Now that I am FRFR

REDD

Fractal Fanatic
I got my Friedman's a couple months or so ago and I've finally gotten the FRFR thing to where I think I can finally gig without my big tube rig.
One problem though that I just started noticing. My ears are now ringing all the time in a high and upper mid tone. I am thinking with my tube rig being behind me and not having a horn or tweeter that it was fine but with the wedges in my face and a high end horn hitting both ears in stereo that I'm doing damage. I have the Ax volume on the VU page set at 17 and my Friedman's all the way up and it jams.
 
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I dont like much coming from the front due to what your saying, always have my clrs behind. Ringing ears are not a good sign.
 
Look after your hearing... as a musician it's critically important (well, unless you are a member of The Who or something) and when it's damaged you can't repair the damage or get it back to where it was.

Exposure limits are usually around the following:

Noise Level - Maximum Exposure Time per 24 Hours
85dB - 8 hours
88dB - 4 hours
91dB - 2 hours
94dB - 1 hour
97dB - 30 minutes
100dB - 15 minutes
103dB - 7.5 minutes
106dB - 3.5 minutes
109dB - 110 seconds
112dB - 55 seconds
115dB - 25 seconds

Also if you have the Friedmans wound up then the dB level might be more than you anticipate and as Dramelot mentions, ringing ears are not a good sign.

If you need to be that loud onstage and not have your main volume thru FOH, then have you considered using custom earplugs?
Generally speaking I don't like on-stage volume being too high if only because it makes the sound engineer job that much more difficult.
 
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I've found this is a definite pitfall even when you use FRFR behind you as loud backline - it's harder to escape the high mids and highs because of the wider dispersion .... and they are putting out a mic'ed cab tone which is basically like jamming your ear right up to the cone of a speaker in a 4x12 etc. With conventional cabs you can step in and out of the 'beam' or have the cabs mounted so they hit you in the back rather than the head so you don't get high end ear fatigue.

If your PA system is up to it you should let it take the volume and keep your FRFR stage sound as low as possible or angled away from you
 
Look after your hearing... as a musician it's critically important (well, unless you are a member of The Who or something) and when it's damaged you can't repair the damage or get it back to where it was.

Exposure limits are usually around the following:

Noise Level - Maximum Exposure Time per 24 Hours
85dB - 8 hours
88dB - 4 hours
91dB - 2 hours
94dB - 1 hour
97dB - 30 minutes
100dB - 15 minutes
103dB - 7.5 minutes
106dB - 3.5 minutes
109dB - 110 seconds
112dB - 55 seconds
115dB - 25 seconds

Also if you have the Friedmans wound up then the dB level might be more than you anticipate and as Dramelot mentions, ringing ears are not a good sign.

If you need to be that loud onstage and not have your main volume thru FOH, then have you considered using custom earplugs?
Generally speaking I don't like on-stage volume being too high if only because it makes the sound engineer job that much more difficult.
I have in ears but I'm always working on patches and just jamming at stage volume without my IEM system. Its hard for me to get an accurate setting dialed in unless I've got it cranked. I'm going to try turning it down a bit and spending less time at loud settings. I just can't stop messing with my gear and working on new sounds! Thanks for the info.
 
I've found this is a definite pitfall even when you use FRFR behind you as loud backline - it's harder to escape the high mids and highs because of the wider dispersion .... and they are putting out a mic'ed cab tone which is basically like jamming your ear right up to the cone of a speaker in a 4x12 etc. With conventional cabs you can step in and out of the 'beam' or have the cabs mounted so they hit you in the back rather than the head so you don't get high end ear fatigue.

If your PA system is up to it you should let it take the volume and keep your FRFR stage sound as low as possible or angled away from you
I think you are right for sure. I just love tweaking my Ax Fx and it doesn't get that good tone unless its loud. I'm going to try less time and turning down some. Thanks
 
Hey REDD man, here's my best solution.. I can relate; my ASM sounded a bit 'high' and my ears were experiencing similar to what yours are..

So here's what I did, and it's worked a treat so far.. Do you have another guitarist in your band??

The guitarist in my band plays a JCM900 and uses 1 or 2 over-drive pedals/boosts to give him a little extra sizzle here and there.. His overall sound and tone is a bit dark, which is good for this exercise. I put my ASM next to his half-stack. I dialed up a Dirty Shirley amp and switched off the bright cap, turned down the treble and presence a sh!tload, and basically backed off all the highs that I was clearly getting too much of. I played around a bit with the mids and a couple other parameters (they slip my mind right now) and it started sounding a lot more natural, and less 'intense' on the ears. It still had that glorious 'Axe FX edge' but sounded every bit real-life-amp-like. Hard to explain. I can send you a couple patches if that helps man.

I'm using my Dirty Shirley patch as my main reference patch; so when I use a Cameron CCV or another Friedman etc, I do my best to 'dullen' the sound just so that it takes away that harsh FRFR edge that can be intense at times.. If I ever want to add it in, I can. I guess, from my point of view, it needs to sound its absolute best in a band-environment.

Hope this helps, shoot me a PM if you want some patches..

Good luck!
 
Hey REDD man, here's my best solution.. I can relate; my ASM sounded a bit 'high' and my ears were experiencing similar to what yours are..

So here's what I did, and it's worked a treat so far.. Do you have another guitarist in your band??

The guitarist in my band plays a JCM900 and uses 1 or 2 over-drive pedals/boosts to give him a little extra sizzle here and there.. His overall sound and tone is a bit dark, which is good for this exercise. I put my ASM next to his half-stack. I dialed up a Dirty Shirley amp and switched off the bright cap, turned down the treble and presence a sh!tload, and basically backed off all the highs that I was clearly getting too much of. I played around a bit with the mids and a couple other parameters (they slip my mind right now) and it started sounding a lot more natural, and less 'intense' on the ears. It still had that glorious 'Axe FX edge' but sounded every bit real-life-amp-like. Hard to explain. I can send you a couple patches if that helps man.

I'm using my Dirty Shirley patch as my main reference patch; so when I use a Cameron CCV or another Friedman etc, I do my best to 'dullen' the sound just so that it takes away that harsh FRFR edge that can be intense at times.. If I ever want to add it in, I can. I guess, from my point of view, it needs to sound its absolute best in a band-environment.

Hope this helps, shoot me a PM if you want some patches..

Good luck!
Heck yeah!
 
And to think when I first got the Friedman's I thought they weren't loud enough. Now my ears are ringing!
 
one of the very reasons I bailed on FRFR. I've got Tinnitus in my right ear and the high end freqs would aggravate it constantly. :(
 
Any time I use a 2 way speaker with a separate tweeter/horn I start getting ear fatigue. When I switched to the RCF (it is coaxial) and subsequently the CLR it stopped
 
I try to keep all my patches between 85db and 90db, I use a decibel meter to set them, if you have ringing you'r ears that's not good.
 
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