Newbie Amp desicion

[Shovelmouth]

Just purchased Ax8..want my rig downsized...got a ISP Stealth micro amp to monitor myself onstage running through a 1x12 Rocktron Vector cab. Sounds totally different than monitoring it through my 100watt tube head through the same cab...of course it does!. But I really want to ditch the head and use the small ISP. THis is my question....should I be setting up my sounds and presets to the ISP through the cab...and is that sound what is going to be pushed through the PA?

 

[MikeBrooklyn]

you should invest in an FRFR speaker. Dialing in presets on an FRFR is the best way to be sure they translate well to the PA

 

[ksandvik]

Yep, you need a amp+speaker system that is FRFR (Full Range, Flat Response) to avoid any colorization you introduce to make the sound good on an amp/cab combination that colorizes the output resulting in something totally different pushed out through the PA.

 

[Geezerjohn]

I agree that the FRFR is the best option but if that is not possible then you should focus on the sound your audience will be hearing.

 

[SmithDerp1]

If you don't use a PA speaker for monitoring, you will NOT be hearing what the audience hears. I prefer to monitor myself with a quality PA speaker. The most important thing is to optimize what the audience hears, not what you hear on stage. I find the FRFR mania strange because of this. Why bother hearing "the best guitar tone" I can get, when the audience is hearing something processed in a different manner. It's a rabbit hole that's been investigated many times on this site and others.

Make sure you set up your signal paths correctly if you're monitoring with an actual cabinet. You'll want to bypass the cabinet block with a "Loop" block. As a default, this can be controlled with Output2 and the FOH with Output1.