Posts by Valtiel

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Thanks very much for the feedback! Everything you mentioned was exactly what I was hoping/going for with these bundles and how they are presented. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything as i'd be happy to provide any details you may want!

    All the Vintage American amps were generously loaned to me by a good friend and old co-worker who was a meticulous private collector. He used to own a small high end music shop in downtown Campbell California that he told me was largely a means for him to acquire choice vintage pieces, most of which were old Fenders. Among them was also a 1964 Fender Deluxe which ended up conspicuously absent from my packs because I believe there was something wrong with it. Twice I tried micing it up and profiling only to consistently get poor results; honky and harsh while also having no top end clarity at all. Quite disappointing given how much the Deluxe is the face of vintage Fender amps for most people. Everything else turned out great I think with the 64' Vibrolux easily being my favorite, that amp was magic! The 1970 Superlead was loaned to me by another co-worker, a vintage Marshall purist who kept it stock and kept it around for collector value as he rarely played it anymore. It smelled like cigarette smoke and sounded like heaven, definitely lucky to have had access to that one!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!


    Thank you for the feedback. I have seen other products marketed as "mix ready" but none that actually went to the lengths that I went to actually make them such. One my end it was months of work using knowledge that most people would have to pay a reasonable amount for, so that is how *I* justify the current prices anyway. I understand if other people do not see the value in that, but in that case there profiles are not for them.


    Quote from Bluezzmoaner

    Had the chance to play with the tweed amps for almost half a day. Still not impressed with the refined profiles but...enhancing direct mix (push the amp button to get there) really makes them come alive. Give them at least 3.5. Love how they sound now.

    Overall the pricing is too high compared with other vendors (bought a Tone Mister -Fender Tone Master- package with a 'this weekend' discount for half the price), but the tweed package gives you 4 amps for about 27 euro. Can't complain about that.

    Thank you for the support! In the case of the refined profiles, if you are playing through a cabinet then I can see how they would have much less value for you. The variable that an additional enclosure + the color of the speaker can potentially negate a decent amount of the benefits of those profiles as they are meant for direct recording/direct live sound. I'm glad you've found a way to make them work for you though!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Hey there! Sorry for being out of touch, the day job has been taking all my time.

    These are the profile packs I have been speaking of available on Reverb now. The descriptions are currently missing the text explaining the "Refined" profiles and what makes them different from the standard, raw ones. That will be added soon. I feel that the addition of these justifies the higher price but I will take the feedback into consideration as these listings are still a work in progress. There is an "Everything" pack as well that may have not been listed yet, stay tuned!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Quote from dB Cooper

    You've got some really choice tones in there. Keep us posted when the packs will be available. Great playing!

    Thank ya sir! I appreciate the feedback. All of the information and materials are in the hands on the vendor and now that NAMM is over I hope to have an update very soon!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Quote from danielkraai

    Any update on this? Sound clips sound amazing!

    Almost there, the vendor I was working with had an employee change that meant my contact person switched and I had to reestablish comms. That has been done and I expect things to be rolling soon. Thanks for the compliment as well!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Quote from Ibot39

    Valtiel How does it come, that you own / have access to so many great mics and gear? Regarding that some of the amps in the list are really loud, do you have a studio? Can't imagine you did the profiling in your living room and the neighbours around going mad with the strange noises coming out of your flat ^^


    By the way, which mic preamp (or software) did you use? EDIT: Just noticed that you kind of answered the question. But there are dual miced rigs as well?


    Will there be different cab options with each amp? And did you make studio or merged profiles?


    I used to work at a decent sized guitar shop in my hometown, I managed online sales and did quite a bit of repair. I had access to quite a bit of gear as a result since the shop would buy and sell used gear. The store had a separate building with a ground floor that used to be a studio that was converted into work space that I would use for profiling. I'd come in on my off days and spend the entire day profiling an amp with my setup. I could get as loud as I wanted since the building was separate and empty on the weekends. Both vintage Marshalls were at one time going through my Egnater 4x12 + the Orange 2x12 at full volume, quite an experience to say the least!

    I own all the cabinets, speakers, and mics. The amps were largely borrowed from fellow musicians I know and/or the shop itself. Lots of big time collectors and gear heads around that old shop. I considered renting other amps but it felt slightly unethical so I never actually did it. None of this would have been possible if I wasn't doing this in a purpose built studio space, especially with those old Marshalls, the Dual Dark 100, and the Mark IIc+ at volume, those amps could level an apartment complex!

    Regarding what would be made available; most of the heads were profiled with multiple speakers and cabinets. I mixed and matched until I found the combos I liked best. Sometimes only one cabinet/speaker was working for me and other times the amps played nice with a bunch of them. All profiles are single mic'd and are studio profiles. My focus was more towards recording but obviously they are just as usable live, just maybe not to everyone's liking without being merged profiles. I setup the mics in a multi-mic fashion but captured each individually instead of combining them. I found that locking in the blend of two or more mics is an incredibly personal and context sensitive thing that I would rather just put in the extra time to make them available separately so they can be tracked as such and blended to the engineer's/player's taste. Every pack utilizes the Royer 121, 90% of them also utilize the SM57 TAB and the others are sprinkled throughout as I felt they were useful. I spent months cataloging everything and making sure the metadata and accompanying .pdf material covers all the relevant details, it always bugged me that some other profiles I downloaded/purchased would have largely blank Amp/Cab/Speaker/Mic metadata so I made sure to take care of that.

    I'm also offering something else completely different (at least to my knowledge) that I will go into detail later once i've sorted more details out with how I am going to be selling these. Thank you for all the questions and suggestions though, please keep them coming as i'll be happy to answer!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Thanks for the feedback everyone! Let me weigh in on a few of your posts. :)


    1. I definitely want to do that if possible based on how they are going to be made available.
    2. I'm kicking myself for not taking more pictures during this process. Originally these were just meant for me so I wasn't as concerned with documenting them with photos. Most of the vintage Fenders belonged to a good friend of mine and he has sold half of them. Other amps were borrowed from friends etc. Hopefully this isn't too big of a deal for the general Kemper public and i'd be happy to provide lots of details (and character witnesses if necessary! lol) to verify the authenticity of these packs. I wouldn't ever dream of trying to mislead people in the way it sounds like some people are concerned about. I've updated my profile pic to show 3 of the Marshalls listed; the 70', 78' and Jubilee in a very non-earthquake safe configuration!
    3. Definitely planning on doing that as well as an "American Bundle", "British Bundle" etc etc. Thank you for mentioning that!



    Excellent idea, I had not considered a "highlights" pack but given the amount of 3rd party profile exhaustion that likely exists out there it would probably be a great idea!

    Quote from ashtweth

    Only 2 cents i have left (bought too many profiles lol) is to say if you can label it for single coils and or humbuckers that this immensely saves time and helps. :) MOST vendors profile for single coil and humbuckers and will do an equal set. (the good profilers any ways IMHO)

    I have found that this helps the most with saving time.


    Ash


    Almost all of the clips are recorded with both humbucker and single coil tones designed to show each flavor.

    Quote from dmatthews

    Beat me to it!


    The main guitar used for the clips was an Ibanez AT100 Andy Timmons signature as I felt it did the best job of showing both mid output bridge humbucker and fat single coil tones. The heavier amps were recorded with an Ibanez RG7620 7-string with a DiMarzio D-Sonic in the bridge. I will consider doing a wider variety of guitars in the future though!

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Seeing as we're getting into detail, preamps used? Maybe you can add them to the first post...


    Good luck with it, Morgan!


    Thanks for the well wishes! I initially profiled through my Metric Halo preamps but found that any minor difference that I thought I was hearing was nulled by even tiny mic placement adjustments, so I decided not to use them. Thankfully I did not need the extra gain for the Royer 121 since I was close micing.

  • [K&A Profiles] Introduction!

    Hi everyone! Over the last year I have been working on putting together a collection of Profile Packs to make available to the public. These profile packs are now available directly through Reverb @ (https://reverb.com/brand/k-and-a). If you have any questions about the profiles themselves you can drop me a line through here. Anything else can go through Reverb support, thanks!

    Sound Clips:
    All clips are recorded direct with no post processing:
    https://soundcloud.com/user-404125930/sets

    Amps Profiled:

    - 1957 Fender Tremolux 5G9

    - 1960 Fender Deluxe 5E3

    - 1960 Fender Harvard 5F10

    - 1960 Fender Vibrolux 5F11
    - 1960 Fender Bassman 4x10 5F6
    - 1962 Fender Brownface Deluxe 6G3
    - 1964 Fender Princeton 6G2

    - 1965 Fender Princeton 6G2 x2

    - 1964 Fender Vibrolux

    - 1965 Fender Super Reverb

    - 1968 Fender Super Reverb

    - 1970 Marshall Superlead 100

    - 1978 Marshall Superlead 100

    - 2015 Marshall 2555x Jubilee

    - Peavey 5150 Blockletter

    - Morgan AC20 Deluxe

    - Vox AC30-6 TB

    - 1996 Matchless DC30

    - Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Rev G

    - Mesa Boogie Tremoverb

    - Mesa Boogie Mark IIc+

    - Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic
    - Orange Dual Dark 100

    - Orange TH30 Head

    - SWR California Blonde
    - Two Rock Signature Reverb

    Cabinets and Speakers used:

    - American Egnater (Mojotone) 4x12 w/ Celestion Heritage G12M Greenback speakers

    - Orange PPC 2x12 w/ Celestion Blackback G12H 75hz / Blackback G12M 55hz / Alnico Gold speakers
    - Mesa Boogie Rectifier 4x12 Slant w/ Celestion Vintage 30, Creamback H75, and G12-65 Rola speakers

    - Mesa Boogie Rectifier 2x12 w/ Celestion Vintage 30 speakers

    - Combos used with native vintage speakers.

    Microphones used:

    - Shure SM57 TAB Funkenwerk
    - Royer 121 Ribbon

    - Shure SM56

    - Shure Unidyne III 545

    - Shure Unidyne IV 548

    - Mojave MA200

    I'd love to hear feedback from you all!

    Regards, Morgan Cross
    K&A Profiles

  • BADCAT hotcat 30R Profiles here.

    Just found these via search since there does not seem to be much in regards to Bad Cat profiles out there. They sound pretty good to me! My only criticism would be that they sound a touch distant, maybe a little dark? Had you been using a traditional mic/cab method I would say it sounds like the mic is a little too far off center/too far away. Its a tough amp to capture because of its brightness for sure, it can get harsh quickly.

  • Kemper Mellotron Flutes


    Looking forward to it, especially if something this cool is what you consider a work in progress. :)

  • Choose your own Pedals.

    I'm a fan of the classics myself,


    - Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive
    - TS808, original or HW would be cool
    - The Keeley Boss SD-1 has always been a favorite
    - A transparent clean boost would be good too, like a Keeley Katana. The TC Integrated Preamp would be awesome but they're long since discontinued, (metal guys love these)
    - A good treble booster for the AC30 style amps would be great too.

  • The Amp Factory!

    Quote from Stratosphere

    hey hoth, zappledan and others who dont agree with what ive been posting about. I do agree with you about and44s freedom to do whatever he likes in this, his profiles, his time, his business. But at the same time i feel that this is the kemper forum and profile exchange section not the side business forum and sales section. And i feel i should stand up for what i hope will help us all and belieive in. Im not posting to upset anyone but to try and improve it for all. I worry that this belief that you can buy the best rather than work on your own profiles will kill the rig and profile exchange.


    I really dont want to post anymore if it will just upset the majority so I will butt out and wish you all the best including and44. It is incredibly difficult to express disagreement here without what has obviously come across as amnosity. I was wanting the best for the most rather than the few. sorry.


    I kinda look at it another way....


    For the sake of argument lets say charging for profiles is universally frowned upon. If that is the case then no one would sink any more than a very small amount of money into making them since they can't make that money back. This closes a door to a number of options simply because of cost (booking studio/engineer time, renting/buying nice mics and pres etc) and overall diminishes the potential of the end product. Now I don't know about you but I believe the Kemper has ENORMOUS potential and if it takes someone shelling out a decent amount of money to create a library of excellent profiles with top notch mics and someone who knows how to use them then I will GLADLY pay what is in reality a VERY small fee to have that in my arsenal. In the hypothetical scenario that no one is willing to pay for a profile, these profiles would simply not exist because no one in their right mind is going to drop thousands of dollars to create something to be given away for free.


    If you think its a slippery slope that leads to more people charging for their work then let them try, the market will determine whether or not it works out for them. They would need to justify the cost by providing details about WHY anyone should pay for them (mics, pres, amps, experience etc) so the barrier to entry is relatively high since the average guitar player maybe has one of those four.

  • The Amp Factory!

    Quote from shred-o-holic

    I bought the Stilleto profiles and they sound good, but what the heck do the names mean? SpecificalIy what is DM and TIM? =4, WL?? I think you should rethink your labeling process for profiles. Just my opinion....also what series is the Stiletto? I or II? It's sounds great though so thanks for the effort for sure. Always wanted a Stiletto II. :)


    Those are the pedals he used, pretty sure those have been consistent throughout his profiles (someone correct me if i'm wrong). DM is the Darkmattter, TIM is the Tim Overdrive, WL is the Whitelight.

  • The Amp Factory!

    Congrats on getting your site up! This must have been a huge endeavor so I fully understand charging to recoup some of your costs.


    One small question, you mentioned I believe in a previous post that you weren't comfortable micing/profiling high gain sounds and I definitely felt that the high gain profiles were not quite up to the very high standard you seem to have set for cleans and mid gain tones, has anything changed in that regard? If so i'll definitely be picking up the bundle......hell i'll probably get it regardless. :D

  • ...its coming soon!


    Looking forward to it!