Free profiles for your earholes ;0

Mentioned on my facebook page for Pete's Profiles that when I hit 100 likes, I'd link to some cool freebies.

Well, y'all did it so I did it. If you haven't yet, PLEASE like pete's profiles on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/petesprofiles

and then go to this link:

http://www.petesprofiles.weebly.com

There's a link there to a set of pretty sweet profiles if I say so myself. How does this sound:

RARE (one of two) Suhr Custom Marshall style amp
Suhr 68 Super Lead
20th Anniversary Bogner Ecstasy 101A
Diezel VH4
Splawn Quick Rod
Guytron GT100
Baron MII

Everything from clean to shred, ribbon mics to SM57s to Telefunkens to Heil represented. I appreciate everyone's support.

Pete
Digital Tone Chaperone

Long post, if you read it all you deserve a prize. ;0

Regarding some profiles being really bright and some with lots of low end - I picked profiles that spanned a fairly wide range of microphones, gain and tonality just so no matter what someone's tonal preference, they could find something they liked. One nice thing about a bright profile is that adjusting and removing some high end is in my opinion preferable to having to raise it. Taking away frequencies doesn't seem to mess with the tone as much as adding (and not just on the Kemper, but in mixing too) and you'll also lower noise by cutting highs too if you need to. In my full profile sets, I ave a nice range of tones so that you can find what you're looking for on your specific guitar - you may not like all of the profiles I include in a set, but you should like some and if you change guitars or use of the profiles, you may end up using some that you didn't like as much at first. I'd rather give you five different miked profiles of the same amp settings so you can find the one that suits YOU best.

I don't use any processing during or after on the profiles, including EQ. What you hear is what the mic hears on the amp/cab. I do most amps at a pretty healthy volume so some can thump a bit, I like getting a little speaker breakup and my general preference is close miking. I always use the same guitar for profiling - Tom Anderson surf burst drop top. Use it for most of my clips too.

It also depends on the mics I use too regarding the brightness or thumpiness - I tried to pick a very wide variety of tones from ones that were bright to thumpy to low gain to higher gain in the freebies because while I know what guitars I'm using and what playback systems, I don't know YOURS. Or your playing style. So I'm going to give as wide a range of profiles as possible when I do a complete set - by using different microphones and placement. Depends on the amp, but I'll generally use a vintage SM57, a Heil Pr20, an i5 Audix, a MXL Ribbon with a Focusrite preamp and a Telefunken M81. Speaker cabs are always noted with the profile sets, my favorite cabs are a pair of 1972 stock marshall cabs that I bought with my 1972 head as a full stack. I also have a 1976 55hz celestion black back loaded cab, a custom greenback cab, a couple of 1980s JCM800 cabs, some 900 cabs, some 1960 A and B cabs, some Randall cabs, some Mesa cabs, some... you get the idea. Right now I have 20 or so Tube amps and 13 or so cabs.

Regarding my environment -

I have a decent sized room that is carpeted, and also has a lot of stuff on the walls (mostly guitars, also several amps and cabs) so it's not very reflective. To be honest, when I started profiling I went into several different rooms of my home - an upstairs tiled and very reflective bathroom, a stairway, my empty two car garage, and a small bedroom. I profiled the same amp and cab in each room and compared them extensively. When close miking a cab, the size and composition of the room didn't really make much of a difference at all to the Kemper profiles. What does make the biggest difference in my opinion is the ability to have a tracking room where you can put the cabs and mics and another room where you tweak the amp and listen to what the amp and kemper profile sound like through monitors WITHOUT hearing the original cabinet. That's key - people who profile in the same room their loud amp is are going to have issues hearing what it really sounds like. I'm not saying they can't get good results, but you are going to have to work harder and probably have fewer 'good' profiles vs 'bad'.

I use KRK VXT6 monitors set at ear level and each aimed at my head. Usually the mics all go through a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, except for the ribbon and sometimes condensers - those usually go through a Focusrite ISA One preamp, because I really like how you can tweak the impedence of the ISA One to match mic types. Don't laugh, I also have a ART Tube MP preamp that for some amps really sounds great! I also did do a few clean profiles with an RNC1773 compressor in the chain, but I primarily like leaving the signal chain alone. I mentioned mics before, but I also have an SM77, an SM55s, some AKG and AT mics, etc.

The other thing I like doing is using several different microphones. For many reasons. First of which is because most likely your guitar isn't going to sound like mine - if the Kemper does it's job, you should get the same tonality of using YOUR guitar into my amp. So i provide a large variety of settings and microphones. An amp setting and mic combination that rocks for a Tele would probably be too dark for a Les Paul. If I put 30 profiles in a set, you won't like them all with the same guitar, but it gives a much better chance that one of them will work with your choice of guitar and amplification system for playback.

I also don't like EQ'ing profiles to be 'mix ready' because I don't know what music you're going to be making. Different genres will need different types of tones. Plus I don't know what other instrumentation you have - the same EQ'd profile that is mix ready may work great in a mix with a keyboard, but not so good on it's own or with another guitar. Or a guitar instrumental would need a different EQ than a song with vocals. Or if you wanted to overdub several guitars, you'd likely change the EQ on each so all the guitars would fit together.

My overall philosophy is to create a good archive/record of what the amp sounds like here, with a variety of mics and settings to cover as many folks as possible. Not saying my way is the only way, some profilers do a lot more post EQ or have a different sound than I do, which is great! This is just what works for me personally for live, rehearsals and my little recording projects.

By the way, every profile set I've done has used an SM57 since they are the standard. So if you dug the SM57s the most, all of my profile sets have SM57s in there. It's funny, I get emails from guys raving about different mics all the time. Personally I like the PR20 the best, but the 57 just sits in a mix really well. I just don't care much for the SM57 sound on it's own, but again - we all like different stuff.

Pete

Quote from JuLai

Thanks for the treats Pete! To me your profiles seem to have the most extreme EQs compared to the other commercial providers. I'd be curious where this is coming from so would appreciate if you can reveal some insights about the profiling/tracking environment (large/small room, isolation cab etc), outboard gear and such.

The higher gain Suhr and XTC samples seem to have this huge low end thump that got me somewhat surprised by CLR. Baron i5 and other XTC then again were really bright. Were the amps like that in the room or was it more due to i5 or some processing?

Out of these feebies my favs were probably the 57 ones, perhaps because I gravitate more towards midrange bark thingy.

Quote from JuLai

WOOOW!! My hats off to you! As a guitarist (20+ years) and home recording enthusiast (15 years) reading your post was already a prize in itself , really!

Actually I think this would deserve thread of it's own. IMO it'd be one of the finest contributions to forum where the more experienced members share their philosophy behind their doing with KPA. That would help less experienced profile makers (like me) to improve the quality and probably also help people finding more easier the best match for the need/bucks among the commercial profiles.

I've purchased profiles from pretty much all (and explored the RE also) commercial providers and I'm getting feel that profiling is somewhat similar form of artistry that e.g. mixing AE is. In both cases the end result is affected by philosophy, knowledge and the gear used which all sums up to more-or-less identifiable signature (sound). Out of the many purchased profile packs I feel I could tell the producer based on the profile collection alone. Which is all good ofcourse.

Anyway, thanks again Pete for your chip in. Nice reading. Challenge for others to follow on example is now opened.

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If you or anyone else ever has a question about profiling, feel free to email me at okstrat at att.net and I'd be more than glad to help. It's fun to profile your own amps!

Pete

Quote from meambobbo

nice post, Pete. 13 cabs is pretty insane. do you find they have much diversity, or it's more subtle? Obviously the different speakers are a huge factor, especially when you're pushing them to break-up. But what ab different cabs with same/similar speakers?

I just did a head count and I have 17 cabs. Yes, I have a sickness.

Yup, each cab sounds different even with similar speakers. Now, I haven't put the exact same speaker in each cab to make it scientific, but older cabs sound better to me than newer ones. My 72 Marshalls both have plywood backs instead of the MDF board they used later, and I think that makes a difference. And the age of the cabs, and the tolex/glue... plus the 72 cabs just have crazy awesome speakers in them.

I actually ranked my cabs - and this was my personal preference, no science involved - and also for a Marshall or Marshallish amp. In many cases, amps sound best with the matching cabs because that's what they were designed around.

Favorites in order of the ones I messed with were:

1) 72 straight cab (sounded a little better than the slant. Just fuller, which it is a little more internal volume.
2) 72 slant cab (a bit brighter than the straight cab)
3) red 'marshall' cab - probably a mojo cab, bought it years ago with a red 68 plexi clone. Sounded cool, and it has a plywood back like the 72s. Loaded with brit greenbacks.
4) 76 Marshall cab with original 55hz blackback celestions
5) Bogner slant 4x12 cab w V30s
6) newer Marshall w V30s (Yes, the bogner cab sounds noticably better to me)
7) the rest of my marshall cabs w/75s

Keeping the above in mind, the best cab for my Rackmount Dual Rectifier is the matching oversize Mesa Armor cab, and it's a great cab for most 'heavy' amps. Recently bought a Diezel VH4 half stack, and the cab with it sounds amazing with the Diezel, haven't had a chance to try the recto or Baron through it but I bet it's awesome.

Quote from TTripp

Hi Pete, nice of you to post these. I don't see full commercial sets for those Suhr amps on your website, though, are they in the works?

Not sure (or 'Suhr, haha) yet. I did like putting a few profiles on there that weren't available yet anywhere just to make em a little cooler.