Charging for profiles?

  • Here's something I'm considering doing, and I want feedback from you guys. I am considering taking amps to a 'real' recording studio - NOT my home setup where I've done all my previous profiles - and having my amps professionally miked with much better gear and a pro doing the miking.



    If I did this, I'd obviously be paying the studio and it would be a pain in the ass to move the gear from my 2nd floor amp room across town to profile and then back. BUT it should give much better results than what I have. Charging a small fee for the profiles would be my way of getting my money back and being able to profile more amps than just a few.



    Here's some of the amps I own right now that could be professionally profiled (but not all at once! LOL)



    '68 Marshall Plexi clone 100 watt


    '70 Marshall Super Lead 100 watt


    '72 Marshall Super lead 100 watt


    '74 Marshall Super lead 50 watt


    '87 Marshall Silver Jubilee 50 watt


    '88 Marshall JCM 800 50 watt


    Marshall 18 watt clone I built/modded


    Bogner Ecstasy 101B (2004)


    Mesa Mark III Coliseum (180 watt, one of less than 100 made)


    Mesa Quad preamp into VHT 2/90/2 poweramp


    Mesa first year Dual Recto Rackmount


    1960 Fender Concert 4x10 combo


    1970s Fender Twin 2x12 combo



    also working on a deal for a Mike Fortin modded Marshall :D



    ...and may be able to beg or borrow some interesting amps, including modded marshalls like Camerons and Friedmans.



    Also if this happens at a recording studio, I could even do some cooler stuff like blend amps - say the Recto and the Ecstasy, or blend microphones, or have access to nicer microphones than what I have now. And again, microphones would be expertly placed, we would have total isolation since it's a REAL studio, etc.



    So to recap, don't get me wrong - I'm still going to post here with my home studio versions of amps, but I am considering charging if I take them to a studio to defray the cost.



    Comments?



    Pete

  • Pete,


    I like your idea (yet I hope it would not start a 'trend'). I have never minded paying for anything if it 'pays back' in quality, and obviously a serious studio is the ideal place to do profiles because of the excellent isolation and mixing gear. I will be following this thread...

    All modelers known to man 8o

  • Pete


    I'd pay a fair price for Profiles like that.


    But, let's say you did 5 or 10 Profiles of for example your Bogner Ecstasy 101B (2004) or Marshall 18 watt clone.
    A good idea would be to upload one Profile for free for guys to check out, and then offer the rest of the pack for a fair price.


    I agree with Hadley, hopefully it doesn't start a 'trend', but paying a small price for quality is fine as far as I'm concerned.

  • Yep, me too.
    FWIW Armin did a few sets of profiles like this a while ago and I bought (and liked) them.
    He did get a bit of flack about it from some members.
    Edit, soz didn't see the earlier post. My bad.

  • Basically, one can never have enough good profiles of good (old) Marshalls.
    I'd be very interested in many profiles at different settings for each one of those.
    So yeah, I would pay for them :)

  • I personally would "feel" better making a donation...don't like the idea of buying profiles at all...but I fully understand you need cash in a case like this and I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't mind donating a modest amount for this to happen.

  • Ready to pay for a high quality profile, I don't see anything wrong in it. It takes time and cost money, therefore is normal to participate to the cost. It's like we where getting together to do it and sharing the cost.

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


  • I like your idea and have no problem paying a small fee. But in your case, if YOU even own all those great amps i would think about investing the money in some nice recording gear like mikes, absorbers or perhaps a BIG isolation box that where you can put your 4 x 12 in.


    If you are recording vocals i would always prefer a recording studio with all that voodoo outboard gear, hi end converters, perfect room ambience and other stuff.


    But in the case of creating KPA profiles i think it is a whole different story. The KPA wont capture any reverb tails, so you actually wont a need a specially treated, great sounding recording room. I would also not use any outboard gear except a good EQ maybe. Even a high end converter gets you nowhere because the KPA will use its own converters anyway. The main aspect is the choice of mikes and the way to place and mix them. But imo this is just a learning process that needs time and training and not excessive amounts of expensive gear. In the end it remains a matter of your own taste that no engineer can judge as good as you can. I always encourgae everyone to try for themselves, because compared to other stuff, guitar recording is rather simple.

  • compared to other stuff, guitar recording is rather simple.

    +1 Million! My Father was a classic piano player (pro) and I remember when I was a kid being in studio (actually a theater) wen the symphonic orchestra was recording live.....that is something! I believe the mic placement alone (no clue how many) has taken 1 week....just the piano had something like 16 mics....

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


  • I like your idea and have no problem paying a small fee. But in your case, if YOU even own all those great amps i would think about investing the money in some nice recording gear like mikes, absorbers or perhaps a BIG isolation box that where you can put your 4 x 12 in.


    If you are recording vocals i would always prefer a recording studio with all that voodoo outboard gear, hi end converters, perfect room ambience and other stuff.


    But in the case of creating KPA profiles i think it is a whole different story. The KPA wont capture any reverb tails, so you actually wont a need a specially treated, great sounding recording room. I would also not use any outboard gear except a good EQ maybe. Even a high end converter gets you nowhere because the KPA will use its own converters anyway. The main aspect is the choice of mikes and the way to place and mix them. But imo this is just a learning process that needs time and training and not excessive amounts of expensive gear. In the end it remains a matter of your own taste that no engineer can judge as good as you can. I always encourgae everyone to try for themselves, because compared to other stuff, guitar recording is rather simple.


    This is well said, and I share the same thought.
    Personally I wont pay for other folks profiles, because I simply wont trust the person doing it..if im _THAT_ serious about getting a profile I can easy go hire any amp I want at a small cost for the day to profile myself. - your asking a lot of folk to put a lot of trust in your own work. that many others can do at home themselves at the same quality. (Near enough) and the chances are.. yeah great! you have prfoiles a rare amp, but yoru settings wont work with my mix... - if doing mysefl then they will as I knwo what I want. - so you have to be generic.. and that doesnt blend well for future great profiles!


    So in order for them to be worth the while they will need to be perfect quality, consitant, variations of distance and mic. - so your already adding a whole world of work.
    And secondly, the KPA community is a sharing one. - so If you want to go profile all those amps at a pro studio (waste of time) - then go for it for your own personal reasons.. but I for one wont be getting on in the game, sorry.


    And is not sharing part of the fun anwyay? - I spend a lot of my own money to get profiles up, and I would never think about asking coin for it. - I do it for myself, and if others want to use the same sound then good.


    In time we will see a LOT of this.. and this will turn me off the KPA in a big way.. folk trying to profit on profiling a few amps. - just turn the page, there are already a fair few great profiles that cover 95% of music styles. its not exactly short of choice now is it!, and its still EARLY days!


    My 2cents..

  • ...don't like the idea of buying profiles at all...


    It sounds like the p2p "content wants to be free" argument.


    If some guy is using boutique amps with a selection of top-quality mics going through his $100,000 audio chain and Neve preamp in his perfectly flattened room to check the frequencies, I see no reason why he shouldn't charge for that kind of quality. If he doesn't charge for the use of those facilities for recording (and equally for profiling), he'll eventually go bust and you'll be left with a plethora of guys jamming sm57's into their Peavey Classic 50's (no offense to those who do).


    Show me the site where that guy is selling his wares and I'll haul out my credit card, no problem. I've already said I would gladly pay towards Tills and one or two others here. That quality doesn't come cheap. I'm about to make my own investment - just finished an album using a Route66 and a Roadster simultaneously, with three mics on each cab going through monster pre's. I'm booking the studio for a day to get ten variations of exactly that tone down into my KPA.


    I've learned first hand, as have a few of us, that simply popping a mic in front of the amp and A/B-ing through a pair of headphones will not necessarily produce the greatest results. Just saying...

    parker / prs / kemper / g / mesa

  • I have no problem paying for great or unique profiles. There is nothing that says you have to make profiles of your amps and there is nothing that says you have to make them free. I think you should be paid for time and effort just like you you would pay anyone else in other industries and situations get paid for time and effort. Isn't there a big industry of making third-party sample libraries or impulse responses for software players? I see no difference here.