Yesterday, I had my first ever band rehearsal using my 1x12 ported cab with a Celestion G12H30 Anniversary and the EHX Magnum 44 power amp.
(The setup I used here)
I had to use some of my existing 'one preset per song' presets, and that was a problem, because I use a scene controller attached to the cab block level to set the individual scene levels. Luckily, with the help from this forum, I was able to create a "Null IR" (the links were broken for the ones I found). I inserted the NULL IR in all cab blocks, so the sound passed though unchanged except for the level control. That worked great.
I also set speaker drive to zero in all presets, and I set speaker compression to zero in the presets using a speaker similar to G12H30. In the presets that use AlNiCo speakers, I left the speaker compression at 3.0 to get a little more AlNiCo flavor out of my G12H30. I also removed all reverbs, unless the presets that used the AC30 where I have a bit of spring reverb in front of the amp.
I used Leon's synth trick at home to find the resonant frequency of my cab. I had to run it fairly loud to hear the effect. I am wondering how much was speaker resonance, and how much was room resonance. I know my room has fairly big resonances in the same frequency area.
I have never used the global EQ on my AX8, so I don't think I would have thought about it, if Leon had not mentioned it in the video. When I first fired up my setup at rehearsal, I thought it sounded a bit thin. So I went for the global EQ, removed some low lows, added some 125 and 250, removed a little 500, added some 2k and took out a bit of 8k and 16k. That worked perfectly, and I had a balanced sound on all my presets. I used presets that were based on the AC30 Top Boost, Brit 800#34 and JTM45. My setup sounded great in all of them.
I must say though, that I don't miss 'amp in the room' sound. My cab was on the floor, so I had to walk to the other side of the rehearsal space (a fairly large room at a local school) to really hear, what my setup sounded like. I have gotten so used to wearing in-ears, so this actually felt a little weird. But I'll admit there is something organic and wonderful about the sound waves mixing in air rather than in a mixer. If you found the right spot to stand in, the sound was glorious. Also, my sturdy 1x12 cabinet is really heavy. I am glad I am not carrying that one on a regular basis anymore
Thanks Leon, your tricks helped me get ready in no time