Studio Monitors for High Gain tones

sidsin

sidsin

Inspired
Hey guys!

Have used headrush till now to dial in the tones and needless to say, it sounds REALLY different on stage..wondering if I should invest in a pair of studio monitors to dial in the tones. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Trying to stay within $700-$800

Thanks in advance!
 
IMHO studio monitors aren't ideal for dialing in live tones, at least in my circumstance.

I've resorted to using my local town hall and taking my poweramp/cab and dialing in at live volumes, then making minor adjustments at rehearsal. Consequently, the only tweaking necessary (if at all) is making small adjustments to fit in with the gig PA/room.

I guess if one uses in ears or direct to desk at live gigs, studio monitors would get you close but would still need to be dialed in at good volume.

I use Adam A8X's at home which are a great monitor but since I have two AxeFxIII's, they each have their own presets for live & recording purposes respectively.

If I only had one AxeFx though, I'd still have different presets but instead have a backup for each purpose, and load whichever one I was going to use.

This scenario applies to any tone, not just HG in my opinion. In other words, presets for a controlled environment (studio) and presets for more random environments (Live) created for a custom fit.
 
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I really enjoy my Kali Audio LP-6 pair. They even got upgraded now and seem to have gotten even better. But I'm not sure if I already had a Headrush I'd go for studio monitors next but rather put the money towards a PA+traditional guitar cab setup. Then you'll have both worlds and flavors available.
 
Krk monitoring are great if you don’t want to spend millions . With these I don’t have surprises in my mixes and with shared presets . They are pretty neutral, powerful and well build .
I own an expensive mackie pair too (hr824) and I use more the krk 😅 (and I play metal most of the time)
 
Take a look at the Focal Alpha series. I have a pair of 65's and they make me happy both with bass and electric guitar. 80 should be better with bass, but I read that they are a bit scooped.
 
The first question you should be asking yourself is "why are your presets not translating to the stage?" and then work on that. Personally, I am not a fan of the Headrush, but it is an adequate powered speaker for this. New gear may not be the answer, if the problem is how you are setting up your presets.
 
Mutha Goose said:
The first question you should be asking yourself is "why are your presets not translating to the stage?" and then work on that. Personally, I am not a fan of the Headrush, but it is an adequate powered speaker for this. New gear may not be the answer, if the problem is how you are setting up your presets.
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This is my thinking also.. its not clear that studio monitors at any price will do anything other than make you enjoy playing at home more.. they certainly wont fix the issue of translating presets to the stage on a headrush.

@sidsin

1. are you using the headrush to create your presets?.. if so and do NOT like how that preset sounds at home thru the headrush then use the global EQ (on a separate output if necessary) to adjust how it sounds at home to your liking.. then there is a reasonable chance that other presets will translate... so use one set of outs with EQ for home and another for stage.

2. if you are using monitors or headphones currently to create presets, then you will need to use global eq to set the presets for stage use on the headrush.. if you are currently doing this then sure get better monitors.. you will enjoy your music more, but i still would not expect a 1:1 translation of tone.

volume of course makes a huge difference... quiet playing will have you dial in more bass and top end than you will need on stage...so this also may be a factor.
 
For me, as soon as I found one good sound that I knew worked well live, I would then compare any new patches to that while trying to dial them in. I find there are too many variables other than monitor choice in my opinion to really work well for dialing live patches, so just get a monitor that sounds good and don’t worry about how well it translates.
 
I personally really like my Kali LP-6 monitors! What might help though is a bit of time at gig volume playing. I find that what sounds good for at home levels is very bright at live volumes, so maybe play with that a bit. It’s the effect of the fletcher munson curve giving you the perception of more midrange at low volume.
 
Yammies. Most people suggest the HS8 set, I personally have the HS7+HS8S sub set. Super solid, sound amazing, won't break the bank like more higher-tier monitors.
 
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