How do you guys handle lower volume rehearsals?

mesaboog

mesaboog

Inspired
First off, I am not much of a tweaker. I got the Axe-Fx II about a year ago after owning a STD for several years. I originally dialed in some great core tones comprised mostly of JCM800 and Morgan amps. I am still on FW 13 because I have had a pretty busy gigging schedule and being so happy with my core tones, I have been reluctant to update. With a break in our schedule, I thought now would be a perfect time to update to 17. BUT, first before I go down that road of rebuilding all my presets, I have a question for you guys.

I build my presets at gig volume, and my band has always rehearsed at gig volume so I have always been happy with my tones being right in the mix and cutting through. However, we just moved to a new rehearsal space where we needed to bring our volumes down significantly. With my current presets at this lower volume, I just sound muddy, blanket over speaker tones, not cutting through the mix. So here is my question: For you guys that rehearse at lower than gig volumes, what do you do? Do you A) build a separate set of presets for these rehearsals, B) Just tweak your gigging presets EQ on the fly at rehearsal, or C) Just bring your volumes down and accept less than optimal low volume tones.

Any insight from anyone who has wrestled with this?

Thanks a bunch!

Scott
 
Since my gig presets are pretty much EQ'd the same, I just adjust the global EQ for practice and then put it back for gigs. I try to keep things uncomplicated and that works well.
 
InsideOut said:
Since my gig presets are pretty much EQ'd the same, I just adjust the global EQ for practice and then put it back for gigs. I try to keep things uncomplicated and that works well.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about trying that, do you find your global EQ changes works fine with all patches (i.e. across different amps/cabs)? And are you trimming off the lower and high frequencies for when playing louder volume?
 
InsideOut said:
Since my gig presets are pretty much EQ'd the same, I just adjust the global EQ for practice and then put it back for gigs. I try to keep things uncomplicated and that works well.
Click to expand...

This works really good! One of the reasons I wish we had a few user slots to make it faster to call up a setting if you have a ton of presets to manage. The other obvious way is to place an EQ block at the end of the signal chain and attach an I/A, flat for the gigs and added highs and lows for the bedroom volumes.
 
Sixstring said:
This works really good! One of the reasons I wish we had a few user slots to make it faster to call up a setting if you have a ton of presets to manage. The other obvious way is to place an EQ block at the end of the signal chain and attach an I/A, flat for the gigs and added highs and lows for the bedroom volumes.
Click to expand...

I was hoping I could do the same thing with the Global EQ, looking at that there doesn't seem to be a high/low pass filter so I guess would that not work then?

Alternatively, couldn't you create a Global block for a Parametric EQ and stick that on the end of each preset? I've not tried any of this, so hope I'm not talking rubbish.
 
I use the global mostly for highs at practice. Not so much for low end because the less you overlap the bass, the better you will hear yourself. Just some boost on the higher frequencies is all it takes for me anyway. You don't need it to be high or low pass filter. Just boost some highs and high mids until it sounds good. I avoid an extra EQ block in my presets only to keep it simple and not add to CPU. But that would work every bit as well.
 
I'm pretty sure you can't control EQ blocks globally though that would solve the user slots dilemma I posted about. You would still have to place an EQ block in the signal chain in each preset to make it work. Having a user slot(s) to store Global EQ settings would be the deal for covering all presets.
 
mesaboog said:
I got the Axe-Fx II about a year ago after owning a STD for several years.
Click to expand...
Glad you've recovered from your STD! (hehe, sorry, couldn't resist...)

About your question:
Adjusting gig/rehearsal volume is what the Global EQ is for. Just write down several "go to" settings on a piece of paper and tack it on top of your rack. At least that's what I do.
I basicly have two (three) Global EQ settings:
Home (flat EQ), Live (kind of an Inversed bath tub shape), Rehearsal (somewhere inbetween).

You can also use an external control mapped to a GEQ block's bypass state that is placed at the end of every preset if you want to switch between these "profiles" by the press of a button.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom