Why are The Amp Factory's the best profiles out there?

  • I have many many amps, but not all are a success.. Natrually sound is subjective, so one person can hate other can love.. Thats normal with any guitar based gear anyway...


    But so glad you like anyway :)


    One of the things I like about your profiles Andy is the descriptions you use and that you give your personal take on wether you personally like or dislike a particular amps sound and not every profile is billed as the greatest profile ever (if memory serves me I think you kind of pan the sound of the Orange amp you profiled that Oasis used. Or maybe you were just a Blur fan). Starting sentences with a capitol letter consistently would make your descriptions a little easier to read though :) BTW, I agree with your statement about the other profile makes and love the profiles I've bought from SoundSide and TopJimi as well. The idea that for a few dollars I can get the sound of amps that would cost thousands is amazing and I hope you all keep up the great work! And to everyone posting profiles on the RE thank you so much - there are amazing profiles there!

    Edited once, last by SwAn1 ().

  • These are my favorites of profiles. Very detailed. So for every guitar there is a one who is matching well.
    Take a look to http://www.soundside.de/shop/Profiles.htm and build your own opinion.

    Exactly my opinion, just take a look and listen to my demos (user "Guenter Haas") and we could start a new discussion about good "good", "bad" and "best".... ;)


    Like Andy said by himself, there's no "best", there's just "different", the rest is simply personal taste.
    I found the most profiles I like at Soundside.de AND TAF, so for me the whole discussion about "best" is useless.


    My very personal opinion:


    - I like authentic profiles, I don't like tweaked ones, that's why I always preferred Armin's (Soundside.de) profiles, for me they sounded like the "real" amp. If I don't like the real amp, I don't like the profiles and vice versa, that's my experience there.


    - I never liked the tweaking of Andy's older profiles, but I really like his newer ones (f.e. pack 8, Engl, Fender packs). In the older packs Andy pushed the volume by using an eq after the amp section, I never liked that.


    Don't put vendors into competition... they all are delivering great profiles for us, not to forget TopJimi, Pete, Sinmix ect. We can be very glad to have the chance to play all these great amps. :thumbup:

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

    Edited once, last by guenterhaas ().

  • Uhm, I thought I was agreeing till half of the message, then thinking about it I disagree completely.


    If you hear an amp that sounds like a fart, would you say "I can't compare it with X" (with X being any great sounding amp)? Anyway, this is out of topic I believe
    b) here we're not really talking about amps, actually, but about amp profiles. So, yeah, you can do better or worse profiles.


    if an amp or profile sounds like a fart, a pro hand can make it sound like a champ! I have seen it done and you wouldn't believe your eyes or your hear.......


    as for your b statement, I thought you were comparing profiles of a certain level, like the commercial ones. I use basically only TAF profiles and Top Jimi's ones but the other are top notch as well. so we are not talking about profiles done it worse or better: we are talking about profiles done in the best way possible. I would understand if I did a profile in my rehearsing room with just a junk mike: I wouldn't compare it with the ones done in a pro studio.


    I'm sure Soundside profiles are done with the same quality as TAF or Top Jimi's.


    so, for me it is Always a taste matter here, as I stated at the beginning


    michael

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music

  • Your demos were pivotal in helping me decide which Soundside packages I bought. Nice work!

    Thanks !!!


    1) I learned a new English word (pivotal)
    2) if possible I try to make full demos (drums, bass, guitars ect.), a profile may sound well alone, but not in a playback. ;)


    Armin's profiles sound very well without tweaking, I couldn't live without his Plexi E, Goldfinger, Diezel VH-4, Marshall JVM410 and -of course- the '57 Fender Deluxe.

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • I haven't looked at the Southside profiles. When they first came out a couple of years back they were noisy and fizzy. Looks like as with all things, they have gotten quite a bit better and more refined. I will take a close look at these now.

  • I haven't looked at the Southside profiles. When they first came out a couple of years back they were noisy and fizzy. Looks like as with all things, they have gotten quite a bit better and more refined. I will take a close look at these now.

    Very strange, I've never noticed anything noisy and fizzy from Armin, the older profiles (f.e. '57 Fender Deluxe, Marshall JVM 410H) are very good and authentic, too.

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • IMO, the main reason why TAF's profiles are so popular (talking about clean through medium gain) is that they sound so good out of the box played solo. I think when most people audition profiles, they don't immediately do it in the context of a recorded mix or live setting. That may come later, but initially they simply plug in and let it rip. TAF's profiles, to my ears, sound the most like a real amp sitting next to you. Most do not sound tweaked for recording or live use.


    When I'm just sitting at home practicing or jamming along to tunes, I've yet to find profiles I like more than TAF's. For recording...that's another story. I find that TAF profiles for cleans and low gain generally work fine for recording as is, but for medium to high gain they need a fair amount of tweaking (usually cutting lows and low mids and boosting highs/high mids).

  • IMO, the main reason why TAF's profiles are so popular (talking about clean through medium gain) is that they sound so good out of the box played solo. I think when most people audition profiles, they don't immediately do it in the context of a recorded mix or live setting. That may come later, but initially they simply plug in and let it rip. TAF's profiles, to my ears, sound the most like a real amp sitting next to you. Most do not sound tweaked for recording or live use.


    When I'm just sitting at home practicing or jamming along to tunes, I've yet to find profiles I like more than TAF's. For recording...that's another story. I find that TAF profiles for cleans and low gain generally work fine for recording as is, but for medium to high gain they need a fair amount of tweaking (usually cutting lows and low mids and boosting highs/high mids).

    But that's fairly normal for high gain guitars, isn't it?
    When I play by myself I want the full body, but in the mix I gotta tame low frequencies if I want bass and kick drum to be heard. Distorted guitars are very frequency-greedy :)

  • But that's fairly normal for high gain guitars, isn't it?
    When I play by myself I want the full body, but in the mix I gotta tame low frequencies if I want bass and kick drum to be heard. Distorted guitars are very frequency-greedy :)


    Absolutely. That is normal for high gain recording.


    My point is this- it seems to me that commercial profiles often come in one of 2 flavors. The first I would classify as going for a more "amp in the room" sound. They sound stellar right out of the box and have an immediate "wow" factor for solo playing. I'd put TAF's profiles in this category.


    The other flavor is what I would call "mix ready" profiles, which is what most of the current high gain profile sellers seem to be offering. These profiles were captured using equipment and micing techniques that aim for a tone that works well for recording with minimal tweaking. Often, a reference tone from another recording is used and the creator of the profile experiments with micing to try to come close to the reference. These profiles often don't sound great on their own (actually, sometimes they're very harsh) but put into a mix (especially with multiple tracks) they come to life.

  • Absolutely. That is normal for high gain recording.


    My point is this- it seems to me that commercial profiles often come in one of 2 flavors. The first I would classify as going for a more "amp in the room" sound. They sound stellar right out of the box and have an immediate "wow" factor for solo playing. I'd put TAF's profiles in this category.


    The other flavor is what I would call "mix ready" profiles, which is what most of the current high gain profile sellers seem to be offering. These profiles were captured using equipment and micing techniques that aim for a tone that works well for recording with minimal tweaking. Often, a reference tone from another recording is used and the creator of the profile experiments with micing to try to come close to the reference. These profiles often don't sound great on their own (actually, sometimes they're very harsh) but put into a mix (especially with multiple tracks) they come to life.

    I love this classification, I second it entirely! ;)

  • I prefer not "mix ready" profiles because the way you eq a guitar to fit in the mix depends on the context and how much room you need for the rest of instruments. Mixing an instrumental rock guitar trio requires a "powerful" guitar tone while mixing a band consisting of guitar, piano, claps, violin, flute, percussion, bass, drums and a singer requires a different approach.


    I prefer richer sounding profiles so I can cut what I don't need in the mix depending on the situation.

  • I prefer richer sounding profiles so I can cut what I don't need in the mix depending on the situation.

    I don't like tweaked profiles with added effects, eq's ect., because very often tweaking will change the original amp-tone and character.


    Playing a "real" amp everybody will adjust volume, gain, treble, mids, bass ect. to his personal taste. If 10 guitar-players will play the same amp, you'll get 10 different results.
    I want the original amp-tone as authentic as possible and not some blown-up monster with boosted eqs and a Himalaya-reverb.... ;)

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

  • I want the original amp-tone as authentic as possible and not some blown-up monster with boosted eqs and a Himalaya-reverb....


    I hate those eq boosts and Himalaya-reverbs too. To me, "rich sounding profiles" means as close to the original amp tone as possible without cutting or boosting anything :)

  • I do think TAF has absolutely the best web page and demos which very likely affects the perception of quality.


    Profiles sound in line with all other professional ones. No better and no worse. I am not big fan of pre (really hate these, it's bad practice IMO) and post eqs and reverbs, so I just turn them off. Also, I think majority of TAF profiles I've played were set up for a Strat,

  • Like Andy said by himself, there's no "best", there's just "different", the rest is simply personal taste.
    I found the most profiles I like at Soundside.de AND TAF, so for me the whole discussion about "best" is useless.


    my thoughts exactly... There's lots of profiles that I dig.. TAF has some wonderful ones that I use and Soundside is my numero uno profile for the Pink Taco!.. just smokes.. TAF has some great goto's for tweed and boutique sounds, not to mention the Marshalls... but still there are lots of great freebie profiles too... My top dawg is the '78 Dumble, which isn't a Dumble but it still sounds fantastic once you dial the amp attributes in... and the Fuchs ODS... man the list just keeps goin' on and on..

    Gettin' funky up in here..

  • I'm new to Kemper, but have really enjoyed the TAF profiles - mainly from the earlier packs. They seem to work great for me b/c it isn't just the profile, but the EQ settings and other effects really fit with only minor tweaking on my part. They seem to be the best "out of the box" tones that I've been able to preview so far and they require very little effort or knowledge to enjoy. A lot of the profiles that come stock with the Kemper don't really fit my taste and require a greater knowledge base of the unit to dial in than I currently have to tweak to my liking -- I've tweaked some, but it takes some work. I've been a tube amp tone snob for 30 years and this is my first dive into the digital world. Heck, I've only used a handful of pedals as well. So TAF makes it easy on me to enjoy the digital revolution without having to suffer through a steep learning curve. I'm actually a little afraid of even attempting to edit the amp/stack/portions of a "rig" ... with TAF, I've been incredibly pleased with the tones so I don't have to. That is worth it's weight in gold.


    All that being said, I have yet to fumble my way through the rig exchange. I'm very hopeful there are folks who have done all the hard work and posted some great free profiles there that I'll be able to enjoy for years to come.