Who EQ's their rig for live sound?

Colorado Axeman

Colorado Axeman

Inspired
Do you add your own EQ filters in Axe-FX or leave it to the sound man? I've found sound men to be very unreliable from gig to gig at the venues that I play. Back when I had an amp+mic the situation was out of my hands, but the Fractal offers total control over what frequencies we send to the FOH. I've been experimenting with adding a high pass filter to my live presets, with a 250 Hz cutoff, and then an additional cut of frequencies above 10K Hz. Placing the HPF there thins out the tone of my guitar a bit, but suits the overall mix because I've got a keyboard player in my band using those frequencies in the 100 - 250 Hz range. Otherwise I would probably use 100 Hz as my "normal" HPF cut.
 
Last edited:
I use the high and low cutoffs in the cab block to handle this, but then still have effects afterward. I should explore rejiggering things so cab block is last so the filters cover the effects too. I use PEQ before amp block for tone shaping, and it also contributes to freeing up space in the low end.
 
6stringscott said:
I use the high and low cutoffs in the cab block to handle this, but then still have effects afterward. I should explore rejiggering things so cab block is last so the filters cover the effects too. I use PEQ before amp block for tone shaping, and it also contributes to freeing up space in the low end.
Click to expand...


Effects are not going to add frequency content that isn’t already there really. If you cut the highs on a cab, and then run into a delay etc, the delay is only affecting the already cut signal going into it.
 
6stringscott said:
I use the high and low cutoffs in the cab block to handle this, but then still have effects afterward. I should explore rejiggering things so cab block is last so the filters cover the effects too. I use PEQ before amp block for tone shaping, and it also contributes to freeing up space in the low end.
Click to expand...

It's good to know that option is in the cab block as well, but it's probably a shelf filter. The HPF block gives you more control over the slope of the cutoff as well as the frequency so you can drastically attenuate the cutoff if you like.
 
Colorado Axeman said:
It's good to know that option is in the cab block as well, but it's probably a shelf filter. The HPF block gives you more control over the slope of the cutoff as well as the frequency so you can drastically attenuate the cutoff if you like.
Click to expand...


I think you can choose 6 or 12 dB/oct in the cab block now too
 
I give the soundguy a completely untouched direct output.
I think he should have the control over mixing all the instruments, so they would sound good from the FOH. You know, the thing you can't hear from the stage, so you have no idea what is required.
 
If all my band mates had such control, I'd probably support this, because then we could create a really great mix right at the input. But since only I am digital and especially because my fellow guitarist plays tube, that doesn't seem to make any sense. What I do however is to set a lowpass/highcut filter in the cab block. Without it stuff doesn't sound good and I can control this better than a sound guy with an analog console.
 
Using the low/high cut in the cab block was a great suggestion, thanks.

Depending on the event, I think it's a bit dangerous to give the sound guy total control unless you're sure he knows what he's doing. I had a recent experience at a upscale venue/medium-sized show of about 500 people where it was pretty clear within minutes that he was a greenhorn. I was using a 2x12 combo tube amp, and the other guitarist in the band had a little 1x12 Blues Jr amp. He actually told us that he didn't think it would be necessary to mic our amps through the FOH! After sound check he promptly came over and mic'd both of us up. On another occasion they tried to put the mic on my 2x12 in the middle between the two speakers. To get the job, these guys pitch themselves to the venues as experienced technicians, when clearly that experience thus far has amounted to assisting other sound guys.
 
Last edited:
Yes I have studio presets
And live presets that have para Eq
Cutting lows and a couple of high frequency bands that get shrill at volume
 
Colorado Axeman said:
Depending on the event, I think it's a bit dangerous to give the sound guy total control unless you're sure he knows what he's doing.
Click to expand...
In theory I totally agree, BUT what about the other guys in your band? What if they give him only the raw material? Then he's forced to mix the others around your sound. What if that's impossible? What if the guys really doesn't know his job and all sounds shitty but you? What's the benefit?

I'd say, either all in your band provide a mix-ready sound, or nobody. A band should be a unit and sound like a unit. But that's just how I see things... ;)
 
Speaking in general terms, as someone who has run live sound and also known a lot of guitar players, I’d say most “sound guys”/ FOH engineers know more about “good” sound/band mix, than most guitarist do, though there are exceptions of course.

I constantly ran into guitarist who think they know how to mix a band, but they don’t, they just know their own guitar tone, and want to hear it in isolation during sound check. They fail to realize how different it can sound FOH vs onstage, how other instruments need “space” in the mix, how the venue acoustics change when it’s full of people etc.

I’d have constant arguments with guys who didn’t like their tone during sound check but then loved hearing a recording from the board, or compliments on the bands tone.

Honestly if you let 9 out of 10 guitar players mix a band you’d hear no vocal, muddy low end, and pretty much just guitar and hi hats. The guitarist would probably say they sounded great too because you could sure hear them lol.

Sound engineers don’t tell guitar players which chord profession they should be using, so guitar players often need not tell an engineer how to mix the band lol
 
As a solo act, I do my own sound. I've been adding some festival gigs the last few years and I submix to the concert systems. Usually I go in flat EQ and they're flat EQ on my channels in their system and all is good. Some systems/techs aren't as experienced and I do a best-guesstimate EQ en route to them and they stay flat on the channel.

Because I'm pre-mixed and can tweak on iPad, they'll let me do that at the sound tent, they approve my tweaks or make a suggestion and we're good. I often check-in afterwards and ask if they had to adjust anything. Most don't, but if they do I like to learn what they did, and they like that. All in all, they're all pros, it's a non-event and we enjoy visiting, and they like that I'm low maintenance and know what I'm doing.

I've only had "issues" once where inexperienced tech and system that was subbing on a festival was tweak-happy during the performance and moving the sound all over the place. I'd already pre-EQ'd to prevent disaster so it went OK, but the act after me sounded like 60 minutes of ringing out a system...ouch!
 
Last edited:
lqdsnddist said:
Effects are not going to add frequency content that isn’t already there really. If you cut the highs on a cab, and then run into a delay etc, the delay is only affecting the already cut signal going into it.
Click to expand...
Not totally true... A Filter block could do this, as one example. Or a Pitch block...
 
unix-guy said:
Not totally true... A Filter block could do this, as one example. Or a Pitch block...
Click to expand...

Of course, same could be said for an eq block, but I don’t think it’s very typical to run those types post cab. I was referring, perhaps not specifically enough, to things like modulation, delay etc, which are often put post cab by many folks.

If you cot your cab at 5000hz, then run a delay, you don’t need to add another filter block to fit everything above 5000hz again, because it’s already gone, was my point. Exceptions certainly can and will arise
 
lqdsnddist said:
Of course, same could be said for an eq block, but I don’t think it’s very typical to run those types post cab. I was referring, perhaps not specifically enough, to things like modulation, delay etc, which are often put post cab by many folks.

If you cot your cab at 5000hz, then run a delay, you don’t need to add another filter block to fit everything above 5000hz again, because it’s already gone, was my point. Exceptions certainly can and will arise
Click to expand...
Agreed...
 
We run all IEMs and all direct. We leave total control to FOH and hope for the best. We usually tip before we play and let him know how we want things. I tuned my rig for a flat eq to FOH...then all he has to do it cut/add to taste. Most sound guys are like "ohh, your all direct and no monitors...and and axefx...your good dude, no worries!"
 
i use the global eq so i can easily change between no eq, for our own pa (which is remarkably flat) and other rigs where i have to inevitably drop some upper mids. the global eq is where it's at, yo
 
axifist said:
In theory I totally agree, BUT what about the other guys in your band? What if they give him only the raw material? Then he's forced to mix the others around your sound. What if that's impossible? What if the guys really doesn't know his job and all sounds shitty but you? What's the benefit?

I'd say, either all in your band provide a mix-ready sound, or nobody. A band should be a unit and sound like a unit. But that's just how I see things... ;)
Click to expand...

My synth player does use a LPF for a lot of his patches, and he's the only guy in the band that I would be sonically competing with. It's not an exact science... there's a lot of musical ground that we're covering and the tones vary a lot from song to song. I applied shelf filters on most of my cab banks at 250 Hz and 6000 Hz. I have two shows this weekend... I'll let you know how it turns out. In my other band the guitarist has a rather dark sounding amp, so I usually aim for a brighter tone and it seems to work pretty well between the two of us without having to get specific about filters and frequencies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom