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What do you do with your Tweeter?

#42
KJung said:
Most of those who respond on these zillions of similar threads asking about tweeters are 'tweeter haters' (due to either tone goals not requiring a tweeter, or having only played cheap tweeter/crossover cabs and/or not understanding that the noon setting of a tweeter is neither 'flat' nor typically the optimal setting for a balanced extension past the top end of the driver).

No surprise here. A well designed tweeter is a tool like any other that can work wonderfully for certain contexts, and not at all for others. Also, just like woofers/drivers, there are great tweeter executions and bad ones.
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+1

I change my tweeter setting if am going to slap a lot, or if I am wanting to bring out something in a given instrument.

Default is about 40% on. All of this concerns my current 3 Epifani cabs: 4 ohm UL410 Series 1, 8 ohm UL210 Series 1, and 8 ohm NYC T210.

I play a lot of different styles: Jazz, Country, Punk, Urban R&B, Reggae, Soca, and Afrobeat. My instruments vary from a passive (vintage) '55 P, a road worn Jazz, and an old MTD Kingston 5er to active 4, 5, and fretless 5, to upright.

There is no one setting of ANYTHING that works for all of it, believe me. I want whatever makes the music sound better. :p
 
#43
WJGreer said:
A couple of thoughts:
  1. If you have a tweeter in your cabinet, you turn it off, and you like the way that sounds - rock on. Academically though, I'll point out that when you do that, you are totally eliminating the sound frequencies intended for your tweeter from the output (ignoring the crossover slope). A cabinet with no tweeter installed, on the other hand, sends all of the sound out of the cones - or at least as much as they are capable of reproducing. So you would get a more vintage "full range" tone using that approach.
Click to expand...


  1. I emailed Ashdown about my cabinet and its tweeter and they specifically told me that the crossover does not eliminate the highs going to the 10" woofers. I'm not a crossover expert, though.
 
#44
WJGreer said:
A couple of thoughts:
  1. If you have a tweeter in your cabinet, you turn it off, and you like the way that sounds - rock on. Academically though, I'll point out that when you do that, you are totally eliminating the sound frequencies intended for your tweeter from the output (ignoring the crossover slope). A cabinet with no tweeter installed, on the other hand, sends all of the sound out of the cones - or at least as much as they are capable of reproducing. So you would get a more vintage "full range" tone using that approach.
  2. If you are playing a gig with an FOH system, that system has tweeters. If you are using a DI to send your signal to the FOH, your bass will be amplified full-range through the FOH and will sound very different to the audience than it sounds to you and the band. This seems counterproductive to me, so I suggest either miking the cabinet instead of a DI (if the soundman will tolerate that) or using your pre-DI EQ to remove highs instead of adjusting the tweeter attenuator on your cabinet.
Click to expand...

  1. +1
  2. When going DI, I control my stage EQ from my instrument instead of from my racked/amp head pre amp. I am then "quasi-monitoring." Of course the FOH EQ is not under our control in most cases.
  3. Thanks for the list syntax. :D
 
#48
Tim C. said:
I emailed Ashdown about my cabinet and its tweeter and they specifically told me that the crossover does not eliminate the highs going to the 10" woofers. I'm not a crossover expert, though.
Click to expand...

Some cabs have a 'true' crossover that cuts off the very top of the driver response. Other cabs use a more 'lo pass filter' design that allows the driver to run full range and just prevents anything below a certain frequency to get to the tweeter. Both designs have their merits. I believe, in general cheaper cabs use either cheap piezo tweeters (that I don't think even require a crossover), or these simple lo pass filter designs.

More advanced designs use a variety of true crossovers to make the transition from the upper range of the driver to the tweeter nice and transparent and smooth. Of course, on those cabs, if you turn the tweeter way down, you are removing everything above the crossover point from your signal, which might or might not be a good thing.

The best advice I can give is to buy a cab with a well thought out crossover and high quality tweeter if you like a full range tone, and buy a one way cab if you don't need or want that 'beyond 2K' sort of tone.

IMO!
 
#49
And, for all you 'tweeter haters', here is the equivalent of a 'Meat Lovers Pizza thrown into a room full of vegans':D

I just ordered one of these from AudioKinesis:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

This is a cool design. He has included an upper treble roll-off switch (set at around 3.5K), which will result in the cab to sound more like a one way/no tweeter cab if that is your thing, but yet maintain the properties of a well designed horn in the upper midrange/lower treble (i.e., better off axis dispersion and less beaming of the upper mids). Pretty cool. That big horn is crossed over around 2K I believe.
 
#51
I typically turn the tweeter up almost all the way then adjust the EQ to make it sound good with the band. It makes the most difference for the slap-style stuff, but also helps give presence to effects like Chorus and Flange.
 
#54
Good point georgestrings has there. why have a tweeter at all if you are going to just turn it of and use your power amp to heat up a pad? Personally, I like the tweeter so i turn it up pretty hot. If I hated the tweeter it would not be in the cab.
 
#55
georgestrings said:
Although I haven't experienced it 1st hand(probably because I don't turn them all the way down), I have read of several instances of the L-pad over-heating - most likely due to absorbing ALL the energy intended for the tweeter...


- georgestrings
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I guess that makes sense. All that energy has to go somewhere.

I think i have mine set at around one or two on my 410hlf. Whatever its set at is sounding really good so i will leave it.

Actually i just thought of something...

I'm running through a VT bass as sort of an always on toneshaping tool. Since that pedal has speaker simulation built in to simulate the freq response of an 810 would that mean that its not allowing any of the frequencies that would normally activate the tweeter to pass? Maybe i should just disconnect it. Aslong as i can restore it later so that the resale of the cab is not effected.
 
#57
WJGreer said:
A couple of thoughts:
  1. If you have a tweeter in your cabinet, you turn it off, and you like the way that sounds - rock on. Academically though, I'll point out that when you do that, you are totally eliminating the sound frequencies intended for your tweeter from the output (ignoring the crossover slope). A cabinet with no tweeter installed, on the other hand, sends all of the sound out of the cones - or at least as much as they are capable of reproducing. So you would get a more vintage "full range" tone using that approach.
Click to expand...


  1. Generally not true.

    Most cabs don't use a true crossover. Most cabs feed a full range signal to the woofer, and high pass the tweeter - so the woofer is seeing all the frequencies.
 
#58
KJung said:
More advanced designs use a variety of true crossovers to make the transition from the upper range of the driver to the tweeter nice and transparent and smooth. Of course, on those cabs, if you turn the tweeter way down, you are removing everything above the crossover point from your signal, which might or might not be a good thing.
Click to expand...


NitPick: Of course, on those cabs, if you turn the tweeter way down, you are lowering the level of everything above the crossover point in your signal.
 

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