Considering buying Kemper Profiler

  • Hi Kemper Lovers :D


    I’m planning to buy some good amp modeller/fx unit and I currently have two on my list - Kemper Power Rack and Axe FX II XL+. I need something that will give me both good, mainly heavy sounds, but I also need some good quality effects. Now, I currently don’t have any guitar amps so I won’t be able to make my own profiles which means that with Kemper I’d have to use either built-in ones or would have to buy some custom profiles. As far I understand, Kemper profile is a copy of custom amp settings created using a guitar. In this case, the best sound you can get is when you use the same guitar (strings, tuning, pickups etc.). I know that it might sound good with a different instrument, but it’s a bit of a lottery, is that right? My question is - is it still worth considering Kemper if I don’t have my own amps to create profiles?


    I’d appreciate hearing your opinion on this. :thumbup:


    Many thanks,
    W

  • Couple of comments from me:


    Profiles are not created with a guitar in the chain ( some have setting better suited to a type of guitar), it is a profile of the amp, Cab ( assuming its not a direct profile) and mike
    All amps respond differently to guitars and thr Kemper is no different.


    So will you be restricted to what guitar will sound good? Absolutely not. I play everything from a Gretsch to a charvel, active and passive pickups, blues to metal.


    Do you need an amp? Many people like to profile their own amp but I don;t use my amp profiles. I've use a combination of Kempers amp packs ( you get with the Kemper), those of the rig exchange ( over 10,000 to choose from...free) and commercially bought ones. You will find a sound you like...but...


    the Axe and Kemper are the same that they can take time to find your sound although many get it striaght out the box...


    I've never owned an Axe FX but the pros and cons have seemed to be that the Kemper can sound a bit more natural but the Axe has the edge on effects. This is a really basic summary so someone else might be better placed to comment on that.


    Axe FX and Kemper are both excellent devices, I went Kemper for ease of set up ( built in power amp, minimal fiddling required)...


    Hope that helps!

  • Thanks! It helps a lot, especially the part regarding profiling amps/cabs ;) For some reason (I've probably watched some videos) I thought that there's a guitar involved in the process as well, but now when I read it again it's quite clear that it's not ;)

  • Many who bought the Kemper, sold their tube amps shortly after. There are tons of good profiles. If a profile is made with single coil it generally sounds good with less effort if played with a guitar with single coil, however there are few parameters that will literally make most if not all profile sound good with different pickups. Definition, clarity, tube sag, Response. within minutes you'll know if the profile will work and generally if it's a good sounding profile it will work.
    For amp tones, Kemper amps and cabinets are simply untouchable in my view. The effects in the Kemper are very underrated also in my view. But my advice is to do what I have done if possible, if you know someone who owns an AXE II, buy a Kemper as those are available everywhere in most music stores, take it to someone who has an AXE and compare the two.


    I was in the same position and I wasn't about to buy both units but had to choose one, to me after a few hours of testing, the Kemper by far was more realistic and more inspirational to play YMMV

  • Erm, dean_R, I'm being stupid...where is the guitar in the profiling signal chain? When I profiled, I plugged profiler ( direct output) into the amp input, mike in front of the cab, into the return to create the "loop", then weird sounds, job done.


    I thought you only connect the guitar to A/B ??


    Not done it for ages...someone please correct me :)

  • I think you can get where you want to go with either Axe fx or Kemper. The real difference staring me in the face when I decided was the cost. If you live in Europe, Kemper is very hard to ignore and I picked mine up pre-Brexit for just over £1,100. An Axe fx would have cost an alarming £2,200 at the time, which is double.


    Effects where never a serious consideration for me, as I was mainly looking for tone plus delay and a few stomps. However, the Kemper effects have been considerably upgraded and are way better than anything I ever used in the past with rack units.


    I still hear some great tones from my friend in Florida that records using his Axe, but we can both get to the same result with our respective units.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

  • Both are great.


    If you do go kemper way, I think it is important to understand that guitar and pickups play a big role in how people dial in their amps. That's why I've been telling a few sellers to start including more info about guitar AND pickup used (some already do this). If you make a profile for a metal tone using a DI of an EMG 81 I am simply not going to have the same results with a custom 5. Yes, it may still sound good (or not), but chances are you will have too much bass. So that is one thing to keep in mind when trying out profiles.


    Also I agree with what Dean_R says about people preferring some kind of a "sweet spot" in profiles, not "amp with tone knobs at noon just so people can use kemper eq later". If you are willing to look around a bit you will be able to find great tones from kemper. If what you want now is to tweak then Axe Fx is probably the best for that than any other device.


    Now if you DO have the right profiles with kemper, it's kind of cool to forget about tone for a while and just record, play, ect, ect. Personally I like the fact that the desktop version looks like an amp, kinda, too (ok some radio perhaps but still). It adds to the experience.

  • Where as I don't feel the same with Axe, just in terms of visuals. If I sit down and record and see in camera monitor kemper in the background i feel better than when i see axe. May sound like a childish consideration, and I'm not saying that's as important, just a side note :) Out-of-focus lights feel closer to something "alive" than Axe does.

  • I have Kemper , but I did try an Axe at a guitar fest thing recently and it had some great features, but a proper Faff to get around the menus.


    You won't be disappointed with the Kemper.

    No Gain - No Pain.... :D

  • There’s one more thing I forgot to mention/ask about, it might sound a bit weird, but I’ll try to make it as clear as possible ;)


    I used to have real amps, but these days I mainly work with software-based amp sims, mainly Peavey’s ReValver 4. Amp sims are getting better and better, but it’s obviously a different thing than the real amp. There’s a couple of things that behave differently and one of them is a pretty unpleasant hiss sound. There’s a couple of ways to remove it and the one I use is I put an eq/low pass filter between the amp and a cab and cut everything from around 7k+.


    From what I can see, in Kemper there’s no option to move modules/components, they’re fixed, so I won’t be able to do the trick I mentioned above. The question here is - would I need it? In the real world, we don’t put eqs between the amp and a cab (at least I can’t remember doing it ;), but I’m wondering how it works with Kemper. If I wanted to use it with a third party IRs, let’s say Ownhammer, would it work the same way as the software amp sim or it behaves more like a real amp?


    Thanks again!
    W

  • That's super helpful mate, thanks so much!


    Reading your reply was like hearing myself talking about this :D I have to spend too much time trying to make guitars sound good when my main focus is actually on playing the instrument. It sounds like with Kemper it might be much easier for me to find the quality sound I'd like and also work in a better way.


    Thanks again, it looks like I'll be joining the Kemper family pretty soon :D


    W