Rocket Brother
Power User
CLR in depth review, pro use, multible applications and scenarios
Hi guys, as promised here’s my review of the Atomic Amps CLR Active wedge.
It’s taken a little longer than originally promised, as I’ve had some things to attend to in my private life.
This will be a long post - sorry - but I hope anybody interested in the CLRs will find the review useful and interesting.
A little context before the review. I’m a professional guitarist and have made my living as such for more than 20 years now. I’ve been lucky enough to play with some outstanding musicians during this time and have earlier in my career toured both sides of the Atlantic as a sideman. Since I became a father I haven’t strayed too far from home for extended periods. I do mostly live work backing a couple of recording artists, but I also do a fair share of studio work, and I’m getting a little into mixing too.
I mostly play straight classic rock and blues-rock but also do a little funky and “top 40” type modern pop-rock.
As a “gun for hire” I’ve always needed a rounded arsenal of sounds and as such have owned a boatload of choice guitars, tube amplifiers, cabinets, pedals and outboard effects.
For electrics I mostly play strats, teles, ES 330 and ES 335/345’s and on rare occasions an LP. For acoustics I mainly use a one-off Custom Shop Martin D-style with some twists and 2 Gibson J45 True Vintage’s, all fitted with LR Baggs Anthem systems.
Amp wise I’ve mostly been going for vintage flavored amps and the true and tried classics of tweed Fenders, BF Fenders, vintage Marshalls, Comet Concorde, Skrydstryp OD50, Carr Rambler, and a CbC ODS clone, but have also had more modern hi-gain amps such as a Skrydstrup SD50 and a Soldano SLO in heavy rotation. I own or have owned quite a few more of both guitars and amps, but those mentioned above are what have been at the core of my arsenal for years.
I never liked any modelers before the Axe Fx, but my Ultras became my favorite gigging tools.
The Axe II has up’ed that one further, and I’m now using the Axe II for at least 95% of my work (live and studio), though I still own and love - just rarely use - a couple of tweed Fenders, a Carr Rambler, the ODS clone, the Skrydstrups, an SLO and a Soldano X99.
With respect to sound reproduction I’ve been going back and forth between being on in-ears and on stage monitors depending on the band/artist and scenario. When on stage monitors I’ve been fortunate enough to use a lot of high-end pro stage monitors extensively from companies such as Martin Audio, L-Acoustics, D&B and others throughout the years as stage monitors were always provided by the tech companies or concert arrangers.
I’ve also recorded in a number of fully fledged professional studios that have had high-end monitoring solutions.
Last year I got the urge to get my own monitors, so that I had them for grab-and-go applications such as rehearsals, small gigs, clinics, to dial my tones in on at home as monitors behaves and feels differently than in-ears, and most importantly to have an extra “all ME” wedge on stage so I could make quick level adjustments via output 2 on the Axe II if the monitor tech didn’t give me enough of my guitar sound in my band mix stage wedge.
I got the RCF NX10-SMA as they meet my criterias; good tone, coaxial, top prosumer quality, light weight, rugged and portable at an (IMO anyway) fairly affordable price, especially considering the cost of the other elements in my signal chain.
The RCFs are definitely not on the same level as the monitors from the companies mentioned above, but they perform better than anything else I’ve heard in the prosumer range, and are easily good enough for me to use them in a professional setting for the purposes mentioned above.
I was looking forward to reviewing the CLR and see what the collaboration between Tom King and Jay Mitchell could bring to the table, but I was very sceptical as to whether the CLR’s would be able to outperform or even equal my RCF NX10-SMAs that I’ve had for 14 months and have been very happy with.
I received 3 active CLR wedges for review purposes from Tom King of Atomic Amps on the 11th of April 2013 - just shortly before we were heading into the final production rehearsals and out on tour, and I have used them extensively in a number of scenarios since.
The premisses for the review was - as always - that I’d have full editorial rights and would write my absolute honest opinion on the CLR, whether it was favorable for the CLR and Atomic Amps or not.
I’ve mailed this review to Tom King before posting it here so he knew what to expect and had a chance to comment on my thoughts, but as I said no editorial rights or favors were given to Tom King or anybody else.
I set out to test the CLRs very thoroughly, methodically and rigorously in a number of different scenarios, including:
1) Using the CLR as a personal monitor for the Axe Fx II at low bedroom, medium and full stage volumes, including real life live use in medium to large clubs and up to large halls, with electric and acoustic guitars.
2) Using the CLRs as a mini PA in coffeehouse gigs / clinics / small gig settings
3) Using the CLRs as backline amplification for electric and acoustic guitars.
4) Using CLRs in a wet-dry-wet system either as all Axe II and CLRs and/or with the CLRs providing the wet channels with effects from Axe II and a TC 2290 with the dry center channel coming from a couple of choice boutique tube amp
5) Using the CLRs and Axe Fx II for bass guitar
6) Comparing the CLRs to popular choices in the hi-end prosumer FRFR market
7) Comparing the CLRs to well known and widely used studio monitors
I’ll describe my experiences with each application/scenario separately so guys only interested in one or a few scenarios can skip right to what is of interest to them.
Some of the basics about the CLR will be in the part about using the CLR as a personal monitor so I recommend reading at least that part of the review.
At some points in this review I’ll contrast or compare the CLR to the RCF NX10-SMA monitor, simply because
1) That is what I’ve been using before I received the CLRs
2) The RCF is well known and used by a lot of members on this forum
3) Because to me the RCF is the best of the prosumer FRFR monitors out there and thus what the CLR has to beat convincingly to be of interest to me
Alrighty then - lets get down to business.
Shipping materials, packing, fit & finish and features
The CLRs ships in good quality boxes and are packed really well.
It’s obvious that Atomic Amps cares about the CLR getting to you unharmed.
This attention to and care in packing is important in a costly and relatively heavy device such as the CLR.
The shipping agent that delivered the CLRs to me had man-handled the boxes a little, but the quality boxes, quality packing material and good packing made sure that no damage had come to the CLRs.
The CLR itself has a clean professional feel, look and build quality. Wooden cabinet, painted black and a black metal grill to keep the drivers out of harms way.
Apart from the new Atomic logo there is nothing flamboyant about the look of the wedge – so just as it should be IMO.
The CLR has a more squared and a little higher profile than the RCF NX10-SMA that I’m used to and has a slightly bigger foot print.
The CLR is a bit more heavy than the RCF, but not prohibitively so.
In fact the RCF seems lighter to carry only on the first less than 10 meters or so, from there it becomes very obvious that the CLR’s better weight distribution and way better carrying handle makes carrying the CLR a breeze compared to the lighter RCF with it’s somewhat bend and squared profile handle.
Why RCF chose to put a handle like that on their monitor is beyond me. It must be routed in the Italian design aesthetics of “una bella figura”, with is - in this case anyway - in sharp contrast to the normal pro audio “form follows function” creedo. Atomics choice of a regular pro quality handle like we all know from the industry standard Marshall 4x12 cab makes much better sense and is far more ergonomic.
The CLR wedge has rubber feet for positioning it on the floor as either a wedge or up-right as a cab. Furthermore there is a speaker stand cup on the bottom, allowing you to – yep – put it onto a speaker stand and raise it up to whatever level you want it at.
Corresponding to these 3 possible placement options, there is a PRESET switch on the back where you can set it for free field (FF), wedge (TILT) or backline (BL) in order to employ a corrective EQ for each position set by the DSP in the active CLR.
This is far from a trivial feature and a real plus for the CLR.
The back panel or control panel of the CLR holds a heat sink, and from left to right input 1 & 2 each with a Neutrik combo 1/4” /XLR input socket and individual level controls and clipping warning LEDs, the PRESET switch for FF, TILT & BL positions, the MASTER volume control, the SUB on/off switch which in it’s on position attenuates the lows from 120Hz and down if you want to use the CLR with a sub and also the link XLR out with a switch to choose which signal you want to send out of the link: input 1, input 2 or both.
Lastly there is the IEC power inlet socket and the illuminated on/off mini rocker switch.
Using the CLRs as a personal monitor
This is the task that I - and I guess most other users - primarily want to use the CLR for, and I guess where the CLR can make it or break it for most users so to speak.
The first time I fired up the CLRs I was pleasantly surprised and could immediately tell that these monitors are indeed very special and are a professional grade monitor.
I actually started out listening to some music that I’m very familiar with on the CLRs and loved what I heard. All the detail, depth, space and punch was present and the sound image very clear. The broad dispersion pattern with a completely uniform sound quality is terrific. Then I tried out the patches I had made using the RCF, and again really liked what I heard, I just had a lot of fun going through my own presets and even a few of the factory presets.
The next day was more of the same, but also included the inevitable – the first A/B tests with the RCFs.
I really liked what I heard from the RCF, it felt like home and had a nice fat mid range tone to it. When I switched to the CLR I could instantly hear that there were a lot more clarity and better separation in the CLR, the mids were very nice but not as prominent as on the RCF. I tried both again with some backing tracks at the same time through the monitors and then it was very clear that the CLR had better separation, depth and clarity, not only between my guitar and the backing track but also between the instruments on the backing track.
I took a walk, came back and decided to tweak a new clean Fender and a new driven Plexi tone on both monitors – I found that I worked faster and got a better result on both types of tones tweaking on the CLR because I could more easily separate the different frequencies and hear everything better.
The prominent mids present on the RCF, that I had liked at first glance in the comparison, made dialing the sounds in on the RCFs a bit harder, as the mids got a bit wolly compared to the CLR. The CLRs excel throughout the entire frequency range and have perfect mid representation.
In the time span of just a few days the CLRs grew immensely on me and it became very clear to me that IMO the CLR is vastly superior to the RCF (which I still like for what it is though).
Numerous tests confirmed that to me, and I felt secure enough to bring the CLR to rehearsals and shows.
I tweaked a handful of general go to presets (an acoustic preset, a clean Fender, a bluesy/clean lead Fender, a bluesy JTM 45, a driven Plexi and a hot Friedman) for the CLR’s and took two of them to rehearsal to try them at stage volume. Just 30 seconds into the first rehearsal I was grinning from ear to ear and I knew that there was no way around it for me – I had to have them.
It was simply some of the best tones I’d ever had or heard, and furthermore the dispersion pattern of the CLRs meant that both I and my band mates could hear my guitar much better all over the stage than usual.
My amplified acoustics sounded better than I’ve ever heard them before, and dare I say it as good as or maybe even better than the pure unamplified sound of the acoustic itself. This was with a simple patch on the Axe (slight comp, PEQ, a hint of delay and reverb) and a Character preamp sim from the Metric Halo ULN-8’s Mio Console 5.
I also tried going from the acoustic straight into the ULN-8’s DI input and in 2-3 minutes I tweaked a simple channel strip with a Character preamp sim, comp, limiter, EQ and Halo Verb, and again surpassed any acoustic tone I’ve ever had previously.
I’ve since used the CLR extensively at home when practicing or working on new material at bedroom and apartment volumes, in rehearsals, with a quiet trio, in full production rehearsals with a full band and where it matters most – on stage at full volume.
I can honestly say that the CLRs have continued to impress me more for every single time I’ve used them - irrespectively of the setting I’ve used them in.
For guys wanting a monitor to give them cranked amp sounds at bedroom volumes I can think of no better sounding monitor than the CLR for the purpose.
The other good option for bedroom volume IMHO is a set of good studio monitors. The CLR takes up a bit more space than typical studio monitors do, but it has a more cab like feel and punch to the sound even at bedroom volumes compared to studio monitors - and if an opportunity to jam ever comes up you’re set for that as well.
Another point is that the sound quality of the CLR is way better IMHO than any set of studio monitor available at 999$ US that I know of anyway. So if you are willing to spend that amount on a set of studio monitors for the Axe Fx II, you should seriously consider a CLR instead – not stereo I know but sublime mono is IMO better than decent to good stereo for guitar tones any day of the week.
In many threads regarding FRFR monitors, there is a lot of discussion and questions regarding whether a given FRFR monitor can get you a “in the room” sound, like if you had a tube amp and cab right in front of you.
To me when using the Axe II and CLRs that question is answered with a resounding “yes absolutely”.
The most important ingredient in getting a in the room sound is absolutely the choice of speaker IR.
If you use a speaker IR of a close mic’ed cab with a “colored” mic going through a “colored” preamp and maybe a EQ, then you naturally won’t get an in the room sound. You’ll get the sound of the amp and cab model chosen, mic’ed and post processed - which can be you what you want in another situation.
So if you want an amp in the room sound, choose a speaker IR captured with a very transparent and natural sounding mic in a far field position into a very clean preamp with a flat EQ, maybe even mix in a little of a close mic’ed IR captured like that too.
I’ve also noticed a couple of guys on the fractal forum claiming that the CLRs are harder to work on with the Axe than their chosen monitor, claiming that their monitors are more guitar friendly than the CLR, and that the CLR is more for tweakers and people with a scientific background or audio professionals or some other nonsense to that effect – please give me a break.
The CLR accurately reproduces the signal you feed them, which makes them absolutely wonderful and simple to work on and they take out all of the guesswork about how your sound will translate to other quality systems or in recordings.
That makes the CLRs perfect and easy to use for the basic players and the über-tweakers alike.
I won’t feed the trolls, but suffice to say that if your preset sounds bad or wrong on a Axe II and CLR rig then the problem isn’t with the rig, it’s with the users ability to dial in a good preset.
Using the CLRs as a personal monitor in a band context, I’ve noticed a few important things, apart from sublime sound quality and true FRFR performance, that makes the CLR a no-brainer for me.
Playing in a band context - whether that’s my trio or the 7 man band - I’ve noticed that because of the formidable large dispersion zone, true FRFR performance and thus clear detailed sound of the CLR, I can turn down my volume a little from my normal stage volume and still hear myself better and be heard better by the other musicians than before.
Hearing myself better is naturally really great, but having lower volume levels coming at me make long production rehearsals and long shows a lot less stressful and wears a lot less on my ears and head – that’s a very welcome feature of the CLR to me.
Another thing that really stands out to me is the sound quality and frequency spectrum once you get out of the ideal dispersion zone, which is very wide on the CLR. On the CLR it seems like the frequencies fades away uniformly, whereas on most monitors (including most hi-end pro monitors) once you get outside of the ideal dispersion zone the frequencies falls off in a very uneven and sporadic way so you might get a very muddy or very shrill sound outside of the ideal dispersion zone.
Remember the rest of the band is typically, not to say always, outside of the ideal dispersion zone of you monitor so - unless you are always on large stages with everybody standing fixed in front of their personal monitor - this matters greatly when you think of how the rest of the band hears you even though they might have dedicated monitors.
It’s hard to explain why this is such a big deal, but once you’ve tried it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Monitors like the CLR can reduce the volume war on stage and make the experience of performing much better for all involved, which often leads to better playing and better performances.
I’ve used the CLRs in many shows now, ranging from some clinics in café sized rooms (50-200 persons) at moderate stage volumes, to full on stage volume in crowded medium sized clubs to halls, including 7 shows in what I consider large halls (7000+ in the audience) and I have found the CLRs to work absolutely beautifully and perfectly for me in all these scenarios.
The CLRs have not made a single hiccup, they sound clear, natural, transparent and translate perfectly.
Not only does my Axe patches/guitar sound translate perfectly, so does the entire band mix in the CLR.
There is great detail, separation, depth and punch in the CLR.
I get a line from the monitor tech with a personalized band mix with the right levels for me – but in the rare occasion that I’m not getting enough of my guitar in my monitor and I can’t catch the attention of the monitor tech quickly enough, I can instantly regulate the level myself from the front of the Axe II, as I have a cable going from the out 2 of the Axe into the input 2 on the CLR.
It has proven to be money more than once, and I love having the 2nd input on the CLRs for this application.
If I’m running 1 or 2 CLRs that means I’m turning up the “Axe II only” signal from out 2 on the Axe II.
The CLR can get extremely loud it you want or need it to – Holy Moly does it get loud!
I’m used to rock stage SPL’s and can attest that the CLR will split your head open and blow your eardrums, if you get too fresh with the volume level control.
I’ve had the CLRs so loud that I could only stand it for a few minutes or so and had to turn it down as it was unpleasantly loud – the CLRs never broke a sweat and didn’t distort the signal – it just got LOUD.
I’ve heard Jay Mitchell say that the CLR will continuously put out 120 dBs of sound pressure – that’s loud enough from a stage monitor for any sane person.
Continued in next post.....
Hi guys, as promised here’s my review of the Atomic Amps CLR Active wedge.
It’s taken a little longer than originally promised, as I’ve had some things to attend to in my private life.
This will be a long post - sorry - but I hope anybody interested in the CLRs will find the review useful and interesting.
A little context before the review. I’m a professional guitarist and have made my living as such for more than 20 years now. I’ve been lucky enough to play with some outstanding musicians during this time and have earlier in my career toured both sides of the Atlantic as a sideman. Since I became a father I haven’t strayed too far from home for extended periods. I do mostly live work backing a couple of recording artists, but I also do a fair share of studio work, and I’m getting a little into mixing too.
I mostly play straight classic rock and blues-rock but also do a little funky and “top 40” type modern pop-rock.
As a “gun for hire” I’ve always needed a rounded arsenal of sounds and as such have owned a boatload of choice guitars, tube amplifiers, cabinets, pedals and outboard effects.
For electrics I mostly play strats, teles, ES 330 and ES 335/345’s and on rare occasions an LP. For acoustics I mainly use a one-off Custom Shop Martin D-style with some twists and 2 Gibson J45 True Vintage’s, all fitted with LR Baggs Anthem systems.
Amp wise I’ve mostly been going for vintage flavored amps and the true and tried classics of tweed Fenders, BF Fenders, vintage Marshalls, Comet Concorde, Skrydstryp OD50, Carr Rambler, and a CbC ODS clone, but have also had more modern hi-gain amps such as a Skrydstrup SD50 and a Soldano SLO in heavy rotation. I own or have owned quite a few more of both guitars and amps, but those mentioned above are what have been at the core of my arsenal for years.
I never liked any modelers before the Axe Fx, but my Ultras became my favorite gigging tools.
The Axe II has up’ed that one further, and I’m now using the Axe II for at least 95% of my work (live and studio), though I still own and love - just rarely use - a couple of tweed Fenders, a Carr Rambler, the ODS clone, the Skrydstrups, an SLO and a Soldano X99.
With respect to sound reproduction I’ve been going back and forth between being on in-ears and on stage monitors depending on the band/artist and scenario. When on stage monitors I’ve been fortunate enough to use a lot of high-end pro stage monitors extensively from companies such as Martin Audio, L-Acoustics, D&B and others throughout the years as stage monitors were always provided by the tech companies or concert arrangers.
I’ve also recorded in a number of fully fledged professional studios that have had high-end monitoring solutions.
Last year I got the urge to get my own monitors, so that I had them for grab-and-go applications such as rehearsals, small gigs, clinics, to dial my tones in on at home as monitors behaves and feels differently than in-ears, and most importantly to have an extra “all ME” wedge on stage so I could make quick level adjustments via output 2 on the Axe II if the monitor tech didn’t give me enough of my guitar sound in my band mix stage wedge.
I got the RCF NX10-SMA as they meet my criterias; good tone, coaxial, top prosumer quality, light weight, rugged and portable at an (IMO anyway) fairly affordable price, especially considering the cost of the other elements in my signal chain.
The RCFs are definitely not on the same level as the monitors from the companies mentioned above, but they perform better than anything else I’ve heard in the prosumer range, and are easily good enough for me to use them in a professional setting for the purposes mentioned above.
I was looking forward to reviewing the CLR and see what the collaboration between Tom King and Jay Mitchell could bring to the table, but I was very sceptical as to whether the CLR’s would be able to outperform or even equal my RCF NX10-SMAs that I’ve had for 14 months and have been very happy with.
I received 3 active CLR wedges for review purposes from Tom King of Atomic Amps on the 11th of April 2013 - just shortly before we were heading into the final production rehearsals and out on tour, and I have used them extensively in a number of scenarios since.
The premisses for the review was - as always - that I’d have full editorial rights and would write my absolute honest opinion on the CLR, whether it was favorable for the CLR and Atomic Amps or not.
I’ve mailed this review to Tom King before posting it here so he knew what to expect and had a chance to comment on my thoughts, but as I said no editorial rights or favors were given to Tom King or anybody else.
I set out to test the CLRs very thoroughly, methodically and rigorously in a number of different scenarios, including:
1) Using the CLR as a personal monitor for the Axe Fx II at low bedroom, medium and full stage volumes, including real life live use in medium to large clubs and up to large halls, with electric and acoustic guitars.
2) Using the CLRs as a mini PA in coffeehouse gigs / clinics / small gig settings
3) Using the CLRs as backline amplification for electric and acoustic guitars.
4) Using CLRs in a wet-dry-wet system either as all Axe II and CLRs and/or with the CLRs providing the wet channels with effects from Axe II and a TC 2290 with the dry center channel coming from a couple of choice boutique tube amp
5) Using the CLRs and Axe Fx II for bass guitar
6) Comparing the CLRs to popular choices in the hi-end prosumer FRFR market
7) Comparing the CLRs to well known and widely used studio monitors
I’ll describe my experiences with each application/scenario separately so guys only interested in one or a few scenarios can skip right to what is of interest to them.
Some of the basics about the CLR will be in the part about using the CLR as a personal monitor so I recommend reading at least that part of the review.
At some points in this review I’ll contrast or compare the CLR to the RCF NX10-SMA monitor, simply because
1) That is what I’ve been using before I received the CLRs
2) The RCF is well known and used by a lot of members on this forum
3) Because to me the RCF is the best of the prosumer FRFR monitors out there and thus what the CLR has to beat convincingly to be of interest to me
Alrighty then - lets get down to business.
Shipping materials, packing, fit & finish and features
The CLRs ships in good quality boxes and are packed really well.
It’s obvious that Atomic Amps cares about the CLR getting to you unharmed.
This attention to and care in packing is important in a costly and relatively heavy device such as the CLR.
The shipping agent that delivered the CLRs to me had man-handled the boxes a little, but the quality boxes, quality packing material and good packing made sure that no damage had come to the CLRs.
The CLR itself has a clean professional feel, look and build quality. Wooden cabinet, painted black and a black metal grill to keep the drivers out of harms way.
Apart from the new Atomic logo there is nothing flamboyant about the look of the wedge – so just as it should be IMO.
The CLR has a more squared and a little higher profile than the RCF NX10-SMA that I’m used to and has a slightly bigger foot print.
The CLR is a bit more heavy than the RCF, but not prohibitively so.
In fact the RCF seems lighter to carry only on the first less than 10 meters or so, from there it becomes very obvious that the CLR’s better weight distribution and way better carrying handle makes carrying the CLR a breeze compared to the lighter RCF with it’s somewhat bend and squared profile handle.
Why RCF chose to put a handle like that on their monitor is beyond me. It must be routed in the Italian design aesthetics of “una bella figura”, with is - in this case anyway - in sharp contrast to the normal pro audio “form follows function” creedo. Atomics choice of a regular pro quality handle like we all know from the industry standard Marshall 4x12 cab makes much better sense and is far more ergonomic.
The CLR wedge has rubber feet for positioning it on the floor as either a wedge or up-right as a cab. Furthermore there is a speaker stand cup on the bottom, allowing you to – yep – put it onto a speaker stand and raise it up to whatever level you want it at.
Corresponding to these 3 possible placement options, there is a PRESET switch on the back where you can set it for free field (FF), wedge (TILT) or backline (BL) in order to employ a corrective EQ for each position set by the DSP in the active CLR.
This is far from a trivial feature and a real plus for the CLR.
The back panel or control panel of the CLR holds a heat sink, and from left to right input 1 & 2 each with a Neutrik combo 1/4” /XLR input socket and individual level controls and clipping warning LEDs, the PRESET switch for FF, TILT & BL positions, the MASTER volume control, the SUB on/off switch which in it’s on position attenuates the lows from 120Hz and down if you want to use the CLR with a sub and also the link XLR out with a switch to choose which signal you want to send out of the link: input 1, input 2 or both.
Lastly there is the IEC power inlet socket and the illuminated on/off mini rocker switch.
Using the CLRs as a personal monitor
This is the task that I - and I guess most other users - primarily want to use the CLR for, and I guess where the CLR can make it or break it for most users so to speak.
The first time I fired up the CLRs I was pleasantly surprised and could immediately tell that these monitors are indeed very special and are a professional grade monitor.
I actually started out listening to some music that I’m very familiar with on the CLRs and loved what I heard. All the detail, depth, space and punch was present and the sound image very clear. The broad dispersion pattern with a completely uniform sound quality is terrific. Then I tried out the patches I had made using the RCF, and again really liked what I heard, I just had a lot of fun going through my own presets and even a few of the factory presets.
The next day was more of the same, but also included the inevitable – the first A/B tests with the RCFs.
I really liked what I heard from the RCF, it felt like home and had a nice fat mid range tone to it. When I switched to the CLR I could instantly hear that there were a lot more clarity and better separation in the CLR, the mids were very nice but not as prominent as on the RCF. I tried both again with some backing tracks at the same time through the monitors and then it was very clear that the CLR had better separation, depth and clarity, not only between my guitar and the backing track but also between the instruments on the backing track.
I took a walk, came back and decided to tweak a new clean Fender and a new driven Plexi tone on both monitors – I found that I worked faster and got a better result on both types of tones tweaking on the CLR because I could more easily separate the different frequencies and hear everything better.
The prominent mids present on the RCF, that I had liked at first glance in the comparison, made dialing the sounds in on the RCFs a bit harder, as the mids got a bit wolly compared to the CLR. The CLRs excel throughout the entire frequency range and have perfect mid representation.
In the time span of just a few days the CLRs grew immensely on me and it became very clear to me that IMO the CLR is vastly superior to the RCF (which I still like for what it is though).
Numerous tests confirmed that to me, and I felt secure enough to bring the CLR to rehearsals and shows.
I tweaked a handful of general go to presets (an acoustic preset, a clean Fender, a bluesy/clean lead Fender, a bluesy JTM 45, a driven Plexi and a hot Friedman) for the CLR’s and took two of them to rehearsal to try them at stage volume. Just 30 seconds into the first rehearsal I was grinning from ear to ear and I knew that there was no way around it for me – I had to have them.
It was simply some of the best tones I’d ever had or heard, and furthermore the dispersion pattern of the CLRs meant that both I and my band mates could hear my guitar much better all over the stage than usual.
My amplified acoustics sounded better than I’ve ever heard them before, and dare I say it as good as or maybe even better than the pure unamplified sound of the acoustic itself. This was with a simple patch on the Axe (slight comp, PEQ, a hint of delay and reverb) and a Character preamp sim from the Metric Halo ULN-8’s Mio Console 5.
I also tried going from the acoustic straight into the ULN-8’s DI input and in 2-3 minutes I tweaked a simple channel strip with a Character preamp sim, comp, limiter, EQ and Halo Verb, and again surpassed any acoustic tone I’ve ever had previously.
I’ve since used the CLR extensively at home when practicing or working on new material at bedroom and apartment volumes, in rehearsals, with a quiet trio, in full production rehearsals with a full band and where it matters most – on stage at full volume.
I can honestly say that the CLRs have continued to impress me more for every single time I’ve used them - irrespectively of the setting I’ve used them in.
For guys wanting a monitor to give them cranked amp sounds at bedroom volumes I can think of no better sounding monitor than the CLR for the purpose.
The other good option for bedroom volume IMHO is a set of good studio monitors. The CLR takes up a bit more space than typical studio monitors do, but it has a more cab like feel and punch to the sound even at bedroom volumes compared to studio monitors - and if an opportunity to jam ever comes up you’re set for that as well.
Another point is that the sound quality of the CLR is way better IMHO than any set of studio monitor available at 999$ US that I know of anyway. So if you are willing to spend that amount on a set of studio monitors for the Axe Fx II, you should seriously consider a CLR instead – not stereo I know but sublime mono is IMO better than decent to good stereo for guitar tones any day of the week.
In many threads regarding FRFR monitors, there is a lot of discussion and questions regarding whether a given FRFR monitor can get you a “in the room” sound, like if you had a tube amp and cab right in front of you.
To me when using the Axe II and CLRs that question is answered with a resounding “yes absolutely”.
The most important ingredient in getting a in the room sound is absolutely the choice of speaker IR.
If you use a speaker IR of a close mic’ed cab with a “colored” mic going through a “colored” preamp and maybe a EQ, then you naturally won’t get an in the room sound. You’ll get the sound of the amp and cab model chosen, mic’ed and post processed - which can be you what you want in another situation.
So if you want an amp in the room sound, choose a speaker IR captured with a very transparent and natural sounding mic in a far field position into a very clean preamp with a flat EQ, maybe even mix in a little of a close mic’ed IR captured like that too.
I’ve also noticed a couple of guys on the fractal forum claiming that the CLRs are harder to work on with the Axe than their chosen monitor, claiming that their monitors are more guitar friendly than the CLR, and that the CLR is more for tweakers and people with a scientific background or audio professionals or some other nonsense to that effect – please give me a break.
The CLR accurately reproduces the signal you feed them, which makes them absolutely wonderful and simple to work on and they take out all of the guesswork about how your sound will translate to other quality systems or in recordings.
That makes the CLRs perfect and easy to use for the basic players and the über-tweakers alike.
I won’t feed the trolls, but suffice to say that if your preset sounds bad or wrong on a Axe II and CLR rig then the problem isn’t with the rig, it’s with the users ability to dial in a good preset.
Using the CLRs as a personal monitor in a band context, I’ve noticed a few important things, apart from sublime sound quality and true FRFR performance, that makes the CLR a no-brainer for me.
Playing in a band context - whether that’s my trio or the 7 man band - I’ve noticed that because of the formidable large dispersion zone, true FRFR performance and thus clear detailed sound of the CLR, I can turn down my volume a little from my normal stage volume and still hear myself better and be heard better by the other musicians than before.
Hearing myself better is naturally really great, but having lower volume levels coming at me make long production rehearsals and long shows a lot less stressful and wears a lot less on my ears and head – that’s a very welcome feature of the CLR to me.
Another thing that really stands out to me is the sound quality and frequency spectrum once you get out of the ideal dispersion zone, which is very wide on the CLR. On the CLR it seems like the frequencies fades away uniformly, whereas on most monitors (including most hi-end pro monitors) once you get outside of the ideal dispersion zone the frequencies falls off in a very uneven and sporadic way so you might get a very muddy or very shrill sound outside of the ideal dispersion zone.
Remember the rest of the band is typically, not to say always, outside of the ideal dispersion zone of you monitor so - unless you are always on large stages with everybody standing fixed in front of their personal monitor - this matters greatly when you think of how the rest of the band hears you even though they might have dedicated monitors.
It’s hard to explain why this is such a big deal, but once you’ve tried it, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Monitors like the CLR can reduce the volume war on stage and make the experience of performing much better for all involved, which often leads to better playing and better performances.
I’ve used the CLRs in many shows now, ranging from some clinics in café sized rooms (50-200 persons) at moderate stage volumes, to full on stage volume in crowded medium sized clubs to halls, including 7 shows in what I consider large halls (7000+ in the audience) and I have found the CLRs to work absolutely beautifully and perfectly for me in all these scenarios.
The CLRs have not made a single hiccup, they sound clear, natural, transparent and translate perfectly.
Not only does my Axe patches/guitar sound translate perfectly, so does the entire band mix in the CLR.
There is great detail, separation, depth and punch in the CLR.
I get a line from the monitor tech with a personalized band mix with the right levels for me – but in the rare occasion that I’m not getting enough of my guitar in my monitor and I can’t catch the attention of the monitor tech quickly enough, I can instantly regulate the level myself from the front of the Axe II, as I have a cable going from the out 2 of the Axe into the input 2 on the CLR.
It has proven to be money more than once, and I love having the 2nd input on the CLRs for this application.
If I’m running 1 or 2 CLRs that means I’m turning up the “Axe II only” signal from out 2 on the Axe II.
The CLR can get extremely loud it you want or need it to – Holy Moly does it get loud!
I’m used to rock stage SPL’s and can attest that the CLR will split your head open and blow your eardrums, if you get too fresh with the volume level control.
I’ve had the CLRs so loud that I could only stand it for a few minutes or so and had to turn it down as it was unpleasantly loud – the CLRs never broke a sweat and didn’t distort the signal – it just got LOUD.
I’ve heard Jay Mitchell say that the CLR will continuously put out 120 dBs of sound pressure – that’s loud enough from a stage monitor for any sane person.
Continued in next post.....
