Live Sound Settings, Volume Equalization

Crispysonofa

Crispysonofa

Member
I am curious about a few things,

What settings do you all tweak for your lige settings to make the FM3 sound more in line with an amp and cab? I have seen some other posts about omitting some of the higher end frequencies after 8.5k or so.

I'm also curious if there is a way to monitor the overall DB leaving the unit, so you could equalize the volume roughly for your patches/scenes. I appreciate the insight from people that have been gigging this for some time. I have a gig tomorrow night and want to get closer having my setup dialed in.

Thank you so much!!
 
The Preset Leveling tool is the starting point. Level the scenes in your presets to 0dB, making a minor compensation for clean tones because they have a strong peak at first then drop quickly, compared to any distorted sounds which have very little change.

Once you've done that your presets should have equivalent volume.

Look at the frequency response graphs for speakers and you'll find that most drop off quickly past 5KHz. A mic'd cabinet, because the microphone is against the speaker, not 5-10ft. away, will sound different than what your ear hears because the mic is capturing everything the speaker is putting out so it has more lows from the proximity-effect, and because highs tend to shoot straight ahead which would be into the mic. So, roll off somewhere between 5K-8K based on your taste, and it should be pretty realistic.

There's good information in Full Range Flat Response (FRFR). Start there and read down until it gets to section 10.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
making a minor compensation for clean tones because they have a strong peak at first then drop quickly, compared to any distorted sounds which have very little change
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So for clean tones, should the peak only hit 0db? Or are we accounting for that the peak will clip and look at where the signal drops to after the peak?

Thanks!
 
bosox0912 said:
So for clean tones, should the peak only hit 0db? Or are we accounting for that the peak will clip and look at where the signal drops to after the peak?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I let my volume peak a little higher for cleans, listening to the overall sound of the guitar to adjust it in relation to the other scenes. We have plenty of headroom to avoid clipping or distortion but if I was worried about that I’d add a limiter or a little compression to control the rhythm level.

Playing style is important with cleans. Some people hit the strings really hard and get big spikes which need to be controlled, and others are more steady. When setting the level you know how you play and can watch the meter and adjust accordingly.
 
If I want it to sound like an amp and a cab I use a flatish external power amp, then feed of that into a guitar cab. However, if you ever mic up or run an ir feed to the PA that's what the audience hears NOT the amp and cab. The sound from a recording, speaker, PA is not what it sounds like standing in front of a guitar cab.
RE EQ: I HPF anywhere between 90-130hhz and LPF anywhere between 6500hz down to about 4500. Turn the eq knobs on the amp to where it sounds good, to me at loud gig levels. I set the scenes so that the clean, crunch, heavier rhythm stuff is all around the same maybe the crunchier stuff a db or 2 louder and any solo/lead stuff will have a boost of between 3-5db depending on my mood and the room.
CheerS
 
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Crispysonofa said:
I am curious about a few things,

What settings do you all tweak for your lige settings to make the FM3 sound more in line with an amp and cab? I have seen some other posts about omitting some of the higher end frequencies after 8.5k or so.

I'm also curious if there is a way to monitor the overall DB leaving the unit, so you could equalize the volume roughly for your patches/scenes. I appreciate the insight from people that have been gigging this for some time. I have a gig tomorrow night and want to get closer having my setup dialed in.

Thank you so much!!
Click to expand...

so we don't run stage amps/cabs, we all run to FOH , and monitor using IEMs

due to how the unit models the entire signal chain you can in essence give a 'mix ready' guitar signal to FOH

by that i mean an almost fully pre/processed guitar tone which will only need tweaking to better match the overall mix/room , so you can go kinda crazy =)

i use my unit for metal stuff live, the Multiband compressor is a must for me, and otherwise, i'm generally going for 80hz for low cut and 8k for the high cut, (i'm also low cutting guitars before hitting the amp if that makes any difference) , got some videos on that on my channel (Drogher - Unhold playthrough)

since i only have a main kitchen sink style preset, i've done my levelling with scenes partly by ear and checking meters, and by constant tweaking after band practices, my cleanish sound is a bit lower in volume than my gain sounds, it's something i want for example, but that's to taste, that's how i used to run things with tube amps as well, so it works out well

i'd check your presets/live setup for Mono compatibility as well, depending on what you're going to get at the venue , to avoid any surprises

if it's likely to be a mono feed/setup , best to check that your presets sound fine in mono as well, some delays for example (2290 w/mod) depending on your settings will disapear in mono

+4 otherwise on the XLR outs , that's what i'm always running, works a treat
 
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