Kemper and dxr12 sounding bad

    I just bought my second Kemper. The first was powered and I played it through a Mesa Thiele cabinet. I was extremely happy with the sounds. Some things happened and that amp and cab are gone. I just received my new Kemper rack (unpowered) and I’m playing it through a Yamaha DXR12. This setup is (at first listen) not doing it for me. Where the powered head and Thiele sounded a great deal like a live tube amp this setup is much more “modeler” sounding. Is it the powered Yamaha speaker? Do I have to buy a power amp and Thiele cab or are the Friedman/Atomic cabs better at representing an amp?

    I can only relate to you my own experience, but I have been using my Kemper with a DXR10 for a few years and I'm just about ready to give up. It sounds good only about 50% of the time in 50% of the rooms I play.


    I may try another "FRFR" speaker, but I'm leaning toward going with a regular old 112 guitar cabinet.


    I would not buy another Yamaha speaker personally.


    Love my Kemper in my home recording studio, but live it's not really doing it for me.

    A real cab and a FRFR like the Yamaha DXR 12 are two different things because of different frequency ranges. You can try cutting the high end and/or use the pure cabinet function.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    I play the KPA unpowered through the dxr10. Tried them this week in our rehearsal space against a Marshall and Fender tube amp. The KPA and dxr10 sounded like a real tube amp. I liked the Sound even better than the tube amps of my Buddy.


    bbb

    It' s only Rock n Roll, but I like it :D:thumbup:<3

    Thanks all. A little update...this is for home jamming use only. I don’t have any wish to play live anywhere other than a bit of jamming with friends sometimes.
    I tried turning the Pure Cab up to 10 and it made some profiles better and some worse. I also tried adjusting the primary output eq and the switches on the back of the dxr12, but I still get a box ones I just cannot tune out.

    Quote from Janne

    I've seen some people reporting that the DXR10 and DXR15 sounds better than the DXR12, saying that it has a 'boxy' sound to it...
    (I love my DXR10!)

    Same here - I play Classic Rock and Blues - KPA + dxr10 sound like a real tube amp.


    bbb

    It' s only Rock n Roll, but I like it :D:thumbup:<3

    Some people are very happy with FRFR in wedge position. Some people are happy with guitar cabinets.


    Guitar cabinets produce "in the room sound" because they aren't pointed at the guitarist's head. If you point a guitar cabinet at your head, all of the room sound will disappear.


    So, Here is something to try, if you feel like you are not getting an "amp in the room" sound from your FRFR monitor:


    Do not place it in wedge position, or with it aimed at your head. Try placing it more like a regular guitar cabinet, or in wedge position, but NOT aimed right at your head.

    Thanks. I'll try that.
    I actually returned the used dxr12 to Guitar Center (bought it because they had it locally used at a good price) and the guitar guy I usually deal with let me try out a different monitor/PA speaker. THis was the QSC K10.2. I liked it better, but I still didn't love the "amp in a room" feel. It sat on it's side so as you suggested and I still didn't quite get the full amp in room feel. They also had a Avatar 212 and a EVH 212 in the isolation room (where I was) so I hooked the Kemper up to the FX return of a Dual Rectifier and tried both of those speaker cabs. The Avatar (g12h and v30 combo) sounded OK but not as good as the QSC monitor. The EVH cab completely colored the sound and actually got worse when I turned off the cab....sheesh that sounded bad.
    So it seems I need to adjust something INSIDE the Kemper to get back to the sound I remember. I also went ahead and ordered a DXR10 since a large number of Kemper users like them. I'll report back when I find with that combo.


    EDITED TO ADD: Also, I remembered the last time I had a Kemper there was a setting I changed on a bunch of profiles to make them more "lifelike". I want to say it was "definition" but I cannot remember the details. Is there one setting (or group of settings) you guys often find need to be fine tuned?

    Edited once, last by Exodus5 ().

    Quote from Exodus5

    I just bought my second Kemper. The first was powered and I played it through a Mesa Thiele cabinet. I was extremely happy with the sounds. Some things happened and that amp and cab are gone. I just received my new Kemper rack (unpowered) and I’m playing it through a Yamaha DXR12.

    Just my 2 cents... when you create and adjust sounds for a Mesa Thiele it will surely sound different if you switch suddenly to a DXR12. But my point here is its probably the same vice versa. If you create adjust sounds with the DXR12 til youre happy ... than you switch to a Mesa or others, maybe you wont be happy in this context. We fine tune a lot with time.... hours and hours.

    Another DXR10 user here. I've tried 3 or 4 times to run my Kemper through the effects return of two different 1x12 combos with little luck.
    The profiles I like really do well on the DXR10 though.
    Maybe forget the profiles you were used to and try some different but similar ones, then tweak from there?
    Also, I've tried the DXR10 in various settings.
    1) Wedge behind me on stage
    2) Standing on rubber feet behind me
    3) Standing on rubber feet behind me but on top of a now unused 2x12 cab


    The best so far is elevated on its rubber feet (3). For me anyway...
    Lots of variation and I'm sure I'm not done yet. If I continue to like option 3, then I'll buy a stand that can handle both the Kemper toaster head, and the DXR10.

    I would like to find a stand like that. Right now I have my rack Kemper sitting on a padded dining table with a attenuator (which I no longer need) wedged under the front to tilt it up. I was trying to find some sort of setup to allow the Kemper to be near eye level and accept the Wedge monitor underneath.

    I recently bought a solid state power amp, b/c I have an unpowered KPA and run that through an old Marshall cab - that sounds very good too. I just wanted to have more options than just the dxr10.


    Bbb

    It' s only Rock n Roll, but I like it :D:thumbup:<3

    I switched from guitar cab to FRFR...and all the profiles I loved sounded pants through the FRFR.


    I only then relaised how much the guitar cab smooths everything out, which means average profiles sound pretty good....but...


    Really good profiles sound brilliant through FRFR and sound mediocre through a cab..


    The morale of the story....you have to find the right profiles, just using what you had before will probably not work because the cab has disguised the true sound of the profile..

    I finally got the DXR10. It sounds better than the DXR12 did (to me) but I am still missing something. I have tried the EQ pedal on profiles and adjusting "purecab" and "definition" on a few as well. I don't remember it being this hard to dial them in previously. I am actually considering returning the Kemper and going back to a Tube combo (Splawn Streetrod, maybe?) but I know where that will leave me again...
    One or two good sounds and I won't be able to get the turned up tones so I'll have to use the attenuator again...jeeze. It's a no win situation right now.