Settings for tube power amp into flat speaker

bke

Inspired
HI,

Wondering what peoples opinion would be on settings for this - (other than use my ears;-)

Ive been experimenting with a clean tube poweramp (synergy 50\50) into a 112 with a celestion fx-200 speaker

I know normal advise using a poweramp into a cab would be to select resistive mode in the speaker page of the amp, then to maybe remove speaker compression drive etc..

But given its a flat amp into a flat speaker more or less) would resistive load be the best? ive tried both and i find the defailt curve's are maybe a bit much, but resistive load removes to much of the character of the speaker the ir is made from...

appreciate any opinions on optimum setup for this case,

cheers
 
With the Celestion F12-x200 (if that is the speaker you have in question) I'm unsure what a Fx-200 is? but assume you mean the aforementioned speaker.

That said, you should be selecting Ir's from the cab block, and not running Resistive Mode. This mode is reserved for guys using power amps and regular guitar speakers.

The Celestion F12-x200 is designed to run Ir's from the Axe FX as it is a full range speaker. Albeit FRFR.

Do not use resistive load because the X200 speaker behaves like a conventional guitar speaker but has the capabilities of a FRFR speaker therefore choosing resistive load removes the "virtual" loading from the speaker.

My advice would be to use as much of the IR as possible.

You can always shape the tone in the cab block by taking out some of the lows and top end if necessary.
 
Hi, yes I was referring to the F12-x200. What I’ve been doing today is scrolling through the Curves to see what sounds best and making some tweaks to them regardless of the cab the ir is from.

because I’m using a tube poweramp, it is creating its own load with the speaker. I would imagine it may be more to use a solid state power amp but i don’t have one at the moment.

also using the peq to for low sans highs plus a notch around a specific frequency that was causing a problem.

why I’m doing this? I’ve been finding playing through studio monitors uninspiring these last few months and I don’t get great results going through a real cab (think it’s probably cause I cant use much volume at the moment)
 
bke,

The main problem I found using the F12-x200 and a tube poweramp is this...… If you are expecting a traditional guitar sound from this speaker then will you be hugely disappointed.

I personally cannot get to grips with FRFR as I play in a band that doesn't mic up the guitars and FRFR does not sound "correct" in a live situation to my ears.

That said however, the F12 is "supposed" to offer guitarists a solution to this issue when in fact it doesn't.

Two questions for you.

Firstly, are you using the F12-x200 in a live situation to compliment a full range system? In other words, do you mic everything up when you play live?

Secondly, are you hoping that this speaker will solve the issue of being able to use a number of IR's to "convert" your speaker from say a Celestion to a Eminence speaker for example.

Its also worth bearing in mind here, that when you use an IR through this speaker, you are actually listening to the Mic'ed up version of the speaker in the IR being played through the F12-x200 if that makes sense?

Therefore, when using IR's with this speaker, it is super critical to select the right microphone to provide the sound you want to hear. For example, if you choose an IR the has been generated using a Shure SM57 then obviously the signature sound of that microphone will be inherent in your X200 speaker onstage.

Once you understand this concept, things become a little clearer.
 
Don't mic the speaker. Use IRs and run a direct feed to FOH instead. The F12 is is good speaker. I like the speaker in my Mustang combo a bit better. It's "flat-enough(ish)" and IRS translate quite nicely through it.
 
This is for home use only, i haven't played out since March last year and will prob stay that way for the foreseeable..

As its in a cab (oversized zilla 112) ive removed things like resonance from the cab block + find i like celestion ir's which i found too bright on with my studio monitors. i expect its the extra girth\resonance of the physical cab which is doing this -

my goal is simply to get something that is more akin to playing through a real cab vs studio monitors, exactly the same? i don't expect that - can't play loud enough anyway or id probably just play through my real cabs.

the question was more to do with considerations to make in the set up of a TUBE Poweramp, driving kinda FR speaker in a real cab - most conversations on this topic are around Tube power amp driving a normal guitar cab (where of course it would make sense to to use resistive mode.

I think its a matter of playing around with the speaker tab to dial in the amp to the ir on a per patch basis..
 
I See.

In that case, I would turn off Power amp modelling in the Axe fx if you haven't done already, and then switch to resistive load. Be sure to turn off things like speaker drive and speaker compression in the speaker tab.

Yes experiment with the parameters by all means. I think by disabling the PA modelling, the speaker curve is defeated too.... From memory?

All the best.
 
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