When You Tell The Soundguy You're Using An AXE FX...

Fro said:
I honestly have come across several sound guys now who are excited to see my band on the bill because they know I have the Axe Fx. It's pretty cool, isn't it? :)
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it really is. we play the same club every friday night and the guy just raves about it...not just to me but on FB as well.
 
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When You Tell The Soundguy You're Using An AXE FX...



You don't want to scare him off on the first date, so wait until you've been going out awhile before breaking the news. When you do, be sure to pick a public place to tell him at so he is less likely to make a scene if he takes it badly.

Good luck.




P.S. Flowers never hurt.
 
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Fro said:
Basically the same thing here. I just say that I run direct, end of story. Keyboards are direct, acoustic guitar is direct, so is the bass. It shouldn't be a new concept. I also don't go into the EQ being flat, or effects not needed, any of that. I figure I don't know the room, or the PA, and I'm not going to bet my life that I made the most perfect patches in the world. So I'm not going to tell the sound guy how to do his job. I say that I run direct, and they say OK. Pretty simple.

If it's a multiple set show, or if there is a break between sound check and the show, I'll talk with the sound guy during the breaks. I'll ask if the level is OK. I'll also ask, "Hey, just out of curiosity, what kind of EQ do you have on the guitar?" They like to talk shop, and if you word it right, appreciate that you show in interest in what they do. If they do EQ my channel, I'll find out how and why. I don't always have the chance to set up my patches at volume, or with a band. If they made a change, and it sounds good, I'll revisit my patches to see how I can make them better. My patches were too dark for a while. All of the sound guys were making the same adjustments to my channel. I made some slight changes to my IR's, and now all is good.
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This is all true. (And honestly, if there's an EQ setting that you think will make your rig sound better, by all means, tell me. It's not like you're trying to solder the knobs in place, and if it doesn't sound right I just won't use it.)
 
i use 1/4 jacks to go to the board (i have a stereo di box in my bag, just in case), so i usually just say "treat it like a keyboard". they then know they're getting a line level stereo pair, and the eq on the desk should be fairly minimal.
 
I just played my first gig with Axe FX last Saturday... and I was playing bass at that. I barely sound checked at all... 5 seconds and I was told I was done.
 
simeon said:
i use 1/4 jacks to go to the board (i have a stereo di box in my bag, just in case), so i usually just say "treat it like a keyboard". they then know they're getting a line level stereo pair, and the eq on the desk should be fairly minimal.
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Just out of curiosity; do you guys always bring your own DI boxes? or do you plug your output 1 jacks in the soundguy's DI boxes?

and as a 2nd question: do you use the unbalanced (1/4 jack) or the balanced (XLR) output 1? what is better?
 
electronpirate said:
Another sound guy thread?
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I think the question I posted was a bit different.

As I'm setting up and they come over to "mic the cab" and don't see one, they ask, "What are you using?" Most time when I say that we're running AXE FX, they ask, "what's that?"

-PJ
 
"I run direct out of it straight to your board". If he asks more, I say it's an amp/cabinet/mic modeler. Then I say "you want XLR or 1/4?" End of story.
 
Bodde said:
Just out of curiosity; do you guys always bring your own DI boxes? or do you plug your output 1 jacks in the soundguy's DI boxes?

and as a 2nd question: do you use the unbalanced (1/4 jack) or the balanced (XLR) output 1? what is better?
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I always bring a Countryman D/I just in case. I guess I should have a passive one too, come to think of it, in case he doesn't have phantom power - but I haven't run into that (yet!)
 
Bodde said:
Just out of curiosity; do you guys always bring your own DI boxes? or do you plug your output 1 jacks in the soundguy's DI boxes?

and as a 2nd question: do you use the unbalanced (1/4 jack) or the balanced (XLR) output 1? what is better?
Click to expand...

I run Output 1 / Left / XLR directly into the board. I typically play in the same venue but if I played different locations I'd probably pick up a Radial JDI. I'd be more concerned about ground loops and the JDI completely decouples the Axe from the FOH through transformer isolation. It also has a 15dB pad which might come in handy.

Terry.
 
Seems like sound guys usually have DIs available, but I can almost always just go straight to the stage snake via output 1 xlr.
 
Fro said:
My patches were too dark for a while. All of the sound guys were making the same adjustments to my channel. I made some slight changes to my IR's, and now all is good.
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This is why I regularly record my band via the MyMix's we use for foldback. Then I mix down the tracks in Logic and see where my guitar is sitting. As I'm dialing in new patches on the Axefx2 I find I need to add more of that or cut this freq in Logic to get it to fit the mix. I take that back to the patch and see what I can do to make it better, so I need to do less post processing next time. After two years my Ultra patches were so good that I could run them straight into the mix with no EQ or verb or anything and they sounded great. Not there yet on the Axefx2 :-|

The main benefit of having a mix ready patch is that for sound guys that aren't really that great you have a better chance of sounding good in the PA. They have less to do... which in my case is a real win, because most of the sound guys around me a just volunteers with little or no knowledge of actual mixing. They do a basic line check of everything and just push faders around until it's in the ball park.
 
Just let them know it's a modeler, and that you'll be giving him a line level signal.

Most soundguys really don't give much shit past that. And really, it's all they need. No need to talk about how great it is, he's going to hear it in a minute.
 
I don't agree with telling the sound guy to run the eq flat. They should know the room and their PA and you should trust them to tweak if required. If they're good at their job you'll be fine. If they're not good at their job, well then you just got a bad sound guy that night so tough luck! :lol
 
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