AX8: Going from a recording studio monitor to our PA

[Gary Small]

Newbie question. Old school dude here. I set up a scene to emulate my "bar rig". A Fender Deluxe, a couple of ODs slap back echo and reverb. Nothing fancy. I trimmed the speaker cab low and highs off to sound more like a guitar cab. (Thank you for suggesting that!!!). I used my KRK Rokkit 6 as a monitor and it sounded pretty good. I then plugged into our EV EV50 column straight in. And yikes, way to much treble!!! Easy fix, I just turned down the treble and presence knobs but should I have that much difference between the KRK and the EV EV50 column?

 

[Musikron]

What’s the room like with the krks? Any room treatment? Sounds like compensating for room inadequacies left you with an overly bright sound.

 

[Habuman]

Did you test the preset on the KRKs at a loud volume that closely represents gig volume? If not, this will lead to the sound disparities.

Every time I see a post about this issue someone will eventually reference the Fletcher-Munson Curve. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher–Munson_curves

If possible, always create and test presets at gig volume. Once you have a good sound dialed in you can always use that as a template for creating other presets when you cannot test at a loud volume.

 

[Promit]

I hate to be that guy but... you started with KRKs. This end result was not surprising. Now the treble on a PA can be comparatively hot and there's always some learning curve. Global EQ on the AX8 will help a lot. But your initial sounds are being dialed in on speakers that are, well, kind of bad.

 

[chris]

should I have that much difference between the KRK and the EV EV50 column?

It’s definitely possible as they are very different speakers.

This is what our mic’d guitar tone suffered without us even knowing. We’d just stick a mic on at the gig and only hear our cab on stage - while the audience was getting maybe a ton of treble or maybe a ton of bass without us knowing.

With the Axe we know exactly what it sounds like because we can turn off our stage volume and hear the audience speakers, then adjust as necessary.

 

[hbucker]

I've found no exception to the reality that my presets just sound different through different speakers. I'd copy your recording preset over to another spot and tweak it exclusively for your PA.

I plugged my AX8 directly into my friend's JBL powered PA speakers and had the opposite problem. They were muffled and dead sounding. Also, don't discount what can be done if you go through a mixing board before the PA speakers.