How to built a SOUND for a Specific Song (Cover or Original)
Many of You asked for it… so, here you find some technical notes about the general method I tipically use to build a sound. It is, at the end, a general method that you can apply to any digital unit!
Well, first of all, to obtain high results it takes time, and I can also affirm that “it’s not for all” simply because not all the people really want to invest time in creating sounds. If you are this kind od musician (it is neither good nor bad) I simply suggest you to take the work done by others and exploit it.
Otherwise, if you like to dig into sound creations (as it happens to me), you can try and experiment a lot to obtain same or even better results … There are no particular secrets: it just depend on ears/experience and sometimes, why not, also on your luck/time to find the ‘perfect‘ profile as a starting point 😉
So, let’s see the various steps in detail:
STEP 1 – Listen carefully to the Guitar Part Sound you want to build: if you are already sure that there are some Stomps/Effects in it, then it’s better to immediately putting them in the RIG and LOCK them
STEP 2 – Search for a Profile in the AMP/STACK Section that match your Guitar Part and gradually save some SNAPSHOTs for the ones you like to review them after
STEP 3 – Once you have restricted the RIGs/SNAPSHOTs to less then eight/ten, play them through the Backing Track and narrow down the field to 2-3 RIGs maximum
STEP 4 – Record with those RIGs and listen both through Monitor Speakers and Phones the results, then choose your FINAL RIG to go and refine it completing the Sound with Effects, Ambient Part and correct EQ
STEP 5 – Open a DAW Session with the Original Song on a track, the Backing on another track; then record the guitar and refine again… (the best way to do it is to use the Reamp Feature looping specific Guitar Parts)
STEP 6 – Enjoy … play it night and day and don’t stop 😉
USING PRESETs vs RIGs on the KEMPER AMP
When I start to build a sound, I use one or both of the two following approach:
A) Search for a semi-READY RIG between the ones already available that could match as much as possible the target sound… and tweak till I’m happy with it …
B) Start from a BLANK RIG (with all the buttons OFF but ready to be activated with simple knobs turn), and then inserting one after another STACK / STOMPS / EFFECTS presets to match the target sound … and again tweak…
Here you can DOWNLOAD a couple of BLANK RIG ready to insert PRESETs:
As above described, when you are searching for a sound and you are switching between several PROFILEs/AMPs (damned ALL good!!!) it becomes very difficult to understand which is ‘better’ for us… So, as soon as I see that a sound can match my target, I immediately save it as a SNAPSHOT. After this first passage I go to a second step, listening to the various snapshots and choose the final one… and tweak…
Let’s do some additional considerations on the using of presets…
A RIG consists of a complete CHAIN based on Stomps-Amp-Effects, but a lot of RIGs have only the STACK AMP active. So, having in the KPA memory some STACK PRESETs, already saved, that can be anytime recalled with a simple knob turn is a great addition!
Think about this option: using just amp/effects presets to be inserted in a BLANK RIG instead of switching/searching between RIGs already formed…
What I have done was to storage sounds to be able to use both approach:
– on the PRESETs side I have stored my preferred STACK AMPs, ordered by GAIN, with the PURE sound of the AMP PROFILE
– on the RIGs side I stored the AMPs profiles, ordered by FACTORY, and tweaked (a little or strongly) but at least with Gate Stomp + Noise Gate to reduce noise levels and a little Reverb ON; often I save them with a little Compressor, Dist Stomp and Equalizer, rarely with modulation effects
Hope to have time in the future to show you some video experiences based on the two approaches to build sounds.
Maurizio70