EQ Question

    Hi everyone. I am new to this forum and just purchased my first Kemper Profiler. In the past I have played around with the different computer modelers (Amplitube, Bias, Overloud-THU). By far my favorite sound so far has been a stock profile on THU called “Melodic Death, Lead”. The pinch harmonics on this thing seem to just scream and sustain like nothing else I have tried. For the most part it’s a straight 5150 with TS overdrive in front and delay and reverb at the end of the chain but the “magic” seems to be happening from this stack of EQs they have placed before the Delay/reverb effects. I understand the general concept of placing an EQ after the distortion to bring low end stripped out by the OD back into the sound, but I am totally lost in what they are doing here with what seems like 6 different EQs (2 sets of settings per unit) all stacked together like this with different settings. I would like to understand this better so I can attempt to create a sound like this with my Kemper (if possible). Any advice would be greatly welcomed! Also would welcome recommendations for any Kemper profiles (paid or free) that may already have this sound or a great Finnish Melodic Death metal sound (think early Children of Bodom, Norther etc,) right out of the box.

         

    Those EQ's are used to shape the sound out of the cab. You can place a studio EQ in the stomps section and match up those frequencies. See if you can find out what the THU is based off of if you want to try and match to an existing profile.


    As paults suggests, you can create a profile from a plugin. I've seen some posts that profiling a plugin using OD/Distortion if front of the amp can be problematic. If you run into that then just capture the amp and cab. Then you can add the similar stomps and effects to the profile from Kempers presets.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Those aren’t 6 eqs in series but rather a multi band fully parametric eq. The Studio EQ in Kemper will get very close to this. Not sure what the Q figures are showing though. Q is normally measured 0.00 to 1.00. A Q of around 7 (an incredibly narrow cut) at around 12k in the example wouldn’t seem to do anything audible.

    Thanks guys - I hadn't even thought about creating a Kemper profile from the THU one. Will give that a try. Been reading a lot of good things about the Josh Middleton profiles as well as the All the Gains from GGD so may check those out as well. Wheresthedug thanks for the EQ explanation - was trying to figure out what was going on there. I will play around with the studio eq on the Kemper!

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    Those aren’t 6 eqs in series but rather a multi band fully parametric eq. The Studio EQ in Kemper will get very close to this. Not sure what the Q figures are showing though. Q is normally measured 0.00 to 1.00. A Q of around 7 (an incredibly narrow cut) at around 12k in the example wouldn’t seem to do anything audible.

    It's a nuance but most normal EQs (fab filter etc.) work in series. The next band processes the previous band etc. Some are parallel (Nova comes to mind, but also massive passive) but then it's often advertised.

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    Quote from Wheresthedug

    Those aren’t 6 eqs in series but rather a multi band fully parametric eq. The Studio EQ in Kemper will get very close to this. Not sure what the Q figures are showing though. Q is normally measured 0.00 to 1.00. A Q of around 7 (an incredibly narrow cut) at around 12k in the example wouldn’t seem to do anything audible.

    sorry, but that's a little misleading.
    multiple EQ bands most often work in series.

    Q is simply an indicator of the quality (how narrow or wide the boost/cut is)
    the Q Factor of the PROFILER's Studio Equalizer goes up to 5 and values above 1 are anything but uncommon ;)


    Qoctaves (N)octaves (N)Q
    0,16,672 0,114,424
    0,52,543 0,52,871
    11,388 11,414
    1,50,945 1,50,920
    20,714 20,667
    30,479 30,404
    40,360 40,267
    50,288 50,182
    100,144 100,031
    200,072 200,001
    500,029

    So can one of you tell me (in laymen's terms) what overall effect is being accomplished with this specific EQ stack in the screenshot? I understand its shaping the sound in some way and for some reason requires what seems like 6 different sets of (Gain, Frequency, Q) settings to do so. Is something specifically being boosted or cut etc.? Just curious as it seems to make a huge effect on the sound and its an effect I like a lot.

    Those EQ settings look like a monkey walked up to the desk and started spinning knobs. As stated above most of the filters are very narrow. Meaning they do not affect the sound around the frequency setting.


    TOTAL GUESS HERE:


    The only normal setting is the 2.57kHz because its Q is 1.00. Which is a normal width. This should increase the Treble/brightness.


    All of the other settings are very small and seem to be directed at a specific thing. Like fixing errors or weird spots in the sound itself.


    134 Hz adding some Thump to the bass.

    551 Hz removing some mids, to clean it up or remove some WAH tone.

    9.60 kHz So much gain and narrow Q maybe adding some pick attack or Air???

    5.70 kHz Narrow Q and low gain??? Normally this would be a cut to remove Fizz. Maybe adding some Air or enhancing fizz.

    12.0 kHz Another weird cut at a specific freq. Normally this would be a low pass filter set to around 6-8 kHz.


    ANSWER:

    The only person who knows is you, because you can sit and tweak the knobs and see what happens.


    Maybe the person that set it up is a super genius and calculated out all of the specific filters that would create some weird harmonic modulation distortion that is nice to the ear.


    Or they created the amp model and know by calculation where the problem frequencies are in the math???


    Or these are problem freqs in the IR being used???

    RosboneMako - Thanks I didn't know if there was something obvious I was supposed to be seeing with these settings or not. I really haven't played with EQs (aside from the built in one on amps) before but was curious as it seemed to make such a huge difference to the overall sound. It sounds like it can get super complicated...

    Hi cbecker999, welcome to the Kemperverse! There is an easy way to get a clue of what all the EQs are doing in sum: Send white noise through just the stack of EQs and analyse the result with a (Match) EQ in your DAW. And if you're after the tone of the cab plus the stack of EQs: You can make an IR of the whole thing by following the instructions here and here (sections Craft... & Finalise...). The final IR can then be imported to the Profiler via RigManager. But as already pointed out by others: If you want the whole rig in your Profiler: try profiling it. Hope that helps.