Just a thought on 'REAL' profiles and our own personal fave settings...

assuming that an amp's controls are 'flat' when at 12 o'clock is unrealistic and so is the notion that this would capture the amps character ideally. I've had amps that needed certain or even all controls maxed to get to the sweet spot, as well as tonestacks that require very detailed settings (interactive controls).

setting the amp to a sweet spot should be the idea when profiling, not a 'flat' mentality.

take a look at this neat little proggie http://www.duncanamps.com/tsc/

setting the controls half way on a Fender-type tonestack is very different from a Marshall-type. And pretty much every manufacturer uses different tonestack circuits or values for caps and resistor anyway, so the o'clock position of a pot with unknown resistance in an unknown circuit doesn't really mean much.

while you can get somewhat flat resonses from an amp's eq - often no bass, mids max, no treble - these settings, while kind of neutral, are simply undesirable in 95% of all real world guitar applications.

dial in a good/great sound on your amp, mic it well and try not to over-analyse

it's that simple.

As 01 has pointed out, the tonestack position at which there's no filtering is very often definitely far from "12 oclock" on a per-amp basis.
One interesting thing I did with my Lonestar Special was to ask my technician to find this "zero point". Now I've got the tonestack settings that actually flatten the amp response (the physical presence of the tonestack changes the sound anyway though).

In terms of your freedom and possibility to find your own setting, the 12 oclock position is not different, statistically, from any other: it would end up being just another setting from another user you don't like (if you don't).

HTH

I've noticed that the profiles that sound the best to me are when the eq is off, or flat. I do a lot of recording, and the EQ on the kemper isn't as nice as a good quality outboard EQ or even some of the plugins that I'll use after it's recorded. People should spend more time using the natural EQ of mic placement before they commit to a profile. For example - move the mic back if there's too much bass, if it needs to be brighter move the mic towards the center, if you need a little less edge, angle the mic a little bit. My favorite profiles are the ones that sound great with the EQ flat. You can tell someone spent time miking it correctly. for example, everyone raves about and44's profiles, and I do think they sound pretty good, but if you take the EQ and reverb off, they don't sound as good. Hoping this next pack he releases he has some better sounding profiles without EQ.
PS - no offense to and44 - it's awesome to have someone providing so many profiles and many people think they are the best sounding profiles yet

I don't see what the big deal is - just get the best tone from your amp, mic it to where you like the sound, profile and DONE.

Nobody is going to like every profile. If it's an amp I'm going to sell, I'll try to pull a variety of tones/gain levels from my profiles, but if I don't please myself first I don't see how anyone else will get use of my profiles.

Just my 10 cents.

Pete

hey, no offense taken..
Profiling for yourself is one thing because you can be really picky about what your after.. - profiling a pack for others is a compromise to a degree because you need to think about tweaking, I prefer darker sounds normally, but I realize others don't, this is why a lot of sounds on the exchange are often not spoken about. because they are unique to the individual, no matter how good your micing is, or equipment.

I try to get a sweetspot on the day in the studio, but as with anything recorded, a few days later you think different and so you attack with EQ to enhance what is there.
Many of my new pack has an EQ in place but with nothing set, this is purely a guide for the users to tweek to there own satisfaction.

My settings and my personal profiles are my own. - as where these are for everyone else, and there has to be a bit of common ground and flexibility involved for it to work.
as everyone's guitars, speakers, room, fingers are different..

Its hard work, and sometimes frustrating, but its harder to tweek an already heavy EQ'd profile thats come direct from amp > mics > desk. than it is putting everything flat (sweetspot flat) - then letting the user make there own choices..I hope you understand now why I do what I do..(and kindda have too)

And I realize profiles are subjective and impossible to please all.
Have a good day
Andy

- Andy, you're awesome

actually, I kind of prefer darker tones myself, and after I took some of the EQ off, I liked some of the profiles a lot better. Either way, with your packs you do so many different tones that there is bound to be something for everyone in there. Keep up the good work man, we all appreciate it

I am into darker sounds myself, Andy, so I tweak the profiles accordingly.
It would be really much appreciated if you'd share a few, whenever you feel like it.

To hear the 'real' profile. Turn eq off, turn fx and stomps off. All cab settings to noon. Amp settings zero for comp and clarity and bias and sag. Tube on 3.3. Only variables which may have been tweaked are gain and definition.

Personally, I enjoy hearing what others find amusing for sound. There are so many rigs available now that you can find pretty much anything you want, and there's still room for tweaking if you're still not happy. If I don't have to tweak a rig, well that's a bonus.