Posts by paults

Thanks to those of you who sent PM suggestions!

Hey Hendrix experts - I'm recording a cover of Hey Joe this weekend. Do any of the profiles you've tried have that klanky attack sound?

Thanks!!

If the XLR input is quieter, a 1/4" to XLR cable from the monitor out to the XLR input might be useful.

Yes, the frequency response of the room has an influence on the sound of a distance-mic'ed profile, but, room ambience is not captured as a reverb.

The below rigs show the effect of changing Kemper cabinets, and can be downloaded from the Rig Exchange.

The first one is the amp and cabinet, as profiled, and mic'ed from a couple of meters away, with the microphone at "ear" height.

[/list]PaulTS Jubilee Marsh 2553 Marshall Jubile Marshall 2551A 4x12 PaulTS 3.00 / 5.00 December 17, 2012
miked at ear level (I used an AKG C3000 )

For the two other Rigs, I replaced the original cabinet with one from other Users or Rigs.

PaulTS Jubilee Marsh 2553 Marshall Jubile TillS 1960 011 PaulTS 3.80 / 5.00 December 17, 2012
With Tills011 cab

PaulTS Jubilee Marsh 2553 Marshall Jubile Slash Sweet PaulTS 3.50 / 5.00 December 17, 2012
With Sweet Slash cab

Sounds great! - I've always liked them, and that era's kind of alternapop. Very fun guitar music to play

Thanks for these - they have been fun to listen to, and a great way to hear profiles I might have missed.

You're welcome!

If you search for "paults" in the Rig Exchange, there are some other "synth" sounding rigs posted - they may be a starting point for your ambient synth sounds. One way to get ambient sounds is to add 100% depth reverb, and then play with the other reverb settings to push the sound farther into the background.

If the intent is a making a profile that sounds like the amp does from the listening position, this could be a good way to do it. One thought: sending a recorded guitar track through the amp might be less tiring to hear than pink/white noise.

If the idea is making a "mix ready" profile, or for recording the amp to a track, this may be a good starting point, but, post-EQ will likely be needed to clear up some low end space for bass and drums, and depending on where in the song the sound is used, a notch somewhere in the mids to allow the vocals to shine.

Quote from Armin

New guitar cabinets?
New mic's
New mic preamps?

I would say - yes - in this order.

What do you think?

The best profiles (for me) are the ones that respond to playing dynamics like the real amp does, and give me the experience of what the real amp sounds and feels like to play.

Considering what has been accomplished with cheap mixers and SM57 mics (or with a mic directly into the Kemper), I consider mic placement technique to be the most important element when profiling. If switching to someone else's cab profile of the same kind of cabinet improves the sound and feel of a profile, they likely used a more appropriate mic placement technique for that particular sound.

As a compliment to mic placement, the settings of the volume/gain/tone controls on the amplifier are also important. Most guitarists have their amp set to sound best from the position they usually hear it - pointed at their knees or waist. Few guitarists set the amp to sound good with their ear directly in front of the speaker(s).

But, if someone's technique is as good as it can get, and the amp settings are appropriate for the intended sound, what gear might improve profiles?

Mics?
If "better" is the actual sound of their amp (as opposed to the sound of their amp as heard by an SM57), a wider range microphone (like a condenser mic) can give a more tonally accurate result. But, that may not be a better profile for live or recording use. The profiles of my Jubilee that I use for gigs are a mix of an AKG condenser and an SM57 - I hear a more accurate profile of what my amp would sound like onstage than if I had just used the SM57, but the sound technician still gets more of that Shure "fit in the mix" sound than if I had just used the AKG.

Preamps?
Any subtle change in sound that may be expected from a high end preamp could also make the profile sound less like the actual amp. But, if "mix-ready" profiles are the goal, then that subtle preamp sound may be a good thing.

Cabs?
With a versatile amplifier, using different kinds of cabinets and speakers can be a great way to make additional profiles. But, If someone already has an appropriate cabinet for the amp sound they are profiling (or the amp has its own speakers), different cabinets and speakers could give them different profiles, but not necessarily better profiles. If someone is trying to make a profile with a cabinet that is a bad match for the amp, a more appropriate cab could be an improvement.

And, since you mentioned cabs - what about a better amp?
There are glorious sounding profiles of cheap and unpopular amps, so, maybe not.
But, if someone's amp doesn't give them the sound they want when they play the actual amp, a profile of that amp won't give them the sound, either.

Excellent!

Correct - when the microphone is a distance from the amp, the profile captures the tone, and dynamic response of the amp, as the microphone "hears" it, and the tonal influence that comes from the microphone being in that position, but not any time-based reverb sound from the room.

So, you won't get the "room sound" by swapping a cabinet, but you will get the benefit of the mic placement skill of the person whose cabinet you are using. And, they don't have to be made with expensive mics and high end preamps and mixing consoles in world class studios by well known to be great sounding cabinet profiles - a large number (if not the majority) of the most popular cabs for swapping were made with modest mics and an inexpensive mixer by a Kemper owner who is very talented with his mic technique.

ALWAYS start with it a little louder than you think you will need it to be. That will account for everyone else hitting things harder in front of people. If they don't end up being louder than soundcheck, you can go a little lighter on your touch, until you have a chance to turn it down. Turning down may not happen much...

"Cranked" traditionally means a non-master volume amp with all the knobs turned up all the way. That usually included all the tone controls, was mainly the volume control.

It doesn't necessarily still mean just that - it can mean any volume/gain knobs on a channel of a modern amp is turned up all the way - that may or may not include the tone controls.

"Pushed" can mean a volume boost was put in front of an amp, or it could just be a description of any method of getting a "dirtier than clean, but not a dirty/gain/distortion" sound.

Both terms mean "dirtier than clean" now, but, I agree with Vibraoce. That depends on your guitar compared to the profiler's guitar - because the term was used to describe the sound of the amp settings with the guitar of the person who did the profiling.

So......If the gain settings of two Kemper profiles are the same (of the same model and year amp, with the same tubes and bias settings), and one of the profiles is called "cranked", and the other is called "pushed", the two words mean the same kind of sound to two different people

Yes - the sound of the cabinet includes the influence of microphone technique. If you profile your amp twice, with different mic positions, you can swap one of the cabinets and the two Rigs will sound pretty much the same (the two refining sessions add a degree of difference).

Quote from Bevosss

JBL LSR305s are the bang for buck monitor now. Accurate, wide sweet spot (it has the same tweeter as the $10 000 flagship model), goes down to 43Hz flat, should fill your room without bloated fake bass.

Sweetwater has a special on for $225 pair atm if you are in the states.

Just for home use mind.

+1 for home studio monitor use. especially at the current price.

Quote from DonPetersen

a synthesizer doesn't process a signal like an amp does, it is a sound generator.

some so called guitar synths aren't technically synths, but they process the signal in a way that a synth-like tone is produced.
the Profiler has very powerful sound shaping tools that allow you to bend your guitar signal into something synthlike.

volume envelope driven filters, a ringmodulator, frequency shifter and the Analog Octaver come to mind.
combine this with volume swells, be creative and have fun.

+1

Here are some on the Rig Exchange that use the effects for synthy sounds:

Ensemble Synth pault
Muff Moog 2+ paults
TouchLayerSyn 1 paul
BassMoogTouch paults
VowelCelloDooSynth
VoxContinOrg paults
RockBeeThreeSlow pau
RockBeeThreeFast pau

You can hear examples of some of them here:

Soundcloud Playlist

Welcome back! Have you downloaded Rig Manager yet? It would be a great way to load your preferred rigs into the new box

Welcome!

I had a Tube 50 several years ago - they are extremely uncommon in the USA, but are also inexpensive, because there's no demand for them. They weren't really marketed here. It sounded like a buzzy version of a Marshall to me, so I didn't have it very long.

+1
If this was added as a new feature, the contents of the Folder could be automatically updated each time RM is launched.

A similar suggestion: An automatically updated "My Rigs" folder would be useful, too.

A more open-ended version of the idea:
Instead of creating the above dedicated folders, there could be User definable auto updated folders. When a Search is done, offer the option of saving the Search results as a new Folder - the new Folder would update the search results when Rig Manager is launched.