Kemper Amps Forum

FRFR= Full Range Flat Responce.

as in Freq range.

Guitar Speakers are normally 80hz - 5000hz (therabouts)

Some PA speakers are 60hz - 8000hz

FRFR = 0hz - 20000hz

Hope that helps
A

full range flat response - google

edit:
oh - didn't see that somebody already answered your question

I think FRFR is the strangest term in our business, and a bit misleading.
It pretends that FRFR is something special.

But FRFR is EVERY speaker exept guitar speakers.
Your stereo at home, your iPod earplugs, your car radio and the biggest festival PA are all FRFR.
I would love to ban this word from our forum
It is better described by regular broadband speakers or linear speakers. They all try to be perfect and non colouring. Some are bad, some are great.

I am wondering why we would need such a speaker. We all want a real guitar sound on stage. Why would I need a linear speaker to reproduce a non linear speaker? To cover the wide range between the different speaker? Is that the reason? Or because we want better control about the sound on stage and of the PA?

My question: What is the use of FRFR from a guitar players view?

Quoted from "Bluesman"

I am wondering why we would need such a speaker. We all want a real guitar sound on stage. Why would I need a linear speaker to reproduce a non linear speaker? To cover the wide range between the different speaker? Is that the reason?

Basically yes. Guitarrists may talk more about their amps but a large portion of the sound is actually the cab. When you turn the cab off at the Kemper and play a poweramp into a 4x12 Marshall cab every profile will sound much like a Marshall. You won't get that setup doing a convincing Tweed Deluxe or a AC30.

To be able to switch from true Fender clean to vintage Plexi crunch you'd have to switch the corresponding cabs (or their simulatiions in the Kemper). And to reproduce that you'll need a fullrange speaker (or just a normal speaker as Chris already stated).

If you are a "one cab guy" who plays all of his amps through the same cab anyway - not unusual, many people do that - then you could use a poweramp and just that cab with your Kemper (with the cab sim turned off). No need for a FRFR solution then.

But the real beauty of the Kemper is the truly amazing cab module and the variety of sounds which can be had this way. So I'd want a speaker who could accurately reproduce all those details. And that has to be a speaker with at least a decent linear frequency response and a decent range. A G12M25 for example would have not much treble but a great midrange. A 1x12 Fender Twin with Jensens would have much more treble so you just can't replicate that while running through a 4x12" greenback cab.

Quoted from "Bluesman"

Why would I need a linear speaker to reproduce a non linear speaker?
Because we want better control about the sound on stage and of the PA?

This is it!
You should take some resposibility for the sound that your audience hears.

Only on a small stage your audience will hear your speaker directly.
In that situation it is often too loud, because the audience is in the speakers narrow focus and you are not, because you stand on top of it.

On larger stages or recordings nobody hears the direct speaker, but only the miced sound.
It is a shame that so many guitarists don't get familiar with that sound at all, but turn around and give the responsibility for the final sound to some sound engineer.

Most of the professional guitarist have additional linear monitoring or in-ear on stage to control the final sound.

Quoted from "Bluesman"

I am wondering why we would need such a speaker. We all want a real guitar sound on stage. Why would I need a linear speaker to reproduce a non linear speaker? To cover the wide range between the different speaker? Is that the reason? Or because we want better control about the sound on stage and of the PA?

My question: What is the use of FRFR from a guitar players view?

Hi bluesman,

your question - which is quite common in the guitar world - arises from a logic mistake. We use a guitar cab in conjunction with a guitar amp, because this is what we've learned to love in 60 years or electric guitar their coupling gives us that historic, classic, typical sound (and all its variations of course depending on the guitar, the amp, the cab, distortion and the like). But when the amp sound is generated by a simulation (be it a modeller or a profiler) all the typicality of the sound we love (phase cancellations, non-linearities, narrowed passing band, characteristic response curve) are taken care in software. IOW, the simulator doesn't rely on the non-linear cab to generate the sound we want.
For this reason, all you have to supply the modeller with is an as much as possible faithful reproduction system (Hi-Fi, or FRFR) to linearly reproduce all the non-linearities which have been already generated in software.
As long as you can use everything for listening to a modeller, and as much as you may like the result, a guitar cab will never make a modelled sound sound as it was meant. Pleasant if you like, but not accurate.
The myth that a monitor can't push as much air as a guitar cab is false as well: you might want to read Joy Mitchell's posts on the Fractal and TGP forums about the matter.

This having been said, you may of course like best whatever pleases you!