Posts by dhodgson

  • cab module to IR conversion?

    Create a impulse file in Sound Forge or similar; 44.1K mono, 24-bit, 1 sec long will do. Using the pencil tool, draw the first sample so it's max (0dB). Turn off everything in the Kemper except the cab. Reamp the file over S/PDIF through the Kemper. Capture the output, normalize, top 'n tail.

  • Bass advice: Axe FX Ultra or Microtubes 900 for bass?

    I'd be curious to know what your reference tone would be assuming it involves a mic'd amp & cab. I mean, pretty much anything from 10" to 15" has a significant rolloff below 100Hz. Also, many (if not most) tube amps high-pass the input by design.


    Have you tried turning off the amp and/or cabinet completely? Nothing wrong in using the Kemper as a fancy DI. Sounds like you're already doing the right things (parallel path & PETERFR)

  • Clean Sense - I am somewhat confused!

    I was watching the digital levels from my Kemper over S/PDIF recently and had an "aha" moment. With the output to "Git/Stack" mode (unprocessed DI guitar in the left channel, amp in the right) It got me thinking... this might be a chance to test whether "Clean Sens" works as a true (hopefully pre-A/D) trim or not. After experimenting a bit, I can say that lowering/raising CS affects the DI channel level (but not the stack) accordingly independent of amp gain. Plus, the digital output levels for the DI side mirror the way the input level warning LED responds; green, yellow or red.


    So - as a general rule of principle, it sure seems like setting Clean Sens by monitoring Git/Stack DI levels seems like a sensible and accurate gain staging technique - no guesswork involved, and tailored appropriately to your guitar pickups.


    -djh

  • Bias Distortion Pedal Review (New Thread)

    My pedal came in a few weeks ago and I had high hopes for it, but it's now gathering dust. The primary issue was that the pedal was having difficulty reliably connecting to the USB port on my motherboard (both in Win 7 & Win 10) and after multiple escalations BIAS's engineering staff had to admit that they're aware of this and don't have a fix. And unlike other products, the BIAS Pedal is -really- USB dependent; if you can't drive it with the app, 90% of the functionality is lost. So, there's that.


    The other beefs I had with the pedal were:


    1) The knobs aren't road-worthy IMHO. Particularly the rotating selector knob - I feel it's just a matter of time before the thing breaks or snaps off. Actually, for a pedal of its size it's light and hollow-sounding - I imagine it's mostly air inside, but it's got security screws all over and I couldn't take it apart (even with my security Torx set.)
    2) It's freakin' huge. And if my suspicions are true (that it's mostly empty) there isn't much reason for it.
    3) The "tone match" functionality, which I was able to get to work on a couple of the occasions where it did succesfully connect, is nothing more than an EQ matcher - with low accuracy, at that. Really, I wasn't impressed at all.
    4) There's no way to easily resell the pedal. Once the software is registered, it's tied to your computer and unlike with iLok plugs you can't pay the vendor something to transfer the license to a new owner. They'd have to purchase the app from scratch.


    Everything said, the functionality - as far as the app goes (and the plugin, which is identical) appears like a real problem solver that could replace 3-5 pedals in some setups. It's just feels like something that was released too early, and at the moment is something like a beta product. I ended up swapping it for an Elektron Analog Drive, which is another large pedal but lived up to its promise and I'm very happy with.

  • New Slate interface

    Watched the Slate dog-n-pony show yesterday - seems like a very expensive, bare-bones Thunderbolt audio interface that would be uninteresting were it not for the supposedly audiophile-grade components and support for their newly cost-reduced Virtual Mic platform. Ties in to their Everything Bundle subscription plan, of course - Slate just can't stop talking about that. Remains to be seen whether they'll open up their newly cost-reduced virtual mics to work with generic audio interfaces or not.

  • Positive Grid BIAS Distortion Tone Match Distortion Pedal

    Placed my order back in October. Seems to be a hardware implementation of their Bias Pedal software, including the tone matching. Which, if I'm not mistaken, seems to be "Dial in something that sounds like the pedal you're trying to match and then we'll EQ it the rest of the way."


    But yes, I'd like to reduce my overdrive pedal chain down to just one too. It's looks quite large though, so it may not actually be saving any space in the end...


    -djh

  • Best drum software?

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    ... and your verdict?


    I'm pretty happy with it, MM. It took a bit of sleuthing to chart out the full extent of its signal flow diagram (it's mixer & FX routing are surprisingly capable, but not well documented) but there's a lot to like and the samples are 24-bit.


    Recommend the Fairfax Vol. 1 kit for beefy rock tracks, which I may have mentioned before - the product is kind of "prosumer" in that it tries to hit a spot that's deeper than a noob product while being easy to use with convenient workflow.

  • Best drum software?

    Former Slate user here that got tired of waiting for SSD5 and ended up switching over to Addictive Drums 2. Chose it over EZDrummer for the 24-bit samples & sophisticated mixer/FX routing.


    "Fairfax Vol. 1" is the best of XLN Audio's add-on kits for beefy rock tracks IMHO.


    -djh

  • Possibly the Biggest No-brainer Ever

    A caveat for anyone thinking of chipping in on Slate's "Pre-Black Friday" deal ($149 for 1 year of Everything PLUS a free permanent plugin license - existing customers only)


    ... what they don't tell you is that you have to use your free plugin voucher by 11/29 which means you can't wait for the upcoming FG-STRESS release to come out and then pull the trigger on it.


    The PBF deal is probably over by now, but I thought I'd mention that because I had to undo that order and get a refund there.


    -djh

  • Request: Tweak Graphic EQ to match standard MXR & BOSS pedal EQ's

    I won't deny it, but the history of guitar electronics is ad-hoc and bespoke. 12" woofers in guitar cabinets? Organ tone circuits as wah pedals? The Profiler is the very definition of a product that is trying to reproduce all this nuttery so if you're going to do it right, you may as well extend that to the pedals as well. We're talking probably a few hours worth of dev time that wouldn't affect the existing graphic EQ in anyway so you can still have it.


    Currently the only way to reproduce an MXR is by string a couple Studio EQ parametrics together... kinda And that takes up two slots.


    I do hope you understand why I brought the subject up. If you're not a guitar pedal EQ user, you have nothing invested in the concept and it won't matter... to you.

  • Request: Tweak Graphic EQ to match standard MXR & BOSS pedal EQ's

    Thanks for plotting out the Kemper's graphic EQ, I did the same prior to posting just to see how close it was to the pedals and the answer was... not very. (Full disclosure: I got Q of 2.5 for the 160-5K bands normalized to a max cut of -12.0dB like the MXR pedal.) I do appreciate your effort, though!


    There's really no substitute to having real sliders when dialing in tones for reamping, but it sure would be nice to be able to transfer one's pedal EQ settings into one's profiles for archival purposes once locked in. I've got a library of these settings in my production notes for many different guitars and pickups, so you can imagine the utility.


    The filter math for making a couple of graphic EQ variations that reflected the two most popular real-world EQ pedals would be fairly trivial, I think.I suspect not many people are using the Graphic EQ at the moment and if not, Kemper's rather arbitrary settings might be why.


    -djh

  • Request: Tweak Graphic EQ to match standard MXR & BOSS pedal EQ's

    This is an easy one. I'd like to replace the MXR 10-band EQ in my pedal chain with the Kemper's Graphic EQ, except the center frequencies & Q's don't match. Another common standard would be the BOSS 7-band EQ. Most guitar pedal EQ's adhere to the layout of one or the other, making the Kemper Graphic EQ a bit of an oddball that doesn't translate well.


    Since the MXR KFK 10-band is the one I use most, I put it on the bench and and measured it last night. A fair approximation would be: (Center Frequency / Filter type / Q)


    31.3Hz Lo Shelf 14.5Q
    60.0 Bell 2.0
    130 Bell 1.0
    250 Bell 1.0
    500 Bell 1.0
    1K Bell 1.2
    2K Bell 1.2
    4K Bell 1.4
    8K Bell 1.4
    16K Hi Shelf 12.0


    The boost/cut is silkscreened to read +/- 12dB, but the max cuts in practice actually vary a bit, from +/- 9.3dB all the way to 14.7dB on my unit.


    Seems like an easy thing to do - it would certainly simply things for people with already dialed-in setups!


    -djh

  • TC electronic mimiq doubler

    Tandrin,


    I preordered my Doubler a month in advance and got it recently - at the time, the v1.1 firmware wasn't out, but I definitely noticed the filter artifacts you were talking about in Dub 2 & Dub 3 mode. Very odd, it sounded like a sample-and-hold filter kicking in randomly on sustained chords. Dub 1 sounded -grrreaaat-, I thought - worth the price of the pedal - but I wanted to reserve judgement on Dub 2 & Dub 3 until after updating the firmware.


    Sure 'nuff, from the changelog:


    "Mimiq DoublerChanges in version 1.1.00
    - default settings have been retuned to minimize possible combfilter artifacts when used in mono with 2 or 3 voice mode"


    That said, I -did- hear the sample & hold effect during my brief audition in Dub 3 mode after updating the firmware tonight. It's still there, just not as often perhaps? As before, it's a random thing. Also, did you notice whether the quality of the effect changed or not? I feel like "Dub 1" is absolutely compelling on the 1.0 firmware, but less so on 1.1. Maybe I need to get some sleep...


    The delay you're seeing in the right channel is by design - it's a random delay, 10-18mS with the "Tightness" knob full counterclockwise and 32-50mS at max.


    I'm also wondering about Dub 2 mode - the manual is vague, but in the TC demo video it's supposed to be dry in the middle, with two new doubles panned hard left & right. What I'm seeing at the waveform level though, is both doubles ending up in the left channel only (it's possible this may change with wet/dry knobs, but I haven't investigated this.) Dub 3 mode works as you'd think - one guitar in -> two on the left and two on the right.


    Still no idea what actually happens when you plug a second guitar into the second input. The manual is completely mute on what the signal flow diagram is there, for all of the dub modes.


    In Dub 1 mode you can change the L/R balance to taste using the wet & dry knobs. This affects the balance in the other two modes as well - somehow. Need to experiment.


    The last page of the online .PDF manual (which is new - I bet yours didn't come with a printed manual) shows the FCC logo approving the pedal's compliance to... Behringer! :D WTF.


    -djh