Where can I find tasty high gain profiles?

  • Hi everyone!


    I'm new on this forum, but I've been using the KPA for about one year now. It's a great machine for sure, yet I am a bit frustrated: I have tried about 3000 profiles, free and paying, and I couldn't help but notice something : almost ALL high gain profiles I have found have scooped mids.

    It is very frustrating for me to find that. I feel like the sound of the guitar really lays in the midrange, and that's also where its place belongs is in a mix.

    Yet everyone seems to dig scooped mids...

    I personally feel like the ideal amp setting would be something like that:

    bass : 5, Mids : 7, Highs: 8. Of course it may depend of the amp, but you get the idea...


    So here comes my question: Can you recommend a seller or some free high gain profiles that have these mighty and tasty mids?

    Here are some amps that I would be really interested to find great profiles of: Friedman BE-100 (or SS100), ENGL Blackmore, Fireball, or Steve Morse, or any amp that has a truly organic, biting tone, with rich overtones.


    Thanks for your help! :)

    Alexis

    Edited once, last by Xisale ().

  • Do a RE search for Marshall, and browse by Gain: Highest to Lowest. You should be able to find plenty of midrange heavy profiles with those amps. There are also a ton of amps based on a modded Marshall circuit, so you could search out some of those as well.


    Another option is to turn up the midrange and treble on a profile; and place a studio EQ in an effects slot to notch out any nasty frequencies that are caused by the increases.


    If you want to try more paid profiles: Sinmix, Live Ready Sound, ML Sound Lab, and Tone Crate are all worth checking out

  • Thanks for your answers! I'm afraid that the regular Marshalls would lack some power and tightness for what I want to do. That's why I would be more interested by a "Marshall inspired" amp like a Friedman than a real Marshall.


    About changing the EQ on the Kemper: I don't think it works so well. It's like putting an EQ on your track when mixing: It will enhance the mids that are here, but if you don't have them in the first time, it's not going to make them appear from nowhere.

    I feel like the less changes you do on the kemper, the better it sounds.

  • You can select the Kemper Stack EQ to be pre or post the profile. Potting it pre makes it like a Mesa Mark Series where the tone stack becomes part of the gain character rather than a typical amp or desk tone control. I would definitely try using the EQ pre mode and boost the mids there which will give a very different effect.

  • Wheresthedug: I have tried that also. And the clean boost in pre may be nice also to push some profiles that lack gain. But still it's not like having the amp dialed the way you wanted.


    flyingheelhook: I wish I could do that, really! But I don't know anyone who owns the amps I'd like to profile. And I guess my profiles certainly wouldn't sound as good as profiles made in professional studio with good preamps, multiple mics, etc...


    The thing that kills me is that a lot of sellers offer profiles made in great studio conditions, and they ALL scoop the mids on every high gain profile they make. Like if high gain sound was only OK to play chug chug on a detuned low string...

    Sorry if I sound like I'm pissed off but I really am after all this time searching and trying, but not finding what I want :/

  • flyingheelhook: I wish I could do that, really! But I don't know anyone who owns the amps I'd like to profile. And I guess my profiles certainly wouldn't sound as good as profiles made in professional studio with good preamps, multiple mics, etc...

    I cannot speak to others' preferences for how they craft their high gain tone - I am generally not a high gain tone guy and have never owned a high gain amp. I can't speak to the amp(s) in question - maybe they are limited by speaker and gain staging to shape their tone - I really don't know. I can't speak to whether its really a Kemper limitation or not - I doubt it, but apparently there are some limits in the high gain arena.


    I can speak to your ability to profile an amp. You can get good (maybe even great) profiles on your own using basic equipment. You don't need a professional studio, you just need the amp, patience and the ability to listen. I have done it; so have many, many, many others. You just need the amp, and you need to set that amp up the way you want it to sound.

  • Alright then! Thanks for your advices :)

    I think I will try to do my own profiles then, and try to find people who own the amps I want to profile.

    Thanks for your words of encouragment!

  • please make sure that the OUTPUT EQ is not doing something that makes you think all high gain Profiles are scooped - they most certainly are not.
    Try the factory rigs from MBritt, they have plenty of 'meat' ;)
    Also Mars Golub -I woudn't call that scooped at all.

    How are you monitoring things?

  • I always set everything in a neutral position and turn off all the effects when trying new profiles.

    Everytime a seller gives the settings done during profiling, I can see that they are all scooped.

    Here is one example in linked file (Looks almost like a joke. It's a Marshall, for god's sake!)

    And it's like that for pretty much everything I have seen and tried.

    I have contacted double impact production (who put out some huge bundles of great amps) to ask them if the profiles had mids, and he told me that everything was scooped too...


    MBritt seems to have some better dialed stuff indeed. I may try the Peavey 5150 soon. The audio demos sound pretty good :)

  • Well, not absolutely everything. Some profiles from GRS, for example, sounded pretty well dialed to my ears. Unfortunately, the amps available weren't the ones I wanted.


    I also always listen to the profiles with both my monitors and my headphones.


    The sheet I put in attachment to my last post isn't an exception. Everytime a seller provide such description of the settings done during profiling, they almost always scoop the mids everywhere. And when I watch videos on youtube of people trying and demoing different amps, they really tend to scoop the mids a lot also (you can see how they dial the amps).

    Here are some examples :

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    And I could continue like that for a moment... It seems like people really dig this kind of settings. But I feel like the core of the tone is in those mids. It's also where the guitar find its place in the mix. So why do people scoop them?


    Is it so hard to turn the "mids" knob to the right?

  • I’m not a bog fan of lots of modern very scooped tones. I grew up on Santana, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford etc so I love my mids. However, listening to all those examples all I hear is some really nice well balanced tones. The Freidman sounded great, I was very impressed with the Engl. the 5150 didn’t do it for me as I was too scooped for my taste, and CAE sounded great to me.

  • They sounded OK imo, but I would really have liked to hear them with more mids also.


    Don't get me wrong: I'm OK with the fact that many people like the scooped tone, but all I am saying is that it shouldn't be the ONLY thing that we can find when looking for high gain profile (OK one other that is often found is tons of bass, less middle, even less highs). For the professional sellers, I feel like the correct way to make a profile bundle should be to offer different EQ shapes for every amp, not only one.

    Edited once, last by Xisale ().

  • I hear what you are saying but I think the way most professional profilers see it is that they they are a business so give customers what they want. It seems that there is more demand for those slightly scooped tones so that's what profilers produce - supply and demand at work.


    Having said that, each profiler produces packs that they feel showcase an amp at it's sweet spot which they capture in their own specific style. That way when people buy a pack from profiler X they know it will have a certain type of signature sound. If users don't want that specific flavour then they find another profiler that suits their needs. I tend to prefer certain profiler's tones and really don't get on with others. I don't think that makes the ones I don't like bad; just not right for me.


    If any of us have a specific tone requirement that isn't being covered by commercial profilers the only answer is to profile amps ourselves. Fortunately, profiling is super easy and fun so getting the exact tones we want should be fairly straight forward.


    You mentioned that there are some profiles with enough mids but not of the amps you would want. Which amps are you after?

  • Of course, you are right about the business and what most people expect to find in their bundle. That's how it works.

    And as you said, the only way to get exactly what I want then would be to make my own profiles.


    Here are the amps I'd be in: Friedman BE-100 and SS-100, Suhr PT100, ENGL Blackmore, Steve Morse, Fireball, Marshall JMP-1, CAE 3+

    These are the ones I can think of. But there surely are more that I could be interested in. I'd like a high gain sound that is tight and organic, preferably with EL34, and a good V30 412 cab (Friedman, Bogner, ENGL...).

  • Of course, you are right about the business and what most people expect to find in their bundle. That's how it works.

    And as you said, the only way to get exactly what I want then would be to make my own profiles.


    Here are the amps I'd be in: Friedman BE-100 and SS-100, Suhr PT100, ENGL Blackmore, Steve Morse, Fireball, Marshall JMP-1, CAE 3+

    These are the ones I can think of. But there surely are more that I could be interested in. I'd like a high gain sound that is tight and organic, preferably with EL34, and a good V30 412 cab (Friedman, Bogner, ENGL...).

    You can always contact a vendor you like and ask to make custom profiles for you.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau