Continued frustration with live sound vs. home sound

Stringtheorist

Stringtheorist

Fractal Fanatic
How many of you have one set of presets for live use and another for home practice/recording?

I know this subject has been beaten to death but it's a source of immense frustration for me that using my live presets for practice is no fun because they sound like ass at low volume. I'm not even sure they sound that good at gig levels... It's just that I have to remove a lot of high end in order to keep my tone from sounding harsh and piercing.

At home levels, I usually find that by hitting Bypass twice to return to default settings I get a much better tonal balance for playing in that environment. However, by the time I've edited the preset in the live room for the volume we play at, it has become muddy and unresponsive at any volume setting.

Is there any solution to this other than to have duplicate presets dialled in differently? Does an FRFR setup make any difference? (I'm running into an Atomic 50/50 and pair of 2x12 cabs loaded with V30s/CL80s.)

After 5 years of playing with the Axe-FX I'm coming to believe I just don't have what it takes to dial in a consistently good sound. :( I need to go to the next Axe-Fest in the UK and hear what other folks are getting out of theirs.
 
Stringtheorist said:
I need to go to the next Axe-Fest in the UK and hear what other folks are getting out of theirs.
Click to expand...

ˆˆ This!


FWIW, I use just one set of presets for home and live. FR or poweramp/speakercabinet. No issues.
 
yek said:
ˆˆ This!


FWIW, I use just one set of presets for home and live. FR or poweramp/speakercabinet. No issues.
Click to expand...

Yek... How loud does your band play? How much tweaking do you do to your presets from the default settings? Do you modify the graphic EQ curve in the amp block at all?
 
Just chiming in here.... Try watching Scott's preset building video on utube. He uses an spl meter and takes it up to 112db. My presets are around 105db b4 my boost. Personally each fw I've needed less and less of the adv settings. In the past I use to always change a bunch of adv setting stuff. Now ill just hit the key ones for me. I also have been using the eq within the amp blk. U can ask this question 100 times and get over 75 diff answers. Its pretty much what works for you. I think a good rule though is to obviously tweak at gig vol for the simple fact that its the vol you'll be playin at. Also don't forget even at gigging vol u may need to make an adj or to once you hear your presets in the mix with your band.

Just my cheap 2 cents.... Lol
 
Record your band minus you, develop your presets at your leisure at home. When you think you have them dialed in, play a long at gig volume and make final tweaks.

At a gig you have to fit into a small part of the EQ spectrum to be heard, alone without backing tracks that tone tends to be shrill.
 
I play in 3 different rock bands. All very loud drummers.
Using FR (CLR) or Matrix with 1x12 or 2x12.

When using FR to fill the room (not as a monitor) it's very important to shave off highs and lows. I often high-pass at 150-200 Hz and low-pass at somewhere between 5kHz and 6.5kHz.
Using the Cab block (global) for that. Global EQ / global PEQ can be used instead.

My Amp blocks settings are nothing special. Close to the real equivalent's settings. I don't use its EQ.

Amp settings work with both FR and Matrix/12" speakers. When using the real cab I make sure the sound doesn't pass at knee height.

Tried my latest presets?
 
Last edited:
My solution to this problem was:
Dial in one patch at gig volume. Make sure the global EQ is flattened.
Then listen to that patch at home volume and make adjustments to the global EQ. Write down the global EQ settings on a piece of paper.

Then dial in your other patches at home volume, with that global EQ setting.
This way, you can dial in your patches at home, but make them sound good at gig volume instantly by just hitting the bypass button to make the global EQ flat.

You can also do it the other way round (making the global EQ flat at home and adjusting it at gig volume), but it requires more time on sound check.
 
I just play my gig patches at lower volume for woodshedding and don't worry too much about how great or not great the tone is at soft volumes.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
My solution to this problem was:
Dial in one patch at gig volume. Make sure the global EQ is flattened.
Then listen to that patch at home volume and make adjustments to the global EQ. Write down the global EQ settings on a piece of paper.

Then dial in your other patches at home volume, with that global EQ setting.
This way, you can dial in your patches at home, but make them sound good at gig volume instantly by just hitting the bypass button to make the global EQ flat.

You can also do it the other way round (making the global EQ flat at home and adjusting it at gig volume), but it requires more time on sound check.
Click to expand...
I do the opposite of this. My patches are created at home/recording volume, with flat global EQ. I have two sets of global EQ settings on a piece of paper, corresponding to rehearsal and gig volume, which I use as the basis of a gig set-up, and then adjust to suit the room. Inevitably the patch has been modified over the years so that it works when EQ'd to gig level.
 
Roland said:
I do the opposite of this. My patches are created at home/recording volume, with flat global EQ. I have two sets of global EQ settings on a piece of paper, corresponding to rehearsal and gig volume, which I use as the basis of a gig set-up, and then adjust to suit the room. Inevitably the patch has been modified over the years so that it works when EQ'd to gig level.
Click to expand...
It works in both directions, obviously, but I found the solution going with a flat EQ on gig volume a little bit more comfortable. The reason for that is that I usually try to avoid tweaking my sound before a gig. It makes you unneccessarily nervous. Well, at least it does that for me.
This way, I just plug everything in, ballpark my GEQ by resetting it and I'm good to go. Sure it's not 100%. But I'm totally fine with that, as it helps me calm down not having to worry about it and being able to trust on the sound guy for the last fine-tuning.
 
as long as i can tweak at a reasonably loud level i use the same patches for both with no issues. fletcher munson is obviously the biggest issue when using patches at gig level that you've tweaked at low volumes, i don't care what you are playing through. it's just the way sound works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom