Alright, by now most of us have experience with all the big sellers, who usually have a big catalog and appear to be present everywhere, let it be this forum or all the groups on social media.
That's why this thread is dedicated to the profile creators which usually fly under the radar, are criminally underrated or offer a deal that's almost too good to be true. Generally, these are people who don't own or are backed by a big studio as well as putting out little to no marketing.
No one here says that would be a bad thing and we all love the well established big vendors. Still, this is supposed to be a platform to bring lesser known offerings up to the surface.
Please note: This thread is not for:
- pointing out great profiles on Rig Exchange
- discussing free Rigs in general
- discussing your favorite vendors overall
but instead is aimed to provide inspiration for everyone.
I will start with one of the best deals if you are anything into Marshalls. Godi Hillmann created Katzbach Profiles and profiled 18 vintage to modern Marshalls in cooperation with the Marshall Amp Museum Germany. I think it covers pretty much all flavors and they even have one specific JMP50 which was owned and used by Stevie Ray Vaughn himself. I highly recommend the All Bundle which comes in at only 25€ that will surely put a smile in your face. I am still amazed how well single coils work with most of the profiles in general. I wouldn't recommend it if you only play high gain, however, it covers everything from breakup crunch to hard rock.
Another "steal of the century" is in my opinion the one(!) profile pack by Peter's Crazy Profiles which is in my opinion the -end all- of my highgain needs. If you play metal do yourself a favor and pick this one up. The list of amps is substantial, as well a a lot of MTS (Synergy) Modules, which cover pretty much every flavor of high gain. Also, all profiles are Merged Profiles and he includes a ton of great Cab Presets that genuinely rival some of the best IRs there are. Best of all, he regularly updates his pack for free when he gets to profile new gear, so there's always more to come in a different flavor as well. Currently it's V10 with over 1026 profiles which are honestly all highly usable! I can't recommend him enough and feel like more people should know. If you want a taste he got 16 profiles on Rig Exchange if you search for the Author Petr82.
An upcoming profile creator is Mattfig. His Friedman 4.0 pack is pure bliss and replaced the already great profiles by Mr. Meulendijk I've been using before. He has a logical system in his profiles (LG = Low Gain, MG = Mid Gain,... / (cool), (warm), (hot),...), which makes it very easy to find the sound you are looking for fast. He always includes at least two Cabinets for the studio profiles and has an extensive set of DI profiles to go along, which I am personally a huge fan of! Paired with my favorite IRs / Cabs I can get any flavor I am looking for in the best quality. As far as I know every pack after the mentioned Friedman 4.0 is beyond awesome and he even got an original Dumble profiled if that's what you're looking for. Overall I'm very pleased with his work and wouldn't be surprised if he's constantly mentioned along the big names long term.
Lastly, a seller I don't hear often about is Selah Sounds. I got a few packs from them and all profiles are extremely consistent. They also have a couple official Kemper packs in cooperation with Kinglsey Amps. What sets them apart is that they always create a specific version for humbuckers and single coils for each profile. They are not as active and may disappear in the shadow of something like Tone Junkies, but I highly recommend them and think they are underrated.
That's it with my suggestions. I can easily recommend any of those profile creators mentioned here in a heart beat and think that these offerings may be a welcomed alternative if you're usually aiming for the well-known big guys on the market.
One last thing, in case you feel adventurous our fellow user Theyetti1 put in his time to create a very detailed list if you are looking to discover something completely new: . : KemperFiles : .
That's it from me. Please share you own opinions of lesser known profile packs that you think most people will just overlook