Kemper Profiling Amp

[Musza]

I actually like the Kemper more

Yup, I guess it's difficult to like the original one more haha. The Kemper tighten up the whole tone and added some balls there. I wish every of the amp I'll profile in the future will suffer from those "profiling imperfections"

 

[Trevoire520]

Thats pretty damn close to be honest, the Kemper has a more pronounced pick attack, whereas the original amp is a bit rhicker/warmer.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I made a quick demonstration of the profiling. I've got this thing yesterday and I'm happy with it by far. The sound is not 100% the same but it's very close, the character is definitely there. There's a lil' bit more of an attack in the profile and I have to say I dig it a bit more than the original amp.



Here you can download the profile if you like. It's not the same that is on the video (the master volume here is around 3, in the video it was around 0,5 so there's a huge difference):
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/13715654/Kemper/VHT SigX Musza - 2013-01-26 18-27-05.kipr

The lack of low end with palm mute on kemper it's quite noticeable.

 

[Musza]

The lack of low end with palm mute on kemper it's quite noticeable.

I would say the lows on the Kemper are just tighter whereas the VHT are warmer like Trevoire520 noticed. In my opinion it wouldn't be a bad thing for most of metal mixes. I'll try it in a mix soon and see

Also, I didn't move any of the eq knobs in the Kemper to make the comparison as honest as possible. If there's a noticable difference in the tone you have always a possibility to add some frequecies with those knobs. They works really nice, only adding gain isn't very usefull.

 

[rispsira]

bought some weeks ago, incredible piece of gear.
All the story regarding the "stack" sounding the same is true, especially on high gain sounds.
Don't get me wrong, with the "cab on" every patch is different, each has its own sound.
On the other hand on every high gain patch, if you switch the cab off, the distortion sounds similar to other high gain patches.
I guess when you profile an amp it creates distortion with a single algorithm and then it applies a matching algorithm to get close to the distorted tone.
If I switch the cab off and use the monitor output into the return of my dual rectifier, all distortions sound the same.
Try it yourself
All the tone is really inside the cab simulation.

Kamao i wonder, if that is the case then in your opinion how practical will it be to add the kemper poweramp they just came up with, to the kpa?
I mean if an important part of the sound and character of the amp lies in the cab section, then if you disable it to go through a poweramp into a real cab, the results shouldnt be satisfactory?

I read about what you described before in the kemper forum, and in between that and the poweramp not being stereo im holding out for now

 

[SethTheGreat]

I did a test profiling only the preamp sections of my mesa and JCM800, believe me when I have the jcm800 profile with the gain dimed it sounds very similar to the rectifier. I'm talking about the kemper as a preamp into my rectifier hooked to a cab.

If I had a real JCM800 and a real Rectifier sitting in front of me right now, and took a direct recording of the preamp of each, I promise you I could make them sound "very similar."

 

[Clark Kent]

Personally I think the whole tone-match craze is boring and kinda ridiculous and don't need that at all in the KPA - but to each their own.

Agreed. Like playing an adventure with a walkthrough

Well that's what it is. Some people like the adventure. Some people would rather have it over with quickly. In my case I do both. I have my real amps and matching is merely something that helps me avoid buying every amp out there. GAS KILLER!! I can get the same sound with the gear I have already. That's the point. I don't get why someone would speak for profiling but against matching.. they're not that different. Same convolution process etc.

Just imagine all the recordings of real amps that you've ever made with bands over the years. You could recall those tones whenever you want. I'm sure we've all had that time when there was "something magical" in the guitar tone and you never found it after that recording. Well now you'll get close to it every time.

The lack of low end with palm mute on kemper it's quite noticeable.

This was the problem I had with profiling a Mesa Roadster. The palm mute is quite essential on some amps. They could put a parameter to adjust this since it's more of a pre-thing rather than post. F.ex. when I run to this issue with match EQ I'll add bass to the preamp and match again to get there. You can't really add pre-bass in the Kemper at least at the moment. The EQ doesn't work that way, right?

If I had a real JCM800 and a real Rectifier sitting in front of me right now, and took a direct recording of the preamp of each, I promise you I could make them sound "very similar."

No.

 

[loktide]

This was the problem I had with profiling a Mesa Roadster. The palm mute is quite essential on some amps. They could put a parameter to adjust this since it's more of a pre-thing rather than post.

yep, it is kinda like this with the kemper. sometimes the palm mutes don't sound quite right after profiling.

there are ways to get closer, though:

sometimes just by repeating the whole profiling or with enough 'refining'.

also by using an EQ stomp before the amp 'stack' to correct some frequencies

 

[SethTheGreat]

No.

Yup.

 

[Clark Kent]

Yup.

Sorry but don't embarrass yourself man. The low end on a JCM800 is completely different to a Rectifier low end. Rectifier has about 15dB more bass. JCM800 gain structure is based on power amp distortion and Rectifier on preamp distortion. Rectifier has Fender-like cleans and the other is a Marshall.

I could go on an on.

 

[AboutBlank]

Going to buy mine wednesday, really stoked...

Haven't found any DAR profile yet, somebody came across one?

Also really impressed of Jeff's 800 punk tone, just need smthg like that for the band I'm mixing right now.

 

[kaomao]

Kamao i wonder, if that is the case then in your opinion how practical will it be to add the kemper poweramp they just came up with, to the kpa?
I mean if an important part of the sound and character of the amp lies in the cab section, then if you disable it to go through a poweramp into a real cab, the results shouldnt be satisfactory?

I read about what you described before in the kemper forum, and in between that and the poweramp not being stereo im holding out for now

It think the unit is great for going direct (inside pa or into your daw), as a normal guitar preamp I think the axe fx is way better.
They're putting a PA poweramp inside the kemper, not an actual guitar poweramp, so it's like going direct, if you want to spend 700 hundred euros for that, go for it... I think that option costs way too much when you can have a cheaper poweramp.
BTW the kemper got some great cool fx's and they say the new screamer is way better (didn't have the time to update the firmware), the stock one was the weakest fx inside the unit.

 

[IBmixin]

Haven't found any DAR profile yet, somebody came across one?
.

im planning on getting one very soon. i own the DAR Tuzzia... altho its no FBM i really love that amp more than any 5150 or rectifier i ever owned. it dosent do crunch as well as i would like but its all over the hight gain stuff.

 

[AboutBlank]

Nice, that would be rad...

 

[EOC]

my experience so far (one night with it):

So, i took a plane to a whole other country just to buy this madafaka (and a pair of ax7 =) Came home, started playing through the stock profiles and.... i hated it.... it sounded like a pod with a little more dynamics... i was about to shoot my self in the face, but then i started dowloading some profiles and tweaking here and there and i have to admit its beginning to shine now! its amazing how many tweaking possibilities it has (that actually contribute to the sound)
i dont have any amp to profile right now but from what i know, that wont be a problem, although i have to admit that there is a kind of "kemper sound" to every patch, no matter what amp has been profiled (something in the low and high mids)

At the moment im broke, but really looking forward on buying the amp factory packs.
Kemper forum looks great also!

 

[rispsira]

It think the unit is great for going direct (inside pa or into your daw), as a normal guitar preamp I think the axe fx is way better.
They're putting a PA poweramp inside the kemper, not an actual guitar poweramp, so it's like going direct, if you want to spend 700 hundred euros for that, go for it... I think that option costs way too much when you can have a cheaper poweramp.
BTW the kemper got some great cool fx's and they say the new screamer is way better (didn't have the time to update the firmware), the stock one was the weakest fx inside the unit.

I actually got tempted to try a solid state amp because i have profiles coming from different amps with differnt power sections and i wouldnt wanna color them. For example i once tried my axefx with my 2:90 poweramp. It worked great on mark series patches but when it came to recto or 5150 patches for example i didnt like them that much; they seemed to sound "smoother".
So IN THEORY it sounded good to me to try a "transparent" solid state poweramp, but i never have so you might be totally right. On another hand, as i said i just cant understand how it would sound right since you are going to disable the cab section that as you said includes a lot of information about the amp and its character..
So for now i think im gonna stick to going direct (also suck that its a mono poweramp it seems)
i updated it but havent tried my patches with the ts yet, ill make sure to do that.
Thanks for the reply!

 

[kaomao]

On another hand, as i said i just cant understand how it would sound right since you are going to disable the cab section that as you said includes a lot of information about the amp and its character..
So for now i think im gonna stick to going direct (also suck that its a mono poweramp it seems)
i updated it but havent tried my patches with the ts yet, ill make sure to do that.
Thanks for the reply!

Well I disabled the cab section because I was using my dual recto as a power amp. And in fact it doesn't sound great... uhm well it sounds good but it just sounds the same through all the patches.
Just to repeat myself, direct is great (with their poweramp or not), into an actual guitar amp (return) it's not.
If you're going to buy their poweramp you're still going direct (like into pa) anyway in this case you must not disable the cab section, otherwise it would sound like a mad buzzsaw of course.

 

[rispsira]

Actually the reason why i was planning on getting their poweramp is so that i can plug it into my guitar cabs (not a PA. id go direct for that) and have the sound of the profile with the cab off, but without the coloration of a tube poweramp (which is why i mentionned that my 2:90 worked well with mark patches but not with recto or marshall patches for example. I figured the tube poweramp depending on the type of poweramp and the tubes in it might work well with some profiles and not with others as opposed to a solidstate poweramp that in theory should be more transparent). But since the cab contains more information than that, then i dont know how that would work.
I hope i explained clearly what i meant sorry if i didnt!

 

[kaomao]

Actually the reason why i was planning on getting their poweramp is so that i can plug it into my guitar cabs (not a PA. id go direct for that) and have the sound of the profile with the cab off, but without the coloration of a tube poweramp (which is why i mentionned that my 2:90 worked well with mark patches but not with recto or marshall patches for example. I figured the tube poweramp depending on the type of poweramp and the tubes in it might work well with some profiles and not with others as opposed to a solidstate poweramp that in theory should be more transparent). But since the cab contains more information than that, then i dont know how that would work.
I hope i explained clearly what i meant sorry if i didnt!

Well My bad I didn't read that with this new poweramp you can plug the kemper into a regular cab or a fullrange monitor.... (http://kemper-amps.com/page/render/lang/en/p/166/do/Kemper_Profiling_Amplifier___Latest_News.html)
This new option "CabDriver" will let you choose between the two, I guess if you choose the guitar cab it will remove from the profile just the information about the cab, not the poweramp... at least I hope

 

[rispsira]

Oh.. i didnt notice that i mustve confused cabdriver and cabmaker (IR) and thought theyre one and the same. Thanks for clarifying that up