Honeymoon is over: band feedback

I just used axe2-QSC HPR12i direct into the PA for the first time at a show last night and it was killer ! loved it. Some suggestions, start with maybe the most basic presets, one clean, one dirty, forget the effects for now, tweak them through neutral studio monitors. Pick the amp model and cab you like best, mess with damping, bias and some of the advanced parameters to get the feel/warmth where you want. Be carfull of overhyping the bass. Take it to your rehearsal and just use the hi and low cut in the cab sim to help with either too much or too little bass or highs when you run it through you PA. The hi cut works wonders. It was not really all that hard for me to get a killer tone with just the BE model and the citrus cab with some hi/low cut adjustments. Anyone want to buy some amps LOL
 
Get the other guys to record themselves without you and play to it to find your place in the mix.

As a general rule, I find my alone tones to be too distorted and too dark for band purposes. Generally speaking if I drop "2" in the gain and bass from my ideal alone sound, I'm good within the mix.
 
Scott Peterson said:
Try this as your last block (regardless of your output device) to use as a 'check' on something before you buy anything else; before you sell anything.

Drop a PEQ block as your LAST block. After reverb, after delay, after everything else. Set band 1 and band 5 to "blocking". Turn Band 1 to 100Hz and Band 5 to 6500kHz. Try that with your band. This works because it will allow you to turn up without getting muddy or shrilly. Don't get cerebral about the settings or feeling like you are 'missing' anything frequency-wise. Try it and then adjust your EQ in the amp block on the fly.

Post your findings after that (just one more try, tell your bassist and drummer to listen before they talk to each other again... lol).
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You were so right with the peq!!!!!!
 
FWIW: Switching to an Ev112 has exposed (to me) quite a bit of what I think the B and D are hearing. I've been madly updating my presets for a daytime gig today so I'll see whether they are still making 'mr yuk' faces at me later today.

I've done some minor twiddling with global EQ as well to try and 'find a space' in the mix.
 
I'm surprised you haven't mentioned anything about 2.00... Before 2.00 I was thinking of buying a differed cab, different power amp... Now... None of that even crosses my mind...
 
Tweaking at full/band-volume is CRUCIAL!!!

maxdown said:
There's only one way to tune an amp of any sort - at volume!

If the rest of the band aren't willing to get together and give you a chance to tune it as a group you could maybe just play a recording through the PA on your own and play along with it at a decent volume.

Once you get it near then it's only a quick and easy tweak in the Global EQ to be capable of getting you right for the room when rehearsing/gigging.

Even if you get just the 3 or 4 basic amp sounds using clean, crunchy clean, crunch and lead set nicely just using a simple amp block and your amp/speaker cab in your preset chain at stage volume you can store these for reference and use them to compare the bass, mid and treble/presence when making patches at low volume at home. OK - your patches might sound a bit too dull to you - but when you get to stage volume they should be close enough to be able to fix quickly.

On my JMP-1 I used to have a few presets that I used at home set up for headphones or small monitors because the ones tuned for the power amp and speakers were too dull sounding.

There's a bit of a learning curve when moving from a traditional amp setup to a preamp/processor setup - but concentrate on getting used to editing the presets' basic drive, level and tone settings via the front panel and you soon can get the sounds right without holding people up during rehearsals.
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+1!

In the band I'm in, my bass-player uses an Axe-FX Ultra with a solid-state PA-type power-amp driving two (2) 15" co-ax (essentially) FRFR speakers, and when he first brought this rig to rehearsal (after doing some lower-volume tweaking at his home AND knowing/admitting that he expected it to sound different in the rehearsal-space with the band at full-volume) he still couldn't believe how massively different the rig sounded and felt to him! (...and BTW, he's a very experienced AND talented dude with really good ears, so I'm NOT talking about a NOOB here - LOL!) For several weeks, the rest of us in the band indulged our bass-player in taking the time to tweak his Ultra (sometimes for several minutes at a time) because we knew/trusted that given the time, he would get it sounding GREAT (and he has!) and in the end THE WHOLE BAND BENEFITTED by him having an excellent/tweaked-out bass-sound! Anyways, the point of the story is that maxdown "hit-the-nail-on-the-head," that is you MUST tweak/program AT FULL VOLUME! Simple as that...

I should add that many other fine points have been made by others in this thread also IE: try "spikier/upper-mid heavy" EQ-settings; try less pre-gain and more master; enable treble-boosters or try higher treble-booster settings; try various/different IR's (I haven't experimented much with an FRFR-setup with amp or cab modeling, but I've been told it can make a big difference!) You can even try different mic-positions within your cab-model settings, etc.

If all else fails, tell your rhythm-section to S.T.F.U!!! - LOL!

Best of luck.

Bill
 
ethrbunny said:
So it finally came out tonight: band does not like the AFXII.
...
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That's normal ;)

But IMHO does the band not dislike the AXFII but your current presets.

I like some of the presets but create all my sounds from scratch - and when I compare my presets with the stock ones I thing they are this great ...

... but everybody else may think - they are not this great - why?

So much depends on your Guitar, Speaker and the room where you play ...

Best advice is to start with one patch only (just amp-cab)
Select an amp model close to the real amp you use in the band before getting the AFXII.
Then leave all the many amp parameters where they are - especially the EQ and even more the advanced parameters.
Check out the Cab models - until you find one you like.
Now check out the mic models - until you find one you like.
Tweak the amp (Drive, bass, middle, treble) as you would do on a real amp.

If possible tweak all this in the same room where you'll practice with the band.
Don't try to make the AxeFx to sound very nice when only you are playing - the sounds must fit to the band - so tweak while playing back some recording of the band (without your guitar part) - if you like the sound - try it together with the full band.
 
I go see hippietim gig with his Axe FX often. I often felt he was somewhat buried. But i figured it just could be at the board. But then he got a particular guitar where the high frequencies cut through REALLY well.... it was a very noticeable improvement.
 
yek said:
2007: Gore gets Nobel price
2008 : Obama first African Amercian president
2009: Brasil will host Olympics in 2016
2010: earthquake in Haiti
2011: Mortega happy with his Axe-Fx tone.
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hahahahahaha that was freakin' funny yek... this of course with the comparison at the jam room with the Triple Rectifier... the "big test" for me is going to be this weekend at my buddy Matt's house (along with the first gig with 2.00)... Dojo is hopefully going to show up as well, so we'll see how it goes!
 
Gonna try the 2.0 tonight. Not sure if family would appreciate triple-rectifier at 4:30am.. would be worth it to see teens staggering out of bed though..
 
mortega76 said:
hahahahahaha that was freakin' funny yek... this of course with the comparison at the jam room with the Triple Rectifier... the "big test" for me is going to be this weekend at my buddy Matt's house (along with the first gig with 2.00)... Dojo is hopefully going to show up as well, so we'll see how it goes!
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I predict this jam will trigger the Mortega tone cycle all over again. :)
 
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