The Cab is the Key?

    I'm now (thankfully) off the road for a while, and am digging into my KPA big time! At this point, I am feeling like this: The most crucial part of the KPA tone is the Cab, not the Amp - certain Cabs instantly sound more natural, full, and 'amp-like'. The key would seem to be how to focus on getting great Cab sims during the profiling process - many times the final profiled tone is accurate, but when you listen to the Cab itself (with another amp model), it sounds rather strange, and sometimes unusable. I would really like to know what techniques to use to get consistently good Cab captures which sound good without unnatural phasing & frequency peaks.

    All modelers known to man 8o

    Edited once, last by Radley ().

    To be more specific, the Amp model is certainly important in capturing the 'vibe' we want, but the Cab seems to have much more influence on whether the overall tone sounds natural/organic and believable to my ears...

    All modelers known to man 8o

    + 1,


    I don't write off any profile until experimenting with cabs.


    I also find cycling through some of you faves is the most satisfying tweak you will get.

    New talent management advice to Laura Cox -


    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

    this doesn't work for me.


    While the cab is crucial to the actual sound (mainly the frequencies I'm percieving), I first look for response of an amp profile.
    If the response to pick attack mainly on the neck pickup (imagine YJM style soloing) is not fit to my style of playing, there's really no cab, nomatter how great, that can cure the amp profile's response. If it is muddy or flabby in the bass, I'm pretty much screwed - and so the amp profile is useless to me.


    However, when I find the amp profile with a good response and what I consider nice tone, the cab comes to polish it (so to speak) in its frequencies...

    Yes and no.


    If you want to hear the Kemper at its best, plug into a poweramp and cab with cab sims off.
    This is the latest test I did in a music store, Kemper into the Poweramp of a Fender Hot Rod De'Ville.
    It shows off just how smart the Kemper really is...and no FRFR we tested side by side comes close in comparison.


    [Blocked Image: http://imageshack.us/a/img401/6646/img00751201210051429.jpg]


    Having said that.
    I agree with you, with cab sims on for recording or FRFR, the cab is the most important part of the chain.
    With the latest firmware you can go through every cab available & select the ones that have magic in them.


    So far for me, Tills has produced the most impressive cabs by a long way....for hard rock hi gain stuff his cabs are unbeatable.
    I wish he'd do some 1x12 or 2x12 clean Fenderish kind of cabs.

    Quote from Radley


    Exactly! If you are like me, you will find that a few select Cabs make almost any Amp profile sound great....


    I also use the same technique. If you like the tone (EQ) of a particular profile the simplest way of translating most part of that tone into another profile (while retaining the rest of the amp characteristic of the new profile) its by using the cab of the original profile you liked. The cab, at the end, is mostly just the EQ you get from the real cab + mic.

    Quote from Guitartone

    So far for me, Tills has produced the most impressive cabs by a long way....for hard rock hi gain stuff his cabs are unbeatable.
    I wish he'd do some 1x12 or 2x12 clean Fenderish kind of cabs.


    +1 I would also like to hear some cleaner cabs from till...his cabs are pure magic!

    The KPA can not fully separate the frequency response of the amp and cabinet - and not at all the frequency response of the cabinet and used microphone.


    If all I want is exactly THAT sound of my amp, cab, mic and given mic placement - maybe because it worked fine for a recording - then I don't care about the separation at all.


    If I want to let the KPA sound close to the real amp/cab in my room - then it's a lot of work - and I don't care what is stored in the amp and cab block - in a lot of cases will this cab only work for this one amp.


    For me is the mic placement the key - but my goal was and is to get the sound of the amp in my room as close as possible.

    (All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with soundside.de)


    Great Profiles --> soundside.de

    Edited 2 times, last by Armin ().

    I'm interested in hearing more about what Armin said about not being able to completely seperate the cabinets. This is something I've been wondering about because it's impossible to profile a cabinet without using an amp to drive it, so whatever amp is driving the cab. will be part of the profile. Am I right ? If so, then ya , Tils cab's are great for most Marshall type amps but I'd also like to have more open back cabs, for the combo amps I prefer.

    Quote from lucky


    +1 I would also like to hear some cleaner cabs from till...his cabs are pure magic!

    Would be nice to do... However, since there were only 4 donations in total so far this is unlikely to happen in the near future.


    The aspect of the amp sound being reflected in the cab profile is definitely true. Try a super clean Fender cab on a high gain profile, your ears will bleed.That is also a reason that i did all my cab stuff with the same amp at the same setting. A cab profile from the clean channel of the same amp with the same speakers will sound different than the cab profile of the same setup with a high gain sound.