maybe I’ve been going about this all wrong - so if I’m just interested in using the FM9 live at gigs ( we don’t mic anything small little bars) - I should shut off the cabs and run into a standard guitar cabinet - right? I don’t need FRFR right?
It's up to you, but in all cases you have to be aware of the physics, how sound is affected by the floor and walls because it'll affect a regular guitar amp and cabinet just as it will a good FRFR. And, on top of the FRFR's acoustics you have to be aware of the IR choice and how it was captured.
Too often people just throw their cabinet wherever, and if it's a regular guitar amp they turn the knobs to re-EQ its sound if they don't like it and that's the end of it. With a modeler they set their bar a LOT higher, as if the modeler is supposed to know how to do that stuff itself, and then the physics step in and it's the modeler's fault. In either case it's the player, it's just that the modeler has a lot more capability so it should just know, ya know!?
My tube amps still react the same way to their placement as my FRFR cabs do when placed in the same spot on stage, so I do the same thing with either, I turn down the bass, and the problem goes away. On the modeler I do it differently though, but it's the same overall effect.
Regarding the IR choice and mic proximity, that's one of the really cool things about the Dyna-Cabs, you pick the speaker and mic, then you can move the mic. The distance from the speaker controls the bass, and the distance from the cap controls the treble, and somewhere in there is our happy place.
