DirtyGary Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Looking for some EQ tips for my Strat to stand out in the mix. I play on my church’s worship team and find that my tone coming through the PA and through online streams sounds really dark and thin at times. How can I clean this up and make it really stand out in the mix? Ideally it sounds more “full” and is able to be clearly heard. I’m using compressors and hi/low cuts on the amps and cabs when necessary. Appreciate the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxman55 Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Dump the compressor - great for recording but live it saps your 'punch' and stops you cutting through the mix. Raise your mids on the amp model to punch through too, and don't overdo gain or it will make your tone muddy - live, less (gain) is more. And don't stack distortions - again, live it can become a mess. Also, try without the high/low cuts so you've got a wider frequency range. Re EQ, put it at the end of your signal chain and raise the level a bit and the higher & mid frequencies if needed. If you're using a cab model, try the 57 dynamic mic at about 2-3 inches for a punchier more 'in your face' tone - ribbon mics are fine for recording because they have more detail, but in a live mix you want to punch through. Raising the cab level a bit should help too, to give you a fuller tone. And don't overdo the effects. Keep reverb & delay down,. Some reverbs get lost/muddy in a live mix - plate and room reverbs will be punchier live than a spring reverb. If all else fails, try playing with the Global EQ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcnesbitt Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 @voxman55These are great tips. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxman55 Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 On 12/10/2020 at 4:20 PM, jcnesbitt said: @voxman55These are great tips. Thanks! Well, hopefully - let us know how you get on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyGary Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 On 12/9/2020 at 3:05 PM, voxman55 said: Dump the compressor - great for recording but live it saps your 'punch' and stops you cutting through the mix. Raise your mids on the amp model to punch through too, and don't overdo gain or it will make your tone muddy - live, less (gain) is more. And don't stack distortions - again, live it can become a mess. Also, try without the high/low cuts so you've got a wider frequency range. Re EQ, put it at the end of your signal chain and raise the level a bit and the higher & mid frequencies if needed. If you're using a cab model, try the 57 dynamic mic at about 2-3 inches for a punchier more 'in your face' tone - ribbon mics are fine for recording because they have more detail, but in a live mix you want to punch through. Raising the cab level a bit should help too, to give you a fuller tone. And don't overdo the effects. Keep reverb & delay down,. Some reverbs get lost/muddy in a live mix - plate and room reverbs will be punchier live than a spring reverb. If all else fails, try playing with the Global EQ. THANK YOU so much. After a few days of playing around, here's what I've found based on your recommendations: Compressor: I like the feel of the compressor engaged, as opposed to taking it out completely, so I left it in with a +2db level boost (this is an "always on" pedal) Raised mids: definitely helped - raised on my amp to about an 8, presence at 5-6, and EQ with a +2db level increase (using the "Simple EQ" block) Drive: I already play with a fairly clean tone, but I increased it on the amp models a bit and also tweaked the one drive pedal I have in the signal chain to be more "balanced" when engaged High/low cuts: playing with a strat, the highs can be almost too piercing at times, so I actually increased the high cut on the amp/cab a pretty good amount and that has helped a lot EQ: Already at the end of my chain, your higher mids/high frequencies tip helped Cab mic: this might have been the biggest positive change. I was using the stock mic model that came with each cab, but the 57 Dynamic at 2 inches helped incredibly. No more thin sounding tones with the ribbon mics some of my patches were using. Cab level: added a +2db increase and that also helped with a more full sound Delays/reverb: these are absolutely necessary for a church worship band setting, but the above changes helped me dial in less of a delay/reverb to not lose anything in the overall mix Global EQ: didn't touch this, want to try to avoid tweaking this since it's more of a "venue by venue" basis change that it should be used for. Again, many thanks for these tips! Hope this helps anyone else out there too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voxman55 Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Excellent, glad the tips helped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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