Posts by Alfahdj

The secret to mixing with HPs is in having a clear speaker reference from the beginning and having multiple HPs. I do most of my mixing and mastering with HPs, they are my most comfortable tools, I know them since a decade ago (some of them) So I know what to expect afterwards.

For starters you have to choose your weapons correctly, I for example use K701, M50s, DT880 pro and DT770 pro. I get all the info I need for mastering with those, as I understand quite well the profile of them all. Once the track is solid on 3 out of the 4, is ready for small tweakings, and I just test it on the car stereo, earbuds, tv speakers and so on so forth.

For getting to that point, I had to understand Mid frequencies positioning and how it beheaved on the phones ABing with speakers in a studio. Afterwards, I just use my HPs for mixing. I have studio monitors, but at home I do most of my mastering at night, so no choice there.

Quote from Ingolf

Having considered all the above points I put the QC on sale and got more for it than I paid (due to a 200.- Euro price increase since it hit the market).

Sold it to a guy who is an Axe-Fx III owner who just wanted to know what all the fuzz is about and who wants to be able to take part in all the gear talk.

I hope you find this useful.

Yeah, I got it lent to me from a friend, but I would never pay 1600+ euro to be able to take part in the gear talk jajaja unless I have a Youtube channel of sorts, but it is too expensive for my budget (I do have a budget per year to spend on GAS)

Quote from Ruefus

Sometimes, if you’ve got nothing nice to say….neither should contribute. This isn’t the a place for calling each other out.

If you’re going to post an opinion on a public forum - expect strong opposing views. Especially from someone like Gearjocke, who’s been in this forum for nearly a decade.

My thought is this: If I need an eq front and back for a particular profile……I find an entirely different profile that doesn’t.

We just need to agree to disagree then, from a tone design perspective, cutting one or two spike frequencies from your guitar or your amp does not change the whole character of it, it just polishes rough edges. Then again, there are people who would preffer to actually change amp, or cabinet , but once I find a profile that "gets it", for me is about polishing the sound in it, in a matchless amp is cutting a nice happy spike on the upper 1.5kHz at least 2 decibels normally.

Its all about approach, for me 4 pre, 4 post is really tight, it helps a lot if you got pedals laying around.

Quote from JoshuaL1

who the hell are you?

show us some vids or sample of what you can get with your magical premium ears and let’s talk again please.

Yeah bro, my point before goes for you too, this not about confronting anyone, its about respecting each other, I can concede you have a point, and gearjocke might have it too, but agression is not a valid answer.

Into the discussion with this:

We can look at it from these different outlooks:

1.- Technical standpoint: As mentioned before, hard rock has a simpler 4/4 structure (with rare exceptions) with lyrics depicting mundane topics more close to the rock and roll era they come from, Heavy metal has a more intricate structure (there are weird and unwieldy time signatures) with a melodic focus in the lyrics, the agressivity on the music is also perceived because of a very different selection of instruments (specially drums and guitars), and the low end in general is fuller and more in your guts.

2.- Historical background: Hard Rock is a side-evolution of what we now consider classic rock, while heavy metal evolved from the ideas what late 60s and 70s metal brought to the table, even before than metal became mainstream

3.- Sound and popular opinion: It is what the general consensus say it is, so you can go to spotify or your favorite streaming device, get some playlist of both genre and taste the potential diferences. There are very clear differences, I for one had the same question about soft rock and 80s pop, because to me, soft rock sounded to pop.

Quote from GearJocke

Need more blocks? Do a sound really need that much? More is better? Honestly if you can't the sound you like with 4 at the most I doubt your ears.

I definitely find your comment out of place, remember every person has a way to approach tone-shapping, I fill up slots pretty fast with at least 2 EQ in the chain (one pre and one post for taming freq problems in guitar and amp respectively), an overdrive, delay, compresor and fuzz pre amp, and the classic reverb slot, leaving me just 1 slot to experiment if I want to go dreamy with lets say, a phaser.

There is a point to be made where kemper puts limitations, which you can or not find inspiring, specially when you have a set workflow. There are no wrong opinions when you are asking back for opinion and not attacking anyone.

Just allow me to close my participation with this:

Neural has everything they need for a killer unit, and in theory QC is that unit. It was their archetype Plini that made me want to try the QC in the end, not the marketing (which to this day sounds ridiculous and misleading to me), nor the interface or design.

Sound its of top importance. I did tried plini against several models, and nothing felt as close in dynamics, that part of the QC felt really underwhelming, and captures felt like a rushed feature with so few flexibility (for Gds sake, theres is barely 1 page worth in the manual explaining the feature).

They produce quality material, and the QC its a great platform, I just hope it evolves into what it deserves to be. And then maybe I can GAS about it again.

Quote from drew_fx

Did anyone else get a QC and end up not bonding with it?

As I said it before, I had the QC with me for a week, mind you it was not mine but a friend that has a big store in Guadalajara City. First it was really early after released, and second I was just one week under pandemic with it, so all the testing was at my home studio and had no chance for live usage.

I might repeat myself, but the QC has some more high end than the kemper, and the High end gives it a HiFi´ish tone, which I guess some might confuse with clarity of the amp. I am pretty sure it was not there on the amp recording, its not there in the kemper, but was always there in the QC. That is what took me off from it (on QC defense, Kemper is still temperamental while getting the bass-mid section right)

The second thing that I have no real way to mess with the amp (capture) as the kemper does, and that for me was the dealbreaker. Yes, it might be great at capturing, but once you feel the need to tweak down or up anything, you got only basic EQ controls. Definition? nope. Pick? nope. Tube shape/bias? nope. Clarity? Nope. Compression? Nope. And so on so forth.

Effects? Subpar, If I had to choose, the king here is Fractal, seconded by Line6/Kemper, third place is QC.

Those are my reactions, that of course might change with time and updates, but it has been 1 year, and no real progress, so I dont keep my hopes up.

Quote from GearJocke

Is the demand big enough? Is the risk worth it? The kemper team is after all a small team and it's time and money consuming building something new and they still have to do their usual job or probably need to hire more staff. I know this has been asked about before about a smaller unit but it seems ppl seems to forget valid questions like this. It's not just making something new and hoping for the best and hope guitarists will buy the product. It doesn't work like that.

This sounds like the same arguments everybody gave when people started asking for what bassically is the stage today, or the powered kabinet, or the rig manager editor....

Quote from Alienator

Well then, here is your chance: I've asked the developers and they just replied. You can buy this unit directly for 1800 Euros in the black version. The red one is a little more. So, chances are this unit really exists and works in its own way - whatever it may be...

Well, I cant still get over the fact that the name reminds me to a special edition of Mortal Kombat. 1800 is in the range of boutique or and pro harware, so we will see. Good to know they are real and hopefuly not bait´n´run. Again, competition is GOOD for everyone. Kemper started pretty humble and look at them now.

Quote from Roeffel

Thought it was just an EQ matching thing, nothing is fed into the amp as is done with the kemper and QC.

Raf

It is an step up from EQing, it does adjust internal amp parameters (bias and whatnot) to try and match the sound is receiving. Still no feedback loop like in kemper for example.

Quote from StefanErtle

Sorry cannot help myself… if Thomann sells them I am gonna try it but do not understand why and how an unknown company suddenly pops up. Additionally the Name of the company seems to be out of mind…

MK ultra was the CIA mind control program from old, and that being Italian, lol

You are right, this is shady as heck.

Quote from Alienator

If you look closely you will notice 4 preamp tubes and 4 Power tubes. The amp signal is fully analog an tube driven, except the fx. My Italian is really bad but if I understood correctly, this guy claims that this thing can do a fully analog capture/profile - or let's better say the result of the capture is a fully analog recreation of the sound of the captured amp. I don't understand if and how this is even possible but if it is, this is something really totally new on the market.

Here is the description in English: http://www.mkultra.it/

"The natural and inimitable sound of a real tube amp is managed by a digital processor without adding compromises." Sounds to me that this is digital processing, pure logic dictates that there is not a tube that can imitate any other tube, not even interactions. The closest thing to that was the waza amp, but it was not a tube, tough it was an analog circuit.

"E. A. S. P. by nature removes all compromises and artifacts found in digital amp simulation. All critical operations are performed by real tubes" This is just marketing lingo, the processing is digital, the amplification is analog (which is the "critical" part they are telling).

And regarding to the tubes, you might be right, there are some small most likely preamp tubes, but going back to the concept of it being "analog modeling", I dont think so, analog can not "model" things, you can process it and then amplify, but to make the tubes "respond" the way other tubes do, I would be looking for a world class pattent or at least a patent pending label somewhere.

Dont get me wrong, competition is good, but since Quad cortex I learnt to not trust marketing, just hear the thing and talk yourself out of the doubt.

Quote from StefanErtle

My first reaction was that someone put a Kemper inside an amp that looked like a tube head. Especially the knob on the right of that magic newbie. Maybe I am wrong.

nah, I dont think they would have the guts to get sued hard by Kemper, most likely it is another "capture" method, and the power section is tubes, if you check closely it does not have preamp tubes. My guess is it is a feedback A/B algorythm, around the lines of kemper, with a power amp stacked in. Nothing new, nothing impressive, and by that mean, both quad cortex and kemper right now are nothing new, nothing impressive. It looks like now everybody will be making a "capture" option for their devices. I believe the first one might be line 6, they have hell ton of resources to do it.

Quote from CamperBollie

I'm used to my Friedman Smallbox 50 through a 1x12" open back. Anything else is too big for my flat, car (got a huge dog crate in my trunk), rehearsal room, etc. So the Kabinet's form factor is very attractive. But my tendency goes more and more towards getting all the components and be a bit more flexible that way.

I am a lego mind guy, so having the oportunity to make anything and everything modular is a big plus for me. Really you cant go wrong with any option.

Quote from CamperBollie

Yeah, I do have technical experience and understanding. I could even assemble and make it safe according to current standards. The issue is: I don't have a degree in that field and if my cab starts burning for whatever reason, insurance will deny paying for it. Don't wanna risk anything there. But thanks for your opinion on different alternatives. The PS170 really looks like an option, but buying that new plus a Kabinet or even just the Kone takes me close to the price of the Powered Kabinet, making it an option again. It's not easy to come to a decision.

Allow me to add that while the kone is quite impressive, there is a mojo to having a wall of cabs in your studio to choose from, if anything, the kones feel different than peak performance greenbacks bringing it on, the imprint goes close (not my favorite imprint) but the GBs feel better, more spl (air moved) and more focused. I also want a powered kabinet, but I like the tighter bass of 212s, thats why I normally play one with kones on it. I would say it is the same if you are more into 412, the powercab will sound sterile or tiny. Just things to consider if you decide on going for the the whole package or get everything separated.

Quote from CamperBollie

That is a very valuable information, as I considered ordering the icepower module and assemble it myself. But actually, that's the last thing I'd like to do, if there are better, ready-made alternatives. Especially as one is dealing with mains power here.

I have electronics instruction and technical experience, for me it was pretty easy to do, but you should consider the configuration for bridged mode changes a bit. If you have almost not knowledge, it is better to let someone else do it for you or just buy something integrated. For the record, the powerstage 170 is a 50ASX2 module bridged version with a fan, a unbalanced to balanced converted, and a small tone stack, in a very sturdy and nice case. Yes, it cost 3 or 4 times the module (if you can get it, they are scarse) but it is worth it if you really want a solid solution. BTW the power stage 200 sounds really nice too.

Mi options in no real order:

PS 170 (you might find one used by now)

PS 200 (Most likely new but nice feature upgrades from the 170)

BAM200 (lower treble and bass a bit and crank mid 3/4 of the way and sounds like a PS170, it is for bass but just the tone stack)

Hotone Loudster (small and reliable, on the lower power side, so more for small gigs and rehearsal)

EH Magnum 44 (Again small and reliable, but also in the lower power side and a bit more expensive than the hotone)

That is what I can recommend. Any question and I would be glad to comply.

Quote from CamperBollie

I'm thinking about doing almost the same: Powering the Kabinet with the GPA-100. Still, I wonder how the GPA-100 compares to the class-d amp in the Powered Kabinet.

I had mixed results with HB electronics before, I dont have the GPA-100, but if something comes to my mind, HB products are a good bang for the buck, and not really road worthy, good at home and maybe practice.

Right now I am rocking a BAM200 with a 212 with kones, working wornderful so far. I also had the PS170 but sold it, and still hace a 125ASX2 icepower amp I assembled. If anything, the BAM when configured flat, sounds almost the same as my icepower amp, just a tad more full and less brittle (more harmonics and less treble) which is fine for my liking.

Clapton is passed the "one-guitar-one-amp rodeo" days, I bet he had a big amount of gear going around, so all his secondary sets might be on the kemper. That, or its a second guitar´s rig for the other in the band.

Quote from Hoki Toki

It has already been done ..... Many times

Cheers !

Touché jajajajajaja