Techniques for getting great transients/attack?

How are you guys getting really great transients/articulation with your patches?

A thread came up today on Gearslutz where the suggestion was made that the Kemper's transients were lacking and this was causing a particular poster to feel unhappy with their Kemper purchase suggesting that it was difficult to mix/didn't sound the same in the mix as the original amps and more importantly didn't feel that similar and they felt it was down to these transients, the upshot was they were ready to sell off for a DV Mark and 11R.

Now personally I love my Kemper, but I do sort of get where he's coming from, there is often a softness in the attack when I play back what I've recorded with the Kemper, or even just when playing the kemper as opposed to playing my real tube amps which feel just somehow a little more immediate.

To be clear here in this case we're talking about lead tones like these (his examples) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JshF46VufF8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrB2DkXnC6I

(he claims impossible to get this clear/sitting in the mix with the Kemper)

and finally because he's using a Marshall the guy thought this was closer to his tone)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGCc9KflS6c

So my thoughts are

1 ) Use an amp that's in that fusion/rock vein, so Dual or Triple rec comes immediately to mind.

2 ) Use a treble booster/green scream. Pushes the important upper frequencies that create that fluid and immediate feel as well as primarily make up the transient sound itself.

3 ) Reduce the Clean sense and/or the volume on the guitar itself, to avoid any soft clipping that might be going on and create greater dynamic range/headroom in the Kemper going in.

4 ) Pick an instrument with bright pickups or even single coils for some of these sounds.

5 ) Adjust the playing style to be more aggressive on the pick (digging in) and fretting to slightly detune the notes on initial press, giving them that trademark cat with it's bum sewn up fusion lead legato sound.

6 ) Increase the pick setting on the Amp block from 0 (which I assume is a true bypass of the algorithm, if not then maybe that's the fault) though not too much as it creates an odd overtly even and artificial sounding click at higher settings.

7 ) Make sure to play at loud volume to get natural feedback and the interplay of sound and instrument that helps it feel like the real deal as well as sound on record like something alive.

8 ) Possibly try a Radial Dragster (I experimented using the SPDIF out on my Pod HD in order to use it's input impedance adjustment settings in order to do something similar) to help with the general feel.

9 ) Up the mix parameter in the amp block to bring in a little bit of the clean strings.

Any other suggestions, or tips and tricks for getting great articulate transients both on single notes and in chords?

Hey, yeah, really nice sounding pack by the way! Though on the high gain clips the attack/transient is definitely pretty soft, almost fading in on each note, but that might be due to another thing I forgot that's also kinda important for transients which is :

10 ) Use a thinner pick! (or alternatively use a metal pick can bring out the chime in strings).

I'm also wondering with the new firmware 2.3 that's about to come out this quarter with it's parallel channel, maybe it'll be possible to accentuate the attack using a compressor and some basic distortion/EQ in the parallel slot.

Which leads to a question about it... do both channels go through the cab/tone stack, or does the second channel totally bypass the whole stack section? I'm hoping you can optionally put it through the cab, so that distortions can be used on the parallel channel without turning into fizz.

Ok, new additions after playing around earlier on this evening.

11 ) Definition and Clarity in the amp block should be considered as tied to the Amp block Compression control (rather than stomp compression). With no compression they will have a nice effect, but it's subtle, raise that compression and you'll be cooking on gas! The difference will become drastically more apparent and you can really sculpt the transient and so called "touch sensitivity" by combining these three controls.

12 ) Adding a little bit of Direct Mix with the amp block will likewise help bring out the transient.

13 ) With the 2.3 firmware set your EQ block to be in front of the amp, in combination with the two previous suggestions (and a slight Pick setting adjustment) you should find yourself in prime Fender territory if you're after that rich plummy tone reminiscent of Hendrix, SRV etc. Having the EQ block in front allows you to sculpt the tone going into the preamp which can really help create those chiming transients that you all know and love.

14 ) When going for a Fender/Country tone don't forget the reverb! Use the Matchbox reverb and tweak it a little with enough of a pre-delay (at least 100ms), without this you will never get that trademark Fender deep bloom, no amount of sag on it's own will achieve that, The pre-delay will also help accentuate the starts of the notes over the rest of the note which becomes more diffused, again helping emphasise those transients.

15 ) Get friendly with the Graphic EQ. It's a little more complex than the one on your Mesa, but the same general rules apply. Adding this to the X slot and raising a little bit of hte treble end can really help push that transient that little bit more, lowering it will reduce in a clean way.

16 ) In conjunction with this don't forget that the Kemper has Ducking parameters in nearly all effects (sadly not sidechained though). You can use an EQ with negative ducking to bring out the treble only at the starts of notes to really exagerate transients.

And just to demonstrate the huge difference this last lot can make, I did a very quick and messy demo. I took the Vintage pack VSP Fender Vibrochamp profile, and applied 11, 12, 13 and 14, and a little pick definition to it.

Here's the vanilla profile before any changes.

http://www.peranders.com/general/fendervibrovanilla.mp3

Here's the same one after, no additional stomps used.

http://www.peranders.com/general/fendervibroadjusted.mp3

The second one I also cycle through the pickups a little too, which really shows the importance if choosing the right pickup for the job too. Humbuckers tend to just not have the dynamics for aggressive transients (this is a Parker P38, so single coils on neck and middle, humbucker on bridge).

The sound is of course a little different and the second one is a tiny bit louder (but not as much as you might assume, on VU here they come out almost the same!). Most importantly though the feel is radically different after the changes, it's much more immediate and fluid, a springy feel that's more reactive and touchy feely.