Tweaking sound for FRFR and through Cab

    Hey,
    I just got used to what the Kemper sounds through my new Rokit FRFR (well, kinda FRFR'ish to be exact) speakers, with all the high end that you wouldn't hear when playing through a cab. And I understand that this high end comes mostly from the mic, which is positioned really close to the speakers. So the sound you hear when playing an amp through a cab is very dependend on where you are, and I was used to not having that much high end, because I don't have my ear right in front of the speaker.


    So in the last days I tweaked some high gain profiles to sound good out of my FRFRs, which is great because that's what FOH hears when playing through the PA and it also works out really nice for recording, because I have to do less post EQing.


    Now, my question is: If i tweak the profile to sound good on a FRFR system, isn't there a lot of the high end missing when playing through a cab (with cab sim off)? For example, if I wanted to play live with the main out -> PA and the Monitor out into my cab, is it kind of a trade off to have a great FOH sound but a rather dark Cab sound?

    I think your question is a matter of personal taste. I would never feed the FOH with a sound which is too different from the sound I hear on stage. Therefore I would either monitor my stagesound through FRFR or mic my guitar cab for feeding the PA. In my personal opinion you play every sound you've created with the KPA in a certain way, depending on the way you're perceiving it. If your sound on stage is different from the PA-sound your playing style might fit the stage sound but not the FOH-Sound.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    Quote from Kempermaniac

    I think your question is a matter of personal taste. I would never feed the FOH with a sound which is too different from the sound I hear on stage. Therefore I would either monitor my stagesound through FRFR or mic my guitar cab for feeding the PA. In my personal opinion you play every sound you've created with the KPA in a certain way, depending on the way you're perceiving it. If your sound on stage is different from the PA-sound your playing style might fit the stage sound but not the FOH-Sound.


    +1. This gets mentioned not often enough.
    Stay as consistent with your sound as possible.
    If you MUST use a guitar cab on stage please at least tweak your sound with FRFR at gig levels.
    I have found that the patches dialed in on my Atomic CLR (and sounding totally right FOH) tend to sound a bit muffled on a generic guitar cab.
    Of course this could be compensated for using the monitor output EQ.

    Quote from Thodin

    Now, my question is: If i tweak the profile to sound good on a FRFR system, isn't there a lot of the high end missing when playing through a cab (with cab sim off)?


    To answer this particular question: Yes, you will be missing some high end. You might can compensate this with the EQ on monitor out (as Ingolf mentioned above), but a guitar cab is no FRFR-system and will never be. And to me there's another disadvantage: You'll always have to tweak your sound to fit the PA and the guitar cab at the same time. This may lead to a "compromise sound", which is neither perfect via PA nor via guitar cab.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    Let me add something to the discussion: if you monitor yourself with an FRFR cab, the sound will be as FOH just as much as the PA sounds like your monitor. Not all the so called "FRFR" sound the same! :|


    Also, if you hear lots of highs from a FRFR (provided that the cab is really linear, like say a CLR, that's exactly because of the mic used during the profiling process, which is what audience would hear if you mic'ed your cab on stage.
    In fact, what goes out to FOH is virtually the same, be it Profiler or mic'ed cab.


    @ Kempermaniac: in fact, what you hear onstage is quite different from what audience hear, because you hear a cab while they hear a mic'ed cab; the difference being exactly "cab in the room" Vs. "mic'ed cab". Generally speaking, of course :)

    @ Kempermaniac: in fact, what you hear onstage is quite different from what audience hear, because you hear a cab while they hear a mic'ed cab; the difference being exactly "cab in the room" Vs. "mic'ed cab". speaking



    Its surely even more than that , What you hear is ;


    The profile mic of the original profile , a monitor cab which is then dependant on the parameters onstage ( e.g. - distance form your ears to the cab , type of speakers in the monitor cab , surface finishes onstage etc..... )

    I'm aware of the fact that there will always be a difference between stage and FOH sound, no matter how you monitor your guitar on stage. The question is how big the difference is. If you're going FRFR on stage, the cab sim on monitor and main out will be the same. With a guitar cab this will not be the case. Therefore this solution will always sound more different on stage and via FOH than the FRFR solution.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)