QSC K.2 Settings?

[bluebirdrad]

Interested in your experiences with different settings on the QSC K.2 speakers using Helix or other modelers in a live situation. I am using the K8.2 and I find the default setting high frequency or high midrange too brittle, thin, and hard. I think the default setting has hyped high frequency. The Studio Monitor setting seems better. I'm playing a telecaster through Deluxe Reverb model (actually using a Strymon Irridium currently, which sounds just fine through the headphones). Unfortunately, QSC gives no actual technical details for those presets, just verbiage. Thanks for any insights.

[DunedinDragon]

I use a QSC K10.2 as my personal floor monitor when playing live.  I go direct to the mixer with no on stage amp and it has the full band mix coming from the mixer but customized for my specific needs.  It's mounted just off the stage in a floor monitor position but sitting on a plastic open air milk crate (non solid).  I find the best results just leaving it set to Live or Default since it's not really set on a floor, but I generally prefer the Default setting.  I keep the gain set at about 1:00 o'clock and the input set to Line level since it's coming from the mixing board Aux output.  It works perfectly for my needs and I can hear everything (including my Helix and my vocals) very clearly and in a good band mix with the rest of the instruments and vocals.  I actually dial in my  tones at home using a Yamaha DXR12 and need no adjustments when I go live through the QSC.

I don't think the QSC has any kind of hyped high midrange at all as my monitor mix is very comparable to the main front of house mix coming out of either Yamaha DXR12 or QSC KLA12 Line Arrays.  What may be happening is one of several things.  First, if your dialing in your tones at home you need to give the speaker a certain amount of clearance like around 5 or 6 feet in order to not be overwhelmed by the horn or the speaker.  It's takes about that much space for it to produce it's actual room tone.  That's why people don't typically sit right in front of speakers like these.  If you're trying to compare the tone to a traditional guitar cabinet it's going to be a problem in that the tone from a guitar cabinet changes dramatically depending on where you stand in relationship to it (toward one side or another or the direction the speaker is tilted).  That doesn't happen with a modern powered speaker like the K.2 series.  Once you're positioned away from close proximity you can move around the room and even turn your back to it and you'll get a pretty accurate representation of the sound because of the way they're designed to cover large spaces and audiences.

You'll hear lots of people talking about high and low cuts and various EQ approaches on these types of speakers to take out the harshness, but in reality if you get the right cab/IR with an appropriate mic combination and positioning you typically don't need a lot of EQ tweeking.  I generally use IRs myself just for convenience but I can get the same sounds from stock cabs, it just takes a little longer to dial them in and set them up.  My most common mic combination is a R121 ribbon mic and a MD412 dynamic mic, but I also use R121's by themselves.  Once you get the cab and mic situations sounding right you shouldn't need much EQ.  Most of the time the only EQ I might use is a final parametric EQ with a high cut of 8 to 10 khz and a low cut of maybe 100 to 140 hz.  I'll sometimes use a post amp/cab low/high shelf EQ block as demonstrated by Jason Sadites in all his various YouTube videos if I feel I need to boost or lower overall highs and lows across the whole preset.  The one thing I do often adjust on single coil pickups is to slice out a small 1 or 2 db reduction in the area around 4.3 mhz on the parametric eq if I want to reduce the twanginess.

[bluebirdrad]

Thanks for sharing your experience . I've been using this K8.2 for acoustic guitar and mandolin with no issues. My telecaster usually through an old BF Deluxe with plug and play tone. I'm looking to consolidate my  rig for small venues we play around here (SA FL).

[DunedinDragon]

10 minutes ago, bluebirdrad said:

Thanks for sharing your experience . I've been using this K8.2 for acoustic guitar and mandolin with no issues. My telecaster usually through an old BF Deluxe with plug and play tone. I'm looking to consolidate my  rig for small venues we play around here (SA FL).

So you are talking about consolidating it under the Helix rather than the actual amp, right?  That's what I was assuming when I answered it.  I thought the Deluxe you were mentioning was the Helix amp model.  I just noticed the Iridium you mentioned which has IR emulations so it all still applies in terms of cabinet and mics.  Headphones (particularly consumer rather the pro studio) do a pretty good job of masking cabinet effects whereas the speakers like the QSC give you precisely what you send it.

[bluebirdrad]

Yes the amp is an actual 1965 Blackface Deluxe  (non reverb). Headphones are AKG 271 MKII. I've been through a lot of Line 6 gear as well as other digital stuff; the latest the Helix Stomp, which I thought was excellent. But my current band is more suited to real amps and a basic pedalboard. Just thought I might put my pedalboard through the Iridium into the K8.2 for some small venue gigs we play. My attraction to the Iridium is the simple layout with the controls at your fingertips -- no menus, etc. So I don't know if the source of my angst is the QSC K8.2  or the Iridium. In the past I've had pretty good luck with digital modeling so I am suspecting I'm not getting good results with the K8.2. To your point, I'm not convinced the QSC is giving me precisely what I'm sending it. Hence my question about the presets.