The Kemper effects are underrated

  • I don't get this. Usually FX in recordings are always post cab, and they don't sound "dull".


    Here's thing thing with this statement: Many guitarists use a delay or reverb before their amp. Most guitarists don't want to run 4 cables between their pedalboard and their amp. In a live or practice sense, it doesn't necessarily make sense to have delays/reverbs sitting post-stack. In a studio, sure, it's fine, you should probably add your effects in post, but it is a different tone.


    For instance, a heavy, cascading delay (or multiple delays) can act almost like a volume boost. Before the amp, this can cause it to start breaking up. After the amp, you just have a louder sound. Depending on the effect you're going for, both are very valid use cases.


    Anyway, all that aside, the Kemper does have some good effects, and this is an example of them. They are underrated, as the shining point of the Kemper is the amp profiling process and the quality of the sounds. However, for what I do (ambient/post-rock), the delays and reverbs just aren't big enough. As far as delays are concerned, there aren't enough different types (a bucket brigade would be killer, for instance) and adding delay in multiple spots isn't possible (I like chaining delays to create space). The reverbs... same. We've been waiting on a spring reverb for forever, and the "ambience" sound just doesn't get there for me without completely washing out the original sound. This is why I stick with the Timeline/BigSky combo (stereo FX loop, Mod slot). I generally leave the amp's delay and reverb blocks off. The overdrives and fuzzes... I defer them to my board as well, because my sounds originate from multiple overdrive pedals stacked.on top of one another. The Kemper does a pretty faithful recreation of a TS, but other types of overdrives and fuzzes are missing.


    However, I do use tremolos, flangers, compressors, EQs, etc. on the Kemper, and they work and sound excellent. I truly believe that, to this point, Kemper has not involved themselves on anything "extreme," as there are external options for getting those more extreme sounds. It plays like a head unit, and that's excellent for using it in whatever way you feel necessary. For me, it's not an all in one unit, but it works great, and sounds absolutely amazing.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

  • Of course you can profile a pre only, but then you'll miss the power amp section of the reference amp.
    In order to have two separate logic blocks referring to the pre and the power amp in the Profiler you should profile them separately (using a neutral pre for profiling the power amp), and then the Profiler should be able to run the two profiles in series. Exactly like profiling an amp driven by a distortion pedal: no way for the Profiler to see them as two independent blocks.


    If you do a studio profile and a pre amp profile and merge the result should be separation between preamp and power amp with cab. You would not miss the power amp as it is with the cab in this senario.

  • It might work, but at that stage you'd not merge the power amp and the cab, and it would not be the power amp alone (it would carry with it the interaction with the cab). The studio profile should be taken with a dummy, linear load itself.
    OTOH, provided it worked, you'd have no more options to separately operate the two blocks (pre and power amp) or put anything inbetween than in a usual profile.

  • The power amp you profile will sound differently depending on the cab it's driving, so if you want a pre and a power amp "by themselves" you'd need a load whose sensitivity doesn't change with the signal's frequency.
    But the main issue is that you can't have a profile where the pre and the power amp are separated but work together at the same time.
    The cab alone doesn't (and should not) sound like the power section, or when you use a profile with an amp and a cab you'd have your signal affected by the amp "filter" twice, passing by the amp section and the cab section in series.


    :)

  • No, he's not. The point he's trying to make is that the power amp has a significant effect of the tone of a tube amp. Getting just the preamp (unless you want to profile a preamp only) sound is going to net you a different sound altogether from profiling with a direct box and a load of some sort (whether speaker, dummy, whatever).


    For instance, say you profile a preamp section of a head. If you were to compare the profiled preamp, powered by the Kemper's amp, into a guitar cab vs. the original amp w/ its original power amp into the same guitar cab, it's almost guaranteed that something will be missing from the sound. Depending on the amp you're trying to profile, some have power amp distortion, tube filtering, etc.


    This is why the "dummy load" suggestion is in order. To run pretty much any tube amp's power amp, you must have a load connected, otherwise you're going to blow your tubes in minutes, or potentially worse - blow up the amp. Some amps are built better than others and have better protection in case of a disconnect, but most, however, will get destroyed pretty quickly.


    That said, when you take two profiles: a preamp profile, and a studio profile, what's extracted to the cab block is no longer a cab. It's a cab AND a power amp. And because the cab block works on Kemper's version of IRs, your cab may not sound accurate because cabs and speakers aren't designed to produce power amp tube breakup.

    Guitars: Parker Fly Mojo Flame, Ibanez RG7620 7-string, Legator Ninja 8-string, Fender Strat & Tele, Breedlove Pro C25
    Pedalboard: Templeboards Trio 43, Mission VM-1, Morley Bad Horsie, RJM Mini Effect Gizmo, 6 Degrees FX Sally Drive, Foxpedals The City, Addrock Ol' Yeller, RJM MMGT/22, Mission RJM EP-1, Strymon Timeline + BigSky
    Stack: Furman PL-Plus C, Kemper Rack

  • Welcome - IMHO are the KPA effects nice - and they promise to even upgrade them in the future!

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