Weekend gig report first live gig with the Ultra

[Mark Day]

Ok, first gig with the Ultra.
I setup my tone using an ART SLA2 and a Randall 2x12"...sounded great at high volumes in rehearsal.
Friday night I brought out my usual backline of two Mesa 4x12's loaded with V30's...bottom line didn't like the Mesa's.

Saturday night I said wtf, I'l bring a pair of the inexpensive Randall 2x12's with 70/80's or Custom 80'sor whatever they are.

WHAM!!!!!!!! Sounded amazing, incredibly chewy thick tone and super easy to play through, the guitar cut through the FOH like no tomorrow
and the stage tone was smokin', a real pleasure to play through.

I am one happy dude

Here's a clip in case you missed it over in the recording section.
The audio portion was recorded with an Ediro R09-HR, the only place I could stick it was right on top of one of the PA stacks...so it's getting mostly stage volume....but you get the idea...as always forgive the clams

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Z_IOWkepk&fmt=22

Mark

 

[etzel]

first saw the video over at hugeracksinc...

sounds wonderful. amazing. incredible. fact is, that we can see just few recordings from shows, but more bedroom stuff, which is ok, but the real horse to be calmed is out there, in the world, on the stage. if you can make it there, you've done it

 

[ttosh]

Glad to hear you had good luck with the unit live. I am hoping this will be the case with me as well. I am not concerned on the recording side as I have gotten good results with lesser plugins, etc..

As always you rock and thanks for the update!!!

 

[twentytwenty]

Sounds excellent Mark! Good voice too! a sweet playing and sounding band!!!

That's the rock tone I have been after for years, how many patches do you use throughout that video?, I will be an extremely cheeky Brit and ask if you may post up one of them up here!!

Would love to check one out.

Anyway great work, I always look forward to your videos and thank you for taking the time to post them.

 

[Mark Day]

Sounds excellent Mark! Good voice too! a sweet playing and sounding band!!!

That's the rock tone I have been after for years, how many patches do you use throughout that video?, I will be an extremely cheeky Brit and ask if you may post up one of them up here!!

Would love to check one out.

Anyway great work, I always look forward to your videos and thank you for taking the time to post them.

In the video there are 3 patches, my main rhythm and main solo, and a spillover preset which is my main rhythm with a redundant delay block. I have a cc modifier on the delay so when I hit that IA on my Ground Control Pro it sends out midi cc10 to the AxeFx which has a modifier programmed on the delay 1 block...it increases the volume, the repeats and the delay time of that block. Works like a charm

Here are my latest patches and I have OUT1 setup for direct with the Cab and poweramp sims. My guitar is STUPID HOT so you may have to increase the gain on the O/D and amp sim. The title of each patch is pretty self explanatory. As always OUT 2 is for the ART SLA2/two 2x12" guitar cabs in stereo.


I have a volume controller connected to the mixer block using cc7. So if you get no sound look there first and just disable the modifier on the mixer block. Cliff would use a Vol/Pan Block instead of the mixer block so I will probably change the mixer block in all the patches to a Vol block instead. In the meantime the mixer block does the trick for the vol pedal assignment

http://files.me.com/samhillband/0lmsqv

I always share my patches

Mark

 

[twentytwenty]

In the video there are 3 patches, my main rhythm and main solo, and a spillover preset which is my main rhythm with a redundant delay block. I have a cc modifier on the delay so when I hit that IA on my Ground Control Pro it sends out midi cc10 to the AxeFx which has a modifier programmed on the delay 1 block...it increases the volume, the repeats and the delay time of that block. Works like a charm

Here are my latest patches and I have OUT1 setup for direct with the Cab and poweramp sims. My guitar is STUPID HOT so you may have to increase the gain on the O/D and amp sim. The title of each patch is pretty self explanatory. As always OUT 2 is for the ART SLA2/two 2x12" guitar cabs in stereo.


I have a volume controller connected to the mixer block using cc7. So if you get no sound look there first and just disable the modifier on the mixer block. Cliff would use a Vol/Pan Block instead of the mixer block so I will probably change the mixer block in all the patches to a Vol block instead. In the meantime the mixer block does the trick for the vol pedal assignment

http://files.me.com/samhillband/0lmsqv

I always share my patches

Mark

Thanks for taking the time to reply, that is very kind of you, I am itching to break out the Axe, SLA-2 and Cabs now! If I can duplicate what you have there on the high gain side of things I will be one happy chappy.

I am sure there are many others who feel the same.

When my full gig patches are ready I will be posting them too!

Many thanks again.

 

[neilrocks25]

love it.

 

[Casper]

Thank you for sharing Mark.

 

[Lemurstrat]

Sounds great Mark, and keep updating axe clips on youtube.
So you prefer the seventy 80 over the vintage 30 speaker. Or is it the design of the Randall cabinet that cut through better than the mesa cab?
What did you find was the major difference? The seventy 80 seem to have a flatter eq curve. Have you experimented with other speakers? I can't decide what speakers to get for a new 2x12 cab.

 

[Mark Day]

Sounds great Mark, and keep updating axe clips on youtube.
So you prefer the seventy 80 over the vintage 30 speaker. Or is it the design of the Randall cabinet that cut through better than the mesa cab?
What did you find was the major difference? The seventy 80 seem to have a flatter eq curve. Have you experimented with other speakers?
I can't decide what speakers to get for a new 2x12 cab.

I think the real issue is that I did my programming with a single 2x12" (which I normally do on any rig) but when I went live with the Mesa's it just didn't sound as good.

So to answer....I have only tried the V30's and the 70/80's. I prefer the 70/80's they just sounded way better. I am quite pleased because it will free up a lot of real estate on stage and in the trailer


Mark

 

[R.D.]

Sounds great Mark, and keep updating axe clips on youtube.
So you prefer the seventy 80 over the vintage 30 speaker. Or is it the design of the Randall cabinet that cut through better than the mesa cab?
What did you find was the major difference? The seventy 80 seem to have a flatter eq curve. Have you experimented with other speakers?
I can't decide what speakers to get for a new 2x12 cab.

I think the real issue is that I did my programming with a single 2x12" (which I normally do on any rig) but when I went live with the Mesa's it just didn't sound as good.

So to answer....I have only tried the V30's and the 70/80's. I prefer the 70/80's they just sounded way better. I am quite pleased because it will free up a lot of real estate on stage and in the trailer


Mark

Hey Mark,

First of all, you and I need to work on our timing .... You dog, you post most of your YT stuff right after I go to work, and dammit my company has got a filter that allows me to get to the forum boards, but not to play any YouTube vids .... So I spend all day in anticipation until I can get home to watch ! See what you can do about that huh ?

Anyway, I think if you'd have put in the time programming to your MESA's you'd probably have loved that too. Everything I read seems to suggest the Axe is more sensitive ( or responsive, if you prefer ) to everything else in the signal chain .... Switch something up and you've got a lot of re-tweaking to do ....

That's probably why I can't match your gain .... My guitar's got a very low output S.D. EVH '78, and obviously you've got the Blackouts ! There's just no way your patches are going to sound anywhere near the same on my system .... And that's just the guitar. Change up something else and ..., well you get the point.

I was very impressed with the tone your camera picked up. Just enough of the rest of the band to put it all into context, but at the same time loud enough so that no one can say, hey I can't hear you .... turn it up dude :mrgreen:

Keep those coming !

L8tr ....

 

[the-patient]

Sorry if this question is redundant, but are you mic'ing the cab to send to FOH? or are you going direct in with the other out?

 

[Mark Day]

Sorry if this question is redundant, but are you mic'ing the cab to send to FOH? or are you going direct in with the other out?

OUT 2 goes to ART SLA2/guitar cabs, OUT 1 goes direct to FOH. No cab sims to OUT 2, cab sims on for OUT 1


Mark

 

[Mark Day]

Sounds great Mark, and keep updating axe clips on youtube.
So you prefer the seventy 80 over the vintage 30 speaker. Or is it the design of the Randall cabinet that cut through better than the mesa cab?
What did you find was the major difference? The seventy 80 seem to have a flatter eq curve. Have you experimented with other speakers?
I can't decide what speakers to get for a new 2x12 cab.

I think the real issue is that I did my programming with a single 2x12" (which I normally do on any rig) but when I went live with the Mesa's it just didn't sound as good.

So to answer....I have only tried the V30's and the 70/80's. I prefer the 70/80's they just sounded way better. I am quite pleased because it will free up a lot of real estate on stage and in the trailer


Mark

Hey Mark,

First of all, you and I need to work on our timing .... You dog, you post most of your YT stuff right after I go to work, and dammit my company has got a filter that allows me to get to the forum boards, but not to play any YouTube vids .... So I spend all day in anticipation until I can get home to watch ! See what you can do about that huh ?

Anyway, I think if you'd have put in the time programming to your MESA's you'd probably have loved that too. Everything I read seems to suggest the Axe is more sensitive ( or responsive, if you prefer ) to everything else in the signal chain .... Switch something up and you've got a lot of re-tweaking to do ....

That's probably why I can't match your gain .... My guitar's got a very low output S.D. EVH '78, and obviously you've got the Blackouts ! There's just no way your patches are going to sound anywhere near the same on my system .... And that's just the guitar. Change up something else and ..., well you get the point.

I was very impressed with the tone your camera picked up. Just enough of the rest of the band to put it all into context, but at the same time loud enough so that no one can say, hey I can't hear you .... turn it up dude :mrgreen:

Keep those coming !

L8tr ....

Sorry about that Roger...lol.
I'm sure if I tweaked with the Mesa cabs all would be good But hell I just lost 300lbs!!!!

BTW it was the Edirol R09-HR that recorded the audio...next time it will go in front of the PA

Mark

 

[Ochanomizu]

Awesome rock tones there bro... your other YouTube vids helped clinch it for me to get an SLA-2, which is now on order.

To start with I'll be running mine through a Mesa Boogie 1 x 12 Black Widow speaker rated at 8 ohms, 90 watts... So definitely not as ballsy as your rig, but hopefully sufficient to get some similar tones...


Thanks

 

[R.D.]

But hell I just lost 300lbs!!!!

BTW it was the Edirol R09-HR that recorded the audio...next time it will go in front of the PA

Mark

I thought I read somewhere else you said you had more fat than muscle ? Not if you just lost 300 lbs you don't :shock:

Seriously though, I knew you'd be able to tweak until you were happy, but I didn't think you'd be able to duplicate your SEPlus / G-major / etc; etc; rig so completely, or especially so quickly !

Damn, that is Soooooooo cool !

 

[the-patient]

Sorry if this question is redundant, but are you mic'ing the cab to send to FOH? or are you going direct in with the other out?

OUT 2 goes to ART SLA2/guitar cabs, OUT 1 goes direct to FOH. No cab sims to OUT 2, cab sims on for OUT 1


Mark

That's awesome Mark, I played my first gig with it this weekend, and allthough I got TONS of compliments on my sound, I found that what I lost was some confidence that came from years of playing with a guitar amp.

I was doing a Beatles tribute, so for aesthetic's sake, I brought my Ac30 with a 2x12, and people said it was the best sounding AC30 they'd ever heard, and asked if I had had it modded. Haha, jaws dropped when I was like "it's a digital rig, by Fractal audio" :lol:

Anyway man, thanks for the insight, and you should be getting commission from Art it seems

 

[Mark Day]

But hell I just lost 300lbs!!!!

BTW it was the Edirol R09-HR that recorded the audio...next time it will go in front of the PA

Mark

I thought I read somewhere else you said you had more fat than muscle ? Not if you just lost 300 lbs you don't :shock:

Seriously though, I knew you'd be able to tweak until you were happy, but I didn't think you'd be able to duplicate your SEPlus / G-major / etc; etc; rig so completely, or especially so quickly !

Damn, that is Soooooooo cool !

Thanks Roger!!

Mark

 

[Mark Day]

[quote="the-patient":29u29vvp]Sorry if this question is redundant, but are you mic'ing the cab to send to FOH? or are you going direct in with the other out?

OUT 2 goes to ART SLA2/guitar cabs, OUT 1 goes direct to FOH. No cab sims to OUT 2, cab sims on for OUT 1


Mark

That's awesome Mark, I played my first gig with it this weekend, and allthough I got TONS of compliments on my sound, I found that what I lost was some confidence that came from years of playing with a guitar amp.

I was doing a Beatles tribute, so for aesthetic's sake, I brought my Ac30 with a 2x12, and people said it was the best sounding AC30 they'd ever heard, and asked if I had had it modded. Haha, jaws dropped when I was like "it's a digital rig, by Fractal audio" :lol:

Anyway man, thanks for the insight, and you should be getting commission from Art it seems [/quote:29u29vvp]

It's hilarious when they don't know.

Here's a true story..back in the 90's I used a 20 space Bradshaw rig and four 4x12's. There was a large club we played regularly. There was always this guitarist there that would chew the fat with me. He would make comments about my huge rack and why did I need all that stuff, but he liked my tone....but didn't love it

One night we were there and they changed the stage a bit, I had to run my rack off the side behind a curtain, still had the cabs on stage. So dude comes running up to me at the end of the night and says, "man I knew you would sound lot better if you didn't use all that shit!"
You should have seen his face when I pulled back the curtain...PRICELESS!

Guys will want to deny how good the AxeFx sounds...if they see it...lol.


Mark

 

[the-patient]

I totally agree, actually it's amazing how much people's eyes tell them what they're hearing. If I'd have had a rack, and a wedge monitor, I can almost guarantee that I'd have the whole "it sounds like 1's and 0's" routine.

It's actually a little frustrating, but so comical at the same time. It makes me feel a lot more confident in my tone, when people can say that without actually knowing what I'm using..

On the other hand? Did it sound "good" because he likes AC30's?