Engineer doesn't listen

Unfortunately engineers often have a mindset that their way is the best way. And many who have never encountered players that use Kempers or Fractals and are used to mic'ing up amps consider it a toy.

I mean, in his defense, he's doing his job - make you guys sound as best as possible. However, "best as possible" is relative to the listener, and using a mediocre setting in Bias or Guitarrig just doesn't do the Kemper justice.

It's sad, because I've heard so many engineers say that guitarists are the most in tune with how their tone sounds and will notice differences much more than, say, a violinist or pianist. Yet they still want to do things their way.

This is why most bands hire a producer, its their roll to take the tracks to the next level and have an idea of how the band should sound. Not just as a complete band but individual tracks also. Remember everyone hears things differently also.

I record many bands who have this idea on how they should sound and its normally because of the way they think they sound in the rehersal room. I then have to slowly educate them in to what they really want to sound like by getting ideas of their influences One of the classic mistakes young bands make is they have these solid state amps which are so fizzy and they have become accustomed to this sound, but as soon as i show them what real guitars sound like on albums and how some tricks are used eg quad tracking, less gain when recording etc they soon come round and realise they need to follow my gentle guidance

Quote from Raoul23

they soon come round and realise they need to follow my gentle guidance

And that's exactly what you get paid for and what makes bands come back to your place once they realize the important role of an engineer. Young bands tend to misunderstand the role of an engineer as someone who hits the record button and who can afford all the fancy technology. But it's fun to see them slowly change their mind during the collaboration.

Quote from Raoul23

This is why most bands hire a producer

many bands who have this idea on how they should sound and its normally because of the way they think they sound in the rehersal room

I think there's a veritable gulf of bands in between bands who can afford to hire a producer and bands mashing away with a marshall MG amp full of bees haha.

Quote from chamelious

I think there's a veritable gulf of bands in between bands who can afford to hire a producer and bands mashing away with a marshall MG amp full of bees haha.

You are sure right. I always think its better for someone outside of the band to give there opinion as they have no emotional contact to the song

Quote from lightbox

And that's exactly what you get paid for and what makes bands come back to your place once they realize the important role of an engineer. Young bands tend to misunderstand the role of an engineer as someone who hits the record button and who can afford all the fancy technology. But it's fun to see them slowly change their mind during the collaboration.

Yes to right. I have a lot of bands come back to me to record because they know i have an idea of how they want to sound

He doesn't seem like much of an engineer, to be very direct and confrontational...

It's not the producer's job to capture the best recording- that's the job of the engineer, unless the sound is so sucky that it interferes with the actual song. This is a generalization, but a useful one.

Sounds like the engineer didn't live up to that role.

That's the great thing about the KPA

KPA => Great Profile => Record => Awesome sound

But... I thought you recorded both the "Kemperised" and direct feeds at once, no?

So couldn't he just re-amp the DI tracks through the Kemper?

Quote from andyg_prs

I've probably been unfair to the engineer - our keyboard player. He's trying to get the best overall sound over all the tracks, and is doing this for free in his spare time

Also, in his defence, he does love the Kemper.....we all take time to adjust to new things, and perhaps he will consider using the Kemper sounds direct in the future. Maybe leaving the rhythm overdubs using my Kemper tone was the start of his journey there.

The positive thing is how I can dial in an amazing sound on the Kemper, record it, and it sounds equally amazing

It's probably just a matter of him falling into his "usual" way of doing things - let's hope he learned something

reamp Clean sense ??? Did you try that

Quote from andyg_prs

This should have just been the pure guitar output at studio level with no processing. Doesn't Clean sense apply to where the guitar sound is processed by the Kemper through a rig?

Yes sorry

People often make the mistake of implementing the only solutions they know. Plus you have to rationalize all those plugin costs.

But he seems to have been open enough to experimenting, and with enough positive feedback like you did, that itself will push him to go "hmmm, they liked THIS last time, let's do more"

Human Nature. Nothing odd. He seems like he's mendable.

Quote from andyg_prs

I guess he could have if he wanted - and if I'd left my Kemper with him! Interestingly, my direct feed was set to studio level. When I tried putting that through my Engl Ironball - compared to my guitar direct, regardless of the level fed.....the kemper direct recorded guitar gave a less aggressive sound through the amp than the guitar itself. Any ideas?

I thought you'd have wanted just to replicate the sound you had through the Kemper when recording.

Other than feeding the signal at a low level and dialling the gain back, I don't know what you'd do in that situation, although I've a feeling there's a solution...

Hang on... you're confusing me now... LOL