New guy from Texas - KPA Power Head & Remote

    New guy from Texas here. I just bought a powered Kemper toaster and remote package.
    I haven't had too much time with it, just got it last week, it's a little overwhelming to say the least. I also have a 2.5 year old daughter who loves to push and press buttons on daddy's amps and pedals sidetracking me as well. :P


    Already ordered the carrying bag for it and have the Mission Engineering EP1-KP expression pedal on the way. So I've essentially dove into the deep end.


    I've got three high gain tube amps that I'd like to profile as well. I'm just not sure how to go about it exactly. I have a Mesa JP-2C, ENGL Sovereign 2x12 combo and a Marshall JVM410C.


    Can I just run an XLR to the line out of the back of the amps and profile the amps themselves? Or would that sound terrible? I know the JP-2C has the Mesa Cab Clone built into the back of it.
    Would profiling them with a mic and capturing the speakers produce a better, or more accurate profile?


    I have no plans to get rid of my amps, especially my JP-2C :D , but having everything in one box to take to gigs is what sparked my interest in the Kemper.


    Further to comments by @Ingolf, I would strongly urge you to carefully read the following manual, which the Kemper GmbH team was nice enough to put together for all of us owners:


    By the way, @deadringer, please do not take my remark in any other way, except in a friendly and helpful manner in which it is intended.


    Profiling Guide


    Also, as a general rule, one should avoid profiling a direct / line out signal source to which some type of speaker cabinet emulation has already been applied. You may want to check to determine if the JP-2C amp has the feature capability which allows you to manually defeat / disable the Mesa Cab Clone system on the XLR out. If, however, the Cab Clone is always active on the JP-2C's XLR output...that may pose an issue.


    Welcome to the forum and the Kemper family!


    Cheers,
    John

    Edited once, last by Tritium ().

    Welcome to the Forum!


    Yopu can get pretty good results by just returning a mic from the cab back into the KPA.


    Probably worth checking out some of the commercial profiles too as it may save you some time. Soundside has a couple of nice Mesa Petrucci bundles.

    Welcome to the forums. For best results with your profiles, as others suggested, mic them up and just do the regular profiling process. Also, make sure that you only have preamp distortion and not power amp distortion, since that can result in profiles not coming out the right way.


    If you intend to play your Kemper through a cabinet, then I'd suggest you learn a bit more about direct profiles - profiles without a cabinet attached to them. These can sound killer and move a lot of air if you're playing through a cab that works well with them.

    Yeah I definitely plan on trying out some of my guitar cabs with the Kemper. I'm just kinda confused on what power the cabs can take. I know the power head does 600 watts, 16 ohm (300 watts) and 8 ohm (600 watts)


    Here are the cabs I currently own:


    A. Mesa 2x12 Road King cab which has a C90 (90 watt) and V30 (60 watt) in it with 4 ohm mono & 8 ohm stereo inputs.


    B. ENGL 2x12 horizontal E212VHB cab, two V30's, 8 ohm mono (120 watts) and 16 ohm stereo (60 watts).


    C. Marshall JVMC212 cabinet, one G12 vintage (75 watt) and one G12 heritage (65 watt), 140 watt single 16 ohm mono input.


    I guess I need to look into a good DI box if I want to profile the amps themselves and run them through my guitar cabs? Any suggestions? Get the Kemper DI box?


    Or... just say F-it and get a FRFR cab like everyone mentions? I do own a EV EKX-12P though, would that work?


    Oh, I did read through the profiling guide, but I need to re-read it a little closer as well. Lots to take in. :S


    @deadringer


    As you are aware, the speaker output of your Powered KPA is a mono connection. Kemper GmbH officially warns against connecting your powered KPA's speaker output to a 4 Ohm speaker, as it will send too much power to a 4 Ohm load. So, your Mesa 2x12 Road King is not an option. However, according to your information, your Engl and Marshall cabs should be fine.


    Cheers,
    John