Posts by dhodgson

  • Bon Jovi - Runaway, Best Profile?

    Import the song into a DAW and record a bit of DI guitar along with it. Reamp the DI guitar through S/PDIF and monitor the Kemper return through the right channel while monitoring the original track in the left. Loop the section while auditioning patches and EQ - you'll know where your guitar tone is close. Tweak and save.

  • May i introduce one of the few Kemper users in their 5th year? {Me}

    11/2011: Kemper Ordered
    12/2011: Created early (possibly the first) customer account on kemper-amps.com before site was fully up
    2/2012: Kemper Received
    3/2012: Namba bag ordered
    3/2013: First lunchbox warranty repair (CMOS issues, firmware wouldn't update)
    2/2015 Remote ordered
    2/2016: Second lunchbox repair (dead LED's)
    4/2016: Remote received


    ...or something like that. What a long, strange trip it's been!

  • Devin Townsend

    Once in a great while Devin does a track in standard tuning. I didn't slavishly try to match tones for this, but I did A/B against the original a few times just to make sure I was in the ballpark. Hope you like.


    Sunshine & Happiness For All (from Synchestra, arranged as a guitar instrumental)


    -djh

  • Output Levelling ...........

    If you want to get scientific about it...


    A while back I did a level-matched set of DI profiles based on the Egnater Rebel-30, and at the time I'm pretty sure I set their output levels by reamping a reference strum pattern through each and tweaking their output for consistent VU levels. If I had to do it again today, I'd use a LUFS meter like Ozone's Insight for the purpose; this would work ideally for both clean and distorted tones alike. If it's good enough for broadcast radio, it's good enough for me!

  • Quad Capture with 250ohm headphones ?

    I have a Roland STUDIO-CAPTURE with the same output impedance driving a pair of 300-ohm Sennheiser HD600's in my studio. The sensitivity of your DT880's will probably be different, but the Roland has enough headroom on tap that I imagine you'll find that you rarely need to drive them hotter than the 11 o'clock position. Of course if you're looking for maximum power transfer (which usually equates to -loud-), the closer you can get to 47 ohms the better, but this is quality studio gear we're talking about and yes you'll be fine.

  • Primal Fear sound

    Primal Fear's rhythm tone... is a really, really high bar! Much production skill from Mat Sinner and the Hollywood Blasers; same goes for Accept (also using Kempers now.)

  • Slate Digital - Virtual Mix Rack

    Slate VMR & S-Gear... love it. Wonderful to have them both in the same place. Used to be a SSD4 fan as well, but that plugin hasn't seen any updates for a long time and I finally had to let it go. Great kits, though.


    Here's a recent Devin Townsend Band project that leans heavily on VMR & S-Gear; one or the other is on nearly every track and bus. My recordings usually start out on the Kemper with good intent, but succumb to S-Gear in the end because it's more convenient for reamping in-the-box and sounds great. Cheers!


    "Sunshine & Happiness For All"
    https://soundcloud.com/dhodgson/sunshine-happiness-for-all

  • " Power Amp Distortion " => is this why the Kemper *cant* profile Power-Amp Distortion ? ....if so, can this be "fixed" ?

    Judging from two of the three "Similar Threads" listed at the bottom of the page it seems we've been here before with the general thrust being a) the profiling algorithm isn't optimal for more than one "significantly distorting" stage (which might include pedals) and that b) power amp distortion is overrated, and not much to crow about.


    Now, I'm in the second camp (to which I'll also add that speaker distortion is also not worth crowing about, but that doesn't mean that some software amps don't try.) If it was such a wonderful thing we'd see negative feedback circuits in guitar amps disappear in favor of increased power-amp distortion and pentodes being used for preamp purposes except that your DC-30's Ch 2 EF86 appear to be doing just that!


    Personally, I'd like to hear some examples of the glorious tone you're trying to reproduce (ideally, live & profiled with pedals off at several different master volume levels) just to get a sense of what the power amp is or is not contributing vs. the Kemper's failure to reproduce it. For curiosity's sake, there's another DC30 Ch. 2 rig in the Rig Exchange... how does that one compare to your rig with its Master Volume set to a modest level?

  • Egnater Amp Shootout (Rebel-30 Mk II vs. Handbuilt SE20 seminar amp)

    All good questions! You asked, so here we go.


    Tweaky Discourse On Merged Cab Creation


    The Tweaker 112x cab was being used a generic reactive load because a power amp has to feed something, and it's better to use a speaker for that purpose instead of a PowerSoak because it does affect the EQ spectrum a tiny bit.


    So: Yes, getting that in there was intentional. Whether you're playing the DI profiles with the virtual cab on or off, the profile of the power amp damping is reflective of a tube amp feeding a 12" Celestion G12H-30, which is as it should be.


    The drawback to making DI profiles is that you have to set the amp tone controls while listening through -some- kind of guitar speaker, and since the Tweaker cab is compact (read: midrangey) my best bet was to tweak the Rebel-30's tone while listening to (via isolation headphones) the G-STUDIO DI's "Virtual 4x12" as being representative of a universal generic speaker cabinet. I'm a collector of these types of devices (see http://dallashodgson.info/dhtipsntricks.htm#IRCORNER) and the Behringer's sounded pretty decent.


    So after going through the process of creating Merged profiles from Direct ones with and without the cab emulator, what we have is an example of an amp whose tone controls have been set (hopefully) for the broadest possible application, while still retaining the reactive load of a real speaker. (Or at least that was the idea.) But yes, the primary intent was to generate an idealized suite of Amp Direct profiles with a bonus generic cab that is "Cab Direct" in its own way, useful for creating other Amp Direct profiles in the future.


    -djh