Hey guys, I wanted to check on how are people creating patches on their QC. I’ve purchased the “Beyerdynamic DT 990” solely for practicing and creating patches for gigs. I intend to go straight to the mixer with my QC (which I’m guessing is what most of the folks here might be opting for ). But I’m uncertain on how accurate is the sound going to be live compared to what I’ve created using my headphones.
Has anyone noticed change in tone while doing this? If no, could you please share the headphones that you are currently using?
Any suggestions on getting the sound as close as possible to what was created initially would be a huge help
I used Senn HD600s and AT MX50s and yes, they definitely sound different when using real cabs, FRFRs and or sending to PA etc. I have to take advantage of the Global EQ and remember to always create , tweak / test your presets at playing volume.
Heh I feel like this concern comes up quite often with new QC owners. So here’s something I wrote in another thread on the same subject matter, hope it helps in your tone journey:
I was also initially setting up my sounds using the headphone out (Westone X30s) on the QC and later even went ahead to buy a pair of small studio monitors (Eris 3.5) to plug the QC’s XLR outs into.
The point of difference for me, after taking the QC out to a few live situations (and coming home feeling like, wow that felt like playing a shoe string through a megaphone) was turning up an hour earlier than everyone else in the band to adjust every point of EQ (compression, OD, amp, cab, eq), delay feedback, reverb decay and routing to suit the venue/equipment and what I was hearing in my IEMs.
That was the first instance of me feeling good about the QC while playing live and also having the sound dude and people on the ground say nice things about what they were hearing.
The thing about the QC is, I don’t know if it’s made me sound better as a person attempting to play the guitar, but I’ve certainly learned a lot more about sound engineering and the reality of “sound is different in every space”.
I can’t say I completely understand how it works, but I have learnt to realise and accept that what I hear through my dinky studio monitors, or earphones at home cannot and will not be what I hear when I when I plug the QC into a live venue.
Honestly, I love showing up early to the venue to setup tones. I used to do that regularly at the church that I play at, it was helpful to also work with the sound engineers there to get the sound we wanted. However, for gigs/events I don’t think that would be possible.
QQ - Do you currently create patches using your studio monitors or the headphones now? Think of picking up a pair
Ah, yea with a different venue every time, I guess the whole hour earlier approach won’t work. But make the most of however early you can be in there. Make friends with the peeps behind the board the night before even, anything to help things along.
At the moment, am leaning towards the monitors more. Volume helps when rigging something for live usage. But this is also true that as you learn the QC more, you get better at anticipating what will work better at a given venue. So by the moment you’re at the venue, you’re only just making fine adjustments.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning that this method works for me cos I use ONE present and then bring in/out blocks as I need. I imagine it would be ridiculous if you’re using different presents for different songs in a set.
Thanks for that. Definitely makes sense that eventually I’ll get a hold of how different the sound is live when compared to my headphones. As off now I might look at picking up the Kali L6 V2 to hopefully reduce the gap a bit
). But I’m uncertain on how accurate is the sound going to be live compared to what I’ve created using my headphones.