Thinking about selling the Kemper

  • There's a huge difference between headphones directly in your ear and a loudspeaker filling a room. There's a reason studio engineers advise you not to mix with headphones.

    if you look around , everybody is earing music in their smartphones with in-ears :rolleyes:

  • There's a huge difference between headphones directly in your ear and a loudspeaker filling a room. There's a reason studio engineers advise you not to mix with headphones.

    I affirm the first one. For the second I would like to add: not to mix *exclusively* with headphones.


    Headphones really give a very different perspective of a mix. In particular the stereo positions are exaggerated. reverb FX and others are more prominent as well. The biggest difference - and maybe the biggest problem for the OP - might be: decent studio headphones are more unforgiving than decent studio monitors when its comes to stuff like fizziness or digital clipping or digital *artifacts*. Excellent studio monitors will also reveal that, but those are expensive and uncommon. This is wanted by the mix engineer to analyze problems in a sound or mix, of course. But it just doesnt sound *good* to the talent.


    There is this special bread of recording headphones, designed for the talent to make it sound good during tracking. They sound more hifi-like, scooped, whatever... It creates confidence and very often a just better performance. I guess mostly invented for vocalists, though. I prefer the studio-unforgiving versions, so no tipps here. But many others already posted their preferred guitar headphones for the Kemper. This is really worth a try...

    Ne travaillez jamais.

  • i get very good results with headphones
    specially with Mbritt and Beats Profiles
    its simply not true that headphone with Kemper don't
    sound good
    in reality it really sounds as good as withe a cab or an frfr
    just a matter of tweaking it the right way

  • I don't think there are darker. I have moste of the Mbritt profiles and they sound very neutraal to me on headphones and studiomonitors. Some profiles sound darker because the original amp sounds darker

  • He uses in ears sure, but nowhere does it say that profiles are optmized for same.


    From "himself" - "I strive to capture and create great tones so that anyone can get those same sounds onstage and in the studio"

    The magic of a good and professional sound is: it translates. Meaning: it will sound good from kitchen radio, smartphone, home stereo, ear plugs, car stereo to studio monitors and PAs. Just dont ask for a recipe how to achieve that in perfection. ;) Key is: listen to the mix/sound on everything you can grab and know how your favourite mixes/sounds do sound on that everything.

    Ne travaillez jamais.

  • if you A/B a profile from a cabinet and the original, mic'ed up cabinet, the sound will be exactly the same. through headphones or any other speaker. this is what profiling is about.
    if what you hear sounds displeasing to you, this is rather a question of finding the right profile than questioning the product itself.

    Get in touch with Profiler online support team here

  • if you A/B a profile from a cabinet and the original, mic'ed up cabinet, the sound will be exactly the same. through headphones or any other speaker. this is what profiling is about.
    if what you hear sounds displeasing to you, this is rather a question of finding the right profile than questioning the product itself.

    this is so true^^^^^, the key to the KPA is finding the correct profile for you. Everyone has different tastes and ears. So no profile will ever be a "fit for all purpose" sound

  • if you look around , everybody is earing music in their smartphones with in-ears

    They're also hearing something where all the instrumentation is professionally mixed to complement each other well.


    For the second I would like to add: not to mix *exclusively* with headphones.

    I was taught not to mix with headphones if at all possible, but to use headphones as a reference. Trouble is each set of headphones is different, as are studio monitors. This was also years ago, so it's possible studio headphones have taken a leap forward.


    its simply not true that headphone with Kemper don't
    sound good

    My point wasn't that it couldn't sound good, but that the OP talking about different solutions would likely lead him back to the same place of malcontent. Personally, I don't care for headphones. I want to feel the space in the room.

  • They're also hearing something where all the instrumentation is professionally mixed to complement each other well.

    my point is it should sound as good in headphones as in monitors


    never heard an "comercial" recording that sounded bad in headphones , sometimes its even a better experience listen through
    headphones, you can hear every little detail :thumbup:

  • my point is it should sound as good in headphones as in monitors


    never heard an "comercial" recording that sounded bad in headphones , sometimes its even a better experience listen through
    headphones, you can hear every little detail

    An entire song mixed together is very different from a solo electric guitar. Ever find any of those tracks and isolate the guitar? Many of the low frequencies that make the "full sound" we like when playing alone are cut to fit in the mix and not compete with other instruments, which is why I see that as an apples-to-oranges comparison to the OP's dilemma. It may all sound good in a professionally mixed track, but the OP isn't trying to use it that way — at least not that he's alluded to.


    In the end, his main beef is with unsatisfactory high-gain tones. He seems to be fine with everything else, which means he likely just needs to find the right profile.

  • Let make an experiment .
    Get the few best , real amps money can buy ,and then play them through headphones .


    It will be interesting to hear how's the sound looks like .


    The letter "A" in KPA is staying for AMPLIFIER ,btw .


    It needs to be played as loud as possible .


    I used to play KPA first on PC monitors, then on QSC active speakers and finish playing almost exclusively on real , iconic guitar cabs .
    Mesa 2x12' and Marshall 1960 A , made in 1990 .


    Ha ! What a bloody sound !!!! No single real amp can match this set up . But yes, 1.000 real amps/cabs in the same room can do the same job ...maybe 8o


    Hint :
    Use looper to tweak KPA ,: record a loop , leave the place for few minutes to relax the ears , comeback and tweak with guitar locked in the case 8)

    1988 Branko Radulovic Hand Made Strat in Macedonia (SFRJ)

    2006 Steve Vai vwh moded with SS frets and Sustainac 2006 (Japan)

    2008 Fender YJM , moded (USA)

    2010 Tom Andersons Drop Top 2010 (made in California)

    2017 Charvel GG sig Caramelised Ash (USA)

    2022 Gibson ES 335 2011 Custom Shop Cherry of course ( Memphis)

    Edited once, last by Rescator ().

  • In the first place, i would like thank you all for your support and advices. In the last days i experimented a lot with new and old profiles, techniques suggested by some of you... Etc. I found some interesting things and profiles. For example, on a jvm by reampzone i added a grafic eq in the stomp section with minimal adjustments and volume pushed and i heard good good sounds. This led me to believe that probably i need some powerful pickups for those focused drop d riffs. Then today i bought a new les paul and i notived improvements. I played two hours straight and this new traditional plain top is a beast!! It is probably the missing link. I will keep experimenting using mostly reampzone profiles and then i will consider also some new higher output pickups like jb, suhr aldrich... Finger crossed.
    Said that, i never ment to question the product like someone said, i am just tryng to find a way to make it work on high gain. Moreover, it's true that the kpa is all about the profile that fit your ears and tastes but there are some profiles, for example some mbritt and also Taf, that sound so distant/covered by a blanket and full of low mids that i can't imagine how they are useful/playable, unless i miss some technique to make them shine (any advice on this point is appreciated).
    I will keep you updated, thanks so much and forgive me if my english is not perfect, I am italian..hope that what i have just written makes sense