Teach a man to fish. Yeah, that's valuable. But separation of labor is also a valuable thing in modern society, where people who know how to do something well do it, while others pay them for it and thus get the services and/or products in the most efficient manner.
I work 60+ hours a week, have a family with two kids, and while I do play with a band at clubs where tickets are sold, we certainly spend more than we make. So it's all just fun. Tweaking my rig is also fun, but there's a limit on how much time I can spend on it. When I come home at 10-11pm, I need to spend time with my wife. On weekends, I practice with my band, and it's also not such a great time to start setting up sounds. The rest of the weekend I spend with my kids - they need to know who their father is.
Of course there are nights, but then there's a problem - I can't really turn up volume at nights.
So when and where am I supposed to set up my presets? I only have short windows of time when I'm alone at home and it's not like 2am and I'm sure my neighbors won't call the police.
When I got my Axe, it took me a few hours to dial in the core 3-4 presets that I use, that wasn't too difficult. Some other presets, for specific sounds, took a bit longer. That wasn't too difficult. But then comes the hard part - adjusting these presets for live sound. I'm not really happy with what I have. Yeah, I know about mid boost and all that, but knowing that and applying it with good results are very different things. For the latter you need experience and ability to listen to what you get at high volume. Otherwise it just takes forever - I go to a rehearsal, make mental notes of what needs to be adjusted, come home, wait for appropriate time, adjust, go to a rehearsal, you get the idea.
That said, preset and cab packs don't help much. They just make tweaking an endless process in pursuit of perfection. Which is a fine way to spend time in and of itself, but certainly not what I need. Axechange has been extremely helpful and useful for me - I did download some presets from there. But I don't use them as is - I changed them quite dramatically for my purposes. As many people pointed out, it's next to impossible to make a preset that suits everyone. So would I pay for a pre-fabricated preset? No. For a service to help me set up what I need? Easily.
I suggest buying a db meter
Then recording your band
check dynamics using the Db Meter
then you can know ok at our loudest peak
its 120db.. and when we are at lowest volume
its 80 db you could at least know about what the extremes are.
Then you might be able to work on free time and use meter with your system
measure and start setting things up where its in that range.
I paid someone to show me that..
Id pay him again to teach me something else enjoyed the persons wit and company and I learned
volumes from that.
You can measure your own volumes then even at practice or before or after say
where you can get loud and adjust things might need laptop with you or
to know the front panel settings to do that..
I want a laptop just for reaper and logic and fractal
axe edit ect...
Designated for that so on the fly I could do the same.
I wanted to rent a theater here in local area for the day
and bring in a drummer and bassist and even invite
some local pros to come check the axe out..
It costs money I found out people like to eat and be paid
imagine that.
The goal was to see how the axe worked in the theater with full pa and band
and have them go through dynamics so I could set the axe too realistic volumes.
Good point vangrieg what about in a live situation ?
Radio Shack had the Db meters cheap..
I take advice and direction especially if someone has taken time to help me
achieve what is important to making me happy..
Sound glorious fucking sound that makes my hairs raise up.
Thats what im about..
I want to know how to get those sounds in my head..
Soon as I learned how to control the axe and speak the lingo some
one after the other I sleighed those dragons.
Before that I was building two amps by hand to
specs from my personal Dumble..
Its not a walk in the park its expensive and just because you can find the same parts values ect
does not mean you can just make one up and it will sound right.
Tuning them is another animal to learn.. I still have not got those to sound right..
Instead of getting bummed though I just matched every one of them in my own axe fx
and even surpassed them finding other sounds within that patch that made even other patches
entirely.. spawning better amps within the axe.
My teacher created a Tone Monster..
I will get it one way or the other.
The amp which was gooped up I just recorded it from every filter setting possible
and matched it by ear you can take voltage measurements but if things are gooped
you really cant get at everything needed to do so.
My Original Dumble is not gooped.
Hello
So am I going to Prison for building two more of those by hand ?
and replacing the caps in the original to bring it back to full power ??
What if I just made them for me cause I think I can ?
You know what I contacted Dumble myself asked him if he would
look at redoing the caps and inquired if I sent my 66 showman out
and 6 thousand dollars in Cash inside it overnight would he make me a
ultra phonic ?
He informed me he worked for front line players only
and that there simply was not time to make anything for me
and he could not be of help..
I replaced the caps myself.. I took the voltages before doing so charted the amp
Then replaced the caps and when I purchased the amp it came with selected tubes in boxes
marked by Dumble.. When I redid the caps I installed a better tube and charted it with full power..
I then recorded the Dumble and matched it using a Trainwreck inside the axe.
Thats what ive been sticking too..
Got it now ?
3 different circuits before the ORIGINAL Dumble was purchased.
No one but me has been inside the original Dumble.
The other 3 circuits were different voicing and tube compliment.
6l6 and el 34..
no sense matching unless things are firing on all cylinders..
every amp I matched or recorded was the best it could sound while I was doing it.
The Plexi and fenders are not gooped of course the only amp I owned was the bludo
high plains drifter I dont think the ODS amps are gooped only HPD.
I already knew that amp had been completely repaired before Brandon cloned it
so what did he clone ?
A SSS which had caught fire before and had all the boards and transformer replaced.
No bother about goop knowing that..
Record it through every possible filter setting and select the favorite sound
record that alot and you now have a good reference.
On all the other amps I bought used, I did charts on them to know what voltages were
when they were sounding best.
Thats so when the tubes go you can go back and try to match that..
I record when the amps are sounding the best also
after I make patch up I record that patch and make note
of what FW it is..
Back it up record it dry so I have that reference also..
The only reason im stating this is anyone can do the same thing im doing..
With the amps they own and axe sounds too.
Its like leaving crumbs so you can find your way back if you get lost
or FW is updated you can have a reference..