…… the Michael Britt Studio Profiles …. and no Im not kidding ….. and yes I know these are not proper 3.0 merged / direct profiles …… but it doesn’t matter
To explain
For the last 6 months or so, my live [ pop / rock / harder rock ] live rig is the KPA with a CLR and MB’s studio profiles ….. sounds amazing …. no new news there
Recently I had a yearning to get more of a real-guitar-cab live sound.
As amazing as the KPA + CLR + MB Profiles combo is ….it still lacks that certain something …. you know what I mean ….. that grit and grind and gut-punch that only a guitar cab can give you.
So …. I pulled out my old trusty 2 x 12 open back Celestion G12T-75 cab – it is wired to mono or L+R stereo with 3 inputs – L + R -or- mono.
Grabbed a neutral class d power amp – picked up a Harley Benton GPA400 – super cheap but super loud and super flat and clean.
Bought some excellent / amazing direct commercial profiles ...... result ….. sounded great -but- not quite what I was hoping for ... soemthing didnt feel quite right.
As a %100 total long shot, in a “what the hey” kind of moment, I loaded up my MB Studio CLR presets and simply just turned of the KPA Cab globally.
Now …… the following will only make sense to those of you that use MB’s studio profiles ……remember when you first got them, you loaded them up and you started playing and you instantly smiled and knew ......: ah ha, now I get it … “ ...... well, initially all I did was turn the Cab off globally and starting scrolling through my Studio profiles with my real cab unchanged ….. and there it was ….. quite literally the best real-cab-guitar tone I could want.
Quite literally, the ONLY tweaks I then proceeded to make were:
- rolled off all the Low EQ below about 120hz
- gently rolled off a bit of the high EQ above about 8k / 10k
- very slightly boosted the front MID … +1 or +2 was perfect
- very slightly cut the BASS …. -1 or -2 was perfect
- very slightly adjusted the TREBLE and PRESENCE to taste …. -1 or -2 on each was plenty
- added a GEQ slot with a very slight +1db boost in the 2k <-> 5k region
- slightly increased/decreased the Amp Definition to taste
- and critically as always, this was all done at live stage volume with my cab about 6 feet away but pointed directly at my ears
- and an unexpected further bonus was that with the Cab OFF, I was ale to insert a COMP slot and it finally acted and responded as I expected it too [ ie: much more transparently and subtly] as opposed to with the Cab ON [full studio profile]
Now ...... obviously ...... the above are the settings my my real cab for my ears with the profiles that I use ….. and given each real cab sounds different, you will need to adjust accordingly …. but the above are very minor changes.
know that on paper, as these are Studio profiles, they should not work as well as dedicated proper merged / direct 3.0 profiles ….. but. they. just. do .....period.
It is a testament to 2 things ……
(i) how MB eq’s his amp tones - it was obvious from the first few seconds of using his studio profiles when I first got them that he understands that the beating heart of all great electric guitar tones lives in the mids ...... he just gets it
and
(ii) how amazing the Kemper Amp/Cab "splitting algorithm" is
If you are looking for fantastic profiles to use with a real guitar cab with the KPA Cab off -and you don’t need or want ultra-high-gain / metal sounds- ..... then try Michael's studio profiles .... they are astonishing.
Hope this helps some real cab users
Ben
PS: As always, I just want to be clear that I have no direct or indirect connection or aarrangement of any kind with Michael …. other than being a very happy user of his profiles