A Simple Eq is not mostly adequate enough to do a transformation, you'd end up using all 4 slots with eqs and yet be wanting for more eq.
an IR (impulse response / Convolution) methodology is much more feasible however having said that there are certain aspects that one needs to address that has mostly prevented mass production of such devices).
A Major One of them is a a consistent base (source) profile. Since Each user has a different guitar / pickup, this variance base profile opens a can of worms. Companies Such as Line 6 (Variax) and Roland (VG) have addressed that by having a consistent base. They know the guitar and the pickups they are using thus they can mass produce the products with consistent results for the user base. I haven't read their tech papers so I can't comment on exactly how or what they are doing (complete modelling or some hybrid DSP techniques).
I myself tested some IRs with Kemper (through a Hardware IR loader (Nux Cerberus/NUX mini IR loader ...) in first slot and the results can be very promising once you get the base profiles for your guitar and target guitar sorted out. I liked some acoustic conversions.
So anyone wanting to go this route, here are few things to try IIRC.
- Profile your guitars:
- Create a small D.I recording of the pickup while Slowly playing open E chord and few other notes/strings to capture sonic profile of your own guitar and save as wav.
- Repeat above for the target guitar and pickup.
- Build The Transformation EQ Profile
- Use a Eq Matching Plugin to generate a matching EQ curve. (logic match eq, Voxengo CurveEq spectrum matching).
- Refine this eq curve so that your Source Guitar through this Eq matches as closely to the target.
- IR profile this EQ
- Use IR creating tools to create an impulse response for this eq profile.
- Deconvolve the profile to get the resultant IR.
- : Apply the IR Profile
- Load the IR profile in the first stomp slot with external loop and IR pedal. ( I do not recommend connecting the guitar directly to IR hardware pedal unless you are using active pickups or the pedal has high impedance input.
- Alternatively you can bring your computer audio interface into the slot be connecting the send to audio interface input (say in 3) and taking its output say (out3) and feeding into Kemper return.
Now this maybe good enough if you don't need to buy any external gear to get this done, but if you are going to be spending on it along with investing a lot of hours, Buying a Line-6 Variax or a Roland G-5 for about $1000-$1500 USD does not seem that bad in economic sense.
Btw the above procedure is same if you want to capture the tonal character (eq) of a OD/DIST/Mic/Console.. or pedal that you own with obvious limitations.
~amit
(Bass also half step down would need a BIGGER gauge
, or a setup
)
