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what speakers for helix at home


wafry1975
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I just bough a helix LT. it should be here tomorrow... also, assuming it would work, I bought a pair of Presonus Eris 4.5 monitors.

 

later after thinking about it more, and studying the inputs of the speakers, I'm wondering if I made a poor choice.

 

what are you using for home practice+setting up your patches? budget is $300 MAX (I have a helix to pay off ;) )

 

I mainly play at home, but I also play with the church on the weekends... the idea is set my patches up at home for live use.

 

some ideas that I have kicked about:

Laney IRT-X

a PA speaker like the Alto TS112 or TS110

Behringer EuroLive Pa speaker (surely not the best, but the same we use at church, this way home sound could be easily matched to church)

pair of studio monitors with XLR (this was the thinng I thought I was getting with the presonus eris... but the ones I ordered do not have XLR, so I'm wondering if the patches would require tweaking to go from studio to live)

 

I can also bypass the cab IR, and run into the return on my tube amp, through a 1x12... but same thing as the studio monitors without XLR, I'd have to tweak, and turn on a cab IR for live.

 

 

what other budget-minded options are there for home?

 

am I sweating the output selection too much?

 

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a PA speaker like the Alto TS112 or TS110

Behringer EuroLive Pa speaker (surely not the best, but the same we use at church, this way home sound could be easily matched to church)

 

These would be my first two choices. Not necessarily in that order.

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I just bough a helix LT. it should be here tomorrow... also, assuming it would work, I bought a pair of Presonus Eris 4.5 monitors.

 

later after thinking about it more, and studying the inputs of the speakers, I'm wondering if I made a poor choice.

 

what are you using for home practice+setting up your patches? budget is $300 MAX (I have a helix to pay off ;) )

 

I mainly play at home, but I also play with the church on the weekends... the idea is set my patches up at home for live use.

Presonus...meh

 

Stick with the big boys...JBL, Yamaha, etc.

 

No matter what you buy though, setting up patches on one set of speakers at bedroom volume, then trying to use those patches live through a different set of speakers at gig volume is often disastrous. Perception of tone varies drastically with volume, even when using the exact same speaker(s). If you're not setting up your patches at or close to the volume at which you intend to use them, things tend to get messy.

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Presonus...meh

 

Stick with the big boys...JBL, Yamaha, etc.

 

No matter what you buy though, setting up patches on one set of speakers at bedroom volume, then trying to use those patches live through a different set of speakers at gig volume is often disastrous. Perception of tone varies drastically with volume, even when using the exact same speaker(s). If you're not setting up your patches at or close to the volume at which you intend to use them, things tend to get messy.

 

so do you think setting up one of the PA speakers at home, at the same volume would be best? not always feasible, but surely the closest match to live...

 

but if one was setting up their tones at a normal volume, then turning up for live... what should I expect? would it be as simple as re-levelling the EQ?  I never have this issue now, with a tube amp, so I'm trying to get a feel for what kind of "disaster" you are referring to... I practice and set my tone at home, it might be a little darker at home through greenbacks, but low volume... then live it's fine... and I'm going DI from my tube amp(6505MH) to the mixer live... no issue. the sound guy could be tweaking my EQ a tad but not a huge amount. we also have a wooden stage, so our volume is actually not that loud, because we get a natural reverberation it's just me, an acoustic guitar/singer, a cajon+singer and a bass... my metal days in bars were over 2+years ago :)

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so do you think setting up one of the PA speakers at home, at the same volume would be best? not always feasible, but surely the closest match to live...

 

Yes.

 

but if one was setting up their tones at a normal volume, then turning up for live... what should I expect? would it be as simple as re-levelling the EQ? I never have this issue now, with a tube amp, so I'm trying to get a feel for what kind of "disaster" you are referring to... I practice and set my tone at home, it might be a little darker at home through greenbacks, but low volume... then live it's fine...

If you can get the same tone out of a rig...ANY rig...at a nice comfy "neighbors won't call the police" volume, vs. gig volume, leaving all the settings the same, then salúd, you're the first man in history capable of doing so, lol. ;) At a minimum, a tone that sounds balanced at low volume in a quiet room, when subjected to a large increase in volume, tends to produce an overabundance of bass and screechy high-end that weren't perceptible at low volume.

 

It's how our brains work...it has nothing to do with playing through a tube amp vs. a modeler with FRFR speakers. Perceived loudness of different frequency ranges varies drastically with volume, regardless of the source. We all suffer from it. So yes, you'd end up having to re-tweak all your patches... sometimes substantially depending on the circumstances, every time you go back and forth between different listening environments. But obviously it's not as simple as twiddling a few knobs on the front of your tube amp. Most guys end up with one set of patches for home, and another for gigs... otherwise you're stuck constantly fiddling with everything. Personally, I have no intention of trying to do deep editing of multiple patches before every gig or rehearsal. That would flush away all the convenience of having a rig like this.

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These would be my first two choices. Not necessarily in that order.

you think the Behringer > alto? are there other PA speakers to consider?

 

Yes.

 

 

If you can get the same tone out of a rig...ANY rig...at a nice comfy "neighbors won't call the police" volume, vs. gig volume, leaving all the settings the same, then salúd, you're the first man in history capable of doing so, lol. ;) At a minimum, a tone that sounds balanced at low volume in a quiet room, when subjected to a large increase in volume, tends to produce an overabundance of bass and screechy high-end that weren't perceptible at low volume.

 

It's how our brains work...it has nothing to do with playing through a tube amp vs. a modeler with FRFR speakers. Perceived loudness of different frequency ranges varies drastically with volume, regardless of the source. We all suffer from it. So yes, you'd end up having to re-tweak all your patches... sometimes substantially depending on the circumstances, every time you go back and forth between different listening environments. But obviously it's not as simple as twiddling a few knobs on the front of your tube amp. Most guys end up with one set of patches for home, and another for gigs... otherwise you're stuck constantly fiddling with everything. Personally, I have no intention of trying to do deep editing of multiple patches before every gig or rehearsal. That would flush away all the convenience of having a rig like this.

 

 

wise words cruisin, . I'm sure the sound guy is tweaking the EQ. I probably owe him a 6-pack or something, because I never have to re-adjust live. I ran the boards at church before I decided to join the band, and I know I had to tweak things to get the EQ right... the room has a lot of natural reverb/echo from the wood stage and tiles in places...

 

back in college-band days everything was the same 4x12s always at gig volume (no mics on cabs)... then I took almost 20 years off before playing live again...

 

so, back to the question at hand... studio monitors or powered PA speakers? to get "relatively close" at comfortable, old-man volume

 

or, does a quality set of studio headphones yield better results?

 

this is seriously my first time to use a digital modeller in any real capacity, so I apologize if this is completely stupid... I used a POD2 way back in the day for headphone practice, and a behringer version of a POD at one point just for some effects in the effects loop (all amp/cab sim turned off) and really kinda hated both of them, but like the idea... and I have a yamaha THR10x for practice too... all quite different than a helix

 

 

currently I will use my 6505 and 1x12 greenback cab, turned medium(not ear-busting, but not TV volume), but use headphone out when my kid (age 3) is asleep... it's never neighbors that are the issue... I have a house and I would have to be splitting the walls in order to have them even hear... before we had our son, I would regularly crank 50 watt amps through 2x12 or 4x12... those days are over :)

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I recommend a powered PA speaker ("FRFR"). An Alto will fit well within your budget. You may also find that you prefer running Helix direct through the speaker/PA rather than through your amp then to FOH. 

 

I run a couple of JBL Eon 610s at home, set up my church presets on those, and they translate over pretty well to our QSC system at church. I run direct to FOH, no amps on stage, with in ear monitors. So I just put the Helix on the floor, connect a single XLR to FOH, and I am ready to go. 

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yea, I'm not planning on running amps on stage... FOH +stage monitors (the stage monitors are also the Behringer eurolive PA speakers) I'm just using the amp currently.... the Helix should be here tomorrow.

 

I've heard great things about the alto PA speakers.

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so, back to the question at hand... studio monitors or powered PA speakers? to get "relatively close" at comfortable, old-man volume

 

or, does a quality set of studio headphones yield better results?

 

It's hard to say, and it'll depend largely on the speakers and/or headphones in question... one combo might jive better than another.

 

I use a Stagesource L2T as a floor monitor live, and run straight to the PA... as the L2T is essentially a PA speaker itself, I'm usually "in the ballpark". But at home I'm almost always playing through a pair of JBL LSR305 monitors (I love stereo delays, lol)...but with only a couple of exceptions, patches that sound good through the monitors at a reasonable volume are not terribly useful when cranked through the L2T. I've got live patches and home-use/recording patches... keeps life simple.

 

If you go the monitor route, the 305's are excellent, have good low end response given their size, and won't break the bank... but if you're really intent on being able to use the same patches in both places with minimal adjustments, then you may be better off getting one powered PA speaker/ monitor that's similar, if not the same as whatever you're using live.

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you think the Behringer > alto? are there other PA speakers to consider?

 

 

I said Behringer because that is what you use at church and it is within you budget.

 

I said Alto because a lot of people like them and brag on them and they are within your budget. I have never played the Altos, but, a lot of people will tell you they are the best bang for the buck.

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I recommend a powered PA speaker ("FRFR"). An Alto will fit well within your budget. You may also find that you prefer running Helix direct through the speaker/PA rather than through your amp then to FOH. 

 

I run a couple of JBL Eon 610s at home, set up my church presets on those, and they translate over pretty well to our QSC system at church. I run direct to FOH, no amps on stage, with in ear monitors. So I just put the Helix on the floor, connect a single XLR to FOH, and I am ready to go. 

Do JBL Eon 610s hiss when not playing? I got a JBL EON 612 and it hisses when not playing (also when playing at low volume twweter hiss can be heard) - some had the same problem - http://www.planetz.com/jbl-eon-hiss-and-factory-reset/

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I own a Marshall JVM410h that collect dust now. Used to have a Mark V before that. I jumped in with the Helix 18 months ago and i have found what i was hoping after a year when i went the FRFR way with a single Alto TS210 (light weight). I also use Fremenn IRs for most every presets but that's an other thread.

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Do JBL Eon 610s hiss when not playing? I got a JBL EON 612 and it hisses when not playing (also when playing at low volume twweter hiss can be heard) - some had the same problem - http://www.planetz.com/jbl-eon-hiss-and-factory-reset/

Yes, just a little. Most powered PA speakers will hiss faintly when they are powered up. It doesn't matter when you are playing though. The hiss is barely noticeable at home. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I ordered an alto today, I picked up the tx10 to start with, if it does well, I can easily add a second. I'll report back.

I'm DEFINITELY getting a second one. I got to spend time with it while my son and wife were out of the house yesterday, LOUD, live-volume... it sounded glorious! 

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