How To Get A Sound That Cuts Through

    I'm sure that this topic has been discussed before, but I can't seem to find it. I find that my guitar is often buried by the rest of the sound on stage. This is particularly true when I'm on the neck pickup. I'm talking small venues, and since I can't be out front AND on stage, I'm not sure if this is strictly an on-stage monitoring issue. However, we're talking VERY small venues here, so special monitors just shouldn't be required IMO. I'm running through a DXR10, and I suppose I could just keep upping the volume, but I don't really think that's the culprit. I've adjusted EQ to add mids and highs, but that only goes so far. What else can you folks suggest?

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    Interesting that both of you mention reducing gain, as I find that my cleanest rig is indeed the best when I'm in these situations. Still, there are many times when I want that extra drive and sustain.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    I'd agree with the above.


    when tweaking sounds at home one usually tends to use less mids than necessary (that is, too much bass usually) and too much gain.
    I'd cut everything under 100-120 Hz (now we have the high-pass in the EQs) and make the sound richer in highs than it seems good.
    On a side note, I almost never use the bridge PU, but that's the way it's so popular specially in rock and country contexts: it fits the mix better, because it's slimmer and more "piercing".
    Compressor (in the Amp block) also can help, in order to have a louder and more "in your face" signal without clipping.


    :)

    As already mentioned work out what's occupying your frequency range and change either them or yourself.


    On record most guitar has the majority of it's bass removed with a low-pass, a little push in the upper mids will shove a specific guitar up front with a nicer tone than just the treble as a whole.


    Avoid using effects like reverb and significant quantities of delay when you're running lead, this will just create mush.


    If you want singing lead use a compressor rather than raising distortion/gain levels.


    A treble push before the amp will also help AKA green scream as Don mentioned.


    Your biggest friend to cutting through is your transient. This is one area where i feel the Kemper doesn't quite get it and tends to clip or over-compress the sound, but with a real amp you get a lot of poke on the start of notes, generally without much distortion there, it's not the same as pick attack, just a wider more lively dynamic range in total. This could be a failing of microphones and mic pre's rather than the Kemper, but it's still noticeable. So you may need to go cleaner than your'e used to.


    And don't forget the traditional approach - i.e. raise the volume for the lead! A lot of folk seem to forget this is how guitarists have always worked in the past and so they level all their profiles and think that just a little more oompf in front will give the same effect. You want your non lead/rhythm tones to actually be substantially less loud than your lead tones, just like with a real amp. The difference is that with the Kemper you're going ot do that by a subtractive method rather than an additive meaning turn them down rather than the lead tone up. That way you don't get clipping.

    Do you have the same phanomen in the rehearsal room? There, you can test many things, for example by recording.
    Record the whole band. Record every single instrument and singer. Use a software to see the frequencies and
    perhaps you find the things that interfere.
    BTW: The PickUp has an important influence. I just removed my Neck Humbucker PU and put another one in it.
    Now i have a dull, undifferenced sound and i will rechange it next time.
    And: do you have a second guitar player in your band or perhaps the bass men can do a little. So they can play
    your guitar for you and you can position yourself at the places you want and hear like the audience hears.

    Quote from hal2000


    And: do you have a second guitar player in your band or perhaps the bass men can do a little. So they can play
    your guitar for you and you can position yourself at the places you want and hear like the audience hears.


    That's what you can use the looper for as well.

    Less gain is a great one. I always track bands with less gain than what they are used to live, if they want to monitor more gain I just add a saturation plugin on the track for tracking through. High pass filter at around 80-100hz sometimes you can even go higher if the bass and keyboards are taking up more of the frequency spectrum. Try and mix your guitar with everything playing, what sound terrible on its own might sound awesome in the mix. Use kids if you are getting buried and cut the mid frequency on other instruments so they all have their own space.

    Yup. Identify what other instrument your fighting with and adjust both. Boosting the mids ("kids" wont help @Geraldo7 :P ) and cutting the low end will make your guitar sound poke through (what I do on almost all my lead presets), but getting the fundamental band balance right as a whole is the more important factor. Ultimately though, you are at the mercy of the person behind the sound desk and their sonic preferences, so it's always a crap shoot.

    How is your DXR10 setup? If you're using it as a stage monitor only, you could try cutting the bass with it's onboard HPF switch and see if that helps? That's a nice quick and non destructive thing to try without having to adjust all the rigs you use.

    Quote from viabcroce

    Interesting, and easy to check: use a DI profile: do you feel the same?
    (Genuinely interested)


    :)


    Well I actually have found DI profiles to be a little more lively, but I still prefer the sound from "Studio" profiles to the merged ones. I've got to admit I also don't like/use/listen to just the DI without the cab so I wouldn't really be able to tell audibly if it was more accurate from that.