Profiling with a dummy load ( hotplate ) problems


  • Leave the Cab section on even when doing a direct profile.
    We have had excellent results using power soaks as well as DI boxed with connected speaker.


    Please post some comparison clips, so we can hear how close you have got.


    Power soaks are actually not as authentic as DI with real speakers, since the powersoak usually uses a resistor only to mimic the impedance of the speaker, which is not enough.
    The famous interactions between power amp and speaker are more complex than what a resistive power soak can do.

  • Ok, so I finally had the time to try with a '' speaker emulator '' from my daw and with a different amp...


    Chain
    1.Guitar--->kemper input
    2.Kemper send--> Marshall JMP
    3. Marshall Jmp Speaker out---> HotPlate in(hotplate is set to LOAD)
    4. Hotplate line out---->motu audio express line in 1.
    5. Motu Line in--->Daw-Redwirez impulse (insert ) ---> Motu line out1
    At this point, everything sounds great with the speaker IR's from redwirez when I listen through the Motu main outs.
    6. Line out, no clipping --- >kemper return


    So then I start profiling. I'm now listening through the kemper headphone output. I try to adjust the return level the best I can. When I listen to the reference amp, there is now a high pitch buzz, around 8k. It is constant and I can clearly hear it. When I take the same signal that's coming from the motu, plug my headphones in, there's nothing unsual. There's also alot more noise ( crackling, etc.) when listening through the kemper.


    I go ahead and profile anyway. The result is not that bad... It actually sounds good, but sounds far from the reference amp.
    I do the same thing, but cranking the gain a little bit more... This resulted in a weird squeal coming out of the kemper ( through headphones, again) ...a real high squeal that made me back off the gain of the amp again...I started to think it was the amp.



    So I try the exact same thing, same chain. But I use a hiwatt custom 100, set to a clean setting.
    The result is again not that far clean setting is clean setting... But there is now 10 times more noise/crackling from the kemper profile. I decide to crank the preamp of the hiwatt to have a crunch profile... Same horrible squeal that I had with the marshall..
    After that, I decided to profile the hiwatt with a pedal in front of it : Megalith delta, a high gain pedal.
    It was absolutely impossible, the kemper squealed again as soon as there were gain coming from the amp/pedal.


    From logic, I know its not the hotplate, since it works fine in a DAW with the interface and sounds good with the speaker emulator from redwirez.
    I also know it's not the interface, since it ''delivers'' to the daw and out of the daw perfectly, tested.
    I also know it's not just the Marshall, since I also tried with the hiwatt....
    Now, am I doing something wrong ?...I guess I should try with something more simple like a torpedo live. But I really can't figure whats wrong with what I'm doing now.


    Is it possible that the kemper's return is not working correctly ?
    At this point I simply don't know.


    I'll take the time to actually mic everything, but it will have to be at low volume, and so not at the settings I want to profile my amps, since I live in an appartment