Cab Block " Character " Control ..... a bit of a Revelation

1st Official Post

    Hi all !


    Just passing this on in case some of you find it useful.


    Back in the day when I first had my Kemper Toaster ... and now today back to the Kemper Stage, I *always* did my Hi / Lo Cuts and always left the "Character" Control at 12.00 / zero - never bothered to then or up until now, check what it does.


    I've always used excellent IR's ... custom made and MBritt's [brilliant] 2 x 12 Classic Lead 80 Cab set of IR's from his IR Pack.


    I had a perennial problem though .... this applied to my first Kemper ... all my Fractals ...Helix and Tonex in Helix Loop, GT1000 .... no matter how surgically the Cab Hi cut was set ... there was always a left-over [non-musical] degree of [mildly annoying] sizzle / brittleness in the Hi End.


    I just accepted it and moved on ... until today.


    Having now set up my Stage for Gig use .... and as I still had no idea what the "Character" Cab control does .... I *actually* RTFM ... I thought .... hmmmmm .... interesting....


    Long story short ...went to my presets .... left my Hi/Lo Cuts as they were .... and just tweaked the "Character" to 0.8 on the Left of the dial ...... holy smokes ...... all that non-musical, mildly annoying sizzle / brittleness in the Hi End was gone + the low-mids-to-mids got a touch thicker and tighter.


    Like I said ... this may very well already be well known ... but just in case .... if you are having similar issues with the Top End on your Cabs / IR's ... give this a go ... such a small tweak but such a big change


    All the best,

    Ben

    I always check the cab character control early on when tweaking a profile, usually reduce it just slightly, tho sometimes is fine as is. Have never set it to a positive value so far - get's too spiky! Sounds like you've reduced it too? You say 0.8 to the left of the dial, so I'm guessing it displays -0.8?


    I also routinely increase the cab low shift to 0.2 - most parameters I adjust on a per profile, but this one where I end up with the same value every time. I know technically this is raising the low freq's of the cab slightly, but even tho I like a good amount of bass, to my ears this small increase sounds better both on it's own and in a mix. Not make or break, but once I've set it to 0.2, I never want to go back to 0!


    If there are any other parameters you haven't experimented with, try them - they're all useful, even if in small amounts and not every time.

    Quote from alligatorlizard

    I always check the cab character control early on when tweaking a profile, usually reduce it just slightly, tho sometimes is fine as is. Have never set it to a positive value so far - get's too spiky! Sounds like you've reduced it too? You say 0.8 to the left of the dial, so I'm guessing it displays -0.8?


    I also routinely increase the cab low shift to 0.2 - most parameters I adjust on a per profile, but this one where I end up with the same value every time. I know technically this is raising the low freq's of the cab slightly, but even tho I like a good amount of bass, to my ears this small increase sounds better both on it's own and in a mix. Not make or break, but once I've set it to 0.2, I never want to go back to 0!


    If there are any other parameters you haven't experimented with, try them - they're all useful, even if in small amounts and not every time.


    Yep ..... - 0.8 on the Character Control !

    Quote from DonPetersen

    benifin

    Pure Cabinet is an adaptive algorithm to remove unwanted high end artifacts introduced by close mic'ing, try it, it sounds like you might also like what it does (I know I do)


    Thanks Don !


    Like "Character" I previously never / until now used or understood "Pure Cab" ..... took your advice and also read the manual.


    I do %99 rock to classic rock [nowhere near metal] and have in the last 30min or so tested a couple of presets with the Value at 0, 2, 4 ,6, and full


    4 is my [so far] sweet spot ..... got rid of those few remaining "spitty" "crackly" "unmusical" hi end artifacts .... but left the right amount of hi end and kept the necessary musical "ugly" high end.... *very* nice.


    Many thanks,

    Ben