How to know which profiles would work for you?

  • Cheers people!


    I'm starting to be more aware of how much different the same profile can be between two players and two different guitars...


    So I was asking myself: How would I know a set of profiles would work for me before I buy them?


    What's your insights on this topic?

  • IMHO all you can do is listen to mix-context clips and extrapolate what you hear, "translating" in your mind's eye how it might sound with your guitar/s.


    Ultimately, there's always going to be an element of hit-and-miss, but the free Rig Packs in RM can go some way towards helping you gain insight on how a given Profiler's wares might sound with your setup.

  • Often a good sounding demo will be disappointing when you play the profile yourself. Don't just move on before trying to shape it a bit though. I found Nick's tips are simple and often work, particularly for live use:


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    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

  • I can't overemphasize the importance of a properly setup guitar and the mindset involved to create mix-ready (as in: this actually CAN be made to fit in a mix instead of pretty much hopeless).


    the most common 'mistakes' are:

    • the guitar itself doesn't sound as needed -trying to fix that with a Profile/EQ will never really work well
    • the pickups are not doing what the should (darker sounding guitar with dark sounding pickups for example), pickups should be seen as a relative factor, the same pickups in different guitars will sound differently
    • pickup-to-string distance:
      1. pickups too close to strings
      2. pickups angled the wrong way (bass side closer than treble side, when simple physics strongly indicates it should be the other way round - more mass moving in the magnetic field -> more output
    • 'wrong' string gauge as in heavy bottom/light top - this only aggravates the issues illustrated above
    • guitarist instead of producer mindset - a guitar is a midrange instrument, yet guitarists often aim for lots of bass (always a major mix issue later on), scooped mids (sigh) and treble that interferes with more important stuff in that range (vocal 'air' and cymbals)
    • the guitar sound is tied to the bass sound, and the bass sound is tied to the (kick) drum sound
  • I do a bit of research about the profile itself to find out what guitar was used to profile the amp. I buy MBritt profiles and they seem to be very versatile. You will have to tweak the profile no matter what because it was not your guitar on the profile but fortunately the Kemper has great tweaking sections. Also, If I'm trying to get a certain sound from a record, I research what amp the guitarist used originally and start my profile search there.


  • I can't overemphasize the importance of a properly setup guitar and the mindset involved to create mix-ready (as in: this actually CAN be made to fit in a mix instead of pretty much hopeless).


    the most common 'mistakes' are:

    • the guitar itself doesn't sound as needed -trying to fix that with a Profile/EQ will never really work well
    • the pickups are not doing what the should (darker sounding guitar with dark sounding pickups for example), pickups should be seen as a relative factor, the same pickups in different guitars will sound differently
    • pickup-to-string distance:
      1. pickups too close to strings
      2. pickups angled the wrong way (bass side closer than treble side, when simple physics strongly indicates it should be the other way round - more mass moving in the magnetic field -> more output
    • 'wrong' string gauge as in heavy bottom/light top - this only aggravates the issues illustrated above
    • guitarist instead of producer mindset - a guitar is a midrange instrument, yet guitarists often aim for lots of bass (always a major mix issue later on), scooped mids (sigh) and treble that interferes with more important stuff in that range (vocal 'air' and cymbals)
    • the guitar sound is tied to the bass sound, and the bass sound is tied to the (kick) drum sound

    I bet most dissapointed buyers haven't a proper setup guitar(s). But still even if the profiles are not bad they might not be what you had hoped for. Different guitar with different pickups give different result. Just like one pickup sounds perfect in one guitar and then you go and buy the same pickup and install it in another guitar and...not bad but not stellar either.

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

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Yes it’s hard to know 100% but it’s taught me a lot about dialling in a profile and guitar tone in general. In addition to all the great tips above, don’t forget to check different pickups (bridge, neck, etc) and adjust your volume and tone controls as needed.