Last Saturday’s Gig was literally a washout. It was storming, flooding, and humidity was extremely high. I had to wipe much of my gear down before I could power up, and we only had 45 minutes to load in and count off.
That said, I had just enough time to tune my guitar, knowing I play it on the 1st two songs. Count off…guitar was so horribly distorted, the chords were indistinguishable. Started frantically checking equipment and C3 setup. Next song, same problem. 3rd song, had VB3 loaded, but could barely hear it. 4th song piano was barely audible. I closed C3 twice, double checked cables, interface, and amp. I rebooted, and only played keys the rest of set. During break, I discovered my Bias amp sim was only loading the default setting called “arsenal” which is drowning in effects. VB3 still had very little volume even though every gain setting for it was cranked. The rest of the night, I subbed VB3 with Blue 3, and it worked very well. My other amp sim I used (S-Gear) did well. My Acoustic Samples piano never recovered on gain, so I subbed Addictive Keys and all was well.
I always test my settings several times before gigs and everything was great before gig. I re-tested the same set list Monday, and everything sounded great again. My Bias sim changed presets perfectly again. VB3 and AS piano also worked well. ???
Other than moisture, I am at a loss here on what happened. And, of course…the guitar player look from across the stage. I did, however, defend C3 with all my soul when I got to hear his complaint about my equipment during break. He couldn’t defend his sloppy playing I happened to mention as a come back.
Focusrite 18i8. Driver is up to date and so is my Scarlett Mix Control. I really like Positive Grid Bias because it has been so easy to dial in my tones, even though is has hogitis. Fortunately, I have other good amp sims available. I did reboot my laptop, interface, and keys. Changed USB cables with new ones. The problem on Bias was it loaded the default preset instead of the preset I saved with the song and have had no problem with. As far as my other plugs, low volume appeared on VB3 and my AS Piano, but other plugs were fine. Tested everything two days later and Bias is working fine, but I’ve had to work on gains for VB3 and AS. I am mostly sure it was my laptop, and maybe the moisture (even tho it didn’t get wet) I don’t have anything interfering with it like Windows update, virus protectors, or sleep mode etc. Once I got through 2nd set, I just substituted AS & Vb3 on the fly, and got through the night. I should have used my backup laptop, just to confirm the problem, but I reasonably worked out things out, and was pressed for time during short breaks. Thanks for the response.
