amp in the room vs studio sound

[singtall]

when i put on headphones to jam all by myself, i tend to prefer playing with presets that sound more like an amp in the room (see my fizz reduction presets in the superpack).

when jamming along with a cd, i tend to like artists presets that sound like the cd i'm jamming to....it just fits better in the mix.

live, i kinda like a blend or in-between tone. i could just take a fizz reduction preset and add some upper mids and be done.

what do you guys like?

by the way, i made more fizz reduced presets last night that i will be uploading to the superpack some time today. look for JCM800 and Mesa MK V presets.


i uploaded the Mesa MK V preset here, along with a video sample of where i copied the tone from.

the video (listen to the lead tone at 9:30):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kOIx7HbhxQ

the preset:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...a%20MK%20V.tfx

if you listen to the video, then jam on the preset before you try any other preset on your eleven rack, it will be a different experience. after jamming on that preset for awhile, try your "normal" favorite preset and listen to the difference.

i think everyone should have a copy of these presets for comparison sake if nothing else:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...%20presets.zip

it is the fizz reduction presets from the singtall superpack. yes, they are darker sounding presets. they are made to sound more like an amp in the bedroom. try them out, and tweak the highs on the eq until you hear what sounds good to you. try tweaking at a pretty loud volume. don't blow your ears, but get it at a good jamming volume. if you tweak at low volume, you will tend to add more highs than needed.

feel free to chime in on this experiment that i started years ago with Greg (TLTD). we both have fairly sensitive hearing in the high frequencies, and we worked on presets early on that sounded warmer or more like an amp in the room.

that discussion was lost over the years, but i think more people should understand the difference between an amp in the room, vs a mic'd up amp, vs a studio recorded tone.

this discussion will be about the amp in the room tone. once everyone is onboard and gets what i'm talking about, i will move on the the next topic.

feel free to discuss what you are hearing, any eq tips, etc.

[singtall]

it helps to compare your tweaked tone to someone else. for example: i listened to Petrucci playing in a room with a Mesa MK V and then i tweaked a Mesa Rectifier to sound similar. granted, it might not be exactly the same tone, but with my guitar it sounds really close. this amount of highs is the bases for other in the room sounds.

my experience with tone progression is this:
1) i tweak my amp to sound good all by myself.
2) i jam with a band and find that i need more high mids to cut through, so i add it.
3) i record that live tone and realize that i'm stepping all over the bass player, so i roll off some lows.

the final tone is great for cd, but sounds thin when i jam alone.

[CME]

Yep that's the hardest thing to get your head around sometimes. And applies to all instruments/tracks. What sounds good solo'd doesn't always fit in the mix well, and what sounds good in a mix can sound pretty wretched by itself.

Fwiw I almost always hi-pass my guitars at 100-120hz. Yeah it cuts off some low end but really give the bass the space it needs. Anyways I'll have to give the presets a try. Thanks.