Subwoofer?

[Bruce Sokolovic]

You don’t have to be a full wavelength away from a speaker to hear it.

You sure aren’t hearing the same sound sitting on top of it as you would hear from the back of the room, though. I know things change radically for me (albeit in a minimally treated room). Even in good rooms, the bass is far more apparent when you give the sound some distance to be what it’s going to be.

 

[Rick]

I have a Presonus Temblor 10 on my Scepter S8s. The Axe Fx sounds great through the set, but I don’t know how much guitar is there. Fact is, the live FOH rig uses subs and I want to hear a reasonably close representation of what the audience hears when building presets. My stage monitoring does not use a sub.

 

[Rex]

You sure aren’t hearing the same sound sitting on top of it as you would hear from the back of the room, though.

True.

Even in good rooms, the bass is far more apparent when you give the sound some distance to be what it’s going to be.

Small, untreated rooms are notorious for emphasizing bass. A sound wave doesn't evolve as it travels from the source, other than decaying with distance. It already is what it's going to be.

 

[zakchary11]

I was wondering can you add a subwoofer to the Axe fx III? I was wanting to use it in my home setup. If it is possible how would I go about setting it up?

My observations:

I used a subwoofer for years. Even setting the crossover to 40 Hz demonstrated to me the fact that many great guitar tones have energy down there despite conventional wisdom to the contrary. Recordings from ZZ Top, Van Halen, Rush, and countless other bands with acapella guitar intros demonstrate this. Other bands (like Boston) filter everything out. Crank up a sub for the intro of Tush, listen a few times, then turn it off. The balls disappear.

The energy down there is low amplitude, but it is vital for certain tones. It is only noticeable when the guitar is not masked. But when it isn't, the difference is monumental to me (again, for certain tones). I disagree with the opinion that it interferes with the bass and kick. The guitar's sub-lows (when balanced properly) are totally swamped by the bass and kick. I always want to scream when a FOH guy slaps HPF on my channel before he's even heard my tones.

Having said that, I got rid of my sub a couple of years ago. Phase problems made the sub do more harm than good. My JBL studio monitors have 12" woofers, so I just crank the sub-bass on my favorite commercial recordings to my liking with a universal plugin and mix my stuff from there.

 

[tysonlt]

I’ve seen so many bands where the guitarist has this big ballsy beefy chunky tone - that disappears when the rest of the band starts. Sure there may be content down low, but I think the skill required to mix it isn’t worth it. You’re far more likely to wash out your own sound.

It’s not so much about you competing with the bass, but the bass competing against you, and mopping the floor with you. The energy from a loud bass will stomp all over your guitar even if you have a woofer, because it’s not the guitar’s natural habitat.

 

[pauly]

I have some 15” 3 way JBLs that go down to around 38hz, but I still have a 2x15 JBL sub to round it out. Sounds awsome.
I assume you mean the little JBL monitors?
Thanks
Pauly

Sorry to disagree but I’ve never come across any enthusiast level near field monitors that can come anywhere close to 20Hz, maybe 50Hz or so, but even then the response is way down. Maybe if we are talking ultra high end stuff costing more than my car, but no JBL, Adam, Presonus, Mackie, Behringer, M-Audio et al., monitors are going to come close

 

[fractalz]

My observations:

I used a subwoofer for years. Even setting the crossover to 40 Hz demonstrated to me the fact that many great guitar tones have energy down there despite conventional wisdom to the contrary. Recordings from ZZ Top, Van Halen, Rush, and countless other bands with acapella guitar intros demonstrate this. Other bands (like Boston) filter everything out. Crank up a sub for the intro of Tush, listen a few times, then turn it off. The balls disappear.

The energy down there is low amplitude, but it is vital for certain tones. It is only noticeable when the guitar is not masked. But when it isn't, the difference is monumental to me (again, for certain tones). I disagree with the opinion that it interferes with the bass and kick. The guitar's sub-lows (when balanced properly) are totally swamped by the bass and kick. I always want to scream when a FOH guy slaps HPF on my channel before he's even heard my tones.

Having said that, I got rid of my sub a couple of years ago. Phase problems made the sub do more harm than good. My JBL studio monitors have 12" woofers, so I just crank the sub-bass on my favorite commercial recordings to my liking with a universal plugin and mix my stuff from there.

You should watch a mixing session or two on YouTube. You may cry a little when you see a 200Hz high pass put on the guitar buss.

There is no useful info below 80Hz for guitar and it sounds quite fine with a high pass at 100,150 or 200Hz.

Does a guitar signal include energy at 40Hz? Sure it does. Is it useful? No.

 

[Shask]

I have been looking at adding a Sub also. More for the vibration and rumble that is missing from monitors that you get from "the amp in the room" moreso than mixing. Something to increase the fun of playing through FRFR in the room.