FOH Soundman tone input...opinions needed

If he's LPF'ing your signal at 2 k Hz, something is drastically wrong. See if you can get together with him and your Axe with some quality monitors and discuss your tone, preferably with Axe Edit open.
 
Last edited:
I just listened to your two clips. The entire FOH mix sounds harsh with a very abrasive high end. The highs in your IEM gutar signal sound fine, while the overall mix is even a bit dull.

Without knowing more about the setup, it is difficult to know what to recommend.
 
Last edited:
steadystate said:
Without knowing more about the setup, it is difficult to know what to recommend.
Click to expand...
Exactly. So much depends on unknowns, not the least of which is the room. I regularly mix in a room that carries 100-500 Hz so sell, that I have to strip a lot of that out. The FOH mix sounds strident by itself, but in that room, it works well, and counterbalances the bass bleed from the stage.
 
I love the Brit 45 model but it can get a bit wooly with humbuckers. Cut the bass "pre" then put it back "post". It can also be a bit harsh sounding. I like to cut 2k a bit with the amp block's post EQ to smooth it out.

But that doesn't sound like the issue to me. Listening to your clips I'd say the FOH mix is overall pretty bright and thin sounding and your guitar is a bit muffled. I had a similar issue 2 summers ago. I ended up cutting 2k and a bit of 4k on my global EQ and my soundman was a lot happier. Just have a discussion with him about it, i'm sure as two professionals you'll be able to work things thru and both be happy. Once he see's and understands the power and flexibility of the AxeFx I'm pretty sure he'll end up loving it.
 
When I was designing my patches, we were also in the middle of recording a demo, so I mainly tweaked them with a studio mix in mind. I've asked a lot of respected sound engineers in my area about what they have to do to my tone for the overall mix, and now it's to the point where they don't have to touch it. When I started rehearsing with a new band, I noticed that the other guitar players tones were quite harsh to my ears, and mine sounded dark in comparison. He's switching from an Amplifire to an AX8 so hopefully we can get the "icepick" out of his tones.
 
The Whale said:
My band is beginning our regional summer calendar with a new FOH guy. He's a much older gent than our previous guy...has tons of touring experience and a great ear. We hired him based on a recent festival we played and the conversations afterward. Great dude all around.

That being said, he's been hyper critical of Axe rig and my tone. I'm running a Les Paul or a PRS Cu22 with low wind PAFs into a Brit45 with stock Ownhammer H30 55 full cab IR. The Brit 45 is jumpered with the knobs from left to right as follows: vol 1: 6, vol 2: 4, bass off, mids: 7.5, treble: 5, presence: 5. Everything else is default with the bright switch on. Drive pedals are an AC Booster with Drive at 2 and volume at 5 and a Fuzz Face with drive at 5 and Volume maxed. All other settings on the drives are default.

Our FOH was telling today that he finds the tone to be thin and overly bright. He starts my channel flat and then starts low pass filtering at about 2k! I was shocked! Is this normal? I listen to the board mixes and they sound solid. The stereo mics at the board sound great too. But, I know if I were to put a similar filter on my preset, it would sound remarkably neutered and muffled. In my in ears (separate mix and EQ) the channel is flat and it sounds killer.

Gigging guys or tour pros, can you lend some insight here. I'm not sure how to learn from this feedback.
Click to expand...
I've been on a quest to build tones where the FOH has no EQ changes. I finally succeeded on my last show. The show prior FOH added treble.

I can share my cab cutoffs when I'm back at my rig. Could have been 185 on the low end and 4500 on top. I'll confirm shortly.
 
fractalz said:
I've been on a quest to build tones where the FOH has no EQ changes. I finally succeeded on my last show. The show prior FOH added treble.

I can share my cab cutoffs when I'm back at my rig. Could have been 185 on the low end and 4500 on top. I'll confirm shortly.
Click to expand...

Ok, I was using a Matchbox D30 with a custom mixed cab using the Celestion Blue + G12M.

Low cut : 85Hz
High cut : 6500Hz

Amp fat, cut, bright off.
Treb around 3.

Played an Ibanez RGA121 with stock pickups.

I find that studio monitors or something like a QSC K-12 are a good testbed for FOH.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom