Going Direct

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Monday Nov 24, 2003

Hey John, that was fun.

I tweaked a Boss VF1 so that it sounds pretty good thru the PA. It also has all kinds of FX you won't find in most boxes, like slow gear (automatic volume/violin effect), guitar voice formants, acoustic guitar simulator, a mono synthesizer and an intelligent harmonizer that works as good or better than the TC Electronic GForce. The COSM modeling is excellent and it can turn a Flying V into a 12-string acoustic. All that in 1/2 rack space and no tubes to replace. They really scream as a preamp/FX in a guitar rig.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Monday Nov 24, 2003

See its not so bad! Now, get the bass player to do the same thing, leave the amps at home and get some control over stage volume. Thats the main thing I wanted to do running direct. I would just suggest having a backup unit of some sort ( never trust electronics )

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Tuesday Nov 25, 2003

When I got my first VF1, I liked it so much that I sold my TC Electronic GForce, bought 2 more VF1s and still had a few $hundred left over, so I'm pretty well backed up.

This rigging is for my midi-solo show. Although its adequate, I'm not thrilled with the response and sustain thru the PA, but I got rid of the horn-honking HONK! HONK!

Its tough to give up tubes AND speakers inside six months! You know, withdrawal pains and such.

facingwest · Post by **facingwest** » Tuesday Nov 25, 2003

Something you might want to consider trying is bringing a micro amp and run your signal into it, so you can get the sustain without killing everyone's ears. I've read numerous articles where players would do that because if their stack was as loud as they needed it to be, no one would be able to hear. There are two ways you could try this as well. The first one would be to sit a small, say 5 watts, amp near you and crank it, so the cone could interact with the pickups and body. The second would be to completely isolate and soundproof a combo, mic it and crank it.

Just an idea if running direct isn't exactly what you're looking for.

I did notice the same thing about the guitar's sustain, but didn't want to spend any extra money to fix the prob. It's no biggie though. I think I only have the problem with one or two songs we play out of the night.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Tuesday Nov 25, 2003

Yes, If you have 3 processors I'd say you are covered for one breaking down.

The songs we are doing don't give me alot of room to rip and tear on the fretboard like I used to so a little loss in the upper freq. doesn't really bother me.

But Like I said the thing I like is mixing the guitar, bass and vocals in the monitor and not having the stage amps screwing up everyones mix.

facingwest · Post by **facingwest** » Tuesday Nov 25, 2003

We used to run everything through the monitors and found out one major problem. Since everyone wants to hear themselves in the monitors, a little monitor war started happening. A good solution for this is to have 2 monitor mixes for each side of the stage. Just wanted to give you a heads up before it happened to you as well.

tonefight · Post by **tonefight** » Tuesday Nov 25, 2003

Yeah, i have the capability to do that but......... I haven't told anyone. We've been using it at practice and played out like that once and everyone was happy with it so far. I'll keep one mix as long as everyone is happy.

lonewolf · Post by **lonewolf** » Friday Dec 05, 2003

I'm debuting the direct mixed guitar Friday night at the Hitching Post.

I also incorporated a different midi system based on a Yamaha MU100 with a vocal harmony plug in board. This little half-rack space box does midi drums & synths, but it also has a microphone processor for effects and a 3 part voice harmonizer. The MU100's midi spec is cryptic at best and I spent something like 50 hours during the past week translating my old midi songs into the new format. AAAARRRGGHHHH.