Found my Mesa Mark IIC+/Mark III tone

Wanted everyone to know I found the most awesome tone yet on my Kemper. I encourage you to try it!!!!

Thanks to Pete Turley for his awesome Mesa/Boogie Quad profiles. I used the Lead profile from the free pack (http://petesprofiles.weebly.com/free-profiles.html). I'll be buying the rest soon! ...As well as those Ecstasy's!!

These are DI profiles, but that doesn't mean you have to use a real power amp and cab. I paired the profile with JEVO's ENGL Pro V30 4x12 cab profile from his ENGL Savage Ch. 4 rig (http://www.kemper-amps.com/api…qrhzWIkrInSoqI6gZv8?.kipr). I tried a few different ones out, but I'm convinced this cab is the best all-purpose V30 4x12 cab there is. And it's free!!!! I also tried two of the Rectifier cabs from Lasse Lammert's packs, and they were also good, but seemed to be a bit more scooped. They had more action in the high-end, but lacked the body and midrange creaminess I was going for. I tried a few of Till's Rectos (55, 59, 66), but I still think the JEVO ENGL Pro cab is best.

The first thing I noticed was that something was NOT right. Playing a single note on the G, B, or E strings high up the fretboard was not producing a smooth, singing note. It sounded a bit harsh and broken up. WTF!?!?! I added a Studio EQ in front the stack section to try to clean it up with pre-EQ. After 20 minutes, nothing was working. Ok, plan B. Let's check out the amp profile parameters. Definition at 10?!?!?!?! Why do so many profiles have the Definition maxed out? Is this the author's doing, or a bug in the profiling process? I understand it's a DI, but I see this happen way too much.

In any case, it's not accurate. I used to own a Quad going into a Simul 2:95 into a H&K 4x12, and it just sang. Smooth as can be, but still tight, djenty, and with some bite. Sure enough, I back down Definition to around 6 and there it is. I actually even back off all the pre-EQ I did (basically just reduce some of the muddy bass distortion). It's magical. There's my Quad tone, but no more 7 spaces worth of rack gear without a rack sitting on top of a 90 lb 4x12. I got it on my desk and in my headphones. TBH, it might be still a bit more aggressive than the real thing. I may back off Definition even further, and maybe add a little power sag.

Tonestack I boost mids and cut presence. Post EQ I cut a small notch at 750 HZ, use the low shelf to cut off the super flubby bass, then boost around 1.6 kHZ and use the high shelf to dial down any remaining excessive highs. Add Delay and Reverb. Instant Petrucci goodness. Change the EQ, and you can get old Metallica.

So where's the freaking clips? Coming soon you impatient @#$#@$@#s

lol - ok fine, here's one:
https://soundcloud.com/meambobbo/kemper-pt-quad-demo

I remember playing that one, but I never tried to start really dialing in it. I do remember it sounding very nice.

I cant post the complete rig - that would be a violation of Pete's license, even though its a free profile (he likes to maintain a download count so he can gauge interest in his profiles). I CAN make a rig with the amp set to a dummy factory profile, and you can download pete's profile then substitute it in yourself. Im sure JEVO doesnt mind if i repost his cab profile, but im gonna pm him to make sure.

http://foobazaar.com/kemper/boogie_iic+/

readme.txt:
The accompanying .kipr file was made from a tweaked version of Pete Turley's free Mesa/Boogie Quad profile, which you can find on his website: petesprofiles.weebly.com . Since he requests individuals not to share his profiles, I have substituted the amp profile from DJEMASS's Boogie IIC+ rig, available on the kemper rig exchange: http://www.kemper-amps.com/sharerigs .

I recommend downloading Pete's Quad profile, saving the amp profile as a preset, then loading it onto this patch instead of DJEMASS's profile - I seem to prefer Pete's. However, I also wanted to try to get them as close as possible. So that's why there are two EQ's on this patch. Slot B fattens up DJEMASS's profile a bit, while Slot C is the settings I use for Pete's Quad profile, that give it more bite and less mud in the bass.

For both DJEMASS and Pete's profiles, I changed all the amp profile settings to their defaults (Shape 3.3 and everything else at 0), and changed Definition to 6.1 on Pete's Quad and I think 6.3 on DJEMASS's IIC+.

I use JEVO's ENGL Pro V30 4x12 cab which I got from his Savage Ch 4 rig on the Kemper rig exchange.

I am using a EBMM JPM with CL/LF pickups, and I'm shooting for a Petrucci-esque tone, particularly his A Dramatic Turn of Events leads.

...

One more note: I've tweaked a bit more since posting the clip above. The tone now is much fatter, but if you don't like that, just use more presence, and less mids/treble.

I also wanted to let everyone know that Pete is currently having a sale on his Quad profiles - $10 for the whole set of 60!!!!

I haven't had the chance to import them, let alone start playing on them, but I can remember dialing in all those settings from the manual, so it's gonna be a sweet nostalgia fest.

it kind of makes a good case study in pre-EQ. The tones between Pete's Quad and DJEMASS's IIC+ are very similar once EQ'ed each their own way, but without any pre-EQ, the tones are clearly quite different.