Amp Profiling Seems To Be An Artform

    I have hit a streak were I cannot find any usable rigs from Rig Manager. Everything I download sounds super overblown. Are there some secrets to tweaking the sounds after you've downloaded them? Should I be adjusting input/output, etc? There have been VERY few rigs I've downloaded that actually sound good.


    I feel like some of these are just the result of poor profiling. When people profile the amps do they mic them up through a mixer (mic pre's, etc) or do they just pop a mic directly into the Kemper, crank the reference amp and go?


    Am I just missing something?

    I only tried profiling a couple of times and it was almost 2 years ago (when I first got the Kemper). I wasn't very good at it and consequently the profiles did not go on the Rig Exchange.


    Unfortunately, not everyone is so discerning which means that you have to kiss quite a few frogs on the Rig Exchange before you find your prince :)


    I just noticed you also posted about your pickups being high output in another thread - it might be worth watching the recent videos that Kemper have posted regarding clean sense etc. just in case they are upsetting things.

    As you have high output pickups, I'm guessing you tend to like things pretty heavy. I'm not a super high gain player so I'm not the best judge of where to look but for my taste / pickups I like the DJEMass, LasseLammert and Deadlightstudios profiles on the Rig Exchange for starters if I'm in a heavy mood. It's also worth checking that you have all the factory content / rigpacks (the Ace rigpack might be worth a look if you don't have it - it's on the Kemper support page for free).


    If you're willing to go commercial, for high gain stuff Gregor seems to have a lot of fans here (Sinmix). For cleans through to fairly heavy, Amp Factory, MBritt, Soundside, Top Jimmy, several others now too.....

    OTOH, if you "cannot find any usable rigs from Rig Manager" there might be something wrong in your setup or in your connections. Sorry if the following sounds obvious to you :)


    How does the Profiler sound when you connect HP or monitors to it directly?
    Have you checked you're not clipping the Profiler's input and output? Have you checked your output's EQ is flat?
    Have you checked there's nothing locked?
    Disable all the fx and lock them, then browse through the rigs: same issue?


    :)

    "Amp Profiling Seems To Be An Artform"


    micing an amp is a artform.


    i have some experience micing amps and already did a few hundreds profiles myself , and learned a lot doing it.


    theres no "magic" formula , imho.


    too much variables envolved , mic position , amp, guitar used and personal taste :D

    Yeah I would agree micing the amp is a HUGE part of the equation. I've heard/used some brilliant free profiles (as well as commercial) and many were done with no fancy mic pre's or special outboard gear. Many have me catching my head wondering who in the world would actually go out of their way to create "that" sound.

    Quote from MathiasUlrick

    I was able to get a my hands on a few from Sinmix and TAF and I have the same problem with them just having overblown freqs and sound "clip-ish".


    make sure your Clean Sens and Distortion Sense parameters (INPUT section) are set 'normally' - by that I mean 0dB
    how do the INPUT and OUTPUT Leds react?


    make sure the Profiler is not pushing the Scarlet inputs to hard, that could be a source of unpleasant distortion.
    Connect the headphones directly to the Profiler.
    Does that help?


    also the speakers seem to be large computer speakers, and not exactly studio monitors, could be a bottleneck.

    Quote from viabcroce

    OTOH, if you "cannot find any usable rigs from Rig Manager" there might be something wrong in your setup or in your connections. Sorry if the following sounds obvious to you :)


    How does the Profiler sound when you connect HP or monitors to it directly?
    Have you checked you're not clipping the Profiler's input and output? Have you checked your output's EQ is flat?
    Have you checked there's nothing locked?
    Disable all the fx and lock them, then browse through the rigs: same issue?


    :)


    Some of the profiles are quite good. It just seems that "most" of them are really bad. Most of them have some really weird spiky high end or some overblown frequency that I have to assume is due to the way it was profiled.

    Quote from DonPetersen

    make sure your Clean Sens and Distortion Sense parameters (INPUT section) are set 'normally' - by that I mean 0dB
    how do the INPUT and OUTPUT Leds react?


    make sure the Profiler is not pushing the Scarlet inputs to hard, that could be a source of unpleasant distortion.
    Connect the headphones directly to the Profiler.
    Does that help?


    also the speakers seem to be large computer speakers, and not exactly studio monitors, could be a bottleneck.


    The monitors I have are studio monitors. Granted, they aren't high end but they have sounded great with other units (POD X3, POD HD PRO). The pair I have are the MAudio AV40. Also I have the Sennheiser HD 280 headphones which sound fantastic with every other unit I've used.


    I've said this many time but I'll say it again. It seems to be an issue with the quality of the profiles and not the unit itself. Finding good profiles on Rig Exchange and Rig Manager is like finding a diamond in the rough. I have noticed with some that the gain is cranked to max by default and if you back it off a little it seems to make the profile sound a little better. Not always the case.


    As far as adjusting the input and output gain I'm not really sure about how to do that.


    I keep the input on the Scarlet well within acceptable levels, it isn't even close to pushing orange, let alone red.


    I know that there is no way for you guys to know my level of understanding on these issue but I have been using modelling amps since 1999. I have been recording my own music for going on 10 years now so I have a lot of experience in that area as well. I don't claim to be the best recording engineer on the planet but I can hold my own, listen to my soundcloud.


    Thanks for the input though I will continue to try things. I really do think that there are just a LOT of bad profiles out there. Though I have been trying some of the 5.0 rated profiles and I find them to be not all that good either. The main profile I use is Keith Merrow's 5150 with Till's Vintage Recto cab. I pop the green scream and a comp on it with some post eq and that is pretty nice. I would just like to find a little more variation.


    I also would like to know if there are any other pedals I can be substituting for the Green Scream to get some interesting tones?

    hi matt if you have overdrive pedals you can use them in front of kemper they sound great like this also the better the cab the better it sounds i use to use tills cabs till i bought sinmix ,s producer pack his cabs sound sick i saw a video of steve stevens using his freidman amp with too notes torpedo with sinmixs cab peace

    Quote from MathiasUlrick

    Also my Clean and Distortion Sens are at 0 right now.


    Many rigs are created to sound good with low and medium output pickups. If the rigs have too much gain (or more gain than you hear in sound clips of the rigs), try turning the distortion sense down.


    I have distortion sense set to 0 when I use a vintage output strat.


    I set it to -4 with my PRS and Les Paul


    With my '80s high output pickup guitars, I have it set it to -7.