Tips on building a David Gilmour style tone for Comfortably Numb

  • Hey

    So I bought the profiles from The Amp Factory - but the lead profile has so much feedback it's an absolute nightmare to record with.

    Does anyone have any tips on getting a good Gilmour tone for tracks like Comfortably Numb/Sorrow etc? Any drives you would recommend using and in what order in the signal chain etc?

    Or alternatively - a better profile I can download (or buy) than The Amp Factory version?

    Cheers :)

  • a better profile I can download (or buy) than The Amp Factory version?

    Will be difficult to find a "better" profile since Andy (The Amp Factory) profiled David Gilmour's actual personal HiWatt amp that had been used on Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall.

    You should try to tackle the "feedback" problem instead. The Kemper Profiler itself doesn't create any feedback. What guitar/pickups are you using? How do you monitor? How do you record?

  • I did it with Andy‘s profile as well and I got IMHO a brilliant result. Choose a clean profile, because to my knowledge David uses clean amps, put a muffin and a treble booster in front. Rotospeaker, Delay and Reverb thereafter. Maybe Compressor before the effects. I used the FR mode on my Kabinet to have the Fane speakers and with a slightly overpowered bridge pickup on a Strat you have a real Gilmour sound!

  • Feedback? Are your pickups microphonic and squealing? Or, are you playing too loud/are you too close to your speakers?

    If those Rigs don't work for you, here is a link to many previous posts on the subject:

    https://www.kemper-amps.com/wbb_suite_3/in…ghlight=Gilmour

    Will be difficult to find a "better" profile since Andy (The Amp Factory) profiled David Gilmour's actual personal HiWatt amp that had been used on Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall.

    You should try to tackle the "feedback" problem instead. The Kemper Profiler itself doesn't create any feedback. What guitar/pickups are you using? How do you monitor? How do you record?

    I did it with Andy‘s profile as well and I got IMHO a brilliant result. Choose a clean profile, because to my knowledge David uses clean amps, put a muffin and a treble booster in front. Rotospeaker, Delay and Reverb thereafter. Maybe Compressor before the effects. I used the FR mode on my Kabinet to have the Fane speakers and with a slightly overpowered bridge pickup on a Strat you have a real Gilmour sound!

    Hey all

    Thank you so much for all the responses (and everyone else that posted)

    So I've done some troubleshooting, and it doesn't happen when I'm facing away from my PC, I'll record what it sounds like when I'm

    home. It happens when I'm facing my PC So maybe it's my PC screen or PC causing radio feedback with the pickups in my guitar?

    I have Suhr and it happens even on the humbuckers

  • Hey guys


    So I did a little video to show the issue. It's definitely when I move my guitar closer to my PC. (that's my PC tower under my desk)

    I'm probably coming across a real idiot but I can't work out why it's happening, but more importantly how to stop it.

    It's pretty annoying because if I even want to record patches like that where there's a load of gain/fuzz etc, I need to be a way away from my PC.

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    Thanks so much in advanced :)

  • Welcome to the world of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI).

    Every electronic device in your house creates EMI noise. There are usually governmental rules as to how much noise they can make. Some things have to make noise or they dont work. So there are exemptions.

    PCs are almost always in a metal box. Because the metal box is called a Faraday Cage and keeps EMI contained inside. If your case is not closed properly or has giant holes for fans/glass/etc then EMI can escape.

    For example, old PC CRT monitors put out so much magnetic noise that computer speakers had to be shielded or they would just buzz and feedback like your guitar is. LCD screens are much quieter as far as EMI. But you still see Magnetically Shielded in descriptions.

    Any cable attached to your PC has voltage/currents running thru it. These create EMI and low frequency magnetic fields. So even if your case is OK, the cables are little antennas transmitting noise to the world. USB for example can be pretty bad for EMI. In the early days if you moved your mouse the EMI would couple into your cheap on-board sound card and you would hear buzzing :thumbup:

    Any current traveling thru a wire creates a magnetic field and transmits EMI. Magnetic fields that affect your guitar are usually too low in frequency to be filtered cheaply/effectively. You will always see a big lump at the end of USB cables. This is a chunk of ferrite material used to reduce very high frequency EMI noise (500 MHz and up). It does nothing at low to high frequencies. At low freqs (audio range) you need heavy expensive capacitors and inductors like you would see in your speaker crossover networks.

    The more current moving thru a wire, the more EMI (larger magnetic field). So move any low voltage signals lines away from your power cords. Keep them away from power supplies (transformers=low freq EMI, Switch mode PS = high freq EMI).

    Guitars are sometimes shielded (Faraday Cage) around the electronics. This is to do the opposite of the PC case. It is to keep noise out. The pickup cables are usually shielded cables and are grounded on the ground of the guitar (usually the Vol/tone Pots). There may be a metallized coating or metal tape inside the electronics chamber to shield against noise. If you modded your guitar or switched out a pickup, verify you connected all of the ground wires and kept any shielding intact.

    Once you have a high gain amp/profile, you are amplifying any small noise and making it very loud.

    The way a faraday cage/shielding works is that it gives the EMI a path to travel to electrical ground that is outside of your normal signals. You dont want EMI currents on your signal lines, just on the outer ground. This means your devices need to be grounded. If your amp or PC are not grounded the noise has no where to go and couples (transmits) into nearby wires/circuits/etc.

    Since the power lines in your house all go to the same location (the pole outside your house) any EMI on the power lines can creep into your electronics. It is not uncommon for something like a refrigerator motor, vacuum, or lighting dimmer to cause EMI in your equipment. This is also why a lightning strike destroys your equipment. A massive magnetic field or current gets on the power lines outside your house and drives up the voltage. So you need voltage suppression devices like MOVs in your outlet strips to absorb that EMI. The Pros on here will run expensive power conditioners to eliminate EMI while on stage or in expensive studios.

    That is a lot of tech info that probably does not help you at all. But I tried :wacko:

    Edited 4 times, last by RosboneMako (March 21, 2022 at 7:24 PM).

  • Oh wow, that's really helpful - thanks so much! Yeah my PC tower has holes in the top for ventilation (I'm guessing)

    So without modding my guitar, is there anyway to avoid that EMI coming from my PC to my guitar?

    Thanks again for the post dude - sorry I haven't got a longer reply to it haha

  • Fairly easy test: get some tinfoil, and place between your computer and guitar. If it won't stay there on its own, you can wrap it around a piece of cardboard. Then try moving it around until the interference goes away (hopefully, anyway :) )

    I had to do this for my M-Audio monitors, as they were picking up noise from my router. Problem solved, even if it looks a little weird.

  • yep, welcome to the club of EMI victims ... have the same issue and tried everything without any significant result ... i gave up and try to stay as far away as necessary from the puter box when playing which is an issue when recording and needing to acess the mouse and keyboard. i'm planning at some point to move the computer to another location but it will require recabling my whole studio which i haven't gotten round to yet.

    Haven't tried the tinfoil test yet whic i probably should ...


    -------------------------------------------------------

    free you mind and your ass will follow …

  • You need a few of these...

    Digital Energy EMI Sound Filter/Noise Reducer - 25 Foot Long 14/3 Cable - 6 Outlet Metal Studio Surge Protector Power Strip | 1200 Joule, Heavy Duty Construction

    https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Energy…n/dp/B07M8P89RW

    I have zero interference but all my electronics go thru surge protectors with noise filtering. Plus, I made sure my house was grounded properly from the fuse box to the ground rod in the ground with at least a 8 gauge copper wire and heavy duty grounding clamp.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • You should hear my old P-90 Les Paul when you get it close =OTo the keyboard/PC. Makes all kinds of loud weird noises. Humbucker guitars don't seem as bad and my Tele isn't to bad but that big antenna on the Les Paul howls. It's the guitar. I usually just push myself away from the desk when tracking and that brings the noise down to a level that's close to being "normal". Electronic devices like a PC or Kemper radiate noise and your guitar is a souped up antenna for that noise. Sometimes even shielding doesn't fix things, you just need to get away from the source.

  • Fairly easy test: get some tinfoil, and place between your computer and guitar. If it won't stay there on its own, you can wrap it around a piece of cardboard. Then try moving it around until the interference goes away (hopefully, anyway :) )

    I had to do this for my M-Audio monitors, as they were picking up noise from my router. Problem solved, even if it looks a little weird.

    That's interesting. Can you show a picture of this perhaps?

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • EMI can be a maddening thing. Even when you know what is causing it.

    You should hear my old P-90 Les Paul when you get it close =OTo the keyboard/PC. Makes all kinds of loud weird noises. Humbucker guitars don't seem as bad and my Tele isn't to bad but that big antenna on the Les Paul howls. It's the guitar. I usually just push myself away from the desk when tracking and that brings the noise down to a level that's close to being "normal". Electronic devices like a PC or Kemper radiate noise and your guitar is a souped up antenna for that noise. Sometimes even shielding doesn't fix things, you just need to get away from the source.


    ‘52 spec Telecaster pickups are similar. I’d swear they make noise when you simply whisper ‘EMI’.


    An active fluorescent light?

    They amplify that 60 cycle “Eeeeheeeheeeegeeee…” as of it’s their life’s work……

  • I cheated, and didn't ground it. The foil alone was enough to prevent the noise from the router from reaching the back of the powered M-Audio unit.

    That said, it would be really easy to attach a wire with an alligator clip (or even solder) to the foil, then connect it to the center screw of one of the AC outlets nearby. Assuming the house AC is grounded properly, naturally. And assuming you're using US standard 60hz AC power. I can't speak to other standards, but should be similar ways to ground, just the connection may be different.

    Just curious, which ground did you connect the aluminum foil to?

  • Just curious, which ground did you connect the aluminum foil to?

    Connecting a wire of any length longer than a few inches may not do too much to help. At 2.4 and 5 GHz a lead longer than a couple inches will have a pretty high inductive impedance (resistance) and may not help much.

    The metal is probably stopping the energy coming from the router. But the energy may charge the plate. The plate will then act like a capacitor and try to couple energy to nearby things. So the plates distance from the thing you are protecting should be the factor of its effectiveness.

    Just a guess. I am no physicist. I used to hang out with smart people so I know just enough to be dangerous 8o