Profiling Troubleshooting Process

    I've seen quite a few threads around here where people are basically saying 'the profile I've made doesn't sound like the real amp'.


    Cue pages and pages of troubleshooting and/or frustration, which could have been avoided if a basic Profiling Troubleshooting Process had been agreed upon (and stickied in the forum).


    I suggest the following process:


    • Mic up your tube amp
    • Connect guitar to input of DI box
    • Connect link output of DI box to input of tube amp
    • Connect XLR output of DI box to input of DAW
    • Connect output of microphone to input of DAW
    • Set up one DAW track to record clean DI of your guitar's signal
    • Set up another DAW track to record microphone's signal
    • Record a riff
    • Play it back and A/B it against a guitar sound you know you like
    • Adjust mic position(s), amp settings, & EQ in your DAW to improve sound
    • Repeat from Step 8 until 100% happy with the sound you are getting
    • Connect Link Output of DI box to input of KPA
    • Connect output of DAW into return input of KPA
    • Make sure your mic track is routed to the DAW output that goes back into the KPA
      Connect Direct Out of KPA into input of amp
    • Connect guitar to main front panel input of KPA
    • Connect output of KPA to another input of DAW
    • Temporarily set the tube amp to a 100% clean sound
    • Play hard while checking all meters on your KPA and your DAW and also using your ears (some meters lie) to make sure nothing is clipping. Adjust gains/sensitivities until all is good.
    • Switch tube amp back to whatever settings you want to profile
    • Repeat step 19
    • Ensure that any noise reduction/gating technology on the tube amp is disabled
    • Switch KPA to profiling mode and profile as normal
    • Refine using some chords and palm mutes for at least 30 seconds
    • Make sure Pure Cab is off (I believe this can be done both in the Cabinet section and ALSO globally?)
    • Save Rig
    • Record (with all 3 tracks armed: guitar DI, Mic, KPA output) the same riff
    • Ensure that the KPA and Mic tracks have the same PERCEIVED loudness (ignore your DAW's meters - use your ears instead)
    • You should now have 3 WAV files sat in your DAW. Export them with the following filenames:

      • Export guitar DI as:

        • YourUserName_TroubleShoot_GuitarDI_TodaysDate.wav
      • Export the other two with anonymous filenames:

        • YourUserName_TroubleShoot_A_TodaysDate.wav
        • YourUserName_TroubleShoot_B_TodaysDate.wav

      Zip the 3 WAV files AND your rig file, and upload that zip somewhere and post a link to them in your troubleshooting thread (or even post them on the forum if the file size is small enough)DO NOT tell us which is which out of the A and B files until at least a few people have listened and posted their opinions.




    Then we on the forum have the ability to:

    • Reamp the signal to check whether the problem is in the profiling process or the settings of the KPA
    • Null test the KPA track vs the mic track (this will probably never null completely, but it will at least give us an idea of WHAT is different)
    • Blind test the difference between the KPA and the real amp (to remove expectation bias)
    • EQ match one to the other if we feel that we CAN detect a difference
    • Perform any other analysis we wish on the two files to compare differences



    I'd like other people to chime in with their thoughts on how the process could be improved/bettered to provide enough detail, and also anything else that should be checked straight away when a profile does not sound like the real deal. Then hopefully once we've arrived at a final result, this topic could be stickied by the mods and we can point people who are having trouble at it and save everybody a lot of time and effort and get profiling problems resolved in a more expedient manner.


    Who's with me? :D


    EDIT: Cabling diagram attached to prevent confusion...can someone please check my work?

    Edited once, last by AxeSlash ().