Comparison of DIs and Reamps... thinking of buying Dimarzio Breeds over EMGs

    @MarkusUz Hey man, have a look at this Kemper tutorial on reamping.


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    It doesn't tell you anything you don't already know, but listen to the DI guitar track. It sounds more like your DIs, and mine too, than what @MentaL, which is actually scary good. Have no idea how I would get a reamp like Mental's at all, but you're not doing much wrong from what I can make out. Maybe a pickup change will help, but I'm not sure you'll get what you are looking for if that is the high water mark.


    Something that Mental isn't telling us, haha!

    Thanks, @nightlight , I'll check that out.


    Do you think you could send me your DI... if you have an EMG, I'd be happy to really examine it, see if I can find a difference, check the frequency spectrums. Just strumming or a riff. In D-standard if possible, and some other tuning is fine also. String gauges and distance of strings to pup is useful info also.


    I'm still considering the passive, but before I change the pickup I want to know I'm getting the best of my EMG. I was thinking a Tone Zone maybe. I like it's descriprion, and the Dimarzio pickup picker gave in as one of the three options it recommends with a couple of genres I tested. It gave the Super Distortion as number 1 with two different genres.. but I wasn't so blasted away by it's description. I'm sure it's a good pickup too though.

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    Here you go, @MarkusUz. This is actually an 8 string guitar, but I'm playing the riff on the B string. Pickups are a 57-8 and 66-8. Think it sounds more full-bodied than your clips, though not as good as Mental's. Which is why I think you need to look into how you are recording the DI, I have a feeling something is EQing your signal. It could even be a faulty SPDIF cable.


    Let me know if you want a clip with my six string with EMGs.

    It definitely sounds better than mine, much more full-bodied.


    Yes, please, if you can send so I could compare it in the same pitch. That's now 3 half-steps lower, so the comparison is not that good.


    e: oh and please, use only bridge pups

    @nightlight I really think that DI clip would be useful for comparison, I hope you still can make it. Thanks.


    I did more tests.. as weak battery operation was suspected. Made DI clips with both 9 V (tested to be approximately okay) and 24 V mod (new batteries) with a new set of strings (Elixir 10-52), and changed the string height from pups 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm and 6mm. I included also Mental's clip and one from my Kramer with SD passive on the bridge, with height of 2-3mm (tilted). I also included one without Kemper straight to my Scarlett, but as it turned out sounding same as with Kemper, Kemper can't be the problem here. You can listen here:


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    *You can hear how to 9 V clips too close. I'm still not sure if it should clip so easily. I am not strumming hard.
    *More height increases brightness/brittleness.
    *9 V is a bit more stuffy, and 24 V more clear.
    *I don't think in any of my clips the low end is handled well, as it just gets muffled and not defined and tight.


    I'm not sure which one to take.. I have used recently 24 V 3 mm.. but maybe 24 V 2 mm is good too. But since the Kramer along with Mentals have such much more bass, I'm seriously thinking of switching to passives. Maybe Tone Zone or Breed, or Super Distortion. Any recommendations?


    @MentaL I have to ask you.. Compared to all of my clips, even when I used cobalt strings, you seem to have a scoop in the mids (say 250-550 Hz). In Dimarzio's website Breed is listed as TMB = 6.5 / 9.0 / 8.0 making it quite mid-heavy. Are you sure you didn't use an EQ pedal or something? Or how else would you explain this?

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    @MarkusUz Here you go. Guitar is in D standard tuning. Even my 6 string EMGs seem to have more body than your recordings. After a comparison, what I came to the conclusion is that you are lowering your clean sense too much, which is killing the body in your tone. I know that you seem to be experiencing clipping, but how close to the strings are your EMGs? You may want to lower them and see whether you can get a signal that isn't distorting but has more tone.


    Guitar is just a Ltd, but a very good limited with neck through and very solid mahogany body. Your ESP should slay!


    EDIT: Hey, a 1,000 likes. Someone must like me! Thank you Kemper Amps forums!

    Quote from DonPetersen

    Clean Sense has no effect on the tone of an instrument.


    But doesn't it affect the DI signal, @DonPetersen? I've found that if set too low, the DI signal loses a lot of its punch and becomes thinner. Or is that just on account of volume perception? Not too sure, but in my experience, setting clean sense too low makes the DI signal thinner, whereas increasing it makes it fatter.


    This can be checked quite easily by @MarkusUz, though since you kindly pointed it out, it may not be a solution either.


    Not too sure why his DI signal sounds very thin though. Some kind of filtering going on, so I'll reiterate my earlier suggestion of checking the SPDIF cable he's using, perhaps it's defective.


    The newer clips are definitely better than the original ones though.

    Thanks @nightlight, I'll get to your clip later tonight. I can't say much yet, without recording the same riff. You are definitely a likable guy! hehe


    I have been always puzzled about the clean sense. Both clean and distortion sense seem to control the balance between clean and distorted sounds. Why have two parameters for one thing?! Why not have an input gain to set the level first, and then a "sense" value to set the balance? I've tried reading about them, but I'm still not sure if I really get them. But surely I can test it. But any more clean sense will put the led light to red quite consistently.


    I don't think it's the SPDIF, because I tested the reamping with Mental's clips and it seemed okay. Also, note the straight to Scarlett audio interface clip. So, I think it concludes it's the source, namely guitar.

    Quote from MarkusUz

    Thanks @nightlight, I'll get to your clip later tonight. I can't say much yet, without recording the same riff. You are definitely a likable guy! hehe
    I have been always puzzled about the clean sense. Both clean and distortion sense seem to control the balance between clean and distorted sounds. Why have two parameters for one thing?! Why not have an input gain to set the level first, and then a "sense" value to set the balance? I've tried reading about them, but I'm still not sure if I really get them. But surely I can test it. But any more clean sense will put the led light to red quite consistently.


    I don't think it's the SPDIF, because I tested the reamping with Mental's clips and it seemed okay. Also, note the straight to Scarlett audio interface clip. So, I think it concludes it's the source, namely guitar.


    You're a likeable guy too, @MarkusUz! The riff is pretty simple, I was playing open chords, so shouldn't be too hard for you to mimic.


    When reamping, clean sense has a different function. It is to set the level of the DI. It should consistently light yellow, but not orange or red.


    As far as clean sense and distortion sense in a normal situation, clean sense is used to match the perceived level of clean sounds to distorted sounds. And distortion sense is used as a kind of global gain control across distortion sounds, so two very different things.


    Of course, one of the bits of advice you will always get on this forum when you have clipping on the input is to lower clean sense. But Mothership discounts this advice, as it is not what the section is intended to do.


    It's all a bit mysterious to me and many others, and there still isn't a clear answer to it imo. If clean sense didn't impact the input, then why does the clipping stop when you reduce it?


    Mods are going to bust in here and kick my ass anytime now lol, so let me start my screaming before they haul me away!


    "Help! Clean sense doesn't work like they tell you it does! It's not just me, everybody says it! Help! Help!"


    *shot in the dark* "Take that, you shmuck!"

    I wrote to EMG about a month or two ago about this, and never got an answer. Now I wrote again, with a link to the clips, and got a quite quick reply actually:


    "...it doesn’t sound like there is anything wrong with the pickups from the sound samples you sent."
    "The 57/66 is designed to have a similar voicing as a traditional PAF which means the tight end is not going to be as defined as an EMG 81 would..."



    I wrote about "tight low end", so I guess that's what she means on the second one.



    @nightlight, you had 81, right?

    Hahaha... you know, I have always detested villains who talk to corpses. So, I hope you are alive, or were alive at least long enough to hear them call you a shmuck.


    All I know... I can't set clean sense to zero, too much red. And I don't really reamp at all, it was just to test my Kemper. So that's not really my concern. But I can test the clean sense's effect to tone.