Tone Fatigue - Any Tips

    If your profiles are sounding the same, the usual suspect would be your monitoring source, they may be adding their own distinct colour to the tones you are auditioning. I used to have a Tech 21 and one of the things I did to make it sound "neutral" was to A/B the sound of the Kemper through studio monitors against the Power Engine. You can make the amp more flat by adjusting the bass, mid and treble controls. This way, you'll get a true representation of the tone of the Kemper through the power amp.


    A PA system is also unlikely to be the best system to audition profiles, since these are usually not flat. As far as your headphones, I use general gaming headphones and I am able to hear the nuances of a tone in reasonable detail. Perhaps you might want to see if there have been any recommendations on the forums on which ones are good for monitoring the Kemper.


    I would find it impossible to follow some of the recommendations to reduce the number of profiles auditioned at a time to four or whatnot. There are just too many!! But I generally have a good idea of what tone is good and what is not after auditioning through a series of chords. It would help if you create a loop that is post-amp and then cycle through profiles slowly, getting an idea of what you like and what you don't. When you hear something good, favourite it. If you wish to further refine your choices, cycle through the favourites and unfavourite anything that doesn't match up to your scrutiny.

    I think the term flavors is fitting..i tend to like the cleaner profiles myself. when i play my tube amps clean i seem to get a general tone from all of them with EQ flat and they do sound similar, but they each have a different flavor, just some little nuance that sets them apart, and maybe barely audible to some but to me i can pick it out. it is the same with the Kemper.


    the high gain tones i can also say a lot of them sound similar, but with a different flavor. but i too get ear fatigue where a lot of profiles sound a like. i go get a glass of wine or coffee depending on my mood, and give them a rest. it seems to help in picking out the unique flavor of most of the profiles but a lot of time i am splitting hairs...your mileage may vary

    I think its pretty clear that I need to upgrade to an FRFR monitor - and eventually get studio monitors. All in good time, I guess. My priorities right now are probably going to force me to deal with things as they are for now - which is ok. I don't really NEED to audition any more profiles (even though I just bought two M. Britt packs, ha!) and I can always borrow a QSC K10 or K12 from one of my bandmates for that. In a pinch, my headphones will work just have to avoid compounding the tone fatigue with headphone fatigue. Thanks for all the input, it was very helpful!

    My suggestions: don't listen to rigs for more than 15' in a row. Have at least 5' rest with no sound or - interesting - by listening to radio, TV, whatever... at a very low volume. Your first impression will most probably be you can't understand what people speaking are saying. But things will change in a few seconds\minutes: that's the right moment for further lowering the volume... and so on. Go on for 5'.
    Try it! :)