johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

[charvel model 2]

I have a johnson j-station and it sounds great thru the headphones, but what can I use to get that same sound live short of runnin thru the board. I need to know what to get to get the headphones sound without changing it to come out live, when I run a chord from the headphone jack to a amp it sounds totally different. the only thing I can think of short of runnin thru the board is to use 2 amps and use the stereo outputs, but what would be the best amps to do this that won't change the sound? thanks for any input you might have.

 

[Despair]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

There's a bunch of options for amplifying modellers. A rackmount stereo power amp into cabinets designed for use with modellers, a Jazz Chorus 120 (bypass the preamp), some people even use a pair of powered monitors.

There's some expensive options like the Atomic Reactor 112, which is designed to warm up modellers.

 

[ozzynotwood]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

The randall G3 series have a pretty flat clean channel that works well with external gear, but J-Stations are designed to DI into a mixing console or a poweramp. Putting them through guitar amps changes the sound completely.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

Note there will be 2 (at least) issues you will hit here which make it difficult to pull off what you are wanting to accomplish. First, the speakers in whatever you use live will not be the same as those in your headphones. They can be close, perhaps but not the same. Size differences and distance issues impact this as well. Second, the live experience (to me) seems more impacted by the Fletcher–Munson curves.

I still have my J-station 2.0. It has a very nice blues tone in it that I really like for somethings. It is a nice tool.

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

What about the Bose L1 speaker system?

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/speakers/portable_amplification_systems/index.jsp

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

Unless the Bose has the same eq curve as his/her headphones and is placed the same distance from his/her ear as the headphones - not exactly.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

yeah what you need to find is a pair of powered monitors that sound just like your headphones.

or just a really flat, clean amp to run it through...but odds are good your headphones aren't super flat as far as EQ goes...

step 1 is figuring out what headphones you're using and which frequencies they accentuate...then you find an amp or speaker rig that focuses on those same frequencies.

really tho i'd just look up whatever your J-station is trying to model on those settings and get that...might be quicker and easier heh!

 

[ericmeyer4]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

Unless the Bose has the same eq curve as his/her headphones and is placed the same distance from his/her ear as the headphones - not exactly.

And all of the other suggestions are going to have the same eq curve as the OP's headphones and be placed the same distace from the OP's ears?

Runing through a traditional amp is going to color the sound with the amp's own characteristics.

IMO the easiest way to get the most similar sounds to your headphones is to run it through a PA. However, it seems from the OP you may have some reservations about doing that? As a few others have suggested either some powered speakers or a keyboard amp should go a long way to getting you close to where you want to be. Tech 21 also makes some good stuff and the Power Engine has gotten some good review.

With all gear how it sounds at home is going to sound a bit different in a live situation. In all honesty you probably will not get it to sound exactly the same from headphones to a bigger set of speakers. When you move to a larger set of speakers you will probably have the best luck in giving your currently settings a little tweak and creating a new patch for live shows.

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

The point was that it is not really possible. You can get close but you can't really use the same settings for recording and live. Having used various modelers for several years now it just does not really work out very well.

 

[aleclee]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

Running a headphone out into a guitar amp results in additional...and generally unwanted...coloration. If you like what's you hear through the headphones, there's no surprise that what comes out of your speaker cab is less pleasing. The amp colors the signal (just as it does with your guitar) and the speakers have an even greater effect since most guitar speakers have anything but flat response.

What an increasing number of folks using modelers are doing is using FRFR (full range, flat response) speakers such as powered PA speakers or other full range cabs designed for guitar modelers like the Atomic Reactor. It's pretty much the same idea as running through the board, though. On the plus side, if you split the signal between your personal FRFR and PA, it means that what you hear on stage is the same as what the audience hears coming through the PA.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

Atomic Reactor +1 here.

The best approach really IS direct to the board, though. It's what I do with my POD.

For my band I have a JBL EON 15 for monitoring.

I like the BOSE system in general, but I recently experienced something odd with a Bose PA. Our church opened a satellite campus that has a Bose PA. Our main campus has JBL mains. In the main campus I rarely use the bridge pickup because the tone becomes too bright. In the satellite campus I had to start USING the bridge pickup because the tone was too muddy. :dunno:

 

[WhoFan]

Re: johnson j-station get that sound out of the head phones ..live?

for any modeler i prefer to run them into a keyboard amp... keyboard amps are meant to reproduce the sound banks of keyboards as clear as possible... they do the same for guitar modelers...

and a bonus of keyboard amps is a lot of them have XLR direct outs on them so you can send them direct to the PA easy with a standard mic cable.... plus a lot keyboard amps have more then one imput and you can plug different modelers into them and switch guitars and preamps at the same time...

lots of uses!...