Fitting into the mix with your POD HD500X

warrenpridgeon

I am always trying to find ways to be more effective musically. Not being heard is one of the ways of being terribly ineffective. Sometimes I'll get off stage and I'll hear the following sentence uttered by my wife "I couldn't hear you". Eish. Practice and prep seems like a waste of time when that happens. I'm working on implementing the stuff in the clip here. It SEEMS to be helping.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ9v7SCCt_c

Mixerboy

I think a big part of that problem is how bad the local sound is: too loud + too much bass.

It's impossible to hear anything at live shows really (especially the heavy/rock bands at the usually gigging spots)

It's pretty sad really especially seeing as how it's really not rocket science.

warrenpridgeon

Mixerboy wrote: I think a big part of that problem is how bad the local sound is: too loud + too much bass.

It's impossible to hear anything at live shows really (especially the heavy/rock bands at the usually gigging spots)

It's pretty sad really especially seeing as how it's really not rocket science.

Tell me about it... everyone thinks better sound=louder sound... eish...

Table23

Adjust your patches to fit with YOUR bands tone. If you can get a recorded mix, take it home and tweak your tones. Most patches sound great on their own but loose 'boldness' in the mix. You'll cut through more by rolling back distortion and using a cabinet/mic simulation that matches your band tone.

ezietsman

Yeah the problem most people have is that they develop their patches or setups at home, in isolation and most do it even without trying that sound in a real mix (playing along with the hifi or something). Most people want a 'smooth', fat sound or whatever. This usually means less mids and more bass and more overdrive.

When it comes to stagetime, that sound is almost invariably lost in the mix, because, you know, there is another guitar player who did the same thing AND there is the little matter of drums, which can easily drown out most things, esp the cymbals. Solution: you turn up the volume and then you and the other guitarist plays musical turn-up-the-volumes until everybody's ears ring.

What I have found is that a guitar tone that sounds good in a mix will sound positively trebly and a bit harsh when listened to by itself. I guess there is a reason Strats are so popular with most musos. Also, Marshalls have this tendency to sound harsh when played by themselves but as we all know they sound killer in a noisy band's mix.

I haven't watched the video but I'm guessing it says something along the lines of: Turn down the overdrive, turn up the mids and treble and turn down the bass, and tell the drummer to not hit so hard ?

Malkav

Yep, just mids mids mids ? In fact normally what I do is have an unreasonable amount of mid range and then use an eq pedal in the chain to bump up the mids ever so slightly more with just a tiny bit more emphasis on higher mids ?

Also in the cabinet config menu there is a low-cut, do not be afraid to get a bit liberal with this, I low cut as high 120hz sometimes, normally at 90hz minimum but that's cause of the 7 & 8 string thing. Honestly though you should almost immediately set that thing to about 60hz cause anything under that is no place for a guitar to be sitting in.

FWIW I use the POD HD to gig with no amp at all and never have too many issues hearing myself, other than the regular curse of venues being too loud making the front of house sound overpower your monitoring or being way too close to the drummer.

Attila

To add on to what Chad is saying..... maybe this chart will help you visualize the Frequency Spectrum Ranges for instruments

Download a hi-res copy off my dropbox site:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xljwg21tnels8dk/Guide%20to%20FreqRanges.pdf?dl=0

domhatch

Attila Barath wrote: To add on to what Chad is saying..... maybe this chart will help you visualize the Frequency Spectrum Ranges for instruments

attila, that is brilliant. :applause: :woohoo: :goodtimes: seriously one of the best pieces of info i've seen posted/shared so far, from both practical and understanding points of view.

thanks so much
dh|

Max

Attila Barath wrote: To add on to what Chad is saying..... maybe this chart will help you visualize the Frequency Spectrum Ranges for instruments

Download a hi-res copy off my dropbox site:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xljwg21tnels8dk/Guide%20to%20FreqRanges.pdf?dl=0

Thanks for this Attila. This is definitely going to help me a lot.

Stoffeltoo

Thanks Attila

Tried this at our church band practice. the results were simply awesome!

Attila

Aaah thats great chaps glad it is helpful makes plenty of sense to me 8)