FM9, Headphones, Live Playing and Stereo Imaging

C

Countryclarke

Member
Greetings all!

I have used the same pair of Beyerdynamics DT770 ProX headphones for all my media consumption, mixing/recording songs, listening to music, movies, games, everything. I have gotten very comfortable using them as my primary listening source.

This last week I have been house sitting for a producer friend of mine in LA. He has a very nice home studio with proper speakers, treatment etc.
So I thought it would be a good time to dissect my tone through monitors.

I was SHOCKED that the tone I carefully crafted with headphones sounded so weird, and not 'guitar like'. It sounded hollow, distant, artifact-y, just overall fake. The feel was immaculate, but that's just because FAS make the best feeling digital solution for guitar modeling available.

I got bummed out, all that time I spent dialing in the perfect guitar sound and image with headphones wasn't translating through real speakers in a room? Why?

So the next day I sat down and really dissected what could be causing this.

The solution - I had WAYYYYY too much stereo imaging and processing going on that sounded great with headphones....but that's it.

  • The room parameter in the cab block - turned from 30% to OFF.
  • I had a room IR blended with my regular IR - replaced the room IR with a custom blended IR I made from cab lab with smoothing. (Thinking back on this - I had double room + a room reverb, so 3 room sounds going on...what a boof I am lol)
  • The enhancer block - completely removed from my chain.
  • My subtle room reverb was SOOOO quiet through monitors compared to headphones - so increasing reverb mix by 10%
  • Changed the amp compression in the 'dynamics' tab from 'feedback' to 'output', turned off 'comp clarity' and increased the compression amount from 1% to 2% (This obviously isn't stereo imaging but is a crucial parameter for me and that change really helped the overall feel)

These changes made my guitar sound like an actual guitar! Not overly processed, not trying to sound double tracked or anything like that.

I feel like I'm (very) slowly figuring out what works and what doesn't (for me) in the digital realm and it is so much fun and rewarding!

When I first switched to a 100% digital rig, I used the Iridium. I still think that thing is the best modeler only behind the FAS stuff (and its a massive leap from something like the Iridium to Fractal).
I thought the best sound for a long time was stereo cabs, two different cabs for L and R. It sounded so wide and awesome, BUT after a while I noticed that I was missing an image in the middle of the stereo field. It sounded wide but empty, if that makes sense.
That revelation with stereo imaging was magnified 100x with what I just described with the FM9.

It's hard to make your rig sound great on every piece of equipment that it might get listened to with. But the biggest revelation for me, and something @Cooper Carter said from the very beginning of his master class - Simplicity is really the foundation of great tone.
 
What type of enchancer were you using?

If it was classic, that could've been the main culprit for your hollow tone. Classic enchancer really kills mono compatibility and pushes phase cancellation. Add reverb to that foundation tone and it will sound like you're listening to guitar far away in a deep cave.

The Petrucci patch made by Carter has my favorite stereo imaging thus far due to it being mono compatible. The Modern setting on the enchancer is good for mono compatibility but the wideness is lacking in my personal opinion.


But hands down, creating a mono tone is always the safest when playing outside of headphones and in environment with more than one speaker in the space.
 
Scotty2992 said:
What type of enchancer were you using?

If it was classic, that could've been the main culprit for your hollow tone. Classic enchancer really kills mono compatibility and pushes phase cancellation. Add reverb to that foundation tone and it will sound like you're listening to guitar far away in a deep cave.

The Petrucci patch made by Carter has my favorite stereo imaging thus far due to it being mono compatible. The Modern setting on the enchancer is good for mono compatibility but the wideness is lacking in my personal opinion.


But hands down, creating a mono tone is always the safest when playing outside of headphones and in environment with more than one speaker in the space.
Click to expand...
I was using Stereoizer. It’s pretty much anything that separates my main tone into L/R. Such as two amps or cabs hard panned. There’s something there that just feels empty to me. Again, this revelation was only made using monitors in a room, which I feel is a more accurate representation of how your tone will sound in a live environment. Rather than making the tone sound good in my IEMs or headphones.
 
A few more things I've done to get a better tone in the last few days:

I have ALWAYS used a compressor first in chain since literally building my first pedalboard when I was 14-15. For some reason I took it off and realized it was robbing me of certain frequencies that I enjoyed, particularly in the low end. Taking this off gave me back a sort of "bounce" I was missing.

I have also ALWAYS used a Klon(e) last in the chain, before wet effects, and I ended up taking that off as well. I like the midrange thickness that it gave me but I was missing that same low end "bounce" with it on.

I also watched the latest G66 video with Clay Cook and downloaded his free preset. I really liked the clarity he got and decided to use his IR choices (Deluxe Reverb 51 and 121) and it really opened up my tone in the same way. Suddenly, the Supremo Mix IR I have been using sounded filtered like a radio.

All in all, I have made some HUGE changes from what I assumed sounded good based on my whole guitar playing career.
With Fractal, I am able to (painfully at times) scrutinize my tone like never before. It makes me think I have been 'over processing' my tone for years now.
Also having access to a Dumble ODS might have helped upgrade my tone from my mid grade Mesa Express 5:50!

Its been fun to kind of journal my tone journey here, I hope its not too much haha.
 
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