Frankencat
Roadie
- Messages
- 222
It usually takes me 3-4 gigs/rehearsals to get a new setup dialed in to my liking. It's part of the curve.
What makes the fender ""FRFR"" different than others?
Aside from the noise issue I mean
As an initial point -- let me just note that I'm not trying to diminish your frustration or desires here at all. Buuuuuut...Ultimately the main goal of the rehearsals is the music, but I have very little time to set up sounds for shows and so it is very helpful for me to also be able to use them as an opportunity to hear my tones in the context of the ensemble and take notes about what’s working and what’s not so I can make changes between rehearsals.
One instrument coming out of an ""FRFR"" just isn’t working for me when all the other instruments are either acoustic or coming through amps.
As much as I love my Altos, every time I borrow my cousin's Turbosounds, I get gear lustHave you tried a coaxial ""FRFR""? I find that they feel WAY more like real guitar speakers than speaker+tweeter desgins. I've compared my Xitones and Yamaha DHR12ms (both of which are coax) to standard PA speakers (Yamaha DXR12 MK II's) and there's no comparison. Coaxial or die.
Is there any easy way to have a room mic that feeds your in ears for rehearsals? In other words, you’re listening to the same ‘source’ in rehearsals as you are in performance. Doesn’t matter that the others aren’t on in ears as long as you are and you control the ratio of the room mic to your own signal feed…
Here’s what I do:
I choose my 2 reference devices…those represent “the truth”, that’s what I dial my sounds on. If I don’t do that…I’ll go mad, keep dialing forever..counterproductive.
I use studio reference monitors for my cabsimmed sounds, and my fav tube powersection/cab for my stage sound.
I’m fully aware that PA/volume might require something different then reference monitors…but that’s something you do at the gig, at the desk…use of reference monitors give you the best middleground as a startingpoint.
I find a cabsim that matches my real cab as close as possible…and I apply that for all my sounds to foh.
Then I’ll dial in my sounds going back and forth between the 2 reference systems, play along with some tracks, use reference audio recordings for the cabsimmed sounds…at the end of which I have sounds that work on both my studio monitors, as well as my amp.
Then at the gig/rehearsal …offcourse everything is different…that’s how it works
First…I dial the global eq to compensate for the situation…if I monitor on cabs…I’ll leave cabsimmed sound alone…I assume there I did my homework right, and that the soundguy is capable.
Usually it’s “at good as it gets in the situation” then…if I need to do something in specific presets, I’ll make the change (assuming it works for foh)…and make a mental note to evaluate the change on my reference systems.
By doing so, I prioritize my monitor sound…but that’s all you can control. Hearing what the audience hears is an illusion..never gonna happen…and its irrelevant when you did your homework right, and you gave the soundguy something good to work with.
I put stage sound first cause thats my responsibility, and a requirement for the band to perform its best. maybe cause I play improvised music it weighs a little bit more, but I also believe it to be true for other styles. For foh…you do the best you can before the gig…but then it’s up to the tech.
Have you tried a coaxial ""FRFR""? I find that they feel WAY more like real guitar speakers than speaker+tweeter desgins. I've compared my Xitones and Yamaha DHR12ms (both of which are coax) to standard PA speakers (Yamaha DXR12 MK II's) and there's no comparison. Coaxial or die.
As an initial point -- let me just note that I'm not trying to diminish your frustration or desires here at all. Buuuuuut...
You're chasing your tail. You are using the rehearsal to adjust your tones in the context of an ensemble that is a bunch of acoustic instruments or instrument-amps...when the context of the gig is NOT going to be that. Dialing in an ""FRFR"" to blend with those sounds may be hard...but for precisely that reason, whatever you accomplish in the rehearsal is going to be mooted once those acoustic instruments and instrument-amps are mic'ed and run through ""FRFR"".
Are other members of the ensemble telling you they are having a hard time hearing you?
All of this stuff is definitely part of a rehearsal - but I would say is also pretty far removed from "I long for the simplicity of a tube rig where...I can't really do anything if I realize I need a different amp tone for this one part" and "I really prefer real cabs when playing with acoustic instruments/instrument amps".It’s still helpful for high level things like finding this section needs a heavier overdrive or a fuzz works better on this one than amp distortion or I’ll need a way to get high gain at a much softer volume here.
It’s also helpful to start learning the choreography of how to configure footswitches to give me access to everything I need, and when I need to coordinate hitting which switches
At any level of gigging your gonna run into bad techs….you do what’s needed to minimize the risk..and the impact when it happens…but when it does you accept that you have been delivered to the gods, keep a straight face…and have a chat with the guy who hired him after the showThat’s good advice. I have this fear of trusting the sound tech with FOH after having an experience where I accidentally dialed everything in super bright because my reference was too dark, and the sound tech assumed that’s how I wanted to sound so my tone was like an ice pick in FOH
I honstely never heard it. They released their own fix on the new models (you can verify via serial) but the preamp Liam at FAS builds for it is KILLER!Is the noise issue with those real, or over-hyped?
Ultimately the main goal of the rehearsals is the music, but I have very little time to set up sounds for shows and so it is very helpful for me to also be able to use them as an opportunity to hear my tones in the context of the ensemble and take notes about what’s working and what’s not so I can make changes between rehearsals.
One instrument coming out of an ""FRFR"" just isn’t working for me when all the other instruments are either acoustic or coming through amps.
I might be talking out my ass There just isn't as much give between playing lightly and digging in vs. whatever tube amp I am using at a given moment.How would a linear amp be less dynamic than a tube amp? The whole point of a tube amp according to the troo beliebers is to remove dynamics by being non linear
typically using IEMs and everything goes direct
there are a few rehearsals where we’re set up in a room with no PA.
It may suck, but it will work so you won't have to change much of anything on the front end, and it's just for a rehearsal, bring your IEMs like you would the gig.""FRFR""" sucks. It doesn’t work when I’m playing with other instruments that aren’t coming through a PA. I get buried in the mix and I’m somehow both too loud and too quiet at the same time. The frequency response is all wrong and it just doesn’t sit right in the mix.
Don't over think it. You just need the ensemble to be able to hear you, everything else doesn't matter for the situation. Rent a wedge and get through it!Thinking about maybe going with a power amp and speaker cab? But I don’t want to have to dial in tones for both rehearsal and the show…
This is where I miss tube amps. It was so much easier to reach over and turn a couple knobs while playing to account for the room.
I’ve even thought this is where a Tone Master amp would make a lot of sense.
All of this stuff is definitely part of a rehearsal - but I would say is also pretty far removed from "I long for the simplicity of a tube rig where...I can't really do anything if I realize I need a different amp tone for this one part" and "I really prefer real cabs when playing with acoustic instruments/instrument amps".
I think whatever benefits you get from trying to go real cab with your modeler or whatever, are going to come back to bite you when you now have to move whatever you've done in that context back to ""FRFR"" context for the gig. Lean into the practice amp vibe is what I say!
I honstely never heard it. They released their own fix on the new models (you can verify via serial) but the preamp Liam at FAS builds for it is KILLER!
I’m not saying I long for the simplicity of a tube rig. Mostly I need to figure out a way to make a digital rig “sit” better with acoustic instruments and minimize the difference between the rehearsal and performance as much as possible (which I realize isn’t much)