Brief note - this is going to get updated sporadically. No set schedule, just when I feel the urge and have a few minutes. I may update it a few times in a day, or you may not see anything for a week or two. The good news is if you don't see me here, likely I'm profiling amps.
Anyways, so what's the first step for the Kemper owner wanting to profile one of his amps, or even better, steal the digital soul of a friend's setup? First thing you have to do is get a microphone. The confusing part is, for nearly every microphone out there, some people love it and will extol it's virtues to the heavens, and some people are going to hate it. What's a Profiler to do?
Start with an SM57. If you don't have one, I bet you know someone who does. If you have to buy one, you can score one for around $100, get that and a mic cable to start. This is what you should start with. Even if you had a friend with a bunch of microphones and preamps/mixing boards, start real simple. Get the entire concept down of profiling first, get things where you like them to be, THEN start playing with other stuff.
Anyways, so what's the first step for the Kemper owner wanting to profile one of his amps, or even better, steal the digital soul of a friend's setup? First thing you have to do is get a microphone. The confusing part is, for nearly every microphone out there, some people love it and will extol it's virtues to the heavens, and some people are going to hate it. What's a Profiler to do?
Start with an SM57. If you don't have one, I bet you know someone who does. If you have to buy one, you can score one for around $100, get that and a mic cable to start. This is what you should start with. Even if you had a friend with a bunch of microphones and preamps/mixing boards, start real simple. Get the entire concept down of profiling first, get things where you like them to be, THEN start playing with other stuff.
Later on in this blog I'll detail some other mics that cost around as much as the SM57 but will get you even better profiles, at least in my opinion. And that's what a lot of this tone stuff is - opinion. I do profile sets sometimes that have a hundred profiles, and I get messages like this - "I loved the *insert name of mic here* profiles and didn't like the *insert name of other mic here*. Why don't you just do the profiles with the mic I like?
What's interesting is that I usually get different views on what the great sounding mics are, and sometimes the mic one guy loves is the one another hates! So I do em both and figure that there's a tone there for everyone. Of course, if you do profile your amps only for yourself, you'll gravitate towards a certain 'magic mic' and use that. But you should start with an SM57 just because it's a classic and if you can get a good profile with it, you should be able to get results with most microphones.
And you should always remember, this is fun. I have a great time profiling amps, because there is a skill and a level of difficulty to it. But there's something awesome about being able to take an amp you own or really like, and capture it with the Kemper.
What's interesting is that I usually get different views on what the great sounding mics are, and sometimes the mic one guy loves is the one another hates! So I do em both and figure that there's a tone there for everyone. Of course, if you do profile your amps only for yourself, you'll gravitate towards a certain 'magic mic' and use that. But you should start with an SM57 just because it's a classic and if you can get a good profile with it, you should be able to get results with most microphones.
And you should always remember, this is fun. I have a great time profiling amps, because there is a skill and a level of difficulty to it. But there's something awesome about being able to take an amp you own or really like, and capture it with the Kemper.