Live question???

T

Tomoc

New Member
Hi all! I am new here and trying to decide if the Axe will work for me. We have a new band starting and we are all trying to go direct to the PA. We will all be using in-ears. I have always been using tube amps, Boogie, Dr. Z, Swart, Fender, etc so I'm wondering if the Axe direct to FOH will work for me. Is anyone using the Axe in this manner and what kind of issues or positive comments can you share with me?

Thanks!
 
I'm happy to go out on a limb here and say yes, i'm 99.99999999999% sure the Axefx will work for you FOH and i'm also sure you will be more than happy with the results. I think the majority of Axefx owners go direct in both live and recording situations. My band is also all going direct to the board with great results and i can't think of any negative things to tell you..only positive. :)

Welcome to the forum btw!
 
I also use it direct to FOH only and it works as a charm for me.
But it'd be hard to say will it work for you,
try it and see how it goes, you shouldn't have some serious problems. :)
 
must have lots of faith in the foh engineer. i went fully direct last gig, with no cabs and the sound guy had me burried, my ear mix was slammin' but out front it was all bass and drums.
 
dpeterson said:
must have lots of faith in the foh engineer. i went fully direct last gig, with no cabs and the sound guy had me burried, my ear mix was slammin' but out front it was all bass and drums.
Click to expand...

Well it seems like you had a crappy engineer!
If there's a guitar in bend then it should be out front as well.

Was that "out front" what you could hear being in audience or what was coming out of PA?
 
And if you had miked an amp at a reasonable stage volume, He would have buried that too. Some engineers like to show off how many watts they have tied up in subs. They just LOVE kick drum and bass. Bad bad bad engineer.


dpeterson said:
must have lots of faith in the foh engineer. i went fully direct last gig, with no cabs and the sound guy had me burried, my ear mix was slammin' but out front it was all bass and drums.
Click to expand...
 
Unfortunately, there are many fader pushers who like to call themselves sound guys, who are as bad at what they do as there are guitar players who feel the need to "crank it to ELEVEN" to get their "tone".

As someone who does both, I can tell you its a delicate balance between letting the sound guy "do his job" and the guys on stage controlling their on-stage levels. To be sure, many FOH folks are crappy and love bass/drums and have no idea where other instruments fit in the mix. If you get one of them at a venue, you cannot win! Just do the best you can and get thru it.

One the flip side, as a sound guy, I've lost count of the number of times I've had folks (including the guitar players wife/girlfriend) come up to me at a gig and tell me they can't hear the guitar. They are usually related to that individual and think that nothing else should be heard. I don't care if you ARE Steve Vai, I'll fit you in the mix where the music warrants.

I did lose one repeat customer 'cus his wife was a PITA doing just. I'd already had to go up to the stage at LEAST 3 times in the first set and get this guy to turn down amp volume - he was SO LOUD that he was drowning out the drums !! - and his wife pitches a fit about not being able to hear him. I can assure you there was plenty guitar in the mix, jsut not enough for her !! I suggested she move closer to the stage :D You can imagine how that went over.. anyway.

Point being, if you are not comfortable with the FOH mix, talk to the sound guy. Don't DEMAND. Be reasonable, 'cus for every one of you that approaches him that way, the guy has probably dealt with 20 that are *ssholes. When I'm running sound, nothing turns me off faster that a demanding musician, so I know how that guy will react. ;)
Be nice, explain your issue and work with the guy. There may be a logical explanation. He may not have heard you before and not know the music or where the lead breaks are. Plus, many older sound guys have hearing loss, and many younger ones run sound 'cus they can't play an instrument. Most basically want to to a good job.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone. We have a soundman that is very good and we trust him so I am not too concerned about FOH. I agree that no matter what you use on stage a bad soundman can screw you. My concern is the big change from tube amp and standard monitors to in-ears and a little black box with no speakers :?
 
s0c9 said:
I've lost count of the number of times I've had folks (including the guitar players wife/girlfriend) come up to me at a gig and tell me they can't hear the guitar.
Click to expand...
That's the problem right there--- only invite the wife OR the girlfriend, never both. :lol: :lol: :lol:

For me, the biggest thing I had to get my head around was doing some of the fine tuning (high and lo cutting for instance) that I didn't need to do with a conventional amp/cab approach. Once I got that sorted out things really started to come alive for me. I've been doing the direct-to-FOH approach for about a year now and I feel it is superior to micing an amp. You don't have to worry about mic distances, room variances etc. Once you get "your" sounds down, all you really need to do is adjust the global eq for the room you're in. Furthermore, I can go from a 1x10 setup to a 4x12 setup at the click of a button. Barring bringing multiple rigs (and I have the type of wife who doesn't believe that she's part of my roadcrew...) and spending hours on setup, there's no way I could do what I do without my axe-fx.

Hope this helps!

-AL
 
s0c9 said:
Unfortunately, there are many fader pushers who like to call themselves sound guys, who are as bad at what they do as there are guitar players who feel the need to "crank it to ELEVEN" to get their "tone".

As someone who does both, I can tell you its a delicate balance between letting the sound guy "do his job" and the guys on stage controlling their on-stage levels. To be sure, many FOH folks are crappy and love bass/drums and have no idea where other instruments fit in the mix. If you get one of them at a venue, you cannot win! Just do the best you can and get thru it.

One the flip side, as a sound guy, I've lost count of the number of times I've had folks (including the guitar players wife/girlfriend) come up to me at a gig and tell me they can't hear the guitar. They are usually related to that individual and think that nothing else should be heard. I don't care if you ARE Steve Vai, I'll fit you in the mix where the music warrants.

I did lose one repeat customer 'cus his wife was a PITA doing just. I'd already had to go up to the stage at LEAST 3 times in the first set and get this guy to turn down amp volume - he was SO LOUD that he was drowning out the drums !! - and his wife pitches a fit about not being able to hear him. I can assure you there was plenty guitar in the mix, jsut not enough for her !! I suggested she move closer to the stage :D You can imagine how that went over.. anyway.

Point being, if you are not comfortable with the FOH mix, talk to the sound guy. Don't DEMAND. Be reasonable, 'cus for every one of you that approaches him that way, the guy has probably dealt with 20 that are *ssholes. When I'm running sound, nothing turns me off faster that a demanding musician, so I know how that guy will react. ;)
Be nice, explain your issue and work with the guy. There may be a logical explanation. He may not have heard you before and not know the music or where the lead breaks are. Plus, many older sound guys have hearing loss, and many younger ones run sound 'cus they can't play an instrument. Most basically want to to a good job.
Click to expand...

Good post - agreed.

As for using the Axe live - I usually go through a poweramp/cab, but I've also gone direct to PA. Both works well, as long as it's setup properly and the sound guy knows what he's doing.

Mike
 
My guess is if you go immediately to in-ears with the Axe, you'll think it isn't right and say the Axe just isn't the same. But, if you started using in-ears with a mic'd tube amp (and reduce the amp's stage volume as much as possible) then switch to the Axe, you'll love it. I guess what I'm saying is that the biggest adjustment will be with switching to in-ears and you might be surprised about how the amp you've been using for years sounds with them. After you get used to that, switching to the Axe will allow you to get close (or better!) to whatever amp(s) you're using and provide you with so many more tonal possibilities as well as easier setup.
 
kruzty said:
My guess is if you go immediately to in-ears with the Axe, you'll think it isn't right and say the Axe just isn't the same. But, if you started using in-ears with a mic'd tube amp (and reduce the amp's stage volume as much as possible) then switch to the Axe, you'll love it. I guess what I'm saying is that the biggest adjustment will be with switching to in-ears and you might be surprised about how the amp you've been using for years sounds with them. After you get used to that, switching to the Axe will allow you to get close (or better!) to whatever amp(s) you're using and provide you with so many more tonal possibilities as well as easier setup.
Click to expand...

+1.

And same goes for wedges,
meaning that you mic your amp and listen to how it sounds on wedges.
 
Tomoc said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone. We have a soundman that is very good and we trust him so I am not too concerned about FOH. I agree that no matter what you use on stage a bad soundman can screw you. My concern is the big change from tube amp and standard monitors to in-ears and a little black box with no speakers :?
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should try with wedges before IE.
IE is great for many but wedges are still speakers.
 
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