I've been on a guitar gear journey for a couple of years and essentially I've been collecting a bunch of rare and cool stuff to make sounds with and maybe even packs at some point. I was thinking about this stuff a lot today and thought I'd post a 2018 update on where I think we're at. I think this will be interesting for you guys as you probably know I'm as Fractal as it gets.
I love real tube amps. I always have and there's no way around it. There's never been a point in my life where I didn't have a couple of tube amps around and right now I think I have found some of the best tube amps ever created. 1) Mesa Mark V and 2) Marshall DSL. The Mark V can nail all of my favorite Mesa sounds while the DSL is kind of like "the original Friedman HBE" or something like that. It can do the JCM800 thing but also the higher gain Recto type stuff if you want it to but obviously it's not as tight or pointy as the Mark V.
Axe-Fx III vs real tube amps:
I'm pretty convinced that you can get every tone out there with the Axe-Fx III. You don't "need" a tube amp but they're fun to play with. With tube amps you only have a couple of knobs you can fiddle with and this obviously leads to you playing more and not diving into deeper parameters where you question "does this make the Axe-Fx sound more real or not". My advice for Axe-Fx users: stop tweaking so much. Treat the amp sim like a real amp and you will be equally happy. Use your ears and don't search google for amp settings. But damn I love driving real cabs with real tube amps. That Mesa Mark V lead channel palm mute oomph.. I'm sure everyone who's ever played one will agree. Also the Marshall is the darn loudest thing I've ever witnessed. Just puts a smile on your face. Tube smell!
The friggin Kemper Toaster Profiler:
So yes. I've got one of these around these days. How do I even write about this subject without offending someone in this overly politically correct world. I'll just say what I think at the moment. It's all just gear. No need to get mad. I think I've been around and worked with enough people in the industry to have a good balance of a subjective/objective opinion so here it comes: The Kemper is a good piece of gear that can sound like real tube amps... but some of the philosophy behind the unit makes me feel like it was not designed by a guitar gear nerd like me and I don't just mean the looks.
The EQ section is the furthest thing from a tube amp EQ section. For example lowering the bass leaves you with a clanky whimpy sound. Also the gain knob doesn't in my opinion capture the gain structure of real amps nor does it do a good job of capturing the type of palm mutes/pick transients these real amps have. But my main complaint is the "Pure Cabinet". What the Flula Borg is that?! So for those who don't know what it is, it's essentially what the Axe-Fx Cab Block has called "smoothing" (yes that function that was added on the same day it was added on the Kemper but us Fractal users never fell in love with it) and the Kemper comes stock with this setting way up high so even if you have a bad IR it will not sting your ears but it will also make your Kemper sound like a Boss GT-6 with those overly smoothed IR's with zero definition.
As an IR producer I felt like "Pure Cabinet" is to IR's, what pavement is to the sculpture of David. I spend hours and hours fine tuning every little character aspect of multiple mic positions and something like Pure Cabinet will make every IR in an IR pack sound exacty the same. Let me repeat, the unit comes default with a global setting of having it on so I'm thinking most Kempers out there have it on. It's exactly the same thing as taking a bad photograph and then using a blur effect to cover up the bad photo. All the details are lost in this process.
But there's a happy ending, it's not all bad. I do like the concept of having profiles even if they're not 100% accurate I'm sure they're close enough to trick the majority of people. If you disable Pure Cabinet and really do a good job profiling you should profile all your friend's amps and you can have a personal unique amp collection all to yourself.
Why did I post this? ... is what I'm thinking now. I suppose it was because I know we guitar players tend to question ourselves and our gear a lot and try different things is pursuit of tonal happiness. Having all the gear possible is godmode I must admit but if I would have to have just one of these it would definitely be the Axe-Fx III. Nothing else compares to the versatility and realism. When I say versatility, I mean that when I turn down the bass knob the amp model reacts just like the real amp does. It's not just lowering the bass in post and obviously this applies to all of the knobs: gain, bass, middle, treble, presence and master. Us Fractal people are spoiled but if there's one piece of criticism I'm not afraid to mention is the amount of tweakable possibilities sometimes takes over and I end up tweaking more than I would need. It's a psychological problem I'm aware of. So, keep it up guys! Try to tweak less and play more.
I love real tube amps. I always have and there's no way around it. There's never been a point in my life where I didn't have a couple of tube amps around and right now I think I have found some of the best tube amps ever created. 1) Mesa Mark V and 2) Marshall DSL. The Mark V can nail all of my favorite Mesa sounds while the DSL is kind of like "the original Friedman HBE" or something like that. It can do the JCM800 thing but also the higher gain Recto type stuff if you want it to but obviously it's not as tight or pointy as the Mark V.
Axe-Fx III vs real tube amps:
I'm pretty convinced that you can get every tone out there with the Axe-Fx III. You don't "need" a tube amp but they're fun to play with. With tube amps you only have a couple of knobs you can fiddle with and this obviously leads to you playing more and not diving into deeper parameters where you question "does this make the Axe-Fx sound more real or not". My advice for Axe-Fx users: stop tweaking so much. Treat the amp sim like a real amp and you will be equally happy. Use your ears and don't search google for amp settings. But damn I love driving real cabs with real tube amps. That Mesa Mark V lead channel palm mute oomph.. I'm sure everyone who's ever played one will agree. Also the Marshall is the darn loudest thing I've ever witnessed. Just puts a smile on your face. Tube smell!
The friggin Kemper Toaster Profiler:
So yes. I've got one of these around these days. How do I even write about this subject without offending someone in this overly politically correct world. I'll just say what I think at the moment. It's all just gear. No need to get mad. I think I've been around and worked with enough people in the industry to have a good balance of a subjective/objective opinion so here it comes: The Kemper is a good piece of gear that can sound like real tube amps... but some of the philosophy behind the unit makes me feel like it was not designed by a guitar gear nerd like me and I don't just mean the looks.
The EQ section is the furthest thing from a tube amp EQ section. For example lowering the bass leaves you with a clanky whimpy sound. Also the gain knob doesn't in my opinion capture the gain structure of real amps nor does it do a good job of capturing the type of palm mutes/pick transients these real amps have. But my main complaint is the "Pure Cabinet". What the Flula Borg is that?! So for those who don't know what it is, it's essentially what the Axe-Fx Cab Block has called "smoothing" (yes that function that was added on the same day it was added on the Kemper but us Fractal users never fell in love with it) and the Kemper comes stock with this setting way up high so even if you have a bad IR it will not sting your ears but it will also make your Kemper sound like a Boss GT-6 with those overly smoothed IR's with zero definition.
As an IR producer I felt like "Pure Cabinet" is to IR's, what pavement is to the sculpture of David. I spend hours and hours fine tuning every little character aspect of multiple mic positions and something like Pure Cabinet will make every IR in an IR pack sound exacty the same. Let me repeat, the unit comes default with a global setting of having it on so I'm thinking most Kempers out there have it on. It's exactly the same thing as taking a bad photograph and then using a blur effect to cover up the bad photo. All the details are lost in this process.
But there's a happy ending, it's not all bad. I do like the concept of having profiles even if they're not 100% accurate I'm sure they're close enough to trick the majority of people. If you disable Pure Cabinet and really do a good job profiling you should profile all your friend's amps and you can have a personal unique amp collection all to yourself.
Why did I post this? ... is what I'm thinking now. I suppose it was because I know we guitar players tend to question ourselves and our gear a lot and try different things is pursuit of tonal happiness. Having all the gear possible is godmode I must admit but if I would have to have just one of these it would definitely be the Axe-Fx III. Nothing else compares to the versatility and realism. When I say versatility, I mean that when I turn down the bass knob the amp model reacts just like the real amp does. It's not just lowering the bass in post and obviously this applies to all of the knobs: gain, bass, middle, treble, presence and master. Us Fractal people are spoiled but if there's one piece of criticism I'm not afraid to mention is the amount of tweakable possibilities sometimes takes over and I end up tweaking more than I would need. It's a psychological problem I'm aware of. So, keep it up guys! Try to tweak less and play more.