For The Recording Guys-KPA & Tracking w/Plug Ins

Hi studio66 I mainly have my KPA running through waves SSL channel along with some tape saturation Kramer tape for me. The KPA sounds great on its own but sometimes I like to sweeten it just that little bit with these plugs

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Quote from studio66

Anyone tracking with plug ins or having your KPA go through anything before it prints?

Most likely a stupid question but its been playing on my mind lately...Thanks!

I use plugins a lot but I treat the KPA just like I have been doing a real amp for all the years. I would record pretty much dry and use EQ, compression, reverb, delay later on during the mixing process if I need to.

I would refrain from using EQ for tracking because you only know which frequencies you want to cut or boost much later down the line. It depends on how you mix your rhythm section and other stuff you have going on in your song. You also wouldn't want to much compression for distorted sounds as they are compressed anyway and you have not much dynamics to tame (clean sounds are completely different in that regard). It can be great to add a bit of compression with something like a 1176 or a LA3A even with highly distorted tracks just for the sake of the tone but as with EQ I would do that at a later stage during mixdown when you know what you want.

Of course there are always exceptions from the rules but unless you know exactely what you want from a guitar track I wouldn't print the takes with EQ and comp. Otherwise you might find yourself trying to undo later what you did at record stage.

I have an Apollo quad. I much prefer the neutral sound from the Kemper without any UAD2 plugins. Part of that is that for me any EQ or other effects I'd rather add after tracking as the way I work that's part of the mixing process, the other part is that the the UAD2 plugins themselves are nothing to write home about, just more bog standard digital FX, they'd only subtract from the sound quality.

I don't know what your financial situation is like. If a new interface is a no brainer to you, well then go for it but other than that I wouldn't go for a new interface because of the ability to track with plug ins. the uad plug ins are certainly good but if you get the sound right in the first place - choosing the right rig, setting the tone stack right, then you don't need some high end eq plug ins or whatever for tracking. You might wanna spend the money for monitors for example or simply invest in the weakest link of your recording chain

Very rarely track with eq/compressors (hardware or software) unless the player isn't very good.

Kemper naked is the way to go, but those UAD interfaces are great for working the result into a mix.

Quote from jamesnorth

Very rarely track with eq/compressors (hardware or software) unless the player isn't very good.

Kemper naked is the way to go, but those UAD interfaces are great for working the result into a mix.

^this is good advice.

I always go nakid as possible because its the fundamental tone I seek. - I always find a tone thats 90% what im after at tracking, the rest of the 10% is sculpting this to shape the mix and blend in well.
if you start to use plugs at tracking, then you end up with a over processed tone at the end result....

However.. if you insist on tracking with plugs/hardware the you can track a guide guitar first. get the track mixed. then go ahead and track the final guitars using whatever methods work for you.

having said that.. I always track through hardware units on my patch bay.

Kemper>Vertigo VSC>Massive Passive>Patchbay>Neve Genysis>Converters>DAW.. although I disabled the units. im just running via them as its the way I have mine setup.

Then at mix time, I simply adjust the controls on the units, then re-print the track.