how do others get on?

[geoff1711]

Hi All

I am perplexed how some people manage to play directly via their FX board into the PA and it sounds really good.

Over the last 3 or 4 years, in an attempt to cut down on kit and weight, I've tried this with various modelling boards POD, Tonelab, Magicstomp and latterly Boss Me 70, and it just sounds too weedy.

I use a variety of either active speakers 10", 12" 1nd 15", or power amp and wooden cabs either 12" or 15" usually through a Mackie mixer, the PA set up is what I either use for disco or voice and backing tracks, in the duo, and it's used a lot and can be fairly powerful depending on how many active units I use, for duo practise it's usually running on two 250 watt 12" active speakers.

Some people say it's because of the high frequency horns, but it works for others and my Kelly amp runs through a 1 X 12" closed cab loaded with a Vox 12" neo dog speaker and a small paper coned tweeter, in other words a full range cab pretty much the same as 1 X 12" passive PA speaker and it sounds great.

I can get a resonably good sound from my G-Dec 3 30 plugged into the PA, although the Kelly does sound much warmer and fuller, and of course if I take the G-Dec I'm still hauling a guitar amp around.

So those of you who play directly into PA how do you get your sound?

Cheers

Geoff

And on another note why when I spell check this am I getting Spanish translations???? me and my laptop are in Biggin Hill on the North Downs in Kent!!

[Garystrat]

Hi Geoff

Its possibly a case of matching the correct output levels to inputs, in the case of say a Tonelab you have the options of instrument or line output settings, if going to directly to a mixer it is probably best to use a line level output. If you are using long lead runs a good quality DI box may also help, have a look a these articles:

http://www.audiocourses.com/article651.html

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun02/a ... iboxes.asp

I would tend to look at the better quality DI boxes for the best results.

Due to time constraints between acts a friend was unable to Mic up his amp at a local theatre, I put a Q2 Echo through a pre-setup Tonelab LE directly through the theatres DI box and we got excellent results.

Gary

[geoff1711]

Hi Gary

I've used a Behringer DI which worked ok as just guitar straight in but on the back end of the FX boards wasn't so good.

Also I've tried various output options that the Tonelab had, oddly enough the Magicstomp sounded really good through a Laney keyboard amp.

My current board is the Boss, the Zoom, Tonelab, Pod have all gone to new owners.

On the headphone output of the Boss it sounds really good but plug it into the PA either from the the guitar output or the headphone and as I say it's under-whelming.

It could be that there is a PA setting on the Boss I've not found yet.

Maybe I have the HF horn too high on the speakers, we tend to run it that way to leave the mid frequencies for the guitars to fill, but I'd be interested to know if anybody else uses an ME70 direct to PA, it's a good unit and you can have two seperate delay settings running at once which gives a good imitation of Shads echos.

I'd always hoped that what you loose not going through valves would be compensated for with the stereo reverbs and echoes, and the ME does have some good amp models.

Thanks for your advice

Geoff

[Didier]

Hi All

I am perplexed how some people manage to play directly via their FX board into the PA and it sounds really good.

Here is an example of how it can be done, This is Peter Korving playing at the Tilburg International Festival in 2005, using a Line 6 Pod linked the PA. No guitar amp used (he played on his own BT).
I was there, and the live sound was excellent. The main problem is to fing the right settings...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jah06ZkwLzw

Didier

[Garystrat]

Hi Geoff

I had a look at the specification of the Boss ME70 Specification and I would have thought the headphone output to the line in of a mixer, then mixer to PA.

Gary

[RUSSET]

I have used a Zoom G2 pedal straight into a channel on our mixer for several years now, & had no problems. You get a choice in the pedal menus for output to either a guitar amp or a mixing deck. I have patches set up for various Shads tunes & basic guitar tones & acoustic guitar simulation which work just fine. I would never change back to backline amps again, it's too convenient. We get great balance in the sound from the band & even the drummer has an electronic kit !
That means we can turn him down ...... he, he !

Tony.

[cockroach]

Although I've gone back to using a 'backline' amp for live gigs in teh last couple of years, previously I often just used a straight forward passive DI box straight into the PA- and if the PA has echo/delay and /or reverb it works quite well. Or just use guitar- to-echo unit- to-PA desk/amp input.

Keep to a simple signal path- less to go wrong, and fewer knobs to juggle- people want to hear you play, not fiddle about!!

[geoff1711]

Thanks to all for your response.

I'll try the headphone output next band night, although the guitar out is supposed to c arry modelling if you've saved an amp to a patch, or if you're in manual mode got an amp sim running.

Maybe it's just my personal taste in sound, the Kelly amps have a very rich and warm sound which I like particularly if you run into both the treble and bass channels at the same time.

But keep it coming on suggestions

cheers

Geoff