# Do you EQ your amp for FOH?



## boltzthrower (Jul 21, 2015)

Even if I control the mic placement on my cab, I'm disappointed by what my tone gets reduced to in FOH via the typical venue sound system. Do any of you EQ your amp to sound better mic'd up (thereby sacrificing how it sounds straight out of your cab)? 

Do you find venue sound systems vary too much to even bother doing this? - It's not like I have time to run out to the audience and EQ my amp so if I can't just set it and forget it beforehand then there would be no point.


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## GuitarBizarre (Jul 21, 2015)

My view on this is - If it makes it sound better to your audience, you should shut up and deal with it on your end.

Nobody came to your show so that you could stand there being impressed by your own gear. They came to be entertained. If you can give the FOH guy an easy time by doing something as simple as EQing your amp, you should do it. Every time.

The only limitation is the practicality of doing so. I would imagine if you're dealing with an FOH guy at all the best thing to do would be to say "You know your room and speakers better than I do, do you want me to cut or boost anything on my Amp EQ to give you a better mic'd signal?"

Most decent sound guys will either say "Nah, I can deal" or "Sure, if you could do x y z that'll help".


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## Hedon09 (Jul 21, 2015)

Personal Taste is another factor with this problem. While you might not like the sound you're getting from FOH, the sound engineer, wo doesn't know your material, might find it very usable in the mix. And speaking from a engineers Point of view, with PAs it's always .... in=.... out!
As guitarbizarre already stated you should focus on getting the best sound for the Audience. If that means EQing your Amp, so it! If you don't trust the local tech, bring your own, who knows what your sound should be like.


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## Mprinsje (Jul 21, 2015)

I almost never hear how it sounds in the room so i'll just do what the sound engineer tells me to do.


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## Baelzebeard (Jul 21, 2015)

Of course you want to do what you can to optimize the sound of your rig, and it is definitely a plus to communicate with the FOH engineer, but...

You are ultimately dependant on the FOH guy for the final product. A good sound man can improve upon what they're given, and a poor engineer can make amazing input signals sound terrible. Since you can't have your ears in two places at once there's no good way to tailor your sound from the stage effectively.

In my experience as a sound man, a good source signal doesn't need much tweaking to translate to a good end product. And by all means, ask the sound man if you could make any changes that would help him out. I can almost guarantee the number one suggestion you'll get from sound guys is going to be; "Turn it down!"


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## victim5150 (Sep 18, 2015)

Generally I set my lows, mids and highs about noon so they have an ample amount of each to work with. Your mid's are what's going to make cut in a live mix. I hear so many guys scoop their mid's and they get lost in the mix.


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## XMetalcheFX (Sep 18, 2015)

Usually you don't have a say in the matter if your not a big name band with your own FOH guy. He's responsible for getting our "best tone ever" to come through clearly and detailed with the rest of the band.

You should EQ how they want. As long as you can hear yourself in the mix is the bigger picture.

When I had my mesa dual rectifier and 4x12 I always had to re- eq for FOH because the settings I used to practice sounded like ass when I had to turn my volume down to be micd. Some sound guys will have you turn down as low as possible to mic you, so they can keep one level on their boards the whole night. Fun times when no one cares who you are.

Be flexible, learn a few things, and focus on entertaining people. The second you decide to take a stage, it's no longer about you. You have now become a product that much differentiate itself from the rest of the shelf.

Enjoy


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Sep 18, 2015)

A little prep in advance can help save time during soundcheck, like using backing tracks to tweak your settings, especially with POD's, Fractals, and Kemplers. 

Doing this will help your tone(s) sit in the mix better, and any tweaks at the venue will be minimal at best.

This has been very fruitful for me, and in the past 30 years, the only feedback that I've received from FOH guys is to turn down my cabs. I eventually started using a cab emulator for FOH and firing my cabs from side stage until I went completely D.I. and I.E.M. Ever since then, it's been pure bliss and sonic fidelity, and much more friendly on my ear drums.


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## noUser01 (Sep 19, 2015)

You should always take the approach of "polished but not perfect" when it comes to dialing in your tone. You NEED to give the sound guy something to work with. Sure you could dial in the perfect surgical EQ for your tone and perfect mic placement, but you don't know the room. You don't know the speakers. You don't know the environment. You need to give the sound guy something to work with, so cut anything major, and leave him rom to shape the sound himself. Yes, you may be disappointed, but even if your sound was perfect, that same sound guy would probably ruin it anyways.

If you like your guitar rolled off at 100Hz, roll it off at 80Hz, for example. Do what you want to do but don't be so surgical and exact about it, because you still need to trust that the sound guy can do his job well. And if he can't, then it won't matter how you dial in your tone anyways, will it?


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## JohnIce (Sep 19, 2015)

victim5150 said:


> ...Your mid's are what's going to make cut in a live mix. I hear so many guys scoop their mid's and they get lost in the mix.



You're not wrong, but I'd say that's the biggest half-truth over simplification being passed on within the guitarist community. It's like telling someone trying to live a healthier lifestyle to eat "food". There's a huge variety of sound within the midrange. There are mids that are pointless in a guitar tone, and that you can happily scoop and even improve your spot in the mix.

I think the problem is that all amps behave differently because their mid knobs are set to different frequencies, widths and dynamic ranges from model to model. Fender-based amps like Mesas tend to scoop better than Marshall-based amps because the center frequency is lower, but add to that the inherent EQ curve of scoops and boosts in your cab which is pretty much unique to every cab out there, broad statements like "you need mids to fit in a mix" are ultimately as useful for tweaking your knobs as "tone is in the fingers", I think. They're not wrong but they just don't tell nearly the whole story.


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## ambler3 (Sep 19, 2015)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> A little prep in advance can help save time during soundcheck, like using backing tracks to tweak your settings, especially with POD's, Fractals, and Kemplers.
> 
> Doing this will help your tone(s) sit in the mix better, and any tweaks at the venue will be minimal at best.
> 
> This has been very fruitful for me, and in the past 30 years, the only feedback that I've received from FOH guys is to turn down my cabs. I eventually started using a cab emulator for FOH and firing my cabs from side stage until I went completely D.I. and I.E.M. Ever since then, it's been pure bliss and sonic fidelity, and much more friendly on my ear drums.



Regarding the PODs etc. setting up patches is a good point. Make sure you've balanced the levels on all yer patches. Saves the sound guy so much hassle and he certainly won't be happy with you pissing around with your unit during the precious sound check time.


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## Great Satan (Sep 19, 2015)

In a lot of guitar recordings they scoop out the 150Hz range as that's where the 'boom' lives when bass seems overwhelming, its helps a lot for making a FOH signal a little clearer aswell.


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## XMetalcheFX (Sep 19, 2015)

Worst comes to worst you can pull a "me" and turn your amp to the proper levels but forget that you havs a solo boost on your dual rec that you use.....Oops


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## noob_pwn (Sep 19, 2015)

Chances are you've just never had any one mix you that's done you justice. If your amp sounds good to you, and is pushing out enough mids it should be fine to work with. 

There's just only so much that can be done in the short period of time these guys have to get you up and running on stage and they have to mix the whole band too. 

Finally it's important to realise that even if you're not happy with your FOH tone, what matters more is how your tone pockets with the rest of the band's mix. The way the whole band sounds out front is more important than what you want to hear coming out of your cab, and this is a FOH engineer's priority.


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## XMetalcheFX (Sep 20, 2015)

ambler3 said:


> Regarding the PODs etc. setting up patches is a good point. Make sure you've balanced the levels on all yer patches. Saves the sound guy so much hassle and he certainly won't be happy with you pissing around with your unit during the precious sound check time.



This is a problem i encounter tons of times....You should always A/B your patches at hearing volume to make sure they are balanced and no volume jumps.

YOud think Line 6 would do a global output knob, but then that would render the preamp adjustments useless lol.

Small price to pay for the amount of features you get from the HD series. Especially the pro.


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Sep 22, 2015)

You can/should match your levels at rehearsal.


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## TedEH (Sep 22, 2015)

TonyFlyingSquirrel said:


> You can/should match your levels at rehearsal.



That's not always possible to do though. It's a different room and scenario altogether, so you're probably not going to use the exact same level live as you would in your rehearsal room. And unless you have identical amps and settings, you can't just "turn up/down by the same amount".


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## BlueGrot (Oct 8, 2015)

The desk has also got a limited number of bands of EQ to work with, so I'm not gonna waste a band of EQ on getting that 3khz harshness out of your guitar when you can dial your treble back a notch. That band of EQ is better spent on other things, like clearing up mids. We are not your enemy.


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