Favorite way to punch up the gain on your profiles?

  • For playing live or jamming with folks (which may or may not happen again for me), I've decided to really simplify my Performance approach. I'm down to a clean rig, a dirt rig, and lead rig. With the dirt rig, I'm staying somewhere around 4-5 gain on the profile. For the lead rig, it's 5-7...maybe a bit more...for the gain. However, I do want to add a means to bump that dirt rig by about +1 in the gain dept, relatively speaking. There are times where I want the tone that lives in that 5-6 range for my rhythm, but I'm trying to see if I can get it by pushing the dirt profile vs. setting up another profile that I have to balance. I've played around with:

    • Pure Booster - Simple...1.0-1.5 value. It seems pretty natural and transparent. However, it does boost the bass which I'm not a fan of. This is the same thing a boost on an amp tends to do and I don't like it for that reason either.
    • Kemper Drive - going for a Timmy approach i.e. transparency and accommodating for the gain increase by slimming the bass so it's just more of the same core dirt tone without boosting the bass frequencies too much. This is probably my favorite approach of the two, but, it does color the tone and definition of that profile when added...moreso than the pure booster.

    I'm also kicking around trying the morph button for a simple gain increase of 1 to the profile itself and adjusting down the bass if necessary.


    What do you find works best in this use case? Anything else you guys are using?

  • Often I also use the definition function in the amp section to get the "right" gain boost. A little bit more..worth a try..


    But it depends a lot on the profile ofcourse.

  • One point - when you say "punch up" I think of turning the gain down a bit and the volume up to give it more punch and dynamics.

    Probably a bad term to use. I want to crunch it up a little more. I think I'm going to play with the morph parameter and try that out with adjustments to the gain and potentially the amp EQ.

  • Morphing the gain sounds like a good fit for your purpose.


    I like to use the Compressor stomp. Start with the Soft default (3.0,2.5,0,85% mix) and roll the intensity up as needed. I usually start at 3.5 and go up to 5.5 max. It really starts to push things around 4.5. This will add some thumpy bass and roll some highs, so may not work for your application. Great for solos though. The stomp also has a level so you can punch up the gain like a pure boost in there also.


    The compressor in the amp section can do some great work for this also.


    Adding an EQ may be another good option. Since you could increase the level (pure boost, gain) and adjust the low frequency all at once.


    Another subtle option for morphing is the AMP CLARITY. At the default of 0 the amp gets into distortion fast. So you could setup your sound with a higher clarity number like 2.5 then morph back to 0 for more gain/crunch.


    The Kemper gives you so many options. Very good software implementation.

  • How so? You add some definition as you raise the gain?

    This function alters the "character" of the profile.


    With some profiles if you add some "definition" you will get a little bit more "beef".


    I have a few profiles which sounded much better for leads/solos just adding some "definition" instead turning up the gain control.


    Often I combine both functions.. a little bit more gain control and a little bit more definition. In any case I believe it is worth a try because the definition function IMO is very very interesting and important for the profiler. But it does not "the same thing" to all the profiles. Hard to explain but worth a try.

  • A personal thing, I love to experiment with the amp compression, not a effect block but in the amp module.


    For myself I’ve always used this as a function of adjusting the amps clean headroom.


    Turn it up for more creamy overdrive, adjust level as a boost, and save.


    Play with it, have a go, this is one of several things that argue in favour of digital IMO.

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    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

  • There are 2 slightly different points here:

    1) The end sound you want

    2) Mechanically how you select it.


    For me point 2 is easily answered, morph or separate slot. This is way easier than tap dancing and located in a much easier spot. Obviously you can have pedals on but on a zero setting and morph the settings...


    For point 1, I use a boost for riffs as well as a dedicated solo sound but the principle is the same - a bit extra cut at certain points. I have a touch more gain, touch more volume, touch more presence and mid all on morph with 1 touch on the remote. I have zero morph time so its instant on and off.


    So first find that "new sound" which will take a bit of fiddling as there are so many options, all of the above will have an effect. Find that and then switching is easy.

  • Some great feedback. After taking in that info and thinking it through, I'm going to use my approach of one amp profiled and shot at 3 points with clean, mid gain, and high(er) gain. Then my slots will look like this...


    Slot 1 - Clean/Rhythm - probably no morphs

    Slot 2 - Dirt/Rhythm - in the 4-5 gain range depending on the amp - use morph to adjust some combo of gain, definition, and EQ to go from light crunch to a heavier crunch

    Slot 3 - Lead - profile of the amp at a higher gain setting and EQ'd for lead (less bass and treble, more mids) - morph from an un-effected lead sound to effected to add compression, maybe a little fuzz (amp dependent), and delay. Gives me a raw lead tone or a soaring lead option


    So 5 sounds out of 3 slots and no need to use my size 14 feet to tap dance to the upper row for boosts or lead delays during the performance of a song.

  • Similar to my set up with the exception that I use morph for boosting in a song rather than for a whole song.


    Mine are -

    Slot 1 Clean - JC120

    Slot 2 - Light crunch - morph to boost for riffs

    Slot 3 - heavy crunch - morph to boost for riffs

    slot 4 - Medium crunch with heavy effects for specific songs in the set - morph to boost for riffs -

    Slot 5 - Solo - Morph to add effects for longer passages -


    I do use different profiles as well, so my solo sound is of the same amp ( Freidman) but different channel/cranked. I also use a JC120 for clean rather than take a high gain amp and clean it up.