Oh boy...having issues...

Taking a break at practice. Just testing out patches before I sell every piece of other guitar gear I have.

Just got the Axe II and a QSC K10... Been learning a lot from this forum and the Axe fest vids - I also briefly owned a Standarf a few years ago. I thought I was ready to take this plunge but now Im panic-ed a little.

The patches turned way up are fizzy and a bit harsh. I tweaked the
Global eq and settings on the K10. Also realized that while there is a good amt pf buzzing and interference with the 1/4 inch inbalanced cables they sound much better to me than XLR. Either way the harsh/artificial/fizziness isnt good. Its raspy. I play mostly clean and a tad over driven sounds.

Any recommendations?? Just kinda freaking out since Im just about to sell everything and already sunk a ton of money into the Axe stuff so far. Got serious health issues so this is kind of the be all end all solution for me to play live - and im only 29.

Thanks in advance for anyone reading this!
 
And by the way - I tweaked these at home on the K10 medium to medium loud volume. At practice Im crank all the way on the K10 and half way up on Ouput of Ace. There are No clipping lights coming on either.
 
Can you share your preset(s) for us to see/try/hear ourselves? What sort of guitar? What are your global settings? What are your I/O settings?
 
Since you appear to be going FRFR make sure you don't have power amp or cab sims turned off.
 
Also realized that while there is a good amt pf buzzing and interference with the 1/4 inch inbalanced cables they sound much better to me than XLR.
If you're getting buzzing and interference from your 1/4" cables at line levels, there's something wrong. Either the cable is bad, or there's an insane amount of RF interference nearby.
 
What firmware version are you running?
And have to ask!
Are you using Axe Edit to tweak your patches??

If so tweak a new patch not using Axe Edit

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapat
 
Hey guys thanks for the replies - sorry for being so frantic...

I had the K10 turned on its side like a wedge. Once I turned it standing straight up the sound got noticeablely better and more familiar (small guitar cab pointed at my knees). I'm still a little concerned that I had it the monitor running full blast and the Axe at 50% and there seemed to be some noisy clipping sound - which to me seems like I'm pushing the QSC too hard. Planning on getting another to run in stereo - but concerned that I still won't have enough headroom (which seems crazy to me). I A/B ed the Axe with my normal guitar rig now - and did noticed that at the super loud volumes - the regular amp did get harsh (just didn't notice with ear plugs).

However, the traditional setup had a lot more pressence and shimmer without being quite as harsh - but maybe that's just a lot of tweaking I need to do. Using an old Musicman head 100 watts with pedals (main sounds are Strymon Blue Sky and Timeline and a Fulltone full drive 2 for OD)

Here is some more info (really concerned about the digital fizziness and headroom):
Guitar is a Tom Anderson Hollow Short T (a chambered Alder Tele with medium/hot dual humbuckers) ;
Global Settings: Firmware 8.xx, Power amp and cab sims ON, amp gain -10.0 DB as per Scott's recommendation;
Output 1 EQ: turned down the low end mainly - as that QSC is bassy and a tad boomy;
I/O: Inst In: 38%, Input : 46.7% ;
Output 1: Stereo (not sure if I should change that but I don't think it was causing fiziness at extreme volumes) ;
Output 1 phase normal / NO boost or pad ;
 
Oh - and I plan on doing a lot more tweaking (hopefully) tomorrow night. So, once I get the Axe back in my possesion I will get presets uploaded. I appreciate any and all help and could really use your advice.

I REALLY didn't want to be this guy - just wanted to go to practice and be stoked so I could come back and write a rad review as a convert to the digital modelling world . . .
 
NOT using Axe edit. All tweaked at home at medium and medium loud volumes - 1/4 inch unbalanced into a QSC K10. Wanted to use the XLR at practice as my quarter inches were giving me some buzzing but found they sound wayyy worse than the quarter iches....

Hopefully its not the K10 as I bought it refurbished on ebay!!!
 
Always make/tweak presets at the same levels they will be used at. Mayor important! Presets made at home/medium levels will always contain too much high end and normally low end, when played loud. Check out Fletcher Munson curves.
Regards/Jesper
 
couple of things to think about...

- in the cab block, try dropping the hi-gh cut to somewhere between 7000 and 8000 [I'm set at 7500]
- cab choice makes a big difference.. some are quite aggressive with the highs, some are agressive with the lows [particularly the German cabs] and some feel a little more neutral [not having a strong 'voice' if that makes sense].. I tend to use the 4x12 25W because it seems a little more gentle at the extremes [which is kinda what I mean about being neutral I guess]
- in the cab block, go to the room page and turn on a little of the ambience.. it'll smear the highs a little and make them seem a little less aggressive
- in the amp block, EQ page, pull back on the 8k and 16k by around 4dB to 6dB. this should hopefully allow you to have higher basic page treble and presence settings so that the highs are nice and fried but at a less overall level so that they are not shrill or piercing..

all these things should allow you to pile on enough top to get good definition, but not at the cost of excessive fizz

EDIT: forgot to mention...
I have two sets of presets.. those I use live and those I use for practice..
by virtue of higher volumes, the high and low relationships with the mids will perceptually alter whereby the highs and lows can become too dominant..
in my live presets [which I dial in at gig volume] the extreme highs and lows are cut back a little for better overal tonal balance
 
Check the QSC's back if the switch is set correctly at line level and subwoofer ON even though you are not using one.
 
NOT using Axe edit. All tweaked at home at medium and medium loud volumes - 1/4 inch unbalanced into a QSC K10. Wanted to use the XLR at practice as my quarter inches were giving me some buzzing but found they sound wayyy worse than the quarter iches....

Hopefully its not the K10 as I bought it refurbished on ebay!!!

In the global section of output 2 (to your qsc), make te eq into a frown. Boost 800 and everything around it like a frown. Helps a lot. Leave output 1 alone for the pa. Done.
 
Thanks so much for the info! I'm feeling a little more confident, even though I haven't re-tweaked yet....

@ripley156 - I think I definitely need to put the global gain back up - it was brought to my attention by another forum member that Scott Peterson was referring to the amp block level down 10 db and NOT the global gain. When I boost that back to 0 I'm assuming I will get headroom back.

@Clarky - I AM using the German cabs...I didn't mess with cabs too much at all - which I know is CRUCIAL to the overall tone. They are an odd choice since I play fendery clean sounds and a little breakup. I guess at home it sounded good, and I didn't think about cabs at practice. Was more focused on EQ. I'll try some of the other ideas to get some pressence in there without sounding harsh.

I definitely need to rebuild the cab block and some of the amps again at a higher volume. Now that I have all this extra info. Thanks so much - if anyone has more suggestions before I go back tonight please let me know.

Main issues I will be trying to alleviate: getting more headroom, alleviating the boominess (it's gotta be the cab block), figuring out what the hum/interference is with the 1/4 cables as the XLRs didn't sound good to me, dialing out "tin-iness" on the clean sounds and fizziness on the overdrive sounds, and getting a more pressence and natural highs.
 
Hey guys thanks for the replies - sorry for being so frantic...

I had the K10 turned on its side like a wedge. Once I turned it standing straight up the sound got noticeablely better and more familiar (small guitar cab pointed at my knees). I'm still a little concerned that I had it the monitor running full blast and the Axe at 50% and there seemed to be some noisy clipping sound - which to me seems like I'm pushing the QSC too hard. Planning on getting another to run in stereo - but concerned that I still won't have enough headroom (which seems crazy to me). I A/B ed the Axe with my normal guitar rig now - and did noticed that at the super loud volumes - the regular amp did get harsh (just didn't notice with ear plugs).

However, the traditional setup had a lot more pressence and shimmer without being quite as harsh - but maybe that's just a lot of tweaking I need to do. Using an old Musicman head 100 watts with pedals (main sounds are Strymon Blue Sky and Timeline and a Fulltone full drive 2 for OD)

Here is some more info (really concerned about the digital fizziness and headroom):
Guitar is a Tom Anderson Hollow Short T (a chambered Alder Tele with medium/hot dual humbuckers) ;
Global Settings: Firmware 8.xx, Power amp and cab sims ON, amp gain -10.0 DB as per Scott's recommendation;
Output 1 EQ: turned down the low end mainly - as that QSC is bassy and a tad boomy;
I/O: Inst In: 38%, Input : 46.7% ;
Output 1: Stereo (not sure if I should change that but I don't think it was causing fiziness at extreme volumes) ;
Output 1 phase normal / NO boost or pad ;

I'd also say that running in wedge format with all those frequencies now coming straight at you will sound significantly different to putting the cab on edge. I have an RCF NX12 and the difference between the two formats is enormous. I use mine on end, which just sounds more familiar and more cab-like to me. At the end of the day, whichever way sounds right to you and makes you enjoy playing, that's the way to go!
 
This is a known issue w/the QSC K Series, especially when running as a monitor. There's a rather large thread on the QSC Site/Forum. It seems that the combo XLR/1/4" jack on the back is not a firm connection and will rattle when pushed (and sometimes when not). I had the same issue w/my QSC...the Fix, I got a cable from Planet Waves that has a compression spring on the 1/4" male connection in order to create a more firm connection. Here's a link: Amazon.com: Planet Waves Custom Series Instrument Cable with Compression Springs, 30 feet: Musical Instruments
 
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