3.0 profiles question

  • I'm still trying to wrap my head around the way the Direct Amp / Merged Profile thing works. I get that the DA profile has no cab, and that the studio profile contains the influence of the cab and mic, but here is where it gets fuzzy for me. It has been said many times that when the cab is copied from a studio profile, it is not as accurate as it could be because the profiler doesn't have enough information to accurately split it apart. I assume the Direct Amp profile has the needed information, since if you added an accurate cab to it you should get the studio profile. You can think of this as A + B = C. Solve for B and you get B = C - A (or cab = studio profile - direct amp). Yet when you create a merged profile, this is not the process. Instead, according to the 3.0 profiling guide, you copy and past the cab from the studio profile into the direct profile and press merge. But we already concluded that the studio cab was inaccurate, so something is not adding up. I'm guessing that there is some reference cab and that the merge process compares the direct amp to that reference in order to correct the inaccuracy in the studio cab. This would result in a change to the studio cab. So my question has to do with where that change (or delta) is stored. If I copy a studio cab and save it as CabPreset1, then I apply that cab to a direct amp, hit merge, and then save that cab to CabPreset2, are CabPreset1 and CabPreset2 the same?


    The reason I ask is because I'm curious about the validity of pulling cabs from studio profiles generated before 2.8 to merge with a 3.0.2 direct amp.

  • Here's the thing :


    Merging should ONLY be done during profiling. You make a Studio profile, getting it to sound the way you like. Then you make a DA profile USING THE EXACT SAME SETTINGS ON THE AMP. Then you copy the Cab from the Studio into the DA and hit Merge. The KPA will then work out the difference between the two profiles, enabling an accurate separation of amp and cabinet. The Studio profile can then be discarded, as the Merged profile IS the Studio profile, but now with the DA profile added (with the option of being able to send the DA through the Monitor Out while sending the Studio portion through Main Out). When adding Cabs to DA profiles after the fact, you do not need to hit Merge again.


    Hope this clears it up!

  • Thank you for the responses.
    Sambrox, I appreciate the detail. I had read all this before, but thank you for reminding me that the merging is only done once, that fact had eluded me. I now understand how to make the merged profile, but it’s not really the merged profile that I’m after, it's the improvement in cab+mic isolation or separation from the direct amp that I’m seeking knowledge on. So if I have a merged profile, and I want to replace its cab with one from a different merged profile, the results should be more accurate than when we used to do this with studio profiles. Everybody agree so far? My question is… Is that improved accuracy baked into the new cab (so if I save it to a preset it will be superior to one done just by copying that cab from the studio profile that went into the merge) or is the cab the same as it was in the studio profile, in which case the accuracy improvement is stored somewhere else in the merged profile (my guess would be in the direct amp part). Or maybe both the amp and the cab are changed by the merge.


    Sorry for dwelling on this but my curiosity is insatiable. It helps me understand how to best use the preset elements of this marvelous device.

  • The Cab in the Merged profile is the accurate one. The merging function merges the Studio and Direct Amp profiles, but also serves to separate the Cab properly (Studio - Direct Amp = Cab)
    Regular Studio profiles utilise the CabDriver algorithm, that while still sounding very good in most cases, is still an estimation of where the line between amplifier and cabinet is drawn.
    :)

  • Sam, I think you are correct. I was doing a little more research and stumbled on that thread that Sinmix started regarding how amps sound similar. Near the end of that thread is a video where the Kemper rep says the studio cabinet is updated and overwritten when it is merged with a DA profile. Thanks again.