Do FRFR speakers sound more like an ‘amp in the room’ than monitors with modellers/amp sims (I am using NDSP plugins)?
I currently use a pair monitors (Mackie CR5X), but my tone lacks depth and sounds very flat when I play. I don’t know if this is to do with me using monitors - which are very directional. Would an FRFR improve this at all?
No, studio monitors are frfr. The better the sim and reverb, the more it will sound and feel like an amp. I’m using Bogner Ampknob with room sound from S-gear (though any convolution reverb will do,) it sounds and feels great.
I would say the only difference is that most people have their monitors in a pretty close field directed towards their ears, probably arm’s length away or even closer. People that play with an FRFR likely situate themselves similar to a guitar cab (standing with the speaker aimed at their shins, not standing right next to it).
Those differences are enough to change the way you perceive the sound substantially. I would experiment with playing in different areas of your space, in relation to the monitors, before you get an FRFR.
You can cheat your way to an “amp in the room” kind of thing with an FRFR. It sounds quite good but obviously nowhere near the real thing. I do it with a Fractal, and it’s pretty in depth, but basically you bypass the cab and insert an EQ that you sort of shape into a cabinet…. Something like that….
G66 has a Cooper Carter video where he explains the whole thing. It’s been a decade and a half since I played through an actual amp so it’s hard to remember what that was really like, but it works well enough that with all of the main presets I use, I have an AITR version.
Is an “amp in the room” when you hear the sound bouncing off your walls, vs. having simulated bouncing that is captured by simulated microphones and brought out in stereo for headphones?
If so, any monitor should be able to get you an “amp in the room sound”?
Unless you’re using something like a Kemper and its companion Kabinet or a Line6 PowerKab - an FRFR can’t provide an amp-in-the-room sound.
Every IR has a microphone, with its own preamp and whatever else in the signal chain. All adding their own color and quality. Just like speakers, an SM57 sounds different than say, a Royer 121. Preamps are the same way.
An amp in the room has none of that and it makes a big difference. I use a Kemper Kabinet with my Profiler and love it.
Do FRFR speakers handle higher volumes better than monitors?
The wattage ratings don’t mean much comparing a full-range speaker to something as narrow-range as a guitar speaker. The full range needs the power handling to reproduce notes low (bass) notes.
A Vintage 30 (which is actually a 60 watt) has no such need and will hit the pain threshold (beginning around 115 or 120db) with ease.
They’re much higher powered, the Headrush cabs are a whopping 2000 watts.