#158754  by playingdead
 
I got my rhythm guitarist to drink the Fractal Audio kool-aid ... programmed him a Bobby patch with some of the effects he likes, he took it for a spin Friday night. Got some great sounds out of it. I gave him a phaser, flanger, chorus, compression, slap delay and overdrive, plus a wah-autowah-reverse wah.

I had done some minor changes to my own settings, added a little more dirt, adjusted the phaser and overdrive some, plus redid my gain staging.

This is just a 2-track off the board jam during Bird Song ... we both went direct with full-range monitors up front. Too much reverb on the vocals. I used a phaser at one point, and some overdrive. I think he used everything ... LOL ... he got some very cool tones about 4:30 in.

https://soundcloud.com/vicderobertis/bird-song-excerpt

Our soundguy was really happy with him going direct, his old rig was a mass of stomp boxes, hiss and erratic levels, this was much cleaner sounding, both on stage and in the mix.
 #158766  by rugger
 
It sounds like it's right off "Without a Net." You guys are nailing the late 80's vibe! Damn, like really. Well done Vic.

john in san diego
 #158770  by Jedstein
 
Man, both guitars sound gorgeous. Great playing (obviously) as well. Wow.
 #158780  by playingdead
 
Thanks, gents. The Weir patch was based on a Vox AC-30 and I picked a 2X12 cabinet with Celestion Gold speakers after I had Jim come over and plug in and audition a bunch. He plays either an Ibanez Artist or a Modulus Genesis, that combo sounded great with both guitars.

I also made a version with the speaker cabinet out of the equation, which pretty much knocked Weir's late 80s tone where he was running direct into the Meyer cabinets under the drum riser. I was playing back the isolated Weir guitar from Touch of Grey off In the Dark when we dialed that in, and it was really, really close. That's a great sounding tone but it's hard to cut through the mix when the band is playing live with that one. Will probably multitrack the show on Friday night and I can post some samples in the Bobby tone forum.

The Fractal stuff is great for me for the Garcia tone, but it's even more versatile for the Weir stuff because you can create so many different sounds to knock what he did over the years and switch between them so easily -- 72 Twin Reverb, 76 Mesa, 80s and 90s racks, etc. -- as long as you're going direct with full range monitoring onstage.
 #158783  by rugger
 
I'm very tempted to pick up an Ax or maybe a Kemper. Which FRFR monitors are you using?

john in san diego
 #158832  by joeriz
 
Vic,

Have you ever tried the Fractal FX8? I’m seriously considering one of these to use with a regular guitar amp (which for me is always some flavor of Fender blackface). However, I keep wondering if I’m going to be missing something by not getting the AX8 instead. It might be nice to have the ability to go straight to FOH or use an FRFR at some point.

Thanks,
Joe
 #158860  by playingdead
 
Thanks, guys. I use an Atomic CLR Neo onstage, although I have also used QSC K12s with great results. The trick is to trust that what you are sending to the front of house is consistent and perfect, and not worry about what you're hearing from the monitor, although the front monitor sounds great on every stage I've ever used it on. Plug and play.

I would definitely get the AX8 over the FX8 ... the AX8 does everything the FX8 can do, but also gives you the amp and speaker simulations, which is the whole point to going this route, in my opinion. It's well worth the extra $$$. These were on sale for $1199 recently.
 #159066  by rugger
 
Well, they eventually came down to $1099 and I pulled the trigger! I've only had a day with it but I'm very impressed with the potential of this box. Currently running it through some studio monitors (jbl lsr305's) at my computer desk but I have some K12's I'm going to pull out of the garage and give that a go once I have some presets configured. The CLR's appear to be the way to go and I may get one eventually but I thought I'd start with equipment that I have.

Vic, I found your Mutron and E120 blocks on the Fractal Forum. Very cool of you to share. There is some Dead interest over there but not much really. Maybe we could get something going on Rukind for those of us wading into the Garcia/Dead digital waters so to speak?

I just got the Garcia Live Vol. 4, JGB 3/22/78. I'm digging the tones on that recording. It's all cleans with a level of dirt added (stratoblaster?) but no OBEL I believe. Anyone care to elaborate on this?

Anyways, I think that's going to be my first challenge, see if I can nail that sound and share it here if anyone's interested. Maybe a new thread at that time will be appropriate?

john in san diego
 #159073  by strumminsix
 
Bravo, shows again and again that the band mix is more important that the individual's tone. And the AX8 rocks it.