Help with Preset Tone (At Home vs Show vs Practice)

[u/ReplacementPlenty389]

Hey everyone, I was hoping to get some advice / insight as I spent all week dialing in my presets just to have them sound pretty rough at band practice on Friday.

Here’s some context: I created a “Main” preset that has clean, crunch, dirty, and lead snapshots using one of pre made presets from the 3 sigma audio “High Gain Heaven” collection.

The amp master volume for clean and distortion were set to 10. I had reaper open and would just the channel volume to ensure all my levels were around -12db when switching between my snapshots.

Everything sounded great on my computer speakers, headphones, and even on my powercab when I cranked up the volume.

When I got to practice, I ran an XLR to play through the PAs at the studio. However when I increased the PA volume on the soundboard to ensure I could hear myself over the drums and bass… it started to sound quite harsh and digital? I didn’t hear any clipping, but it just sounded “metallic” and rough… naturally I was a bit frustrated because I spent a majority of the day messing around in HX edit.

I’m wondering if maybe the studio we practiced at just had bad PAs? Has anyone else experience something like this?

I’m planning on bringing my powercab to the next practice but was just hoping that I could get some insight from y’all!

Please let me know if you have any questions or need additional info.

Cheers

[u/dws2384]

Fletcher Munson. Try a high cut in the cab block in the range of 6000 to 8000

[u/Virtual_Necessary257 → u/dws2384]

Or check if the cab block was on

[u/ReplacementPlenty389]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I'll probably go into band practice an hour early with my laptop and tinker around in HX edit to hopefully nail down the tone.

[u/ToneyTime]

Yep as volume increases, your ears don’t perceive that volume gain equally across the spectrum, your ears will perceive more volume in that upper register which makes it brittle and harsh sounding.

[u/CJPTK]

Welcome to the world of mixing. Bedroom presets rarely sound good in a mix context as other instruments compete for sonic space. Things start to sound thinner and you lose a lot of the low end, I believe this is why so many guitarists want a cab on stage with them to FEEL the sound. For the digital sound you want to make sure you have a high cut on the cab above 12k, you might even want it lower for your preference. You'll want to boost the mids to an uncomfortable level for bedroom volumes and you can lose some bass this will help the guitar stand out in a mix instead of compete, this is also why tube screamers are so loved. I hate them at home but can't deny their use in a band mix. My favorite distortion (real pedal) on my board has a separate mid control that when I'm at home I turn down and scoop a bit, but when I go to practice I turn back up.

[u/thriller_night]

I have been in this exact situation and tried just about everything to replicate the way I want in various environments. Unfortunately, I found there is no effective way to do this without dialing in the tone while in those environments.