Band is now all Axe-fx for guitars

javajunkie

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The other guitar player in my band could resist no longer. He has gone axe-fx from mesa recording pre and and a 2-90 poweramp.

He'll be using the II and MFC w/ a Matrix and Atomic speakers. It ought to be fun :)
 
If you don't mind me asking, what type of music are you playing with both guitarist using the Axe?

I think it would be cool to see the before and after vids with the Axe when it comes to the overall live sound produced.
 
Excellent! My cover band is all digital (bass included). This weekend the soundguy showed up and was like, "No amps? Oh sweet, Axe FX for Bass and guitar and a POD for the other guitar. Hell yes!" He loved having complete control over the sound without having to fight with live amps being cranked. Now if we could convince the drummer to go to a nice Roland electronic kit, we'd be set!
 
Excellent! My cover band is all digital (bass included). This weekend the soundguy showed up and was like, "No amps? Oh sweet, Axe FX for Bass and guitar and a POD for the other guitar. Hell yes!" He loved having complete control over the sound without having to fight with live amps being cranked. Now if we could convince the drummer to go to a nice Roland electronic kit, we'd be set!

Haha awesome. My band plays small gigs so we manage our own sound usually. But awhile back we played a larger gig with a sound guy. He was surprised that all I needed was direct in.

But good luck with the drummer. What I've heard (I kind of play, but I wouldn't consider myself a drummer) is that it feels very different. Although the high-end Roland kits are really nice. Also, don't drummers laugh at electronic kits more than tube players laugh at amp simulators?

I do have a question for the amp-less band. What do you do with bass? I understand AxeFx can handle bass, and even the Tech21 BassDriver sounds pretty good to my ears, but don't you need a nice sub to make it happen?
 
Now if we could convince the drummer to go to a nice Roland electronic kit, we'd be set!

Be careful what you wish for;-) I know the Rolands are great for some things, but there are so many sounds that come out of a drum depending on where and how you hit them. It's really like asking the drummer to play a Variax more than an Axe Fx. While I respect the utility of a Variax, I just don't think I could use one except in a studio situation.

I do get the PITA that drum volume and micing brings though. Recording it's always, "why don't we just go read War and Peace while you guys get the drum sound down?"
 
If you don't mind me asking, what type of music are you playing with both guitarist using the Axe?

I think it would be cool to see the before and after vids with the Axe when it comes to the overall live sound produced.

Rock covers like stp, matchbox20, the killers, scorpions, Bon jovi, some classic rock stuff, some newr stuff.
 
Haha awesome. My band plays small gigs so we manage our own sound usually. But awhile back we played a larger gig with a sound guy. He was surprised that all I needed was direct in.

But good luck with the drummer. What I've heard (I kind of play, but I wouldn't consider myself a drummer) is that it feels very different. Although the high-end Roland kits are really nice. Also, don't drummers laugh at electronic kits more than tube players laugh at amp simulators?

I do have a question for the amp-less band. What do you do with bass? I understand AxeFx can handle bass, and even the Tech21 BassDriver sounds pretty good to my ears, but don't you need a nice sub to make it happen?

It depends on the gig. We both use the same method normally. Run one out of the axe to an atomic wedge pointed at our faces, the other to foh. When we can, we use in ear monitoring, so no wedges.

Last weekend the venue told us they had a full house pa, but when we showed up, they only had 2 monitors that shared a mix, so I asked for 2 aux sends direct from the board, ran those to the atomics, gave one to the drummer, one to bass player, put the house monitors up front. I pulled my wireless in ears out, put the unit on top of the foh rack and took a feed off an aux there. Those atomics keep turning out to be amazing purchases over and over.

How are you doing your monitoring, java?
 
It depends on the gig. We both use the same method normally. Run one out of the axe to an atomic wedge pointed at our faces, the other to foh. When we can, we use in ear monitoring, so no wedges.

Last weekend the venue told us they had a full house pa, but when we showed up, they only had 2 monitors that shared a mix, so I asked for 2 aux sends direct from the board, ran those to the atomics, gave one to the drummer, one to bass player, put the house monitors up front. I pulled my wireless in ears out, put the unit on top of the foh rack and took a feed off an aux there. Those atomics keep turning out to be amazing purchases over and over.

How are you doing your monitoring, java?

Floor monitors for now. I think we are eventually going to go with the presonus mixer w/ the ipad monitoring and go in ear.
 
Floor monitors for now. I think we are eventually going to go with the presonus mixer w/ the ipad monitoring and go in ear.

It's always a good idea to carry your own split snake as well. Plug all your stuff into your stage box so that your IEM mix is always what you want. Hand the house sound guy a snake tail labeled with your inputs. EWI makes a good inexpensive "poorman's split snake" about $350-$400 If I recall.

The reason we do this is because it will interface with any PA system anywhere. Super huge flown line array ... with an awesome $50,000 monitor desk? Yep but we don't need to use most of that board, thanks anyway. Small POS system with only one monitor send?.... No problem we'll just use your mains. etc etc.

Our sound check is half a song just to make sure that everything is actually plugged in. Monitor boards with digital recall are SO much better than analogue.
 
It's always a good idea to carry your own split snake as well. Plug all your stuff into your stage box so that your IEM mix is always what you want. Hand the house sound guy a snake tail labeled with your inputs. EWI makes a good inexpensive "poorman's split snake" about $350-$400 If I recall.

The reason we do this is because it will interface with any PA system anywhere. Super huge flown line array ... with an awesome $50,000 monitor desk? Yep but we don't need to use most of that board, thanks anyway. Small POS system with only one monitor send?.... No problem we'll just use your mains. etc etc.

Our sound check is half a song just to make sure that everything is actually plugged in. Monitor boards with digital recall are SO much better than analogue.

Exactly what I'm trying to build now. A monitor rack we can just set down, plug in and be done. Having a local guy build a rack panel/split snake so we can interface directly into any PA anywhere. We have to do the poor man's version though 'cuz i can't afford a monitor board. Rigging up a Jam Hub to handle the in-ears, which is how we practice anyway. $500, 5 stereo mixes? Yes please. No EQ, but we're all digital anyway. EQ that crap before it gets to the board!
 
It's always a good idea to carry your own split snake as well. Plug all your stuff into your stage box so that your IEM mix is always what you want. Hand the house sound guy a snake tail labeled with your inputs. EWI makes a good inexpensive "poorman's split snake" about $350-$400 If I recall.

The reason we do this is because it will interface with any PA system anywhere. Super huge flown line array ... with an awesome $50,000 monitor desk? Yep but we don't need to use most of that board, thanks anyway. Small POS system with only one monitor send?.... No problem we'll just use your mains. etc etc.

Our sound check is half a song just to make sure that everything is actually plugged in. Monitor boards with digital recall are SO much better than analogue.

Right, we want to do something like that. Thanks.
 
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