Too many great choices!

  • So I find myself paralysed with the vastness of cool tones available with the KPA. Even when I have a great sound going, in my head I'm like "wonder what this would sound like with a Princeton tone" etc.


    Any tips for retaining a good amount of flexibility while reducing the drinking-from-a-fire-hose effect?

  • I'm feeling the same. There is just so much to do and discover. I'm not even sure how to organize yet because I know I will be discovering new tones and changing things all the time. There are still about a half dozen profiles I'm planning on downloading. I'm sure that list will grow exponentially. When does this end?


    Still, I'd rather have too many great options than not enough.

  • I hear ya - the Kemper "tone world" seems to never end. I thought I would ultimately have about 10 -15 great sounding profiles that would cover any and all my needs.
    Yes, all my needs were Easily covered...
    BUT - I am always amazed at all the new tones I am getting that have my interest as well. I am a Kemper tone addict now :!::!::!:

  • What helps me a lot is not to think in Amps. (And I know I'm not the only one here.)


    I think in clean, drive... you name it. I know pretty well what I want a sound to be like in each category and when I started with the KPA, looking for let's say cleans, I tried to figure out the best 25 clean sounds by searching RE as well as bying packs and trying freebies. These sounds would turn out fairly similar - based on different amps though - because they all matched my liking and my playing. But from here I knew that for these kind of sounds MBritt is a preferred source, as it is for may others, so I kept digging further here.


    What I did not care about for a second, is if a sound comes from a Matchless or a Princeton. And with the KPA for me it's just hit or miss: Adjusting a bit of delay and reverb (my fx settings 98%), locking it, switching profiles/rigs until it sounds and feels instantly right. Same goes for drive and highgain (Guidorist for me here), now I'm down to 15 in each category, which I will reduce further. Since then I haven't even looked into the dedicated profile subforums.


    On the other hand, testing profiles and comparing different amps is fun and to many it is obviously a crucial aspect to go for the KPA. Just a matter of time, I guess.

    Gear: Strats & KPA. Plug Ins: Cubase, NI, iZotope, Slate, XLN, Spectrasonics.
    Music: Song from my former band: vimeo.com/10419626[/media][/media][/media] Something new on the way...

    Edited once, last by Fireloogie ().

  • The only way I could stop this disease was to work to a deadline. I had a tour coming up and had to make some decisions, although it will probably start again afterwards. It is the best and worst point for the Kemper.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

  • Interesting, I kinda have the opposite...profile blindness...


    I try a new profile, really like it, try another, not sure if I prefer it, go back to the previous one and it sounds totally different, then go back to the profiles I'm using and think they are totally the best!


    I had this issue with a real amp though, which is why I bought most of my amps without even trying them, knowing there would be a period of adjustment to get used to the sound.


    My advice is similar...focus on sound types and look fore the best within those, else you will just keeping trying new profiles forever. Once found, stick with them for some time to bed in and try live ( if you play live)...


    Got to go now, need to review some more Top Jimi packs just in case I've missed something amazing... :)

  • Interesting post this and something we've all come up against at some point.


    I eventually got to the point where I did the following;


    1. Deleted all profiles from my KPA
    2. Did some research and found the best free profiles I could find based on my desired amps/tone(s)
    3. Road tested the profiles and picked my Gold Standard for each
    4. Deleted the stuff that didn't make it!


    Now when I grab some new profiles (I just can't help it!) I find the ones that could be the new 'Gold Standard' and copy to the KPA. If anything proves to be better than what I have then it becomes the standard and the old profile deleted. If I buy a pack that doesn't make it then I can live with it and I'm happy to support the people who invest their time in doing this.


    I know this seems a little 'tough' but I just had to do it as KPA profile testing was robbing me of my life! It's fair to say that I still have to suppress the urge as I know that a killer profile could still be out there hiding from me and this is what makes it difficult to break the habit. With so many profiles however it could be a life's work...just look at RE!


    I never thought that having an unlimited amp collection would be a bad thing but I've changed my mind tbh. I'm glad I'm not rich as having access to anything you could ever want in the world must ultimately be such a downer.


    The great irony for me is that since I bought the Kemper I've never used a valve amp live again but I've purchased more 'real' valve amps than at any point in my life. At some point this year I intend to profile the tones I love most from these, call them my own, and if they are good enough delete everything else. Then what I have is truly what I really want..


    Regards,


    Si

  • I know exactly what guitar (and bass) tones I'm looking for, but searching through demos on YouTube is getting old. You know...10 minutes of monologue before you ever get to hear anything. Or some done so badly that you're sorry you wasted your time checking it. Not that they're all bad! It's just time consuming to wade through all the "hey guys" stuff and bad demos. Then you get lost and start to see the same ones over and over. There's got to be a better way! ||


    Maybe Kemper could host a profile demo server site with rules about keeping it strictly to guitar sound. Put the long winded notes in the description, but keep the recording to guitar sound. I realize Rig Manager is sort of "that type of thing" with your guitar being part of the demo, but how would we know what the author intended? My run through the pre-loaded stuff didn't impress me much. Perhaps the wrong guitar?


    Some sort of better demo system would help me find what I'm looking for without wasting money on profiles that don't work out.

  • Perhaps the wrong guitar?


    Some sort of better demo system would help me find what I'm looking for without wasting money on profiles that don't work out.

    Wrong guitar? Good point!
    Profiles are done with amp settings which fits to the corresponding sound of the used guitar, pickups and genre. I have some profiles they work e.g. with single coil and humbuckers but many only for one type.
    Check the free available packs by yourself from different vendors. HTH.

  • My recomendation is: Keep going on your favorite profile until you want to be inspired by another profile.
    This way you will find out naturally which profile is the best for certain situations and guitars.


    And it´s even more honest if you don´t know which profile you dialed in. Because then your ears and feel decide and not your brain:)

  • The other issue is there are profiles which sound fantastic and are inspiring to play at low levels through my studio monitors that sound crap when at gig volume and vice versa. I know they can all be tweaked but what I mean is when you’re trying to really narrow down your selection thus also makes it tough ;)
    I’m still excited about the new Bert pack though. I’m just as diseased as the rest of you!

  • The other issue is there are profiles which sound fantastic and are inspiring to play at low levels through my studio monitors that sound crap when at gig volume and vice versa. I know they can all be tweaked but what I mean is when you’re trying to really narrow down your selection thus also makes it tough ;)
    I’m still excited about the new Bert pack though. I’m just as diseased as the rest of you!


    You defo need to do this - I always audition at band volume as I made this mistake early on.


    When I started I spent too much time tweaking profiles as well - I don't bother any more. If a profile has the DNA I am looking for it's a keeper. If not I move on. If something needs a little tweak then I'm happy to do that but if I'm adjusting something more than 5% I know I just haven't found the profile I'm looking for and move on. I also never adjust the gain on a profile; I find a profile with the characteristics I'm looking for instead. I've bought a product that damn near gets a well mic'd up vale amp tone - the last thing I want to do is let the KPA guess that a different gain setting would sound like - not to say it does a bad job; there's just no need with the amount of solid profiles out there.


    It's a different process for me than what I would do with my real amps - with these I tweak because that's what your supposed to do to squeeze stuff out of them. They all have their strengths/weakness and it's a dynamic system - when I plug a Strat in I'm doing something different to when my LP get's fired up. The KPA was designed to profile your amps with your guitars and capture your desired tones. It has great sculpting capabilities but that was never the original intention imho. I think the whole RE/profile vendor thing, whilst very empowering and great fun, has resulted in us moving away from this. The problem is that too do this you really need to know what you're doing and have the right gear and environment to do it well which is what holds people back.


    This is just my opinion and others will no doubt have different perspectives.


    Oh and one last (but critical) point. Be aware of loudness bias. Human's instinctively perceive louder sounds as 'better' than quieter ones. I've auditioned profiles in the past and thought 'man that sounds better than the one I have already', On inspection I've often then found that there's something in the chain is resulting in a louder output. This fact alone makes comparisons pretty difficult to do in the real world. When I audition I ensure that the stomps/FX blocks are locked off and that the volumes in the chain at at unity and then try to loudness match. This can gets somewhat tedious however. I've only got another 14000 profiles to audition so goodby life!


    Si

  • My recomendation is: Keep going on your favorite profile until you want to be inspired by another profile.
    This way you will find out naturally which profile is the best for certain situations and guitars.


    And it´s even more honest if you don´t know which profile you dialed in. Because then your ears and feel decide and not your brain:)

    thank you a lot for your recommendation. it does seems logical and like a good plan. i'm new to community so any help is appreciated. can i ask you questions in case i would have some? thanks again!