FOH tone not good.

kingston

Member
My rig is a xl+ stereo out into two Xitone Mbrit speakers. I love what I hear, this is just a fantastic set up.

From the Xl+ I go direct, output 1, to FOH.

In my band we do the sound guy job ourself at most gigs. Then we bring our own PA system.
PA mixer is a Soundcraft Ui24r and speakers are Bose F812/F1. Overall a really great system.
The mixer lets me do a multitrack recording, and do playback of the recordrings. So I can hear exactly what the audience have heard.

Unfortunately, the guitar tone I get through the PA is not as good as from my rig. I guess that could be expected, but the PA guitar is actually quit bad. Boxy, a bit harsh and not the depth in the tone that I want.

I have been meesing around with eq, but haven’t found a good way yet.

Any tips or trick?
 
Unless you're listening back through the PA, you're not hearing exactly what the audience hears. Recording from the board does give you a good idea, but it is still different than what is coming out the mains at volume.
 
Keep in mind the Xitone speaker may impart a bit of its own flavor (eq) so you might contact them and ask what EQ settings would replicate the response of the speaker you’re liking then set your mixer EQ there to get that up front. Of course, the PA speakers and room have their own EQ needs, but you shouldn’t be hearing that on your recording if it’s pulled from the mixer. If that isn’t enough on variables, give thought to whatever you’re listening to your recording on. Are you playing it back through your PA mixer to get your live EQs, etc?

The important thing is that you’re getting great sound onstage, so you know it’s there. Translating that to the PA is your challenge!
 
Better to do a mic'd recording in the audience position at the venue if you really want to get a better bearing on tone and balance of the band's sound through your PA. Use good quality matched mics that capture the full audio spectrum, and in a safe - but representative location - in the audience. IMHO, you'll learn a lot more about sound reinforcement "live tone" this way than by only examining board mixes. Even better is to somehow, some way, do as much live venue FOH mixing as you can. This will help your perspecitve when you're doing stage mixes.
 
I've found most presets aren't going to always exactly translate well when used across different applications. I have multiple copies of same preset with tags example:
Rock-studio/rec
Rock-home
Rock-loud live
What I would do is experiment with routing options in the AxeFx and maybe feed your monitors thru out2 via FXL and send the other chain direct but with a PEQ or GEQ as the very last block so u can EQ your DI without affecting your tone from the monitors as you're already happy with that end. This is what I've been experimenting with and am getting quite happy lol
 
Unless you're listening back through the PA, you're not hearing exactly what the audience hears. Recording from the board does give you a good idea, but it is still different than what is coming out the mains at volume.
That recording will be affected by what you're playing it back on, and depending on levels also the Fletcher Munson effect could be at play.
 
Unless you're listening back through the PA, you're not hearing exactly what the audience hears. Recording from the board does give you a good idea, but it is still different than what is coming out the mains at volume.
I do play back through the PA
 
I've found most presets aren't going to always exactly translate well when used across different applications. I have multiple copies of same preset with tags example:
Rock-studio/rec
Rock-home
Rock-loud live
What I would do is experiment with routing options in the AxeFx and maybe feed your monitors thru out2 via FXL and send the other chain direct but with a PEQ or GEQ as the very last block so u can EQ your DI without affecting your tone from the monitors as you're already happy with that end. This is what I've been experimenting with and am getting quite happy lol

This I need to try out. Thanks a lot.
 
I do play back through the PA
I almost forgot, playback without the live stage sound (the sound coming from amps and drums) isn’t what the crowd hears. Nothing you can do about that, really, just adding it as a consideration while trouble shooting.
 
View attachment 45157

EQ... Either at the mixing console or the Global EQ.
Here's my MO for approaching EQ
Tubby should just barely be there, boxy should be there just enough to help compliment tubby and cover up muddy while honky tames boxy but he's got barky there just enough to remind us he's there while edgy sits on his shoulders to make sure we're cutting through while sibilant remains quiet.
 
You need to flatten the PA. Use a good 31 band graphic or a sound processor like DriveRack PA (not the best but functional) and flatten the FOH PA. The Bose PA is not flat and thats what you're hearing. There is no other workaround save changing the PA and that is true for all your audio sources, not just guitar.
The only other resource you have, if you cannot flatten the PA, it to apply a Global EQ to the output you are sending to the PA and compensate for the PA's faults. Like Matt suggested. A better overall approach is to flatten the PA.
BTW, Meyersound is also not quite flat, even if it is far better than Bose (and way more expensive). But they correctly recommend using their PA with their processors that allow EQ correction, for each speaker, to flatten the PA.

Edit: I just looked up your mixer. There's an RTA and 31 band EQs to do the job.
 
Back
Top Bottom