New live rig pics (engl, blackmachine, rig of doom content)

[lepersmeesa]

So we have just had a week of practice with my band The Safety Fire (www.myspace.com/thesafetyfire) with our now complete rig (I say complete, until the next time I get gas).

We have two Engl Powerballs, two Pod Xt Pros, one Z11 midi swticher, and Digi 003 and a laptop controlling everything. We have backing vox and synths coming through the PA system from a laptop also controls all our presets so we can just concentrate on rocking.

So no for the pics:

 

[Metaltastic]

Holy shit dude, very nice - what're the PodXT Pro's for? And I assume the laptop/MIDI signals from the 003 do all the channel switching?

 

[lepersmeesa]

You got it, yeah. The z11 is the midi interface as it were between the amps and the laptop.

The pod xt's are for EQ, reverb, delay and other Fx's. Take off all the amp simulation, sounds really good. The Pod EQ tightens the Engl even more so, gets rid of the fizz and brings in more mids. Really cool to edit patches with another laptop connected to the Pods!

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh wow, so you can just use the Podxt pro as a rack FX processor? Damn, I might have to sell my XPression and pick one up...and the Z11 works between the two amps? Does it have two MIDI channel-switching outs for each Powerball, or do you just somehow daisy chain/split it? Also, I take it the signal chain of MIDI is laptop - 003 - Podxt's - Z11? Oh, and I assume those EQ's/power amp in the background belong to the FOH guy? And what guitar is that brown one, it's a beauty - BKP's in it, judging by the distressed finish on the covers.

Awesome rig dude!

 

[lepersmeesa]

The Z11 has 6 jack switchers two mono and two stereo. So I have two stereo jacks going to my engl, and the other guitarist has one stereo jack to his engl, into to mono jacks which can control his clean, distortion, crunch, lead. While I can also choose my mids (open, focused) and master A and B. The midi goes at the moment, Z11 then the Pods, but im going to try out a few different ones. The only problem with the pods is there is a small delay in switching patches, but if you get the patch changes at the exact right point you can get away with it( right at the end of chords, silences etc, sounds fine).

The EQ's poweramp are the PA's at the rehearsal rooms we go to. The brown guitar is my custom blackmachine, single piece of quilted mahogany, and yep on the BKP's, ceramic warpigs. Other guitarist has painkillers in his schecter.

 

[Gnash]

I noticed a lefty guitar in the first pic. Is that a Blackmachine?

 

[Torniojaws]

There are no guitars in the first pic

In the second pic, the guitar in the back is a Schecter Hellraiser, like he said.

 

[lepersmeesa]

I think its a C1 classic. The one with the fancy inlay?

 

[Metaltastic]

The Z11 has 6 jack switchers two mono and two stereo. So I have two stereo jacks going to my engl, and the other guitarist has one stereo jack to his engl, into to mono jacks which can control his clean, distortion, crunch, lead. While I can also choose my mids (open, focused) and master A and B. The midi goes at the moment, Z11 then the Pods, but im going to try out a few different ones. The only problem with the pods is there is a small delay in switching patches, but if you get the patch changes at the exact right point you can get away with it( right at the end of chords, silences etc, sounds fine).

Ah, so you use the 1/4" connectors to switch rather than the multipin, it's cool that Engl's have all those 1/4" switching options. And I was under the impression that the latency in switching was inherent to MIDI, though if your Z11 (and thus the amps) responds instantaneously, I guess that throws that theory out. Oh, and where and what are the cabs?

 

[AdamWathan]

That's an INTENSE setup... So I take it the plan is to sequence your entire live set on the laptop along with a click and not have to worry about manually changing a single effect or guitar sound the whole show? That's really fuckin' cool man!

 

[Metaltastic]

Well I personally wouldn't want to sacrifice having foot control over my presets, but that's just my preference from dealing with unpredictable drummers...

 

[lepersmeesa]

The cabs are Engl v60 4x12 and a Marshall from the 70s, forget which speakers are in it.

F0rbidden: Yeah man, the whole set is programmed out with all the backing parts we need, and the drummer playing to click, so all the patches are in exactly in the same places.

We practiced with it for the whole week and in that week the drummer only made 4 or 5 mistakes and recovered and got back into the right place again. Still need to gig it, but it should be awesome if everything goes to plan.

Anybody got any advice concerning how to convey where you want the backing tracks to be in the mix in a live situation?

 

[Torniojaws]

Anybody got any advice concerning how to convey where you want the backing tracks to be in the mix in a live situation?

Flatline. Always the same apparent volume level, otherwise you'll piss off the sound guy

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Get that hard drive off the floor! Don't put it on top of the rack either, thats a long drop and I've seen it happen before (in the studio).
Put it in the rack somehow secure but with vibration isolation as well.

Other than that, it looks like you've got a good system.