Scott Henderson Discussion

[ItAllanLover]

Hi Scott, have you ever considered profiling your gear with a Kemper?
I'd love to hear an A/B comparison between the profiled and the original, and maybe you too could be surprised by it...just curious about it...than maybe you may consider to sell the profiles, they would be of huge interest for many people, myself included.

[Scott Henderson]

I haven't considered it because in my opinion that technology isn't quite there yet. I believe the IR technology will change the way we record at home, so I'm working some in that area, and plan to work on it seriously with a super-expert as soon as this pandemic is over.

dizzy, who's a member here, did a whole record with a Kemper and I think it sounds great, but his latest album is with tube amps - just from the few tracks I've heard so far, it sounds better. Maybe he wants to chime in here with his opinion.

[dizzy]

Thanks Scott:)

The kemper was awesome for my first dive into home recording.
I bought Matt Britts clean bassman profile and then used drive pedals before the kemper.
The problem was that I could only ever get low gain bluesy sounds that I liked. The higher gain sounds didn’t sound right to me so I recorded the whole album with only lower gain sounds.
On the new album I used mainly a real bassman into a suhr reactive load and then celestion irs. I set the amp clean and used od pedals. So it is actually a perfect comparison against the kemper on the first album.
Getting the tone was harder on this album because there were more variables—with the kemper all of that stuff is baked into the profile. But when I learned what speaker irs to use and how to set the amp etc I think it sounds much better.
I think what they haven’t gotten right in modeling is the input section. Drives don’t compress the front end of the modeler the way they do with the real amp.
People get around this by profiling the pedal and the amp together. But this still doesn’t work because the guitar itself still isn’t hitting the front end of the amp.

They need to invent a way to shrink us and put us inside the modeler when we play😂
But seriously—this is just my experience and I know lots of players like the kemper. I would have used it again if I hadn’t learned about tge reactive load and irs from Scott. I think those are gamechangers.

P.s. I’m not sure but I think I might know what Scott is talking about with what he will work on. Seems like it will be the final piece of the puzzle if it is what I think it is.

[Chickentonight]

Just a quick comment here..

I don't think modeling will ever be completely there. The real thing is 100% and modeling is just trying to achieve that never really getting there.

Only way that modeling could be said to be just as good is that recorded wav files would be completely identical point by point on modeled and miced real amps. Of course, the difference could be so small it doesn't really matter too much. But it wouldn't still be 100% identical. So real amps will always win by some margin unless modeling abandons modeling real amps and instead goes further somewhere else which sounds better than real amps.

I personally use kemper for effects which are great. There's just something weird about the modeled amp sounds which is hard to put in words but it's in there.

[Scott Henderson]

I feel the same way about IRs, but the technology isn't the problem. It's the cabinets, mic placement, room sound, wiring, and all the other stuff that IR manufacturers are capturing. If you're used to playing your own rig in your own space, nothing will probably make you happy but an exact copy of it, which is what I'll be working on later this year. I have some IRs already which are pretty damn close, but I'm confident that soon I won't be able to hear the difference, even without the bass and drums. Then I'll put windows back in my room!

[dizzy]

[quote="Chickentonight"]Just a quick comment here..

I don't think modeling will ever be completely there. The real thing is 100% and modeling is just trying to achieve that never really getting there.

Only way that modeling could be said to be just as good is that recorded wav files would be completely identical point by point on modeled and miced real amps. Of course, the difference could be so small it doesn't really matter too much. But it wouldn't still be 100% identical. So real amps will always win by some margin unless modeling abandons modeling real amps and instead goes further somewhere else which sounds better than real amps.

I personally use kemper for effects which are great. There's just something weird about the modeled amp sounds which is hard to put in words but it's in there.[/quote]


I agree. And I would go further and say “what is the purpose of working on technology that at its best will only be as good as something that already exists?”
With speaker irs it is different because that allows people to record their amp at home without getting kicked out of the house. So this is useful technology that makes the world a slightly better place.
I do understand why people who play in cover bands or record lots of sounds like modeling.
But actually sometimes this seems strange too. Any cover band I’ve ever been in has only required me to have a decent amp and some pedals. No one has ever said “hey Dan, on Celebration he has a compressor on his funky octave riff, could you program that sound?”
Maybe people who do jingles need modelers because they have to record so many sounds fast. But in this case the first version pod would do just fine.

Then there is the thought that for people who don’t have access to good amps modeling is good. But here, I would rather have a used hot rod deluxe and some pedals.
I always encourage my beginner and intermediate guitar students to get a cheep amp and an overdrive.
But this is my opinion and other people have opinions that are just as valid.