How best to tweak gain?

I say reduce.

Always higher gain profile and turn down. Increasing the gain on a profile is about like treating the EQ knobs like you would in the amp. It’s no longer accurate. Look for profilers who profile multiple gain stages for each amp, vs “sweet spot” only.

General consensus seems to be better to turn down gain. But turning up also works great for some profiles - so take it as a rule of thumb rather than absolute truth

Dont forget the definition function..often it is the "kind of gain" and not so much the amount of it.It helps very often on certain high gain profiles to keep the gain of them "as they come" with just lowering the definition.I do this very often with "modern high gain profiles" and it helps a lot in many cases(well..if it is a good profile).In general the "definition" is (for me personally) the most important function with the profiler.It works more or less like the "voicing" functions on many boutique tube amps.

like Nikos said - move the Gain up or down as you like - but when increasing the Gain significantly, I found reducing the Definition setting is sometimes a good idea.

The PROFILERs Gain control is completely transparent, the idea being that you can use an amp that has been profiled at it's sweet spot over a much increased Gain range.

There is no right or wrong, trust your ears.

I find with high gain profiles: lowering the gain in moderation doesn’t really effect the overall gain, it effects the overall saturation and “looseness” of a particular tone. If I’m happy with a profile, I almost always reduce the gain a little. It seems to tighten it up in a very pleasant way.

Quote from Sash

If I want a certain gain level on a profile, is it better to load a lower gain profile and turn up the gain, or load a higher gain profile and reduce the gain?

Or does it even matter?

Honestly, with the wealth of options available (13,000 free ones on Rig Exchange, plus the free stuff guys post on their Dropbox accounts, before you even get into the commercial stuff), I just pick a different profile and play guitar.

I think the thing here to discuss specifically, is how much are we turning the gain up or down.

1.6-5?

7.8-6.2?

0.0-9.9?

8.5-4.0?

My rule of thumb is this: if you have to move the gain up or down more than a click or two, try another profile. This is why it's nice to get packs with the same amp at different points in the gain structure.

Quote from Bryan Daste

My rule of thumb is this: if you have to move the gain up or down more than a click or two, try another profile. This is why it's nice to get packs with the same amp at different points in the gain structure.

What do you define as a click or two?

One or two LEDs on the collar.

Quote from Bryan Daste

One or two LEDs on the collar.

Now we're talkin!

Yes! A small sway up or down a few clicks is a good range for adjustment on quite a few gainy profiles. But this is not always the case as the are other parameters to counter act drastic changes to the amount of gain.

Then there's that range from 0.0 to 3.0 or so on some profiles where theres a lot of flavor range. As opposed to 7.0-10 where there doesn't seem to much of a difference.

To the OP the answer can be both in my experience. Some need a 1 or 2 clicks more , some need 1 or 2 less. In this regard. But a 3 or can be achieved but that is pushing it and more rare i think. My thing is you're gonna find a that .5 or 1 or 2 plus or minus is the range to go to and if that doesn't work, find a new profile.

Cheers!