Profiling - Studio and Direct Amp: Capturing Volume Settings

  • I've got a simple little tweed champ clone, that I want to get the most out of, in terms of capturing all of the sounds it can produce at the different volume settings.


    I have both an sm57 and e906, that I'll be making volume-setting based, duplicate-profiles with. The champ has 12 volume settings, how many profiles should I take to get the most complete range of snapshots/profiles?


    When using the Kemper DI to create a Direct Amp Profile, is it just as important to capture the many different volume settings too?

    Kemper Powerhead w/remote & Kabinet
    Focusrite 18i8 (2nd Gen) - Windows 10 - Ableton Live - Yamaha HS-8's - DT770 80 ohms

  • The simple answer is “as many as you can find that you like”. I tried and experiment with my THD BiValve where I increased the gain one notch at a time from almost off to full. The changes between lower and higher settings were dramatic but the in between ranges was a subtle transition and slight tweaks to the KPA gain parameter could easily capture those.


    Every amp has a one or two real sweet spots so I would try and capture those with different mics and mic positions rather than try to capture every single possible setting on the amp.

  • Thanks for the reply, Alan. I am finding that with a Champ clone, which has 12 volume settings and no other tone, or EQ knobs: taking a profile of every volume setting is unnecessary, like you mentioned. Volume level 3, sounds about like volume level 8.


    I'll probably do 3 different profiles per mic, and per volume setting, maybe volumes 5,9 and 11.

    Kemper Powerhead w/remote & Kabinet
    Focusrite 18i8 (2nd Gen) - Windows 10 - Ableton Live - Yamaha HS-8's - DT770 80 ohms