PAS - Profile Acquisition Syndrome - a way to avoid the Rabbit Hole, and make music :)

  • I think it is pretty easy to determine there are more available Rigs than one person can ever take the time to fully audition.


    For a start:

    At the moment, there are approximately 17,371 free Rigs on the Rig Exchange.

    If someone spends just five minutes auditioning each Rig, it would take 86,855 minutes.

    That is approximately 1,447 hours and 35 minutes.

    With an hour a day, 365 days per year to audition Rigs, it would take 3.96 years to audition all the free Rigs that are there today.

    Of course, during the next four years, many, many more Rigs will be added to the Rig Exchange. So, it would not be done at that point :)


    And, there are all The Kemper Factory Rigs.

    And, all the Kemper Rig Packs.

    And, that is not even mentioning the thousands of available Commercial Rigs.


    So..... I think there is a point where the PAS Rabbit Hole could get in the way of actually making music for some people.


    My suggestion is this:

    Find some Rigs for the specific amps you need for the music you want to make with them. Doing that will give you a Standard that all other Rigs will have to match. After you have done that, it will be much easier to quickly know if other Rigs will potentially be of any use, or not.

  • Once my sounds are set, I never bothered about new profiles or iR's. Same goes for all modellers , if you like the sound just play !


    However in a band context you do need to change the sound to make the sound fuller when bass and other guitars are involved.


    Mostly that sound that will come out I'd hate when played alone at home with headphones. Regarding the chase, it's over ...


    Also believe that all sounds are allready been created, they are there somwhere, wether payed or free ... So all of these vendors have a hard time coming up with new stuff. In most cases they just do because they love doing it ! but needed, don't think so :)


    Raf

    Kemper stage with 2 mission pedals (in a Thon line 6 FBV case) and a Zilla 212 (K-100/V30) , SD powerstage 700 poweramp

  • I played around for maybe 4 weeks. Then i found the 2-3 amps that sound nice to me. Since then it's just optimizing for home recording. For rehearsals and live playing i will not change the profile anytime soon...

  • Profile Acquisition Sydrome is not in the way of making music if you stop audition new rigs!


    Just buy and archive, buy and archive. It's all about building up a stock for possible need in the future. Don't stop buying (it doesn't take much time if you buy those "everything" packs and bundles) - just stop audition new stuff!


    ;):saint::*

  • I started reading posts on this forum before I bought my Kemper Stage. I am glad I did that. I learned a lot before getting my hands on the unit. I also have a friend that has a toaster. I had a couple of short conversations with him about profiles.


    I came at this from a little different direction than others have. I bought the Stage with the intention of using it as my live rig and making things smaller and lighter as well as easier to set up and tear down. I went after the tones that I would typically use in a night. I bought one pack from Tone Junkie. I wanted a Twin Sister amp ( I now have that amp) so I bought his Dirty Surly pack. It was exactly what I wanted it to be. I tweaked the rigs to my liking. That gave me pretty much every tone I needed.


    I then profiled the amp that I have been gigging with for the last 6 years. I am very happy with the profiles. I used these to create the rest of the tones that I wanted. I have not felt the need to go digging for more tones because I have been able to get and create what I wanted.


    My next step is to profile a few amps that I have held on to because I like the way they sound. Once I have captured profiles of the tones that I love those amps for, I will be selling them off. I won't need the storage space to keep them around and I will be able to use those tones any time I want them. I have no plans to purchase any more profiles than I already have.


    This doesn't even get into the rig exchange. Once I finish polishing the profiles I have created (I am going to add some morphing to them for solo tones) I will upload them to the rig exchange. I will also upload the profiles of my other amps once I create them. If I were looking for a particular tone I would start by searching the rig exchange for profiles of that particular amp.

  • I have another approach to shortlisting rigs. Yes, there are over 17,000, but what are you really looking for? Here are my tips:


    1) If you have a particular sounds in mind, say a particular guitarist, find out what gear he used. Some of them have used different amps in different eras. Find out what those amps are and then do a specific search for those amps.


    2) In case there are any amps that you have heard about and want to check out those amps, do a specific search. Alternatively, if there is an author whose profiles you have found good, narrow down the search to his profile.


    3) Use the rating system to your advantage. Granted, it is not infallible, and I feel that some users abuse the system by not giving accurate ratings. Still, when you see a five-star profile with over 5 reviews, it is worth checking that profile out, and then going down the list.


    4) Do a random search of the rig exchange from time to time. Just randomly scroll and then check out 10 different profiles that appear on the page. This will help you figure out if there are any amps or authors you weren't aware of and then allow you to do a refined search.


    5) If you find that the rigs on the exchange are *almost* there, but you need a bit more from them, don't be afraid to tweak the amp and cab parameters. Remember, a profile was done on someone's rig in their environment, which may not be the same as yours. Just dive into those sections and experiment. The more you do it, the better you'll understand how they work.


    6) When all else fails, look at commercial profiles that have been put out of a particular amp and rig. Before you do that, have a sample of the profiler's work on the rig exchange and see if you like them. Once purchased, be ready to tweak if you aren't getting optimum results.

  • If I had a dollar for every rig - every year it would take 57,568 years to be a billionaire, or I can just shoot for a million and it will only take me 57.5 years. We need many more rigs on RE. :P

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I'm a guy that can lock up staring at a vending machine that only has 24 choices. That said, I welcome the volume and variety of available profiles. I know what certain amps sound like so starting there pares things down quite a bit. Then I find one and make it my own, Keep bringing em!

  • I am turning into a tone chaser. Now, I feel all dirty like I need a bath or something. Guess I'll be spending some years finding the right profile.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Since I got Yamaha THR30II I don't care anymore about profiles. Since I got this device I just play and play. It sounds better than Kemper on my current studio monitors. I may want to even plug Kemper into flat setting on THR30II :)

  • Really? It's that good, skoczy ?

    It's the best guitar related gear purchase. Meaning, my playing skyrocketed since I got it. It sounds very good, it boots in no time, I can stream backing tracks over bluetooth. I have my favorite factory preset "90s Brown" which sounds huge - you wouldn't say, there are two 3.5" speakers.


    One thing to notice, Yamaha has introduced "Open" speaker tuning in firmware update, because when I tried it for 1st time, I didn't like it.


    I even returned Marshall Origin 20C which I tried - it was too loud for my apartment, even on lowest power setting.


    I am very very satisfied.


    Yamaha THR30 II


  • Hot dog, man! Thanks for the review!

  • I had PAS first few months but found a bunch of rigs that sounded good so I´m no longer "hoarding" rigs,

    just a few once in a while after reading some good review here or scrolling trough RigExchange for 5 star

    rigs, sometimes they´re good but mostly meh ..... :/


    So no longer PAS-syndrome , more like OKFEDTSITSNISOM - syndrome .......

    ( Open Kemper Forum Every Day To See If There´s Some New Interesting Subjects Or Music )


    Also a bit time consuming activity 8o


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

  • Since I got Yamaha THR30II I don't care anymore about profiles. Since I got this device I just play and play. It sounds better than Kemper on my current studio monitors. I may want to even plug Kemper into flat setting on THR30II :)

    Give us proof and profile it. :S

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

    Henry David Thoreau

  • I like the OP's idea about just making music.


    So far, my strategy has been somewhat similar to how I've always approached any digital amp: Create & tweak 4 or 5 main presets that are for what I play on guitar, but leave time to browse, trying out new sounds that inspire.


    The great thing - among many - with the K is all of the room you can store a Profile. You're not limited to 5 on the internal hard drive of a Yamaha THR10X, for example. Those 5 slots were for the main tones I used, but if you wanted to go off the map, you had to either delete a main tone, make a tone & lose it when you power off, or be stuck using their software to continually upload & download sounds.


    With the K, I just "Favorite" my main half dozen tones, but have loads of other Profiles in different stages of editing. When I need the main tones, I just hit favorite. When it's time to go hunting/editing, it's "All Rigs."


    That amp coming into my world has been a life-changing event. The Kemper guys seem to have thought of everything! Every day it's like I'm 5 & Santa just left all the goodies under the tree.

  • Give us proof and profile it. :S

    I bought a THR30iii to replace my THR10X & returned it a few days later. In my opinion, Yamaha went backwords with the tones. Was the amp bigger, louder & with more features? Yup! Did it sound any better than the Green Box of Doom? Not even close.


    Frankly, the Kemper through in-ears or studio monitors wipes the floor with the Yamaha stuff...and that coming from a massive fan of those amps!