Hevy Devy Volume Leveling

Morphine said:
Devs preset isn't really set up to sit in a band mix at all. With the Cali cab (which isn't the IR he uses) the bottom end is completely overbearing. You'll need to apply a low cut in the cab block if you really want it to sit well with a bass player. There's no real way to keep all that low end unless you convince the bassist to give up that frequency range... good luck! lol.

From my tinkering with his preset, I found 80hz-100hz to be the sweet spot in still keeping the low end punchy without creating a wall of flub when you bring a bass into the mix. You will likely find your sweet spot is different depending on your guitar/pickups etc.

Devin also runs his FX in parallel so he can control the level of the FX without it stepping all over the dry sound. His FM3/AxeFx3 preset has them in series. So the moment you engage the reverb you start bringing in a lot of excess bottom end that's harder to control without changing the character of the Herbert "crunch" too much.

I'd recommend trying a side chain and put all the FX after the amp there and either control the levels of it with a volume block at the end of the chain before returning to the output, or just running it to a separate output and controlling it at the mixing board. Should give you a little more flexibility with taming the fx making the low end blossom outta control without having your main crunch from the Herbert drastically tweaked.

Establishing what balance works best is something you and your bassist should do at rehearsal. You may find you both need to make tweaks that may not sound terribly appealing on their own individually but together work very well. Basically, let the bassist hold down the low end. Don't be afraid to give up some of that boomy bottom end that sounds good isolated by itself in exchange for a better all around mix as a band.
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I have a Low cut of 101 Hz in the cab block already. im starting to think it was just the new speakers we used for our PA. When Ive used this preset live my only issues have been level volume across scenes. But now that you mention this preset isnt set to sit in a band mix at all makes me wonder because sometimes the Herbert scene that I dont have boosted is a bit harder to hear through my in ears and I wonder if thats because of all the low end. But Im pretty sure it sounds fine FOH. I could maybe try a new cab but I know that will drastically change the sound which I dont want because I really dig the sound

Edit: Just noticed the different settings in the Cab preamp block. Should I lower the bass there and apply low cut there as well?
 
Jipps0525 said:
I have a Low cut of 101 Hz in the cab block already. im starting to think it was just the new speakers we used for our PA. When Ive used this preset live my only issues have been level volume across scenes. But now that you mention this preset isnt set to sit in a band mix at all makes me wonder because sometimes the Herbert scene that I dont have boosted is a bit harder to hear through my in ears and I wonder if thats because of all the low end. But Im pretty sure it sounds fine FOH. I could maybe try a new cab but I know that will drastically change the sound which I dont want because I really dig the sound

Edit: Just noticed the different settings in the Cab preamp block. Should I lower the bass there and apply low cut there as well?
Click to expand...

It's certainly possible your new PA speakers aren't exactly flat so they're coloring the tone. You could start with simply rolling back the bass on the amp itself. You could do cuts in the cab block. You could do low cuts in the output EQ section of the amp block. You could throw an EQ block at the end of the chain that cuts out some of the low end. There's a lot of ways to try and arrive at taking out the woof without altering the tone to a point where you don't like it. Ultimately I think it's best to do this at rehearsal with the bassist through the PA. It's a bit of guesswork going home and trying to find the sweet spot.

I've left the cab preamp section alone and done my tweaks on the main controls for the cab block. Mind you I am just playing along with backing tracks and not a live band.

As the preset is by default it sounds really good on it's own. When you start using it with a band tho a lot of the highs get washed out in the cymbals and the lows get muddy with the bass. Off the top of my head, I think just for jamming along with backing tracks I have the low cut around 90 and the high cut around 7500 or so. By itself, first reaction is "Ive lost fidelity!!???" but when you start playing along with a track I find the guitar sits better without all the hiss on the top end and boom in the bottom. It's much less harsh and, to my ears, sits in the middle a bit better. You may need to play around a bit with those numbers based on your guitar/pickups tho.
 
I tried your preset last night with the band. Can I ask what kinds ofmusic you are playing before I
comment on my experience with it? :)
 
la noise said:
I tried your preset last night with the band. Can I ask what kinds ofmusic you are playing before I
comment on my experience with it? :)
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I play in an agency cover band so everything from top 40, dance, pop, pop punk, rock, classic rock, some funk, classics. Little bit of everything
 
Cool! I made some tweaks on the preset. That Herbert is THICK! I can see why going
from a Fender on the cleans/breakup to the Diezel for solos could be a challenge.

Are you using the Wah on the preset with an EXP pedal?

Just trying to get a feel for what you are working to accomplish. I eliminated some
blocks and the funky routing Devin had on that preset and it sounds much to my ears.
But that's me.

When using it last night I couldn't get past some kind of half-cocked wah sound on all
the presets. Do you notice any of that when playing?
 
la noise said:
Cool! I made some tweaks on the preset. That Herbert is THICK! I can see why going
from a Fender on the cleans/breakup to the Diezel for solos could be a challenge.

Are you using the Wah on the preset with an EXP pedal?

Just trying to get a feel for what you are working to accomplish. I eliminated some
blocks and the funky routing Devin had on that preset and it sounds much to my ears.
But that's me.

When using it last night I couldn't get past some kind of half-cocked wah sound on all
the presets. Do you notice any of that when playing?
Click to expand...
Can you post your preset with the tweaks? To be fair though I don’t normally jump from the fender scenes to the herbert. I only use the Herbert for a few heavier songs. For the other scenes I have amp boost, saturation switch, drive block and filter block for volume to go into a solo. I do use the Wah but i have it set to auto engage So I don’t get that half cocked Wah sound. Could be any changes I made to suit my guitar perhaps. The Herbert is THICKK man but it sounds so good and when played loud actually cleans up alright.

Was it leveled or even close? I found a good leveling video last night that I’m gonna try to use the strategies from it
 
The leveling does sound closer than originally. I made a couple of tweaks to the
Amps in your scenes. Is that Pan/Trem always on? It is when I am running through
the different Scenes---even the Epic and Solo ones. To my ears it adds in some
additional clipping/distortion.

Also, that Vol/Pan block. Are you using that?
 
la noise said:
The leveling does sound closer than originally. I made a couple of tweaks to the
Amps in your scenes. Is that Pan/Trem always on? It is when I am running through
the different Scenes---even the Epic and Solo ones. To my ears it adds in some
additional clipping/distortion.

Also, that Vol/Pan block. Are you using that?
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Yeah I keep the pan trem and vol/pan block on just because it sounds different than most presets. Didn’t give me clipping though. I had to significantly lower the reverb and delay mixes though
 
You may not like what I did then. ;)

I changed the routing and put the Wah in line where the Vol/Pan block was.
May not be what you are looking for, but sounds fuller and warmer to my ears
with this new routing and some other tweaks in Amp Blocks.

I set Wah to bypass on the saved preset so you'll have to engage it manually to
turn it on.
 

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Thanks I’ll check it out!!! And thanks for all your time I’m sure I’ll have more questions. For the record even if I don’t like it it may be because I genuinely like the stock preset minus a few changes. It’s just getting unity volume and taming some of that Herbert low end
 
la noise said:
You may not like what I did then. ;)

I changed the routing and put the Wah in line where the Vol/Pan block was.
May not be what you are looking for, but sounds fuller and warmer to my ears
with this new routing and some other tweaks in Amp Blocks.

I set Wah to bypass on the saved preset so you'll have to engage it manually to
turn it on.
Click to expand...
when I import your preset nothing populates in FM3 edit?
 
If you have the Abuddy live pack (not sure if you need it) but I made a change and copied the amp/cab settings from his herbert preset and I think it sounds better/ This one would probably sit in a mix better and not be as in your face with that low end.
 

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