Posts by EightmanVT

Don't really feel like responding with quotes to each Mac vs PC comment. If you're uptight because someone thinks Mac is better - that's really a reflection on you. The fact that you think Windows is better bothers me not in the slightest. I gave Windows a couple of decades - and have been a power user of both. I spend so much time just keeping Windows running that it became useless as a tool. That's what a computer is supposed to be. A tool. The fact that Mac OS is built on such a stable kernel and that the Apple ecosystem is so tightly controlled for me is a positive. For you - maybe it's not. There are downsides to Mac and the fact that both sides are building ecosystems that make it difficult to escape from - but for now Mac still wins for me. Windows has improved drastically - and you windows peeps can also thank Apple for that. Competition is a good thing. When Microsoft was running unopposed - they stagnated horribly and the ridiculous mess that is Windows registry is a byproduct of that.

The fact that both my Macs are 2011 models and run as good as the day they were purchased - is good for me. If i needed CAD or was a gamer - then I'd build a PC. I have no emotional attachment to either. They're tools. That's all they are. I choose the tools that work best for me.

I didn't realize this had spawned some Mac vs PC comments - I guess I should have known better. I will address that in a second.

I decided on the Apollo Twin with Thunderbolt 3. Was a little more than had wanted to spend but seemed to have very good reviews.

Quote from HCarlH

I bought a Thunderbolt ZOOM TAC-2R

I don't know what your requirements are as far as inputs and features, but you should add this to your list of interfaces to research. I'm totally happy with mine. It's $349.

Quote from Monkey_Man

With Thunderbolt, the best bang for the buck sound-and-latency-wise is MOTU IMHO.
Should be something here that takes your fancy. Bear in mind that any of the AVB interfaces allow you to expand virtually-limitlessly in the future should you need to:

MOTU.com - Products

I will definitely add both of these to the list. Thanks for the suggestions and links. Plan to look at these today.

Quote from Eltzejupp

Buy a cheaper Win 10 pc and a higher class interface with spidf and you get what you want.

Meh - Windows got my money for 2 decades - I got tired of it sucking so i finally moved on. I hear Win 10 is vastly improved but considering my 2 Macs - have functioned better than any Windows PC I have ever owned - and are still going strong - for now I'll pass. . I like to spend my time using my computers - not keeping them running.

So - I finally decided to solve my excessive noise issue by buying a new MacBook Pro. A very expensive fix . I took my iMac in to the Genius Bar and they think my graphics card fan is going bad and for some reason that's where the EM is radiating from. That's a $600 fix plus service charge - plus they let me know that in 3 months my 2011 iMac will be considered "vintage" and they won't be allowed to work on it anymore. It's a shame. This iMac still functions like the day i bought it. It's fast and just works great. But...that noise...is so freaking... annoying!!!!

Part of it is my favorite guitar too - it contributes by having some faulty wiring that I've been too lazy to tackle. Could say that about so many things.

Anyway...on to my question. The new Macs don't have Firewire anymore. Just USB-C and Thunderbolt. I have a Firestudio Mobile as my primary interface to the Mac for the Kemper and output to my monitors. So - i need something quality to replace it with. I was looking on Amazon a the Focusrite for about $500 - it has a Thunderbolt interface (I believe) but I wondered what people here with much more experience than I had migrated to. I'm no pro with no pro aspirations but I do want the best sound quality I can afford with minimized latency. I'm a very inexperienced when it comes to recording but now that I've decided to pick up my guitars again - I expect to do a lot more in the coming year.

Thanks much!

Quote from telelogic

one of the Britt packs has some Freedman Dirty Shirley profiles that do a great AC/DC.
Can't remember which one though.

I will look for those tonight. Thanks I experienced melted a little last night with using a real guitar cab. I have a Bogner cube I hooked up. Was interesting. Might try my Bogner 2x12 tonight just for fun.

Quote from Armin

Welcome!
I had the AxeFx (ultra and later the II) as well - great gear - but need a lot of tweaking.
The KPA is perfect for tube amp recording - I like the results 100%.

Hope you find your 20 dream profiles

Thanks!!!! So many to go through - not good for an ADHD guy like me. I've found some really good Marshall high gain tones - still looking for a good ac/dc ish tone - that also comes with the feel I'm looking for. Same goes for clean although in fairness - i haven't really started looking. I've contributed quite a bit of $$ to different profile sellers thus far - but I'm still looking for that amp feel/reactiveness for those in between tones. I'm still new though - barely even know this machine yet - so this isn't an indictment - just a passive aggressive plea for recommendations.

Quote from nakedzen

Maybe your guitars need their pickups repotted since the noise seems to be coming from there? You said you had them laying in storage for years before this, maybe the wax has dried out and isn't doing the shielding anymore.

You can take them to a luthier to get them potted or do it yourself, it's not really rocket surgery.

https://www.premierguitar.com/…w_To_Pot_Your_Own_Pickups

That's an interesting suggestion that hadn't even come close to crossing my mind. Although - I'm not sure how the wax assists in shielding - is it conductive? Your point about them laying around for a long time is well taken though - I hadn't given any thought to something deteriorating on them over time. I'll have to mull that over. To be honest - I'm probably too lazy to repot - would probably be just as happy using new pickups.
I listened to a YouTube demo from another thread here - and was just marveling at how noise free that tone was. I'd be pretty damn happy with this Kemper if I can solve this noise issue.
Gotta say - this noise gate is impressive. Even though I think 9 is too high - and do feel some tone/sustain suck - considering how jacked the NG is - it's not bad. Nice to not have to look at other parameters and just turn one knob. Good for lazy guys like me.

I have discovered that if i take the noise gate intensity up to about 9.0 it helps immensely!!! Does this seem abnormally high to anyone? I always shied away from noise gates - even on my other amps because of sustain kill.

Hey brother - I appreciate you taking the time and effort to research that. The last three links don't work for me but the first thread link did. The thing is - I don't get that noise just during play back. As I've posted this thread and walked through some troubleshooting ideas - I've become more and more convinced that I have a leaky iMac. Meaning it's leaking EM and my guitars pick it up. I am going to try your suggestion this weekend of using my MacBook Pro and seeing what improvement i get. I expect to get a LOT. I even chatted with my little brother tonight - who actually makes a living as a pro musician and also does some producing (he lives in Nashville) - he uses an iMac and no issues. Pretty convinced that this fan or perhaps its the HD - don't know - but whatever it is - it's radiating and my guitars are picking it up and it's just the worst. Sucks because outside of that - this iMac has been an awesome computer. I remember retiring Windows PCs after a year or two and I bought this in 2011 and it's still fantastic.

Thanks again for the effort. Much appreciated.

Thanks all. I added where I live - if there any other Huntsvillians on here - would love to trade notes and expedite my learning curve.

Quote from raunch

Oh man, first of all welcome.

Second, it sounds like I wrote that post.

I hear where you're coming from, family, wife, mortgage, kids and no time to really dig in. Nonetheless the Kemper has actually reduced the amount of procrastination and optimised my time. I love the old Van Halen tone. 80's metal tones are my favourite to be honest but I wouldn't say I'm stuck there. So along comes the Kemper with so many great tones to try out. If you're like me, you might love TopJimi's profiles (no, I'm definitely not affiliated with TopJimi, but I wouldn't mind if he dropped me some free rigs haha). That sounds neither like a blanket nor like an exciter or sonic maximizer. I don't touch my amps anymore but play more than ever. The Kemper is all about WHO does the profiling and HOW it was done. Another thing is training your ears to hear the guitar objectively instead of subjectively, i.e., to hear from a third person perspective. I suggest downloading some isolated stem tracks from your fave guitar tones and comparing directly to the tone you're getting from the Kemper. You might be surprised how close you're actually getting your guitar tone to your chosen tone.

Are you recording songs or just jamming to yourself nowadays?

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Thank you. Yeah - by no means do I think I'm unique in my predicament . If I can get this thing nailed - so I'm happy with the tones and understand how to use it live I'll be happy. Yeah - I love the old 80's marshall tones. I used to have a Cameron modded Superlead 100 - and I wish I had it now because I'd profile it. The gain channel was just perfect - and the way it felt and responded was so chewy and reactive. Someone needs to get their hands on one and profile that thing.

I have checked out some of TopJimis - and did like them. I'm drowning in profiles to check out - which probably doesn't help. I did a quick recording in my "noise" thread using a Lee/Jackson preamp profile I found. I think it sounds pretty good from my speaker but the recorded sound isn't the same.

That's an interesting suggestion regarding the stem tracks. I've never used or looked at those - but will go googling this evening. I appreciate the suggestion.

Just jamming with myself right now - trying to relearn some songs - and build a bit of a song portfolio and then I might look for a project to get into. I know some of you guys probably never lose your chops - but whatever chops I might have had - definitely require finding again. I'm hoping to find something to get into that will help focus my practice time - but first I have to know that I have a rig I can go play with and be comfortable with with other instruments.

Quote from Monkey_Man

If that thing's truly FRFR, it should sound perfect with the Cab module engaged. How does it sound through 'phones?

Good question - I don't know but will have to find out. My Adam A7X monitors have pretty similar sound coming from them.

Since I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot of questions in the very near future - I should at least introduce myself and say hello. I've been so busy trying to figure out a noise issue that I forgot my manners

I've played off and on for quite a number of years now - I'm over 40 so - yeah - long time. That doesn't mean I'm very good - I'm not. But I do love the guitar - life just has a way of getting in the way and other things take priority. My gear has collected dust for about 6 years now - all I ever do is just noodle on the couch from time to time with the acoustic while watching TV - but I've had the itch to play again for a while so trying to knock a lot of rust off. Also, I'm trying to show my 8 year old what it means to practice. She's been taking piano for a couple of years - and I want her to see what it takes to really practice. That said - I'm a bit out of the gear loop these days - I used to be a bit of a gear junkie - and spent a lot of time on TGP and Rig-Talk but no longer. I did come up for air and play a little around the time the Axe-FX was taking off. I have an Axe-FXII - but I could never find the time to really learn it. I don't want to spend my time tweaking - I just want to play/practice/learn. I only really need about 8 solid tones anyway.

As I was thinking of playing again - and realizing that no matter what - my tube amps are probably never going to see a stage again - I thought I'd check the Kemper out. Hoping to find the sound quality and feel of my tube amps, with the scaleability and portability of the Axe-FX - but in a simpler to use format. I will probably fire up my tube amps after a while and profile them - I have a Bogner 101B, Hughes and Kettner Triamp Mk II and Marshall JVM - that haven't been powered up in almost 10 years. Shameful, I know.

I'm liking the Kemper - to a degree. I still have a ton to learn and if I can't figure out how to tame this noise issue - it's really going to be problematic. i'm using an RCF NX12 powered FRFR speaker - but today i noticed that I prefer a lot of the profiles I've downloaded (including the MBritt ones I paid for) with the cabinet off. With the cabinet on it sounds like a blanket was thrown over it. With it off it sounds lkke what used to happen when I engaged my sonic maximizer that i used to run in my old rack with my Gsystem. Except fizzier. Is that normal? Or do I have questionable ears?

Honestly - if someone would just sell a Kemper like device with about 20 rock solid tones - making sure to have the hairy 80's covered - I'd buy that. I'm not smart enough or have the tweaking time to learn every parameter in this machine. Thats time I should be putting towards actually practicing. I'm hoping to get the hang of this thing reasonably soon.

Yay - I can finally post without entering some random phrases

The RCF is an active speaker but I get that noise - even with it off. Pretty convinced that the majority of this is coming directly from the iMac. Does anyone else use an iMac? I guess my only fix is a new computer - which is not cheap. I could mess around with various shielding ideas - but have my doubts. The noise is so bad though that it really makes it impossible to play - or to at least enjoy playing.

Quote from nakedzen

On top of those^ try a process of elimination:

- Different guitar
- Different cable
- Different room
- Different speakers (if possible)
- Change the power outlet you're using
- Can you try recording through s/pdif?

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Different guitar. Did that - but maybe tomorrow I will try another.

Cable- checked that.

Room - well- I had this same issue in another house.

I could try using a guitar cabinet bit wouldn't expect much difference.

Possibly could use spdif- if I have a cable here. Will check tomorrow. Based on the limited number of people chiming in with similar issues I'm thinking I may have to find a different computer. Which is a shame - I like my iMac.

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Wolfgang standard with Duncan JBs in bridge. Tried another guitar with same results.

Not a CRT. It's an iMac. 2011 model.

Interestingly the noise doesn't really vary with angle or distance - although I haven't moved far away but it actually gets a lot less if I put the guitar right up to monitor. Almost as if it's almost perfectly out of phase.

Amplitude doesn't 't really vary much otherwise.

Im surprised I'm the only person who has encountered this. Maybe I have a really bad EM radiating iMac.

Ok guys - in the hopes of getting people interested in this thread - and because I need to learn some tricks of the trade anyway - I just took some time to figure out first - how to hook the kemper up to the iMac to record. I'm going from the main out (left) into my Firestudio mobile. I used to have Reaper but I guess it's been so long since I've opened itthat it's not compatible with the current MacOS version I'm using - so I gave up on that. Will tackle that another day. This is what happens when you let 5 or 6 years go by without even touching your guitars.

Really - I just want to play because I need to put what little playing time I have into relearning how to play - getting my fingers to cooperate and relearning songs I used to know. But I gotta figure this noise thing out - it's horrendous.

I modified my hookup today - now sending the monitor out to my FRFR speaker - so I can record from the main. I made my first ever soundcloud recording just in the hopes that you guys might have some solutions for me. I'm not experienced at recording at all - and even though I paid for Reaper - I never bothered to learn to use it really. So in this case - I just used Garage band. Dragged over a backing track for one of the songs I was "relearning" today - and did a quick experimental recording. Excuse the clams - as I said - it's been a while but hopefully you can hear what I'm dealing with. I also stopped playing a couple of times to adjust the GB volume. First time trying to use it as well. It's really frustrating. Now - let's see if I can figure out how to embed a SoundCloud recording.

For lack of any better way to do this - I did a quick YouTube upload. You hear me roll the volume knob on - and then back off. https://youtu.be/rzNFpO_tqLQ