Cut through the mix: something I do not understand

stink said:
Here's a perfect example of "sounds like crap on its own." This is Vivian Campbell's isolated guitar tracks from Holy Diver, rainbow in the dark. Solo is at the 2:00 mark. Sync it up with the original in your DAW. Sounds terrible solo but fits in the mix.

I realized some of the great guitar tones I've chased over the years are nothing what I though they were.
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after hearing this, it sounds as if there is a slight pan/chorus effect, it is obviously a high quality guitar sound! If it is a direct sound with nothing in the mix it is very pleasant yet aggressive and distorted. I f I could get that sound in my IEM be smiling all night? IF IEM is like putting your ear against a speaker pa speaker of a micd cab so be it, i wouldn't think that's anything anyone does in reality, no one goes up to a main and presses there ear against it, the ambience created is really a huge part for me. I cant get along with these IEM, sounds to sterile and hifi, perhaps it would be more enjoyable once its a mix of the band. The guitar with axe itself is not inspiring to me.
 
Surprised no one has mentioned stereo width yet, especially with the IEM comments. When you're running IEMs in a band context there's so many things competing for the center of your mix (click, vox, bass, kick, snare, talkbacks, etc), that adding your dry+wet guitar signal to the center can make the experience less than optimal since you're competing for space in the center as well as space in the frequency spectrum. Running two amps hard panned can really help with this. Standard stereo with 2 amps places your wet and dry roughly where other stereo instruments like overheads, synths, tracks, audience mics, etc are, but adding the Enhancer block (similar to a stereo widener or imager in a DAW) really pushes them out even further, making a ton of space in the middle for the mono instruments and whatever other stereo sources you have. It even works with one amp though it's not as wide sounding since the dry is the same on both sides, with one side delayed a few ms. Either way, you can more easily hear yourself with less volume than with a typical mono dry. Highly recommended for anyone playing with headphones at home or IEMs live.
 
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I use a Fryette PS-2 and the 2 suggestions posted in Cooper Carters video made a really noticeable difference, I use a Cab of course so the mention of cuts in pre amp of the cab block do not apply, However the other 2 , I think mainly the input EQ s gain up 3dbs gave great results, In a band with 2nd guitar using a matchless and 2x12 so it was obvious I was cutting thru with more clarity and punch, I would have never even began to know this. I made the adjustment with the para EQ as well so thats probably part of it too. Really cool, Thank You CC!!
 
Kingfloyd said:
I read that to avoid being lost in the mix, one should reduce gain and be very cautious with effects, namely reverb and delays. I went this way and must say it helped a lot. But I miss what delays and reverb bring into the texture. Then I see that Leon, Burgs, Fremen‘s live patches are excellent and really really wet. How do they avoid being lost in the mix with these wet patches?
i play a real Marshall cab with a power amp (mono) in a trio band (guitar, bass and drums).
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I tried to mirror the settings on one of the mentioned YouTube axe gurus and the mix on the delay was set on 100% , I can only imagine that much being used for a video with obviously something keeping very pleasant and impressive sounding, as far as reality goes mixing a delay at 100% with any amount.of distortion sounds like so.eone trying to talk with an extra large Supreme Pizza crammed in there mouth at once! And yes that means every slice!
 
JPE said:
Cooper, Thanks for your three tips. My question: is there a difference of using the Low cut and High cut in the Cab section of the Cab block or using the low cut and high cut filters in the preamp section of the cab block?
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One affects ALL the IRs and the other is per IR...
 
316ms said:
I tried to mirror the settings on one of the mentioned YouTube axe gurus and the mix on the delay was set on 100% , I can only imagine that much being used for a video with obviously something keeping very pleasant and impressive sounding, as far as reality goes mixing a delay at 100% with any amount.of distortion sounds like so.eone trying to talk with an extra large Supreme Pizza crammed in there mouth at once! And yes that means every slice!
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Most likely they were running the delay in parallel where you set the mix to 100% for a "kill dry" setting and then use the level control for the delay mix.

This avoids volume increases from parallel routing as the dry signal is going through route A and then route B only outputs the effected delay signal which is then mixed back to route A based on how you set the delay block level control.

I kinda wish Fractal made it a bit more intuitive by just giving a "kill dry" switch for this where Mix becomes a level control but otherwise keeps familiar operation.
 
Bruce Sokolovic said:
I’d just like to add cutting thru a mix is the Soundguy’s job, not really yours. There are a lot of folks running around with a PA and very few soundguys in my experience locally. It’s their job to create a band mix where everything is presented well. It’s your job to craft a tone you’re happy with. If he needs more or less of something from you, he or she should know it and ask.
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- sure. But he can't remove your Reverb or Delay, or EQ your trails etc.
 
I find using a PEQ block at the end of the chain works better for me. It's easy to tweak on the fly and cuts the overall lows and highs. My go to settings, cut around 75hz and above 6 to 8k. Since I split my signal to out 1 and out 2, I do the same setup with separate settings for my FRFR cabs on stage.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Typically the specs show the SPL at a given voltage, but how that translates to the output of your preset is a different issue.

Borrow the hairdryer, turn it on, then listen to the preset and adjust the Out knob until it sounds the same?

And, yes, you don't want to be in a room at 132 dB. 110 dB is stupid loud, 106 dB is so loud I can't discern speech, the band sounds like mud and I'll leave.
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Over 90 Things are getting a bit rough for sure, not so funny anymore. Over 100/106 is just "too much", but the advantage is when starting your car after a gig or concert at such levels it just feels/sounds like the engine is new.
 
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