Hey guys,
This involves Kemper, but I guess since my focus is more on the pups, it's better to post it in this section.
I have had a long, painful quest of getting good distorted sounds out of my Kemper and it still continues. I appreciate feedback and thoughts.
As I was still thinking it could be a fault in the Kemper, a member by the name of MentaL was kind enough to supply me with his DI recording to test my reamping. It turned out that the Kemper was working correctly. And that made me think, the problem must be then the signal going to the Kemper, that is: strings, guitar, pickups; or then possibly my audio interface. His DI sounded really awesome, while nothing I could make sounded so good, or made the Kemper sound so good either. I have tested a lot of different strings, and even went and bought a new ESP E-II Horizon to upgrade my guitar situation. But still... his sound is better, and makes better reamps. Now I'm thinking at least part of the thing is the pickups.
And before going further I would really like to know, if we both record DI through the Kemper, so it's the Kemper doing the analog-digital conversion (as I am lead to believe), does the audio interface have any part of forming the sound? Because if it's the Kemper doing all the work, and the interface is just receiving 1s and 0s, does it make any difference whether it's a Focusrite Scarlett as I have, or something much more expensive as he most probably has? The reason I'm asking is that, while he has a lot more low-range, it doesn't sound boomy or muddy at all. It sounds really defined and good. Is this due to the pickup or the audio interface?
To continue... I have made several DI recordings, and then their reamps to make a comparison. All bridge position. All mine are in D-tune.
1) Mental's DI. He said he has a Ibanez JEM with Dimarzio Breed and cobalt strings. C-tune. Don't know gauge.
2) ESP with month old DR DDT 11-54 strings, and EMG 57 with a 24 V mod (because it was clipping on 9 V even at 5 mm distance).
3) Same ESP with brand new cobalt 11-54 strings.
4) Number 3 EQd with EQCurve to match number 1 (to test how it affects reamping).
5) My brothers Kramer with couple of months old DR DDT 11-54, passive SD pups. There's somekind of a boost switch.. here ON.
6) And here OFF.
7) My Kramer with about 2 month old DR DDT strings, EMG 81 pup with 9 V, and as you can hear it clips a little.
As you can probably hear, number 1 has much more low-end, and much less high-end. Also, even looking at the image of the recording, compared to all my recordings, it's very flat, like compressed. I have big transients, and the sound fades after them, while his doesn't. Is this due to pickups?
The rest of the clips are the reamps in order. I used something from Guido Bungenstock. The outgoing clips all peaked at -0.2, so should be same level of volume. A difference is of course that since I have bigger transients, what happens after the transients will have less distortion in my clips. I know that one reamp is just one case, but I have perceived a problem in my sounds through-out all my distorted rigs, and I think his illustrates what the problem is in all of them.
Some might say that there's not a big difference. But for me it's always about making it work in the mix. And there it matters. The sound needs to be defined and clear to have it sit well in it's pocket in the mix. For me at least, number one is the best. And from the rest, I would maybe choose number 4. That was the EQ matched one. So I would say that definitely the frequency distribution in itself is playing a big part. The rest of them have a lot more high-end, but for me they sound brittle, not bright. And I guess that is a big part of the problem I keep having with Kemper.. distorted sounds sound brittle, not sturdy.
But as number 1 is sturdier, thicker and more defined compared to it's EQ matched equivalent, it's not the frequency distribution only. So what is it then? What I find puzzling is that the strings seem to blend more in number 1, but still the frequencies sound clearer, like there's more separation. With all that low-end, it's not boomy or muddy at all. This is what made me question if the audio interface has something to do with it. Can you hear what I'm talking about?
So.. this is what made me consider switching the EMG actives to Dimarzio Breeds. I'm quite sure that I would prefer it that way, because I seem to find that high high-end making everything brittle. But before I purchase anything, I would like to understand what is happening. Is the audio interface playing a role here? How come his sound is so defined, is that due to pickups? Would you choose one of my reamps over his? Any thoughts?