonable sonic niches for both guitars. Or does the other guitar player tell you to turn down or give you the "evil eye" every time you can hear yourself? Does he crank himself up after level setting? Does he squeeze as many notes as possible into each solo to make sure nobody else steals his space? Or is that you? Maybe none of this is a factor for you, but technical solutions will be to no avail if these issues are present.
 
still need to see the preset, hear an actual sound sample of you playing your preset, and a single mono mic recording your band playing, preferably from a point where the mic is centered from both guitar speakers so it captures each evenly.

If you can do these 3 things, only then can we really help you out, otherwise, it's all just speculation and conjecture.
 
Pinkycramps said:
Also...

CLR's don't have a lot of low end compared to most guitar cabs or FOH speakers. You need to dial it up pretty decently in my experience. They don't really "thump." I would look towards EQ over straight vol boost in most cases.

It is also always good to know relative vol (DB) levels of both guitars though... if you have a DB meter it can be an eye opener...
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Sorry to butt in here but isn't the CLR supposed to be full range? I was thinking of getting one but this has made me think again? I have some pretty bassy synth sounds which need to thump on occasion.
 
ralphonz said:
Sorry to butt in here but isn't the CLR supposed to be full range? I was thinking of getting one but this has made me think again? I have some pretty bassy synth sounds which need to thump on occasion.
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CLRs are full range AND flat response.
Whatever you put into it is what comes out of it, just louder.
 
Shot in the dark here - but are you using reverb? Even a little bit can hamper clarity.
 
ralphonz said:
Sorry to butt in here but isn't the CLR supposed to be full range? I was thinking of getting one but this has made me think again? I have some pretty bassy synth sounds which need to thump on occasion.
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It is - but one speaker accurately putting out what goes in is different to four slamming out a signal that isn't exactly accurate to what went in.

That's the difference in "thump"
 
Old thread, sorted this a while ago, chose much darker cabs as suggested also null mic option helped.

The live patches sound muffled, dark, bass heavy and actually pretty horrible at lower volume, I could never use them for recording. But once turned up to gig volume they cut and sound okay.
It's funny because in a one guitar band my recording patches only need the mids raised a little to be fine for live but in this band I've had to add alot of bass and lower the high mids which is really counter intuitive to what I'd become used to doing with tube amps gigging over the last 25years(lower bass and raise mids)
 
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