Through the PA, my FM9 sounds dirtier than at home.

Lance Holland

Lance Holland

Inspired
My gigging presets are set up with a clean, crunchy, and more driven scenes. I mainly live in the effects layout where I add effects and more dirt via a Drive block. At home, the clean scene is pristine. Yet, at the gig, it is way dirtier than when I play it through my home studio monitors. I'm not complaining...it sounded phenomenal at the gig but not what I expected when I dialed it in.

Any thoughts as to what might account for the dramatic difference?
 
If the cleans are pristine at home, but they distort at the gig, then something at the gig is distorting. You could be overdriving your channel. That’s a technique that’s sometimes used in the studio, in small amounts, to fatten up a signal.
 
Rex said:
If the cleans are pristine at home, but they distort at the gig, then something at the gig is distorting. You could be overdriving your channel. That’s a technique that’s sometimes used in the studio, in small amounts, to fatten up a signal.
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This ^^ Check the gain staging on your mixer. A distorted or compressed sound can often be traced to overlooking this step.
 
Rick said:
This ^^ Check the gain staging on your mixer. A distorted or compressed sound can often be traced to overlooking this step.
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Rex said:
If the cleans are pristine at home, but they distort at the gig, then something at the gig is distorting. You could be overdriving your channel. That’s a technique that’s sometimes used in the studio, in small amounts, to fatten up a signal.
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I think we’re onto something here. That seems to be the most plausible explanation.
 
If it is the gain staging on the mixer that is the problem, it is more likely to be the gain knob than the channel slider. Assuming that it is not how the compression, EQ, or effects are dialed in, that is causing the more overdriven/distorted sound. And, if you are also hearing vocals or other instruments breaking up, although originating at the mixer, the problem could be the FOH speakers could also be being overdriven if the signal feeding them is too hot, or they are turned up too high.

Also, can't discount the Fletcher-Munson curve and just playing at louder volumes live, as @Dave Merrill mentioned. All sorts of effects including delay, reverb, and the amount of grit in the preset can take on a different character at higher volumes.
 
The main PA speakers are JBLs and we have a pair of subs. I'm not sure what model. The system sounds extremely clear at the gig. People alway compliment us on the quality of the sound. We are a 100% digital band (including drums/bass) and I've never heard any distortion coming from the PA when we're playing. So, I don't think it's the speakers.
 
probably gain staging at the console. Fractals send a pretty hot signal and it may need to be compensated for at the console or on your end in your I/O settings.
 
I think I'm leaning toward the Fletcher-Muson problem. I cranked up the monitors at home pretty loud this evening. I can hear more of the distorted character of the guitar that I remember being produced in the PA. We have a rehearsal Wednesday and I'll ask our lead to check levels regardless.
 
If you were overloading the console inputs or busses, that'd be a totally different kind of distortion than almost any guitar tone ever, except Revolution maybe. It'd be capital U Ugly, like something's broken.

Is that what you're hearing? My guess is no.

It's likely the volume and overall scale is magnifying everything, and different sorts of tones feel right in that environment.

You've probably heard stories about how big name players are often less distorted in isolation than our impression of them, or at least our impression of the band as a whole.

Regardless, adjust things to make yourself happy. Crank it up through the pa at rehearsal if you can, ideally playing along with a live recording of the rest of your band. You're not going to enjoy yourself much if you don't like the tone and feel of your rig.
 
Lance Holland said:
I think I'm leaning toward the Fletcher-Muson problem. I cranked up the monitors at home pretty loud this evening. I can hear more of the distorted character of the guitar that I remember being produced in the PA. We have a rehearsal Wednesday and I'll ask our lead to check levels regardless.
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It’s true that the more volume you’ve got, the less distortion you need.
 
If you’re playing at low volume at home it could be just hearing your strings acoustically make it seem ‘cleaner’. Turning up would help eliminate that along with fletcher-Munson effects.
 
Probably gain stage. Something a lot of sound guys don't bother with doing is properly setting the input gain. On some mixers this is done by selecting "solo to main" for the channel, put the slider at 0 db, and have the person play (or sing) at performance volume. Adjust the input gain for the channel until the VU meter shows your signal is at 0DB or just tickling the red. Then turn off solo to main and do the next channel. Do this for every instrument and every singer. Then start your mix with all the sliders at 3/4s of the way to 0 db and go up and down from there to get the mix you want.
 
SJonesofva said:
Probably gain stage. Something a lot of sound guys don't bother with doing is properly setting the input gain. On some mixers this is done by selecting "solo to main" for the channel, put the slider at 0 db, and have the person play (or sing) at performance volume. Adjust the input gain for the channel until the VU meter shows your signal is at 0DB or just tickling the red. Then turn off solo to main and do the next channel. Do this for every instrument and every singer. Then start your mix with all the sliders at 3/4s of the way to 0 db and go up and down from there to get the mix you want.
Click to expand...
depending on the db scale/mixer, it could be 0db or -18dbfs for ea channel.
 
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