Just returned from first band rehearsal (w/ FM9)

sick pickle

sick pickle

Inspired
The FM9 Turbo performed very well my first time taking a FAS product out to a rehearsal (a commercial rehearsal space here in Montreal). I wanted to run it through the room's PA system, but unfortunately we could not get it to work–through the house Behringer XR18. No worry, I used my L6 L3M FRFR instead.

My preset was pretty straight forward. Clean scene (AC-20) and Crunch/Lead scenes using the Triple Crest 2 amp model. I have these amps on parallel paths, with their own respective cab blocks.

The AC20 Clean was so beautiful; punchy and present in the band mix. Then I would switch to the triple crest for the more hard rock parts and the sound just got EATEN up by the band/room - its like the bottom dropped out entirely. I sort of 'disappeared' in the mix. Both of these scenes/amps were levelled using the Preset Level tool. I assume, this is likely an EQ thing...or ... the fact that I was not able to level presets at the gig volume previously.... I guess I can assume that the preset levelling tool can only get me in the ballpark, and then ears have to take over–or I just need to learn how to dial in a better rock tone to compete at the same fullness as the AC20 scene!

All in all, pretty stoked at the performance. Not sure why I could not get it to work with the XR18, but I will chalk that up to house operator error trying to dial it in on the iPad. Once connected to the L6 L3M, it worked instantly.
 
unix-guy said:
Distorted sounds need to be leveled a bit higher than cleans.

Also likely Fletcher Munson impacted you if you dialed in at lower volume.

Dial in your presets at gig volume of possible.
Click to expand...
^^^ This, and adjust them in the mix, not by yourself. You may well find you want less gain than you think you do.
 
The way I balance scene/amp volume levels is to either play with looped multittrack recordings of my band and mute all guitars or I use a Youtube guitar backing track. I do this at full gig volume and then repeat at higher and lower volumes to hear the difference.
It works very well for me. I ballpark them with the levelling tools and meters, but all final level and EQ tweaking is done in a
pre-recorded mix with no guitars but mine. Then I use the perfomance pages with all 8 scene levels when sound checking before
a gig to double check levels and make sure no room acoustics screw things up enough to warrant changes besides just using
my volume expression pedal.
 
dmacattack said:
The FM9 Turbo performed very well my first time taking a FAS product out to a rehearsal (a commercial rehearsal space here in Montreal). I wanted to run it through the room's PA system, but unfortunately we could not get it to work–through the house Behringer XR18. No worry, I used my L6 L3M FRFR instead.

My preset was pretty straight forward. Clean scene (AC-20) and Crunch/Lead scenes using the Triple Crest 2 amp model. I have these amps on parallel paths, with their own respective cab blocks.

The AC20 Clean was so beautiful; punchy and present in the band mix. Then I would switch to the triple crest for the more hard rock parts and the sound just got EATEN up by the band/room - its like the bottom dropped out entirely. I sort of 'disappeared' in the mix. Both of these scenes/amps were levelled using the Preset Level tool. I assume, this is likely an EQ thing...or ... the fact that I was not able to level presets at the gig volume previously.... I guess I can assume that the preset levelling tool can only get me in the ballpark, and then ears have to take over–or I just need to learn how to dial in a better rock tone to compete at the same fullness as the AC20 scene!

All in all, pretty stoked at the performance. Not sure why I could not get it to work with the XR18, but I will chalk that up to house operator error trying to dial it in on the iPad. Once connected to the L6 L3M, it worked instantly.
Click to expand...
Export and Upload your Preset here and we can give some tips on the tone.

For the XR18, the channels you plugged into may not have been assigned in the routing grid.
 
unix-guy said:
Distorted sounds need to be leveled a bit higher than cleans.

Also likely Fletcher Munson impacted you if you dialed in at lower volume.

Dial in your presets at gig volume of possible.
Click to expand...
Cool - I actually had the opposite issue with my previous modeller. Overdriven/distorted patch levels were good, but when I would change back to a cleaner tone, it just disappeared entirely. Definitely a balancing act!
 
When the cleans are too loud you can handle that on stage. Dial the guitars volume pot back some, which makes the cleans loose volume while the distorteds loose some gain staying as loud as before. And of course, to play that way you also need to turn the main output volume up to the point where the distorteds are loud enough in the mix.
 
I just had my first practice with the FM9 with similar results - cleans sounded great. Had to move some levels for my mid gain and leads.
Only thing I had trouble with was my rhythm tone sounded like shit. After some tweaking at volume the parametric EQ I had was the culprit, removed this and did some more subtle EQ tweaking and was much better.
Always why its good to test at gig volume pre gig!
 
On my Helix, I use a compressor on clean tones, which I found helped better balance them with the crunch tones. Still building out my main patch on the FM9 and have it set up the same way to similar effect.
 
dmacattack said:
The FM9 Turbo performed very well my first time taking a FAS product out to a rehearsal (a commercial rehearsal space here in Montreal). I wanted to run it through the room's PA system, but unfortunately we could not get it to work–through the house Behringer XR18. No worry, I used my L6 L3M FRFR instead.

My preset was pretty straight forward. Clean scene (AC-20) and Crunch/Lead scenes using the Triple Crest 2 amp model. I have these amps on parallel paths, with their own respective cab blocks.

The AC20 Clean was so beautiful; punchy and present in the band mix. Then I would switch to the triple crest for the more hard rock parts and the sound just got EATEN up by the band/room - its like the bottom dropped out entirely. I sort of 'disappeared' in the mix. Both of these scenes/amps were levelled using the Preset Level tool. I assume, this is likely an EQ thing...or ... the fact that I was not able to level presets at the gig volume previously.... I guess I can assume that the preset levelling tool can only get me in the ballpark, and then ears have to take over–or I just need to learn how to dial in a better rock tone to compete at the same fullness as the AC20 scene!

All in all, pretty stoked at the performance. Not sure why I could not get it to work with the XR18, but I will chalk that up to house operator error trying to dial it in on the iPad. Once connected to the L6 L3M, it worked instantly.
Click to expand...
If you haven't already, add Amp controls to the Global Performance page. That makes it much easier to adjust gain, level, bass, middle and treble while you're rehearsing.

I have one empty preset, that only is really used to store the Global Performance controls, only I copied them to the Per-Preset Performance control side. Saving, then exporting the preset makes it easier for me to quickly reset the globals if I screw them up somehow because I can scroll to that preset and copy them back from the front-panel or the editor. It's also possible to save the Per-Preset Performance controls to the block library if you want to use them as a template.
 
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Greg Ferguson said:
If you haven't already, add Amp controls to the Global Performance page. That makes it much easier to adjust gain, level, bass, middle and treble while you're rehearsing.

I have one empty preset, that only is really used to store the Global Performance controls, only I copied them to the Per-Preset Performance control side. Saving, then exporting the preset makes it easier for me to quickly reset the globals if I screw them up somehow because I can scroll to that preset and copy them back from the front-panel or the editor. It's also possible to save the Per-Preset Performance controls to the block library if you want to use them as a template.
Click to expand...
Wait...there is no way to restore the Global controls if I muck about?
 
dmacattack said:
Default...would be nice to know that if I messed about the Global Performance controls, I could always reset them back to factory default
Click to expand...
i think the defaults are just some amp controls to show that things can exist there. they aren't really "default" or important to everyone.

they're meant to be assigned to whatever you need. random amp settings, though default, aren't any better than other things assigned.
 
dmacattack said:
Default...would be nice to know that if I messed about the Global Performance controls, I could always reset them back to factory default
Click to expand...
Maybe confusing terms here.

Global and Per Preset Performance pages have NO defaults. They are empty.

The controls you add to them affect the current preset. Unless you save the preset after adjusting them then nothing is saved.

Unless you're referring to Global system settings which is something else...
 
unix-guy said:
Maybe confusing terms here.

Global and Per Preset Performance pages have NO defaults. They are empty.

The controls you add to them affect the current preset. Unless you save the preset after adjusting them then nothing is saved.

Unless you're referring to Global system settings which is something else...
Click to expand...
i think the Global Perform Page starts off with the Amp controls that were on the AX8 hardware knobs. not sure if Reset System Parameters brings them back. but those aren't necessarily the "correct" settings needed for anyone. i think it's just something there as an example.
 
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chris said:
i think the Global Perform Page starts off with the Amp controls that were on the AX8 hardware knobs. not sure if Reset System Parameters brings them back.
Click to expand...
Mine didn't... Neither on the FM9 or Axe Fx III. Both started blank for Global and Per Preset.

Unless later firmware changed the defaults?
 
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