Will the KPA really sound like those TAF clips?

I always find that I only use a couple of profiles from any purchase. A lot depends on the guitar but you will get pretty close.

A buddy of mine that had both a Fractal and a KPA reckoned that the KPA had a better sound and was a LOT easier to tweak.It is very intuitive.

You should try changing the cabs on a sound that you like to get used to it....makes a huge difference.

In short , I think its harder to get a bad sound out of the KPA than a good one so you can explore and save snapshots along the way as you do.

Bulk of the sound will come from the hands and fingers as well so dont expect to sound quite like Andy's players

As far as the demos go, it's a hit or miss for me -
The Toneking Galaxy sounds just like it does in the demos. Ditto for the Matchless.
The Soldano and Laney amps don't.
I seem to recall a post from the guy who recorded the clips for pack 3 or 4 saying that he used a bunch of pedals and tweaked the rigs extensively - i'm pretty sure he didn't swap cabs, but he did everything else.

Andy's got a signature tone and style, same as any good studio engineer. If you get a couple of amps from him you'll get what i mean - and it's very likely to be as big a factor as the amp itself in deciding what the profile sounds like.
He's also pretty consistent - he likes strats, fat bluesy-tones and a good deal of room character. If you find you agree with Andy's ears, you're in for a fun ride.
I'm absolutely in love with some of his work, but can't jive with his high gain tones. His Peavey 6505 is famous, though, so mine obviously isn't the only opinion.

tl;dr:
It's not the amp, it's the studio job.

That said, the Kemper is an incredibly very friendly unit to tweak, compared to the XFX. You should get to know it when you have the chance.

Welcome!
Basically what @Quitty said.
When you like what you hear from Andy's profiles it will be a captured signal chain that is available to you 100%. At any volume.
The rest is fingers and phrasing.

That said, I guess some people might feel that amp x or y wasn't done justice when capturing especially when they happen to own the amp or know it inside out. A classical case of expectations that are not met.
In my case it's the Marshall 6100 that I own and love but the TAF profiles do nothing to me.

I had a 6100 LM for years and found that they can vary quite a bit, as Marshall changed the stock tubes a couple of times, depending on manufacturing date. I once had to hire in a replacement for a gig, dialled in my usual settings and got a shock at how different it sounded (it was a venue I'd played 7-8 times before and knew well, so the room wasn't part of the equation, btw)

Cheers,
Sam

Quote from sambrox

I had a 6100 LM for years and found that they can vary quite a bit, as Marshall changed the stock tubes a couple of times, depending on manufacturing date. I once had to hire in a replacement for a gig, dialled in my usual settings and got a shock at how different it sounded (it was a venue I'd played 7-8 times before and knew well, so the room wasn't part of the equation, btw)

Cheers,
Sam

Yes, you're right. I have owned 4 different ones over the years, but only EL34 equipped ones.
LM indicates that 5881’s were used which they did in the later manufacturing years when the supply of EL34’s was short in the 90's.
I always preferred the EL34’s though and I don't really know what model Andy profiled.

Yeah, I think mine had the tubes changed out quite early on after it took a hit in transit to the studio. Luckily, Great Linford Manor (the studio) is situated 10 minutes from the Marshall head plant:-D

The hired amp I played through was one of the 'signature' editions (were they blue or purple?). It seemed very raspy in comparison.

Cheers,
Sam

Yeah, the blue ones were the limited edition with EL34. Blue tolex and brass plate incl. the Marshall logo in brass.
I still have one top and one 4x12" slant of these.
But they're everything but raspy.

I love Andys profiles, but you have to take in to account what car was used and the player. I think the player is the most important. When I was in my teens there was a local guitarist called Paul Rhoads. I used to watch him at local pubs and saw him once at a jam session he was awesome. What was very interesting at the jam sessions was he had a very bottom of the range amp and guitar and people would come up and plug their £2000 guitar in and sometimes even bring their own amp which was far more expensive but know one ever sounded as good as him, he just had a great feel and touch!!!.

Back to Andys profiles I own everything he does and I must say I've not been disappointed with any of them. Like Quitty said you will learn the sig sound that Andy has and how to tweak them to your taste. But they are well worth every penny and made my kemper come to life when I brought it.

Quote from Ingolf

Yeah, the blue ones were the limited edition with EL34. Blue tolex and brass plate incl. the Marshall logo in brass.
I still have one top and one 4x12" slant of these.
But they're everything but raspy.

Hmmm, maybe I hired a lemon back then! I remember the first studio session I played through my new 6100LM stack. The engineer complained that there was a raspiness in the upper mids, but we dialled it out, almost completely. Then on the way to the next session a few weeks later, the amp got dropped or something in transport (before I'd invested in a flight case...), hence the replacement tubes. The same engineer then noted how quickly and easily we managed to get the amp sounding great. Funny how much of a difference the output tubes can make!

Cheers,
Sam

I have liked Andy's preview clips because I can achieve them by and large without any special tweaking.

The single most effect on getting what I hear in headphones has been getting the Saffire 24 Pro where I can finally use SPDIF and no A/D on the audio card. What I hear is what I get.

Yesterday I was perusing MBritt's second pack and when I bought it I was playing along to his playing with clips and it was spot on. So his are honest if you care to listen to them to see what can be done with a simple LP and his profiles un-tweaked.

I confess to having not been able to achieve sounds like the clips for Armin nor Pete. Other's may have differing opinions.

istinis, what I like about the Kemper is precisely that I do not have to tweak. Typically if I use a guitar cab and leave the KPA's CAB on, then I do have to tweak as I'm going through a speaker, but yesterday with MBritt's set I didn't have to do that. Just plug n played them live and they were spectacular. But I don't have to tweak for headphones nor FRFR (studio monitors)

Check out Andy's Boutique Pack 6 and MBritt's Pack 2 as a Starter.

Most of it is down to the player I find. A good clean well played DI will translate to a killer tone.

Quote from istinis

Thanks again. I hope to be buying this week.

I am an FRFR guy so my hope is there would be decent translation between the clips I hear online and what I'll be able to achieve. I used to think the whole "tone is the fingers" shpiel was overstated, then I started recording .... Still some of those beautiful clips are like a slow arpeggiated DM chord so I was hoping the basic tone would be available.

I highly recommend the Marshall Pack from TAF my go to rock profiles every time

Quote from istinis

First post. Long time Fractal user.

Bedroom player who records his own music. I've made some nice recording with the Axe fx but I'm not a great tweaker. I've found it very easy to get good tone, but very difficult to get amazing 3D tone.

I was listening to the TAF demos and was pretty floored. The Goldfinger, Carr sportsman, Tweedy redplate etc..., such depth and complexity of tone.

Assuming I'm using the right guitar, how close will I get to the those sounds I'm hearing? How much tweaking should I expect?

Much thanks.

Display More

Hi istinis,
the demo in TAF site are very fine as you could hear. nevertheless sometimes I find them to be too high in eq for my taste. this is were tweaking comes in play. I usually change cab and amp eq; very rarely I use the KPA eq.

so, yes: TAF profiles not only sound like that but to me, after tweaking, even better. and no: they can sound different when playing with your speaker.

after all, it is not fair to have a profile already there ready for your taste. at least I think so. one should get his/her profile and make it personal.

overall, I'm a huge fan of TAF profile. almost all my guitar sounds comes from Andy of TAF, together with Top Jimi profile.

check them out in my signature.

hope it helps

mic

LM indicates that 5881’s were used which they did in the later manufacturing years when the supply of EL34’s was short in the 90's.
I always preferred the EL34’s though and I don't really know what model Andy profiled.

[/quote]

This is a perfect example of when having information about things such as tubes can really come in handy... Amps like Mesa's can take both 6L6's or El34's you can get a very different amp from what you expect if these things are missing from the description.

Thanks for the feedback. Very helpful.

I do love the clean and hairy fat Strat Taf tones and don't recall ever hearing anything quite like that w the fractal.

I'm going to get the kpa this week bc after 6 years of tweaking, I just have to know for myself what's possible.

Ive said it before and I'll say it again. The KPA is the single greatest piece of musical equipment that I've ever purchased....Go for it and enjoy !!!!!

Quote from Elcap420

This is a perfect example of when having information about things such as tubes can really come in handy... Amps like Mesa's can take both 6L6's or El34's you can get a very different amp from what you expect if these things are missing from the description.

Agreed.

I've owned Fractal products and a boat load of tube amps and digital processors. Hands down, my Kemper is the most versatile and high quality sounding device I've ever used. I always tweak my profiles I've downloaded or purchased to taste.

I've used the Kemper into both FRFR and guitar cabs and have no trouble obtaining my favorite tones.

You can't go wrong.