How much tweaking do you do with a downloaded profile?

  • Whether you have a commercial or rig exchange profile, how much tweaking would you normally do to it? Does it have to be 100% spot on, or if you like the flavor/distortion/characteristic of amp, would you do eq changes till it fits your liking? Also, when profiling, do you leave all the eq at 0 or do you tweak to change it before saving the profile?

  • Some seconds to hear if there is potential, if so, some minor tweaks in the amp section first.


    Maybe a little main eq


    Finaly an eq in X with high/lowcut and some purecab when there is zissle....


    All of that take 1 or two minutes, fx settings will take longer.

  • Hardly any tweaking at all for me - if I can’t make it happen in about 20 seconds I move on. I might adjust definition or clarity, but rarely ever the gain.. just too many good ones that are easy to find.

  • Most profiles I tried - coming from RigExchange or other free profiles - usually are not what I was looking for. So, garbage them. For the rest I try with same tweaks; first of all: get rid of all effects which are ON by their defaults. Then, I like to hear them with low or no gain: for what I'm searching for is the amps real tones, and these do no show up with to much gain. And often, I turn on more volume on the amp.


    Of course, this is what I as a classic rock player want to hear. For metal fans, this does not apply. Then, if I want an overdriven or distorted sound, I retry with gain up and trying overdrive / distortion. Or go on with compression and / or EQ applied. So in the end, what I am effectivly using in performances is all tweaked for my desires.

  • If I have to tweak a profile I don't bother. There are so many other profiles I can use instead. Well okey there's one thing I need to adjust at least 90% of the time and that's the gain on high gain profiles. I just don' t know why most high gain profilers insist of too much gain is better. That's why dist sens is turned full down when using high gain profiles.

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

    Henry David Thoreau

  • I look for the general genre of tone and the gain level I am after.


    I only spend 10-20 seconds to make an initial determination if I go on.


    I flip through these and usually do the following on the ones that make it to 80% of what I am looking for:


    1) Turn off any efx that are overtly coloring the sound. Not all efx get turned off since they are integral to the sound IMO.

    2) Adjust gain to where I want it to be for the purpose I am after (note, only a rig that is already close gets this far)

    3) Adjust the rig eq to my liking and purpose (again, it has to be close or I move on)

    4) If it is a little muddy, I might add clarity or cut mids with a studio eq. Sometimes I add in some of the raw signal to clean it up.

    5) If I want a verb on it (I have a verb on most rigs even if it is turned down, I get one of my presets for that genre out and tweak it to that rig

    6) As above, if it is fizzy, I add a little pure cabinet to it


    In general, I only add new rigs when I need a sound I don't already have for that genre or purpose. I might spend 15-20 minutes on tweaking a rig.


    Over time, I sometimes refine an existing tweaked rig by making an entire performance of just that rig. Then I tweak 4 of the 5 to different settings (all that sound good), and try them out through the PA along with a multi-track of the full band playing (without my guitar track in it of course). This lets me see how it will sound in the mix with the real PA and the real band .... minus any stage noise :)

  • Every pair of ears are different. I do what most have mentioned already to my liking with Kemper Kone's (monitor and direct out using imprints) and then check the tone with my studio monitors (Main outs using the cab IR). So I try to balance the tone ( not volume) between my studio monitors (Mackie 824's) and the Kones so that they both sound good when switching between them, and also sound good when all are turned on and balanced volume wise. At least that's what I'm trying to do, and it sounds good to me.

    If you use FRFR the benefit of a merged profile is that the cabinet is totally separated in the profile.


    For my edification only... ;) Kemper/Axe-FX III/ Quad Cortex user

    Edited once, last by spikey ().