Captures/profiles, for me; are ultimately a useless diversion. NTTAWWT

[JT]

So I've had the Tone-X for a few weeks. (Not) coincidentally the same amount of time I've been absent from TGFWC

I spent a bunch of time struggling to capture my amp on and off (with good support from IK) but ultimately ended up with 2 caps of my own that I like. I have about 6-8 caps from other users I really like.

I haven't recorded a GD lick of guitar with them because I NEVER. EVER. EVER. Do anything productive, recording wise; with profiles or captures.

Loved gigging the Kemper a number of times but for recording; ehh. Something about the workflow of that type of tool just doesn't suit me. Tone-X is the same. I know Creative is going to scold me about all the great recordings Kempers have done over the years and I get it; but captures/profiling is just not productive for me at all for that purpose.

 

[Stratzrus]

Something about the workflow of that type of tool just doesn't suit me.

I feel the same way, that's why I never got a Kemper.

I know they're great pieces of kit and work well for many guitarists, both amateur and professional, but I never had enough amps that I thought buying one to profile them was something I needed.

I could see how it would be really helpful if you had a professional recording studio or if when gigging you could just load your profiles onto a flash drive and that's all you had to take to the gig but I'm really not in either scenario.

 

[Lysander]

Nothing wrong with that, methinks. Different strokes, different folks.

I'm more of the knob-twisting modeler type myself as well. But there's also people going to the extreme of spending hours tweaking the tube topology and speaker impedance curve on their FAS models... which is not really my thing either.

 

[sleewell]

i have no use for capture/profiling. i dont have that many amps. just give me some good amp and cab sims and i am happy.

 

[JT]

I feel the same way, that's why I never got a Kemper.

I know they're great pieces of kit and work well for many guitarists, both amateur and professional, but I never had enough amps that I thought buying one to profile them was something I needed.

I could see how it would be really helpful if you had a professional recording studio or if when gigging your could just load your profiles onto a flash drive and that's all you had to take to the gig but I'm really not in either scenario.

All of this, 100%! I only have a single amp to profile. So there's always going to be that. I may have a ton of modelers but I don't have an arsenal of amps on hand ever. Most any model I would want is going to be in the Helix or Axe so that sort of "all the amps" mentality really isn't a deciding factor for me at this point. I did LOVE gigging the Kemper a number of times. It was always a single profile though so ehhh?

Nothing wrong with that, methinks. Different strokes, different folks.

I'm more of the knob-twisting modeler type myself as well. But there's also people going to the extreme of spending hours tweaking the tube topology and speaker impedance curve on their FAS models... which is not really my thing either.

Yeah I don't deep dive at all. There really is no need? The Tone-X and FM combo is KILLER; but ultimately; ehh?

 

[norminal]

I used to spend countless hours dialing in my modelers. Within days of buying TONEX, I stumbled onto a few captures that sounded good to me, and haven’t even felt the need to try any others. As a result, I’ve been practicing more and fiddling less.

I look at an amp modeler as an amp I just pulled out of the box and have it dial in. If I find a tone model that appeals to my ears, I load it up and go. No fiddling or, “hey man, you got a preset for that?” “Yeah, but it’s a commercial IR.”

As Uncle Ben would say, “more pickin’, less clickin’.”

 

[JT]

I used to spend countless hours dialing in my modelers. Within days of buying TONEX, I stumbled onto a few captures that sounded good to me, and haven’t even felt the need to try any others. As a result, I’ve been practicing more and fiddling less.

I look at an amp modeler as an amp I just pulled out of the box and have it dial in. If I find a tone model that appeals to my ears, I load it up and go. No fiddling or, “hey man, you got a preset for that?” “Yeah, but it’s a commercial IR.”

As Uncle Ben would say, “more pickin’, less clickin’.”

I load up 2 IRs I normally use, pick an amp model I gravitate towards and go? No tweakfest for me. Profile hunt is exaggerated certainly. I didn't have to search far and wide for something that tripped my trigger.

 

[James Freeman]

My personally experience with captures comes down to this: It's cool to try other people captures.
Here's a nice sounding 6506, here's a bad sounding 5150, here's an okay sounding JMP, Wow cool!, WTF is this shit?, etc, etc.

But yes, I would never torture myself with going through a thousand captures to find a good one to record with, I will start from scratch with proper component modeling of an amp I know well.

 

[Orvillain]

With our last album - this one for reference:


I tracked all of the guitars. Then came in the next day. For some reason - and to this day I have no idea why... corrupt hard-drive maybe??? - some of the microphone tracks had 'offline' items in Reaper, and the files no longer existed on disk. WTF..... but the DI tracks were there just fine. So so weird. It was only some of the clean tracks too, not the high-gain stuff. Anyway....

I reamped the DI's through my Kemper at the time, which was running profiles of my Diezel amps and more or less saved the day without having to re-track.

Now the song in question is the last one - Apocryphal - and to be honest, I hear the difference being the guy that recorded it all. Those cleans stand out to me as being different to the rest of the songs. Not in a bad way, I like them well enough... and it probably doesn't even cross most people's minds when they hear the track.

Ultimately I use whatever it takes to get the job done, and whatever takes my mood at the time. Despite my flippancy a lot of the time, I'll use anything I can get my hands on if it sounds good.

But I do care about accuracy - I think that is important, because even today in 2023 for me the gold standard is a valve amp into a 4x12 running V30's, with an SM57 on it.

 

[JT]

My personally experience with captures comes down to this: It's cool to try other people captures.
Here's a nice sounding 6506, here's a bad sounding 5150, here's an okay sounding JMP, Wow cool!, WTF is this s**t?, etc, etc.

But yes, I would never torture myself with going through a thousand captures to find a good one to record with, I will start from scratch with proper component modeling of an amp I know well.

It's a super fun distraction for me. Just not useful in the long run. Not everything has to be, gear-wise/

 

[la szum]

Let this be a teachable moment.

 

[mbenigni]

My personally experience with captures comes down to this: It's cool to try other people captures.
Here's a nice sounding 6506, here's a bad sounding 5150, here's an okay sounding JMP, Wow cool!, WTF is this s**t?, etc, etc.

But yes, I would never torture myself with going through a thousand captures to find a good one to record with, I will start from scratch with proper component modeling of an amp I know well.

Same. Captures are fun for being an "amp tourist". Component level modeling is usually a lot more practical (and also fun for being an amp tourist, albeit in a totally different way.) It's nice having both under one hood, but that's all I'll say on that...

 

[Stratzrus]

With our last album - this one for reference:

Sounds great!

However you got there, well done.

 

[mbenigni]

So I've had the Tone-X for a few weeks. (Not) coincidentally the same amount of time I've been absent from TGFWC

I spent a bunch of time struggling to capture my amp on and off (with good support from IK) but ultimately ended up with 2 caps of my own that I like. I have about 6-8 caps from other users I really like.

I haven't recorded a GD lick of guitar with them because I NEVER. EVER. EVER. Do anything productive, recording wise; with profiles or captures.

Loved gigging the Kemper a number of times but for recording; ehh. Something about the workflow of that type of tool just doesn't suit me. Tone-X is the same. I know Creative is going to scold me about all the great recordings Kempers have done over the years and I get it; but captures/profiling is just not productive for me at all for that purpose.

I agree with all of this, but I also think captures/profiles are at least a little more practical when the UI isn't completely wack.

 

[mbenigni]

P.S. What's your RMA number?

 

[JT]

I agree with all of this, but I also think captures/profiles are at least a little more practical when the UI isn't completely wack.

You should watch on 2.5 speed Tonewars latest Tone-X vid

 

[mbenigni]

You should watch on 2.5 speed Tonewars latest Tone-X vid

Does he slap anything in the ass?

 

[JT]

Does he slap anything in the ass?

No but he does some "characters" and certainly expresses end user frustration about it (as well as frustration of not getting one sent to him for free)

 

[metropolis_4]

I’ve never actually tried to use them for recording, just live work. Is it because you can’t dial them in to fit the track as easily?

For live use I still think the Kemper Stage is possibly my favorite tool I’ve ever used

 

[JT]

I’ve never actually tried to use them for recording, just live work. Is it because you can’t dial them in to fit the track as easily?

For live use I still think the Kemper Stage is possibly my favorite tool I’ve ever used

I LOVED gigging the Kemper. Until I heard the difference between the feed I was giving to FOH vs what my "monitor" was "telling me". It just seems like a dead, static lump when it comes to recording with this kind of tech. I know that's fundamentally wrong on probably every level; I just derive ZERO inspiration when trying to do any sort of recording with it. Compared to boatloads of bits and pieces I've done with my component modeler rigs over the years