Studio Monitor Tone Match?

[plasmatic]

I primarily use my III through monitors (JBL305s) and they sound great! The tones I create translate well to a PA where I play live. I also have a Fender Mustang IV amp that has stereo FX return and can be setup to be a power amp straight to the speakers or with some processing of the internal DSP. You can add some of the internal IRs before the speakers if you want.

My existing presets don't sound great through the Mustang (no surprise) but if I create a patch specifically to be used with the Mustang (including power amp modeling on and a cab) it sounds pretty good and gives an amp in the room feel. This got me thinking, with the tone match capabilities and RTA of the III would there be a way to tone match my monitors to then create an IR or eq curve that would correct for the frequency of my Mustang to help make it sound more like my monitors? I've watched some videos where folks put a tone like pink noise through their speaker cab and use a flat reference microphone to create eq offsets to make the cab "flat." Has anyone attempted this already or have suggestions on how to achieve what I'm going for? I know it's a cheap amp, I just like trying to make stuff like this work for fun.

 

[chris]

I primarily use my III through monitors (JBL305s) and they sound great! The tones I create translate well to a PA where I play live. I also have a Fender Mustang IV amp that has stereo FX return and can be setup to be a power amp straight to the speakers or with some processing of the internal DSP. You can add some of the internal IRs before the speakers if you want.

My existing presets don't sound great through the Mustang (no surprise) but if I create a patch specifically to be used with the Mustang (including power amp modeling on and a cab) it sounds pretty good and gives an amp in the room feel. This got me thinking, with the tone match capabilities and RTA of the III would there be a way to tone match my monitors to then create an IR or eq curve that would correct for the frequency of my Mustang to help make it sound more like my monitors? I've watched some videos where folks put a tone like pink noise through their speaker cab and use a flat reference microphone to create eq offsets to make the cab "flat." Has anyone attempted this already or have suggestions on how to achieve what I'm going for? I know it's a cheap amp, I just like trying to make stuff like this work for fun.

wouldn't that be creating an IR of your studio monitors? that said, i don't think this would work as an amp speaker is just completely different than a 2-way speaker.

 

[plasmatic]

wouldn't that be creating an IR of your studio monitors? that said, i don't think this would work as an amp speaker is just completely different than a 2-way speaker.

I may be going about it wrong by thinking about the studio monitors as an IR. I'm more trying to find and correct (make more flat) the frequency response of the Mustang by using some sort of an eq in front of it. Maybe a better way would be to put synth block frequency sweeps through the mustang and studio monitors and capture the frequency responses and try to eq the Mustang to match. At least, as close as possible.

 

[chris]

I may be going about it wrong by thinking about the studio monitors as an IR. I'm more trying to find and correct (make more flat) the frequency response of the Mustang by using some sort of an eq in front of it. Maybe a better way would be to put synth block frequency sweeps through the mustang and studio monitors and capture the frequency responses and try to eq the Mustang to match. At least, as close as possible.

You could try, but it’s just so inherently different I’m not sure an EQ could do it. If it doesn't have a Tweeter, you're missing a bunch of high end that the amp can't produce even with EQ.

Let us know the results.

 

[plasmatic]

I was able to use a Dayton EMM-6 reference mic and Logic Pro X "EQ match" to come up with an EQ curve to offset the difference between the Mustang and my studio monitors. I used a PEQ block before the output of the Axe going to the Mustang and dialed it in. It did get pretty close except for the high end roll off of the Mustang speakers after 6k'ish. Like Chris mentioned, having a tweeter would help that. This process made presets translate to the Mustang more accurately but a tweeter or more available frequencies in the PEQ block would help with smaller tweaks. I tried the GEQ as well, but the flexibility of the PEQ was the winner. Overall, if you were using studio monitors to create presets then running them through a power amp and guitar speakers this process helps but has its limitations. It was a fun experiment.