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Not getting a decent sound out of my HD500X


justcrash
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I am looking for inspiration, guys. I recently trashed all of my presets and tried setting up a new set list based around the new JCM800 2204 model (my favorite real life amp). The issue is, I cannot get anything to sound decent at stage volume. Sounds great turned down, stage volume it sounds very digital. Mind you, I am setting these up at stage volume so it is really frustrating not being able to capture any mojo. Just seems shrill and feedbacky (in a bad way). Any suggestions? (forgot to mention, I go into an L2t set up for FRFR)

 

Also, this is WAAAAAY off topic, but I am looking for some lights to get my band started (we want to start doing our own production and get away from paying over half to the sound/light guy). We have all been doing this a while, but I've never done anything with lights. Any affordable suggestions to get us started?

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I am looking for inspiration, guys. I recently trashed all of my presets and tried setting up a new set list based around the new JCM800 2204 model (my favorite real life amp). The issue is, I cannot get anything to sound decent at stage volume. Sounds great turned down, stage volume it sounds very digital. Mind you, I am setting these up at stage volume so it is really frustrating not being able to capture any mojo. Just seems shrill and feedbacky (in a bad way). Any suggestions? (forgot to mention, I go into an L2t set up for FRFR)

 

Also, this is WAAAAAY off topic, but I am looking for some lights to get my band started (we want to start doing our own production and get away from paying over half to the sound/light guy). We have all been doing this a while, but I've never done anything with lights. Any affordable suggestions to get us started?

I'm assuming that since your running FRFR, you're already using full amp models and studio/direct output mode. After that, I find that the messing with the cab and mic choices can often get you where you want to be...even if it's a combination that doesn't "makes sense" for the tone your after. I always play around with those first before adding tons of EQ or other fx.

 

Can't help you much with the lights...

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I agree, a change of mic is a good first change, especially if your tweaking on the fly to an audience.

 

Another smooth in front of audience edit is the Amp stack or combo, here you can wind off that shrill and zero in the focus frequency in the lower mids to beef it up but you will need to up the volume a bit.

 

But now we have the Global EQ you could just shelve the high end and zero in on the mid bell to the lower mids and beef it up there.

 

Remember an amp and cabinet naturally roll off a lot of top end after 12k or less and virtually nothing above 16k.

With digital you have up to 20k at least and it sounds brittle pushing higher than air on a mic cabinet.

 

Which brngs us back to your mic. Some have a resonance in the wire basket that can be picked up even on the modeler and especially the 57

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Hey...we run our own sound and lights from stage or iphone by one of our significant others...if anything seems interesting in the video let me know and I can tell you what we are using and what they cost....or some other options as well.

 

This is all live off the board so some of it is a little rough but you'll get the idea...oh and it is dance music...sorry rock dudes. :)

 

 

BTW: HD500 straight to board

 

We run a small setup like in this video, also with live bass / drums / sax. We have a minimum per player fee per night so depending on the club budget / size etc we can use different configurations.

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When my FRFR experience was going south for my high gain tones, I switched to an actual cab through a poweramp, in studio/direct with the cabs on, set to the Tread cab, and my tone came to life!

 

Ymmv, but my point is to experiment with anything and everything, even if it seems off the wall

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Regarding lights...

 

Well, as far as, the most important component -- you need to have a plan for what you want the stage to look like. Do you want someone controlling the lights from the stage, are they going to run in a live mode where they react to the music via a built in mic(sound activated feature)  etc all hands off. You can use a controller to work the lights, it can be a piece of hardware or a software solution. Each light has a unique address you assign to it and the controller sends commands to each light. You can create scenes and such for multiple things to happen at once. I am really glossing over the details of DMX but it can be as simple or complex as you want...

 

We run up to 4 movers like this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/IntSpot255IRC

 

We have 8 of these (similar): http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SlimParQ12IRC

 

Plus a bunch of other little lights and a fog machine.

 

All our lights are linked using DMX . We run wireless DMX because it greatly reduces setup/teardown. If you are unfamiliar with DMX it is a control protocol that tells the lights when to turn on and off, change color and so on. A tutorial is here: 

 

Lights are another rabbit hole to go down you can spend a ton on lights. If you are not a tech guy lights can get tricky depending on the setup so plan accordingly.

 

With all that said, you can start small and build up. Without really knowing what you are looking to do there are lots of options to get started:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/COLORstripM

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/4BAR

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/COLORstrip

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Obey40

 

Anyway, I have really just tossed out some stuff...if you have more questions just ask...lighting can be another big topic like amps etc.

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As far as lightning goes. What I did was start with a couple of the Chauvet colorstrip units on tripods which was OK for smaller venues.

 

What I have now is a small truss with two tripod crank stands that have 3 colorstrips, 4 PAR 56 LED, and a couple of effects type lights. I control them using DMX from a little USB box and a freestyler software.

 

You can always start out small with the lights and keep adding to the system as the budget allows.

 

-Max

post-7919-0-69703600-1444055831_thumb.jpg

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