Profiling Engl Ironball via CaptorX

Quad Cortex
1

Hi, I’m new here so apologies if I’m asking something too obvious or basic.

I borrowed a QC a couple of years ago and profiled my Engl Ironball, via my CaptorX. I profiled the clean channel and the gain channel with the gain control incrementally from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock. I also profiled my Carl Martin Plextione and my Keeley Modded DS-1.

I created presets based on these and was delighted with the results. In my rehearsal space I used the QC through my DXR10 and auditioned at length probably between 90 and 100dB (I didn’t have a dB meter then but I do now - unfortunately I have tinnitus now).

In rehearsals (they weren’t so loud as they were in someone’s house but still at least 90dB) it sounded great.

I played one outdoor festival, and the gain sounds through the on-stage monitoring were horrific…razorblade-like. It was a raised stage, a short turn around between bands, so I didn’t get to listen out front, so I applied a severe high cut with the global EQ, from memory I started at 6K and may have taken to 5k or so…

I returned the borrowed QC…but I’ve finally bought one. I loved so much about the one I borrowed, but obviously had a bad experience live.

I know you need to audition rigs at rehearsal volume…and I also know that on stage wedges can be nasty.

Could profiling via the CaptorX be the issue?..it’s mega convenient, and when I play my Engl, it’s my CaptorX feed I send to FoH.

I don’t know now whether I can trust my profiling and whether I should just get a clean amp model and higher gain amp model I like and recreate my presets using those rather than my captures.

I can’t remember the exact details of how I set the levels etc for the profiling I did…but I struggle with the fact that it sounded so great through my DXR10 at super loud levels and then so bad on stage.

Anyhow, I hope that’s not too verbose, and sorry if I’ve made any stupid mistakes.

Thanks,

Andy

2

Hello and welcome.

Quick note on nomenclature: What other companies like Kemper call profiling and profiles, Neural DSP calls capturing, and captures. No big deal, just starting off on the right foot.

At first glance, it sounds like maybe you had a cab block activated during rehearsal, which would have given you the sound of a miked-up speaker cabinet, going into your DXR10. Then, perhaps, the speaker cabinet was turned off or not present in the preset you were using when you played that festival.

In both cases, you would have had the Engl capture you created. But without a cab block, amp and capture sounds are terribly harsh.

Do you remember if you used the same preset between rehearsal and stage performance? If so, did you have a cab block activated?

3

Hi there, thanks - and got it on the nomenclature. I should have said that in my presets I actually opted for the Capture that I did using the CaptorX with IR - so it was baked into my amp captures and I believe that means I couldn’t have turned it off?

4

One thing I have noticed is that my Captures were way too quiet. I was boosting them by over 5dB in the multiout menu to try to have some parity with the stock presets. Is there a best practice guide to how to set the various levels during capture?