Thoroughly Disappointed, Please Help!

  • Hey guys, I just got a Kemper and I am running it through two Yamaha HS7 powered monitors. So far I am greatly unimpressed with the sound I am getting. Clean tones sound good, but anything with distortion sounds thin, harsh, kind of muffled, and just overall shitty. Granted I am used to a direct blast from tube amps. But then again, even a shitty little Line 6 digital amp I had years ago was much better than this. I havent even scratched the surface with all the settings but I have been able to mess around with the EQ and still can't get anything to sound close to acceptable. From what I have read, the tones Kemper produces are that of a mic'd amp, and me not being an audio producer is not used to this at all. But what confuses me is I watched countless videos on youtube before buying of blind comparison tests between the real deal amps and the Kemper and they were almost indistinguishable. So what gives. Are the stock profiles just bad? Do I need to spend more time tweaking the settings? I am scared to sink more money into it by buying new rigs just to be disappointed. At this point I'm already thinking about returning it.
    And before anyone asks, yes the cabinet setting is turned on and I have tried various different ones.

  • Do you still have a tube amp? Try profiling it, or at the very least, try putting your ear at the level of the speaker (adjusting the volume first, so you don’t deafen yourself, obviously). If the Kemper sounds vastly different, there must be a set up problem.

  • Audio can be subjective, and I'm not knocking your initial experience, but mine is truly opposite.
    I'm only 4 months in myself.
    I have 5 different PRS guitars, SE ONE, Mira, 305, McCarty , and P22. They all react a bit differently to profiles as they would to any amp.
    I have Yamaha HS 80M monitors, and they were the first thing I hooked up to. It didn't take too much fiddling for me to find some nice rigs to complement the P22 etc.
    Interestingly I was less impressed going through the tube amp effects in overall.
    I now run a Yamaha DXR10 and have been enjoying that the most so far.
    Keep at it, and welcome.


    Cheers,
    Dave

  • Hey guys, I just got a Kemper and I am running it through two Yamaha HS7 powered monitors. So far I am greatly unimpressed with the sound I am getting. Clean tones sound good, but anything with distortion sounds thin, harsh, kind of muffled, and just overall shitty. Granted I am used to a direct blast from tube amps. But then again, even a shitty little Line 6 digital amp I had years ago was much better than this. I havent even scratched the surface with all the settings but I have been able to mess around with the EQ and still can't get anything to sound close to acceptable. From what I have read, the tones Kemper produces are that of a mic'd amp, and me not being an audio producer is not used to this at all. But what confuses me is I watched countless videos on youtube before buying of blind comparison tests between the real deal amps and the Kemper and they were almost indistinguishable. So what gives. Are the stock profiles just bad? Do I need to spend more time tweaking the settings? I am scared to sink more money into it by buying new rigs just to be disappointed. At this point I'm already thinking about returning it.
    And before anyone asks, yes the cabinet setting is turned on and I have tried various different ones.

    Could you please post the way of your sound?
    So from guitar, which one, which pickups, cable, which input, which effects in the Kemper, which rig, which output, your input settings, your output settings, which audio interface between Kemper and your monitors, ...!
    And please do a record and post this sound example here.
    By the way, did you read the manuals?
    And did you watch the Kemper youtube videos?

  • Welcome McDre
    Sure two HS7 cant move air but you should get good results.


    How is the sound over headphone if you connect it on the kemper?
    Recommend you install RigManager, just in case you dont have it already.
    With RM you have access of many free rig packs from different professionell profile vendors.
    Dont know what kind of distortion you are after but try also some free profiles from the free profile packs
    like Bert Meulendjik, Michael Britt or Lars Luettge (Deadlightstudios).


    HTH

  • Would it be possible for you to capture some audio for us? Maybe take a standard stock profile of distorted amp you like and record some basic riffs. If the recording represents what you're hearing you can post it and let us comment.

  • Hey guys, I just got a Kemper and I am running it through two Yamaha HS7 powered monitors. So far I am greatly unimpressed with the sound I am getting. Clean tones sound good, but anything with distortion sounds thin, harsh, kind of muffled, and just overall shitty. Granted I am used to a direct blast from tube amps. But then again, even a shitty little Line 6 digital amp I had years ago was much better than this. I havent even scratched the surface with all the settings but I have been able to mess around with the EQ and still can't get anything to sound close to acceptable. From what I have read, the tones Kemper produces are that of a mic'd amp, and me not being an audio producer is not used to this at all. But what confuses me is I watched countless videos on youtube before buying of blind comparison tests between the real deal amps and the Kemper and they were almost indistinguishable. So what gives. Are the stock profiles just bad? Do I need to spend more time tweaking the settings? I am scared to sink more money into it by buying new rigs just to be disappointed. At this point I'm already thinking about returning it.
    And before anyone asks, yes the cabinet setting is turned on and I have tried various different ones.


    Hello MacDre,


    A) Did you purchase your KPA brand new, right out of the box...or is it used (or possibly a store display model)? If it is the latter, you will definitely want to re-initialize / re-set to factory default conditions, as there is the possibility that a previous user has messed around with one or more of the Output settings.


    B) Have you read the KPA Reference Manual?

  • Okay I am making good progress already. I noticed a setting on my monitors called High/Trim and Room Control. I set both to 0 dB. I also had my laptop hooked up to them via a 3.5mm to two 1/4 in and I disconnected it. I noticed that my volume became much louder after doing this, even after turning down the monitors.


    I checked out the Line 6 / Bogner Spider Valve MKII rig on the exchange and its pretty close to what I got, granted I need to put some new tubes in mine. What someone had briefly mentioned above that became very apparent was the air these monitors move is nothing compared to my 2x12. I think its playing tricks on me by adding an extra layer to the tone that my sense of touch picks up on when I am chugging or really digging into a note that my monitors just arent producing. And I think that may be the main thing I am not used to.


    May have to go get a new cab now, and an external amp since I got the non-powered version.


    I was also messing around with some Brian May profiles and was pretty pleased with them. I'm gunna chalk this up to jumping the gun. I need a lot more time with this unit :thumbup:


    Edit: Yes it was purchased brand new.
    And I am still working my way through the manual. Im the kind of person to noodle around with it on my own and when I can't figure out how to do something in particular, I then look it up lol.


    And I will try to capture some audio, but unfortunately I only have this little desktop Samson "go-mic". I plan on buying proper recording equipment throughout the year. And the tone that I have recorded with it seems to sound fine to me after playing it back which I think lends to this theory that not feeling air being moved by my monitors is making the tone come off as "thin" or "harsh" or "muffled" (muffled is seeming less and less of an accurate description). It was hard for me to describe since I don't know the proper terminology and haven't had any formal ear training.

    Edited once, last by MacDre ().

  • the most important factor is good quality profiles of course.
    the factory profiles are not that great,so i'm pretty sure that if you'll have the right profile you will change your mind about the kemper
    what you describe the distortion sound are you after?
    can you name bands/amplifier with the sound you are looking for?
    maybe i can recommend you a good profile pack.

  • Between The Buried and Me
    As I Lay Dying
    All Shall Perish
    August Burns Red
    As Blood Runs Black
    Avenged Sevenfold
    Metallica
    Protest The Hero
    Thrice


    Jimi Hendrix
    Lynyrd Skynyrd
    Led Zeppelin
    Deep Purple
    Eric Clapton
    Pink Floyd
    Queen
    The Rolling Stones
    Black Sabbath
    Ozzy Osbourne
    ACDC

  • first of all i don't if you are familiar with this site.its a cool way too know which artist use what amp and then look for a matching profile.
    for mid gain,classic rock and clean/edge of break i would choose any pack from mbritt or tone junkie,try listen to the demos on thier site first and then decide.
    for heavy gain stuff i would choose stl or sinmix packs (dizel,mesa boogie,framus,bogner,engl,fiedman and ect..).
    if your looking for free one i recommend you this packs they are not bad at all high gain profile of the mark IIC

  • Just one thing to consider, since you're playing through studio monitors you can also hear your strings which will mess with your hearing. Best way to judge a tone is to record it and then listen to the recording.


    Those album tones you listed are all heavily eq'd and multitracked. Some good starting points for eq are cut 300Hz to remove mud and cut somewhere between 2-6kHz to remove harshness.