I think I'm turning into Drew...

digitalscream

Had a fantastic gig yesterday at Yaxley Festival - here's a pic from the side of the stage half an hour before we went on:

There were rather more people than we expected Apparently there were a good 5,000 people there when we went on, just under half of which were watching us. Wow.

The sound on stage was fantastic, which meant I could clearly hear everything...including the massive gap between patches from my Eleven Rack. Normally I don't notice it on a smaller/less clear stage. This was painful, though, and it was even noticed by a few audience members - it actually cut off the attack of the first note of a few of my solos.

I don't think I can live with it, so it's back to amp + pedals for me

Ironically, this means selling the Marshall 20/20 power amp - the only Marshall product I've ever actually been happy with and it's gonna have to go through no fault of its own, while the Eleven stays because it's the main part of our recording setup for the album.

Bah.

Drew_TNBD

I think I'm turning into @Octatonic.

But get an Axe FX.

ThePrettyDamned

Why lose the power amp if it's the eleven rack that's causing problems?  You could (as @drew_fx said) get an AFII, or even a midi preamp.  

But seriously, that looks like a great gig nice one!

digitalscream

ThePrettyDamned said:

Why lose the power amp if it's the eleven rack that's causing problems?  You could (as @drew_fx said) get an AFII, or even a midi preamp.  

But seriously, that looks like a great gig nice one!

Because we're using the Eleven to record all the guitar, bass and vocals for our album. That's really the reason I bought it - using it live was a bonus. The 20/20, on the other hand, was only bought so that I could use it live. Since I'm not doing that now...it's gotta go.

AFII isn't an option. Even the Standard or Ultra are out, given that all of my spare cash at the moment is going towards keeping the dogs functional. Besides...I've never heard any Fractal gear that sounds the way I want it to; that's the frustrating thing...with the Eleven, my tone is almost indistinguishable from using my amp + pedals rig.

And yep...it was a bloody good afternoon

octatonic

Drew_fx said:

I think I'm turning into @Octatonic.

But get an Axe FX.

You'll need to gain 40 lbs, get some ink and get used to checking your stools for blood.

monquixote

Just keep the power amp and run your amt pedals into it

ThePrettyDamned

digitalscream said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Why lose the power amp if it's the eleven rack that's causing problems?  You could (as @drew_fx said) get an AFII, or even a midi preamp.  

But seriously, that looks like a great gig nice one!

Because we're using the Eleven to record all the guitar, bass and vocals for our album. That's really the reason I bought it - using it live was a bonus. The 20/20, on the other hand, was only bought so that I could use it live. Since I'm not doing that now...it's gotta go.

AFII isn't an option. Even the Standard or Ultra are out, given that all of my spare cash at the moment is going towards keeping the dogs functional. Besides...I've never heard any Fractal gear that sounds the way I want it to; that's the frustrating thing...with the Eleven, my tone is almost indistinguishable from using my amp + pedals rig.

And yep...it was a bloody good afternoon

Ahhh I see.  

Oh man well, good luck hunting

ChrisMusic

Good crowd for a gig  

Love all the alter egos coming to the surface, only on theFretBoard eh....

ICBM

@digitalscream: is there a work-around? Bear with me since I know nothing about the Eleven Rack really...

Can you switch on and off individual effects within a patch on it - ie use it more like a pedalboard with preset arrangements of effects?

The reason I ask is because I have an old Boss SE-70, which was my main source of sounds for many years - and which (like all these type of things seems to) has a huge drop-out delay when switching patches. But it has no noticeable delay when turning on and off individual effects within a patch using the assignable control pedals. So that's what I did - I used it essentially as a programmable pedalboard. I used a 2-button footswitch and an expression pedal with it - the left button was always the 'loud button' (distortion usually, sometimes level boost) and the right button was the 'wobble button' (modulation, or sometimes delay etc) and the expression pedal did various things - wah, tremolo speed etc... all depending on the song. Each song could have a totally different set of effects, and each had its own dedicated patch named for the song, so it was foolproof - but very versatile, just like having a different set of pedals for each song.

OK, it did have a limitation in that the number of changes from each button was limited - each could be set to at most four parameters (including effect on/off), but really that meant a maximum of two since there had to be one each for the other button and the expression pedal - so I couldn't go from (say) clean compressed delay/chorus to non-compressed distorted tremolo with one button... but actually I found it made me think about simpler changes and the result ended up more natural-sounding than huge wholesale patch changes.

I did eventually stop using it and go back to individual analogue pedals - one day the footswitch broke just before a gig, and I didn't have time to fix it so I borrowed three simple Boss pedals from a friend, and I so much prefered the tone and the ability to tweak controls on the fly (the SE-70 is a typical parameter-button system) that I never used the SE-70 again, and the whole pedalboard thing started!

But if you can use the Eleven Rack in a way that doesn't involve changing patches on the fly, it could still work...

Sorry for the rambling .

Si_

Give me a pm if you do sell the power amp

digitalscream

ICBM said:

@digitalscream: is there a work-around? Bear with me since I know nothing about the Eleven Rack really...

Can you switch on and off individual effects within a patch on it - ie use it more like a pedalboard with preset arrangements of effects?

<snip>

Funnily enough, I had exactly the same thought when talking to Drew about it earlier - run everything from a single patch on the Eleven Rack, but program all the changes as CC messages into a controller like the FCB1010. Get them in the right order (probably some trial and error involved), and it should be possible to make it a fairly graceful transition.

Unfortunately, I don't really have the time or inclination to go down that road - I'm sure it would work, but I just don't want my rig to be that complex with that many moving parts.

I'll just wait until Jet City bring out the MIDI-controlled head, then maybe get a G-Major or two (one in front, one in the loop). Dunno...we'll see.

Si_ said:

Give me a pm if you do sell the power amp

I think I will be...expect a PM in the morning.

Cacofonix

Have you got a floorboard or something that will transmit midi?

If so, and IF the eleven rack has midi learn, you can try it at home with a simple switch-on, switch-off thing.

ICBM

Two Eleven Racks and an A/B box?

digitalscream

Cacofonix said:

Have you got a floorboard or something that will transmit midi?

If so, and IF the eleven rack has midi learn, you can try it at home with a simple switch-on, switch-off thing.

My current MIDI controller just sends PC messages, not CCs. I've modded it with an extra couple of switches (the 11R can take external control buttons which are configurable, but they can only enable/disable a single effect each).

I think I'm going to sell the 20/20 and go back to the amp/pedals rig for now. Getting the 11R to play ball is probably going to be more hassle than anything, so I'll probably just wait until Jet City's MIDI amp is out and come back to it then.

It's a real pisser, because the 11R really did sound exactly the way I wanted it to.

mike_l

@digitalscream

1, sorry I missed the Yaxley festival (some dumbass forgot about it......)

2, if you're going back to pedals, and want to try a switcher system, give me a shout, you can borrow mine for a try.

chrispy108

Sorry to hear it's not working out

digitalscream said:

I'll just wait until Jet City bring out the MIDI-controlled head, then maybe get a G-Major or two (one in front, one in the loop). Dunno...we'll see.

I read that, thought: surely they have loops for your pre-amp, given that they have pitchshift (normally an up-front effect) and reverbs (normally a loop effect). Checked the website, see "Made By Guitarists For Guitarists" in big writing, but no loop. How very bizarre! What a missed opportunity?

What's the ETA for the midi Jet City?

digitalscream

chrispy108 said:

Sorry to hear it's not working out

digitalscream said:

I'll just wait until Jet City bring out the MIDI-controlled head, then maybe get a G-Major or two (one in front, one in the loop). Dunno...we'll see.

I read that, thought: surely they have loops for your pre-amp, given that they have pitchshift (normally an up-front effect) and reverbs (normally a loop effect). Checked the website, see "Made By Guitarists For Guitarists" in big writing, but no loop. How very bizarre! What a missed opportunity?

What's the ETA for the midi Jet City?

Yup, it's frankly ridiculous for the G-Major not to have a loop.

The MIDI amp (JCA20H FLEX) is coming towards the end of the summer, apparently. It's going to be a bit special, I think - not only will it have the usual two channels (crunch and drive), it's also going to have a clean channel which is based on the one in the Soldano Lucky 13. Can't wait

chrispy108

Is there anything else out there FX wise? I guess it all has modelling and is overcomplicated etc for what you'd want?

Sounds promising, any idea of price yet?

digitalscream

chrispy108 said:

Is there anything else out there FX wise? I guess it all has modelling and is overcomplicated etc for what you'd want?

Sounds promising, any idea of price yet?

Nah, there really isn't...particularly not if you have a Soldano/Jet City amp, because of the nutty loop. The only thing I know would work is a TC G-System, but that apparently has a gap too (don't know if it's as bad as the 11R, though).

The JCA20H FLEX will be "flagship money", according to the guys at Jet City. If it goes over well, they'll be releasing 50W and 100W versions too. I think we're looking in the £500-ish range, given previous discussions with them. Definitely not excessive for what you get - H&K have their Grandmeister at £900.

For the sake of simplicity (given the switching involved in the preamp), I believe they'll all have the more sensible (post-MV) loop from the JCA22H, rather than the silly one in the JCA50H and JCA100H.

hubobulous

I'm also someone that uses a foot controller to morph a rhythm patch into a lead one. This is normally through adding mids, gain and perhaps changing delay/reverb lengths and mix.

I currently use a Rocktron Utopia G300 for this live, and although I'm thinking of going to individual pedals, its the one thing that I love about my current rig. Its something worth spending a little time on if you can.

FelineGuitars

What about about one of the Randall RM4 modular preamps with your own choice of modules - I'm sure I have one I can spare