Is there a good reason for me to go FRFR?

ChainOfThought

ChainOfThought

Experienced
I don't play live, so I don't really care about patches translating to FOH. I play at home through a 1x12 with a poweramp, and I also have a pair of Equator D5's and Sennheiser HD380's that I use for setting up patches for recording.

So, if I'm perfectly happy playing through a poweramp & cab, I don't necessarily need my 'playing' patches to translate perfectly to 'recording' patches or 'live' patches...is there really any point to changing over to FRFR? I live in Kuwait, so my chances of trying one out are pretty limited, at least until my next vacation back to the states. If I do get one, it would probably be an Alto TS210 or TS212 based on budget & what I've heard about them.

The one really big advantage that keeps making me reconsider is that I could finally use the same setup for both guitar and bass. I hate using my studio monitors just to mess around playing bass...

The biggest disadvantage (although its an unknown since I've never really tried) is that I know I love the amp+cab tone, its always been the most 'inspiring' setup for me. That said, the closest I've ever tried to an FRFR setup is the studio monitors. I don't have any real problem playing/jamming/writing through them, but I definitely do all that less when its my only option because I get frustrated with the tone and feel easily.

Any thoughts? This seems like the sort of topic I should be able to easily find discussion on, but I've for whatever reason had a hard time tracking down any useful threads about it from this angle on any of the forums I know.
 
It depends on the variety of tones you need. The primary benefit of FRFR is the coloration of sound is coming from a chosen impulse response instead of from the speaker you're playing out of. So if for whatever reason, the "flavor" of the speaker you're currently using doesn't suit one of your desired tones very well, it may be a good idea to try FRFR.

I can't speak for either of the options you've presented; I owned a pair of TS115A at one point and currently own an Alto Black 15, but I'm not sure how they differ from their new TS line.
 
Yeah. Don't really need a huge variety when it comes to what I use the pa/cab for. Just high-gain, crunch & clean. I haven't had any issues so far getting any sort of tone I want...obviously they aren't perfect for recording or anything, but the pa/cab setup is basically just the 'for fun' playing. For anything that I need to not have the speaker coloration, its probably because I'm trying to record it and I'd be running through the monitors anyways.

I think the obvious answer that I need to accept for myself is 'no....no there isn't any good reason'
 
I dont' use one. For gigs, if the house monitor system isn't good enough for me to use my ax8 all by itself, I bring my marshall half stack and use the ax8 for effects only. I play hard rock/metal and my thought is that if I have to bring an amp/cab anyway (FRFR) might as well as bring the marshall. At home I use studio monitors for low level stuff so I guess I do use FRFR for low volume.
 
I mostly play at home too. I recently picked up an Alto TS210. It's a great FRFR speaker, especially for the price, but I still vastly prefer playing through my power amp and real cabs. The Alto sounds fine, it just doesn't feel right to me. It is handy for blasting backing tracks to play along with though.
 
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marshall2553 said:
I mostly play at home too. I recently picked up an Alto TS210. It's a great FRFR speaker, especially for the price, but I still vastly prefer playing through my power amp and real cabs. The Alto sounds fine, it just doesn't feel right to me. It is handy for blasting backing tracks to pay along with though.
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That's exactly my fear and the monitors already do a fine job for backing tracks. Looks like I won't be needing to spend that money.

Now back to considering a new power amp and a closed back cab.... Never ends
 
Acoustic Emulations and synth sounds would be a reason to go frfr, if you use neither then no need to go frfr.
 
Like floor monitors, studio monitors vary as widely in sound as well. I like frfr for everything, home, gigs. Main reason I can get any sound I want, I'm not limited by the 4x12 "flavor" coming at me. I'm pretty confident in saying that about 50% of the tone comes from your cabinet. Tastes change, and if I'm in an odd mood i'll go flipping around and have a completely different rig in seconds.

I don't' really care about pleasing sound men and trying to translate, because most sound men are a-hole know it all's, again I said most. For instance I had a gig a few weeks ago where the sound guy was mic'ing up my K12. I chuckled a bit. I get it to sound good through my monitor, and up loud. So far been lucky with it translating.
 
yek said:
Studio monitors = FRFR.
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This man knows his business! I've been using a pair of 12 year old Event powered 20/20 refrence monitors. They sound absolutely tits! They seem to my humble ears to convey all the subtleties that the engineer/geniuses put into the modeling process. It's all there, the warmth, the cleans, the spaciousness! It's truly gorgeous. The remarkable thing is how LOUD they are. I wouldn't gig with them because they are kinda fragile to travel with. For home they are wonderful. They have fueled my now 2 week love affair with my AX8!!!!!! Please excuse me now..... we need to be ALONE!!!!!!!
 
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