Trouble with high gain sounds

    Seems like all the high gain profiles have a mild to severe 'cocked wah' or vowel like sound that just dominates over everything.


    I think I came across a thread where someone stated that the problem lies in the 'cab sim' portion of the profiling process. Someone else commented on it being a part of the Refining process.


    It can be compensated or toned down a bit with the 'Definition' control, but then you loose pick attack.


    And I find the 'Pick' control pretty much useless for high gain stuff. The negative side makes it compressed, and the positive side makes it feel 'gated', which feels like latency. So that's no help with this issue.


    I've even messed around with the EQ in the output section, tried dumping the mids a little bit. It all adds up to being better, but not GONE. Which is what I would like.


    Full rig profiles or just preamp DI's, cab sims on or off, FRFR or real guitar cab... it seems to be prevalent.


    I like Micheal Schenker, but this is ridiculous.


    I've even tried a pickup with a scooped eq curve, the Dimarzio Steve Special... no dice.


    Thoughts or suggestions?

    No, I'll have to look for that tills pack.


    I wonder if I need to figure out a way of doing my own profiles... I need to experiment this weekend.

    Quote from wakjob

    Seems like all the high gain profiles have a mild to severe 'cocked wah' or vowel like sound that just dominates over everything.

    The Kemper most definitely doesn't have the 'cocked wah' sound....maybe your pickups, or your monitoring system, but the cocked wah sound is not a Kemper 'characteristic'.


    If the person doing the profile positioned the mic incorrectly, or used a particular mic, the Kemper has the ability to reproduce the cocked wah tone...but I've maybe heard it on less than a dozen Profiles out of the 3000 I've tried.


    If you go through every single Till's/r u sirious/Erik Stam/Lasse Lammert/Djemass/etc, etc high gain Profiles you will not hear cocked wah not even once...if you do then there's something wrong on your side.

    High output, extremely articulate and defined pickups with alot of midrange ( bare knuckles) + definition on 10 = cocked wah/high midrange unpleasantness. Just turn down the definition. You are not losing NEAR the pick attack you think you are doing this: what you ARE hearing is your brain/ears adjusting to the difference, and it feels exaggerated at first. How to avoid that? Do just the opposite: turn th definition all the way to zero, and then slowly bring it back up to taste as you play, try this approach and see what you think, would bet money you'll be amazed and have found a solution :)

    I'm totally willing to except that it's something on my end. I just can't figure out what it is?


    I've tried my four different guitar cabs with my PowerHead, and it's still VERY prominent.


    I know tons of pickups that have this 'vowel like' characteristic, especially Dimarzio's. I unplug from the KPA, and immediately plug into one of my many amps, and everything flattens out in the mid range and sounds normal. The 'squaky-nasal' sound goes away. So I'm quite certain it's not my pickups.


    When I get home from work today, I'm going to try doing some profiles with the Pre Profiling EQ's mid control turned down. See what happens.


    I mean, other than this one issue, I'm in love with this thing. I'm just super picky about my high gain tones.

    Well here's what I've figured out so far...


    There's nothing loaded in any of the effects blocks. So I'm assuming there is no 'locked' effect turned on?
    I held down the 'Lock' button, and nothing stayed lit so...


    I tried the "DR R OD9 57 SCOOP" profile you suggested and it was better. So I went ahead an redid my BE100 PREAMP DI profile with the mids on the amp at zero and the pre profiling mids at -5.0 also. The squak was much less noticeable.



    Four hours of ear fatigue. I'll try some more suggestions tomorrow.

    Quote from Lokasenna

    Do you have desk monitors, or even just your stereo, that you could run through (not using the Kemper's power amp, obviously) with the Kemper's cab turned on? If that gets rid of the cocked tone, then it might be something to do with using real guitar speakers versus the profiled ones.

    This is what I'm thinking. I'm going to experiment tomorrow.


    All I have on hand is my ADAM A3X desk top monitors. If need be, I'll take a trip to the music store and audition some better FRFR monitors.

    Well, the cocked wah problem pretty much goes away by 90% with the ADAM monitors. So that's cool.


    Now I just need to tweak the high gain profiles I like. They all kinda sound fizzy and solid state-ish after using 12" guitar speakers (yes, cabs sims are 'on'). It might be the ribbon tweeters in the ADAM's, or I just need more time for my ears to adjust.


    Some more experimenting is needed. I still have five weeks left to decide it I'm going to keep it.

    Quote from wakjob

    They all kinda sound fizzy and solid state-ish after using 12" guitar speakers (yes, cabs sims are 'on')


    That's not the way to go with guitar speakers! In this case the cab sim must be turned off! With a guitar cab it's best to take the monitor output and turn the cab sim off via output menu (there is a check box).

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    No.


    I was only using traditional guitar cabs & speakers with my PowerHead ( cab sim 'off' ) up until this morning.


    This is the first time I tried using the Main Outputs to the ADAM monitors... with cab sims 'on'.
    Not so hot sounding. Workable, but not great.

    Quote from wakjob

    Well, the cocked wah problem pretty much goes away by 90% with the ADAM monitors. So that's cool.


    Now I just need to tweak the high gain profiles I like. They all kinda sound fizzy and solid state-ish after using 12" guitar speakers (yes, cabs sims are 'on'). It might be the ribbon tweeters in the ADAM's, or I just need more time for my ears to adjust.


    sounds to me like the old 'amp in a room' vs. the sound of a miced amp over studio monitors debate.


    also, 'fizzy' is one of those buzzwords that I have really grown to dislike, since it doesn't mean anything.


    tube amp signals have plenty of high frequency content and the Profiler portraits this very faithfully.
    could be that your speakers (although I have had good experiences with ADAM speakers) are too bass/lo-mid shy because of their small size, which makes the signal seem top-heavy?


    we have so many great high gain players and producers that love and use the Profiler everyday that it's safe to say that there is nothing wrong with the Profiler when it comes to HiGain.


    Andy Sneap, Wolf Hoffmann, Michael Wagener, NIN, Ola Englund, Lasse Lammert etc.
    these guys know their stuff ;)