Crash Course In Tweaking Individual Rigs, Saving-As, Deleting Unused And Then Building A Performance

  • First off, congrats. I'm pretty sure it will grow on you.
    Many users dismiss the stock profiles in favor of some free picks from the rig-exchange, rig-packs or even paid profiles. Many of them also return to the stock profiles later on - so i'm sure there's something to them, but you should try going with the flow.


    -First off, backup your unit (put an empty flash disk in the profiler. Wait for the prompt. Format. Now pull it out and back in again - click 'ext. storage', 'backup/restore', then 'backup').
    -The second thing i'd do is sort through to get only the profiles i like - so go to browse mode, play a few notes to remind yourself what the profile sounds like, then add it to favorites by holding the 'quick' button.
    Once you have all the usable rigs favored, click 'system' and page through until you find the option to delete all non-favorites.
    -Backup your unit again. You can pull individual rigs from backups later on.


    Tweaking, for me, consists of;
    -Using the stack EQ to adjust the feel of the amp (taming harshness/boomyness, adding 'body' and doing coarse work). Try not to change the gain by more than 0.4 or so.
    -If the rig needs more volume, i use the cabinet volume internal parameter.
    -Setting the power sagging, pick, compressor, direct mix and clarity to taste. The rest comes later.
    -Placing a studio EQ (you can use graphic, but i suggest you learn to use parametric ASAP as it's much more powerful) in the X slot. LPF, HPF when needed, maybe a boost about 9Khz to offset the LPF.
    -Maybe a stomp model before the amp. I don't use many effects, but bear in mind you want a distortion stomp early in the chain, for example.


    For saving, just click 'Store'.
    -Rename is 'save as'.
    -Store as duplicates the rig (maybe it's just 'store'?.. Don't remember)
    -Replace is 'save'.


    For cataloging purposes, i use Trebie's free (!) KPA tag editor which by now doesn't even seem intimidating, even if you're not particularly tech-savvy.
    Just backup your unit, load the backup file to the app and let it create a spreadsheet with all the data for all your rigs. Modify, sort and catalog them, then update the files automatically and load the backup to your unit - voila.
    I usually copy the 'Rig author' tag to the 'Rig comment' tag, then change all my rhythm patch 'Rig author' tags to 'rhythm' - that way you can 'sort by author' in the profiler to get only rhythm or lead patches.


    After you've got browse mode all set up, setting up a performance is easy -
    open an empty one, use the browse knob to select a profile for the slot, then move to the next slot using the right or left arrow. When you're done, press store - pick the performance number, name it, rock out. :thumbup:


    As for the speakers, there's no avoiding the speaker size difference. You can compensate with an LPF and bass boost, but that's really not the way.
    Some profiles tend to sound more 'in the room' than others - you'll find them with time.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

  • 1) Set Clean/Distorted Sense appropriately. http://www.wikpa.org/Setting_input_sensitivity


    2) Learn about the Lock feature. Make sure your "Input" section is locked. Make sure your Noise Gate setting is just high enough to eliminate most noise when your guitar is muted. For me, this is always < 2.0. http://www.wikpa.org/Noise_Gate If you need more gating, use the 2:1 or 4:1 gate effects.


    3) If you are keen on using a Tube Screamer in front of amps as a boost, keep in mind the KPA Green Scream's tone knob is a bit confusing. Any setting >= 50% mark on the Green Scream is = 100% tone on a real Tube Screamer. So really only 0 - 50% change the tone.


    4) Watch out for rigs that are too hot and clip output. There are many of these in the rig exchange. If something doesn't sound right, trying lowering Volume and seeing if the tone cleans up. There are lots of places to boost the signal in the rig, including most effects Volume parameter, Cabinet Volume on the Cabinet profile, EQ effects boosting, the tonestack EQ in the Stack section boosting frequencies, and the Output section volume and EQ settings.


    5) The Amp profile has some very important parameters. Usually you can leave these at defaults (http://www.wikpa.org/Signal_Chain#Parameters_3), but a little tweak to Definition and Compressor might help.


    6) If above tweaks to Definition or Compressor get things going in the right direction but not all the way, try using an EQ effect in front of the amp for more control over the distortion character. Placing the Compressor effect before or after the amp can also help get that thicker tone without needing to add too much distortion. You get control not only over the placement of the effect, but all the additional parameters it features. I find increasing Attack a bit can make it more transparent.


    7) Gain experience with the Cab profile parameters. High/Low Shift can particularly alter the tone - use very small tweaks here.


    8) As you find more and more profiles you like, find the ones that tend to sound the best, and save the Cabinet profile as a preset. You can do this by holding the Cabinet button to edit the Cabinet profile prarameters, then press Store. You'll get options to save the full rig or just the Cabinet. Save the cabinet. Give it a name that reflects either the cab/speakers/mic used if you know what they are, or the name of the rig you're pulling it from. Now, anytime you try out a new profile and it doesn't sound as nice as you'd like, try changing the cabinet to one of the presets you've saved. You can even lock the cabinet and try a bunch of different profiles which can help isolate the differences in the amp profiles vs the amp and cab profiles.


    9) My high-gain tone guide (http://www.wikpa.org/MeAmBobbo%27s_High-Gain_Tone_Guide) but it applies to most guitar tones.


    10) Learn to backup. Rig/Preset files are very small. I believe the KPA formats your USB stick to be 3 GB max regardless of its actual size. You can store lots and lots of backups there, and they are automatically dated. If you are ever unsure if some operation is going to wipe out your rigs, just do a backup first.


    11) Once you do your first backup, open the USB stick on a computer and copy the .kpabackup file. Open up the copy using 7-zip or winzip or some other archive software. The archive will have the KPA's familiar folder layout. Open the Rigs folder. Delete all the .kipr files from here. Save the .kpabackup file. Now you have a 0-rig backup file. You can restore from this backup to essentially clear out your profiler. This is useful for house-keeping, or if you are about to do a large import and don't want the new rigs to get mixed in with the old ones.


    12) Learn to use the filter and order buttons for viewing rigs in the Browser mode. You can filter by last imported, which is very handy. And you can order by author, last modification date, and other useful items.


    13) Whenever I modify a rig, I choose Store As and append "MAB" for meambobbo on the end of the rig name. Now I know whether any rig is unmodified and identical to the same rig others would download from the Rig Exchange, etc. or if I've made changes. I can also use the Tag Editor to load my backup, then search for all the rigs with "MAB" in the name.


    14) Check out Maurizio's backup: http://www.wikpa.org/Rig/Prese…ement#Maurizio.27s_Backup - he has smart sets of naming conventions for rigs and presets that will help keep you organized, and his backup has this convention applied to all the Factory Rigs and Presets; plus he volume-leveled them.


    15) You can favorite (and unfavorite) rigs by holding the rig button. I believe you can filter on this tag, as well as delete all non-favorites. This is handy for importing a bunch of rigs, favoriting the subset you like, then deleting the rest.


    16) Another good suggestion is to prepend some code on the front of your favorite rigs. For example, you could use "!!!" to indicate awesome patches. Now when your rigs are ordered by name, all your favorites will be at the front of the list, rather than spread throughout.


    17) Adding rigs to performance mode is easy, but keep in mind that performance mode is a separate copy of the rig, not a reference. So if you add rig "SomeRig" to performance slot 1A, then go back into Browser mode and edit "SomeRig", your changes won't be present on Performance 1A. You'll have to re-add the rig to Performance 1A or re-apply your changes to that copy.

  • Phew... Great stuff. A couple of little questions...


    In item 10, if you have many backups on your USB stick, to restore to a specific previos one, you need to remove the other backup files from the USB and keep only the desired version on the USB. Correct?
    In item 11, once you have saved the empty backup, do you then have to re-zip it before putting it onto the USB to be usable?

  • in #10, when you choose Restore, you get a list of backups to restore from, and it displays the names of the .kpabackup files. So you can rename the blank one on the computer to "blank", and that's how it stands out. You could do one for each gig or style of music, or for trying out a bunch of new profiles.


    for #11, my advice is to use 7-zip and simply open the .kpabackup file in the 7-zip file manager. Right-click > 7-Zip > open archive. Delete the .kipr files in the rig folder from within 7-zip. Then close the program. You're done!


    fwiw, the .kpabackup files are not compressed. They are only archived together because flash memory performs much better using as few files as possible.