I've been fighting with my KPA + DXR10 for a while to get it to sound a bit more natural, I'm almost sure I'd feel more "connected" if I played it through a regular amp and cab but I wanted to make it work with my DXR10. Yes, there's a similar thread at TGP but it's aimed at AxeFX users so I thought I'd better steer clear of that one.
Anyway, today I've felt that I've made some progress in that sense and I wanted to both share it and ask if you guys think it sounds better as well - some times my ears play tricks on me and I'd rather have validation from others. Here's my complete method (this one is more focused on distorted tones):
1. Set clean sense so that even strumming as hard as possible the input LED never or almost never goes yellow.
2. Set the noise gate so it's just at the threshold where there's no or very little noise when you're resting your palm against the strings.
3. In order to get a tone that's richer in harmonics I'll often put a green screamer before the amp with gain set to taste, tone -1.2 and volume 0.0
Most profiles will sound pretty good by then, but tend to sound a little too "hi-fi" if you get my meaning, and then most attempts to cut the high end will result in a loss of detail that's quite disappointing, giving what many will call "blanket over the speakers" effect. Here's what I've tried:
- Lowering the tone in the green screamer (when present);
- Adjusting treble and presence in the amp tonestack;
- Including a high pass filter;
- Including a studio EQ with various settings;
- Lowering the cabinet high shift.
None of those worked very well like I've mentioned, but today I've stumbled upon some settings that really seemed to work, and since I've been playing and tweaking for hours maybe you guys can give it a shot and tell me if I'm crazy or on to something.
It's simple really, just go to the CAB menu and set:
- Character to +0.5
- Volume to +0.5
Now careful, doing this might bring up a lot of bass and make the profile sound muddy, so palm mute, do some shug-shug and adjust the bass accordingly until it's not muddy or farty.
So, what do you think?