How can I minimize that "ambience" character of the KPA?

    Ok - now I spent six hours just tweaking knobs and cables and DI boxes. But here it is:


    http://soundcloud.com/audiosem…ts/kemper-ambience-test-1
    it is a pity that it is not possible to embed the soundcloud player here.
    I switched on the "download" option, so you can also put all the files in parallel into your DAW and compare...



    The setup was:
    Recording: guitar > Radial JDI >Computer
    Reamping: computer > Radial Xamp > Kemper Profiling Amplifier > RCF NX-SMA12 > Audiotechnika AT4050 > computer (or my Champ+mic for the one REFERENCE Track)


    To my ears the result is plain to see (hear). And I hope I will learn from that. But before I tell you I would like some other opinions first. My head is turning and I think I will open a nice bottle of Mosel Steillage and play some acoustic guitar... ;(

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Edited once, last by fretboardminer ().

    IMHO the upper mids and high frequencies are responsible for the "metallic resonance" as you call it. These are the most difficult to get balanced with any modeling type system. Heck, its hard to get them balanced when recording real amps. Unfortunately, this portion of the spectrum defines much of the unique character of our instruments and amps yet is very delicate. Bad cables, poor mics, impedance mismatches, old strings.....they all "suck tone" as some guitarist call it.


    The KPA can reproduce the full frequency response and charator faithfully but needs refining to get there. Normal chord and lead playing may not provide enough isolated upper mids/highs for the most accurate refinement. Also, if the monitoring system (headphones, speakers) aren't eq'd flat, they won't sound right although the profile may be spot on. So, after fixing anything that "sucks tone" in the KPA signal chain (profiling mic placement, monitoring method), refinement using widely varied playing techniques should yield a matching tone. That's my theory anyways....


    I think you found the solution: Find the sounds and playing techniques that don't match and refine until they do!


    bd

    Quote from musicman65

    Normal placing doesnt provide enough isolated upper mids/highs for the most accurate refinement.

    Can you explain that a bit more? I am not shure that I understand it.

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.

    Quote from fretboardminer

    Can you explain that a bit more? I am not shure that I understand it.

    Typing error. I corrected it in my post....also edited it with further explanation. Re-read it if you like.


    "Normal PLAYING (on your guitar) doesn't provide enough isolated upper mids/highs for the most accurate refinement."


    Sorry.....typing on a mobile device is hard for "fully grown men" with big hands


    bd

    Quote from musicman65

    "Normal PLAYING (on your guitar) doesn't provide enough isolated upper mids/highs for the most accurate refinement."

    Ah, I see. Yes, I totally agree with you on that. On refining we should play all that we want to meet again later in the profiles. And playing isolated and extremley dynamic high end seems to help a lot.


    Also on what you said about the upper mids and hights I totally agree with you. If you compare my raw profile (track 2) and the one that I tweaked (track 3) you see that I tend to add too much of high end. I guess this is because I monitored it with the 700 Watt RCF NX-SMA12 set at normal "room" level in my appartment. At these low volumes they seem to swallow a bit too much treble. So I dialled in even more just to compensate... But when I turned the RCFs louder just for a test I always thought it is a bit too bright. You can see this too if you look at how the same track taken DI from the KPA without the RCFs (track 7) is even more brighter. And the bright part of the signal is what emphasizes this "metal ambience".


    If you listen to the raw DI signal (track 7 ) you also find the metal ambience sound there. In a way it is all too logical: an electric guitar is basically just a block of wood with steel wires - no wonder it sounds "metallic" if you rub it. But in the REFERENCE Champ mic recording (Track 1) this is weaker and it all sounds smoother again - the tube amp seems to even that out by just allowing not too few and not too much of the high end signal. That's how the engineers meticulously made it, when they designed the circuit. So it is not a "fault" of the KPA but it is a consequence of the ability to dial in too much high end in the digital world. This is something I have to get accustomed too. So the key question seems to me to find the right balance for the high end.


    BTW: especially the comparison between the conservative microfone recording (track 1) and and the raw, unedited profile of the same amp (track 2) is really stunning to me. They are so close, that's scary! I checked several times if I did not make a mystake and saved the mic file as a Kemper file - no I did not!!!

    www.audiosemantics.de
    I have been away for quite a while. A few years ago I sold my KPA and since then played my own small tube amp with a Bad Cat Unleash. Now I am back because the DI-profile that I made from my amp sounds very much convincing to me.