Kemper Tips and Tricks - Gain Control


  • There is no need to explain yourself about your great video and for saying the truth to a kemper forum moderator. It seems that all they want to hear and read is good things and cannot stand any critisism about kemper.

  • There is no need to explain yourself about your great video and for saying the truth to a kemper forum moderator. It seems that all they want to hear and read is good things and cannot stand any critisism about kemper.


    With all due respect, Mike, there also is no need to jump in and "stir the pot", particularly after the matter has been cordially discussed and closed between both parties.

  • In regards to this I wonder if there is a big difference between adding gain or adding a pure booster in front? Thoughts?

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • In regards to this I wonder if there is a big difference between adding gain or adding a pure booster in front? Thoughts?

    Just a personal opinion.
    Yes, there i think I feel a difference, although I could not really define a general tenet. It depends on the type of profile.


    My motto is try and error. ;)

  • In regards to this I wonder if there is a big difference between adding gain or adding a pure booster in front? Thoughts?

    From the manual:


    The Pure Booster features a “Volume” control like all the other effects, but that’s it. The“Volume” control will boost or attenuate the signal without coloring the sound. Whenyou place it in front of the amp or a distortion stomp, the Pure Booster has the sameeffect as the gain or drive control; placed after the Stack Section, the Pure Boosterbecomes a simple volume control, with no further coloration of the signal.

  • Thanks Michael - I guess it comes down to what you read into "same effect" really.

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • HW, please don't let the responses in this thread stop you from creating new tutorial videos. They are really excellent, and even a seasoned Kemper user can learn from them. Also, please do NOT start to think too much about not saying anything that might be read as a slight to the Kemper. What you said was true. It's not a slight against the Kemper. Keep doing what you're doing. We appreciate it. Thanks!!!!

  • I agree, good tutorial.


    From my experiance i don't touch the gain. I used to play with it, but realized thats the image the KPA got from the amp, its like a picture in photoshop. The better picture you start out with the less adjustments you need to make in editing.
    I tweak everythng else a "bit" and that's it. If the profile doesn't have the sound i'm looking for there is another one just a click away that will.

  • The Choptones JJ profile I use is applied with several different performances all with different amounts of gain. For my Strat I run much less gain and it is indeed a fatter very amp like Marshall tone, for my classic metal I run a little more gain than the noon setting the profile originally had with excellent results!


    This was an informative video and thread with great food for thought, .Please keep sharing HW!

  • Good video, HW. Thanks.


    My experience with real tube amps is that the "sweet spot" for maximum gain is where notes are still clear enough to be intelligible, but going any further into over-saturation becomes destructive to crunch and note distinction. Obviously different amp designs have different responses to saturation. A multi-staged amp can have incredible distortion crunch without "mushing out".


    So my (admittedly limited) experience with the Kemper is that I audition profiles looking for how my pickups saturate the profiled amp for maximum breakup with the best tone and dynamic response. And because I find better tone out of my pickups when they are lower than I see most pickups set, I usually have to select a profile with a higher gain setting used during the profiling process. Yes, I adjusted the input section's "Distortion Sense" to what I "think" is enough compensation, but I have no way to verify that it is set where it would be "equal" to any pickup output done by the profiler. That is one "level meter" I wish the Kemper had available...a target input gain meter.


    The bottom line is I pick the best sounding gain breakup profile I can get and work DOWN the gain from there. Dialing back my guitar sounds great like that. Just like the video shows, it sounds better that way. When you push the gain up, that is when the pick attack gets weird sounding, and something doesn't sound natural about the breakup. So I agree with HW about that. I hear exactly what he is illustrating. What Don is saying about "tone" is also true, but the attack and dynamic response is what I hear falling apart when you push it further up beyond the optimal saturation point. Real amps do not respond the same when pushed up more. That's my experience. It is what it is, and I can live with that. Nothing comes closer to real amps IMO.


    If I were doing the profile, the perfect point of real amp saturation with my pickups would be achieved. But since I have to work with what is provided, I can only select a profile that is closest to what sounds like "max without mush". I will try to push up gain and find the proper dynamic response point, but sometimes you just don't hit it right. And of course this is all subjective stuff. What I like might not be what the profiler likes, so that could be a deal-breaker right there. The ones that work well are beautiful though. Pure sonic enjoyment!


  • This is a great point, and to add to that. I have found that i used to stay away from high gain profiles. So depending on which guitar i was using one or both of them may sound bad with certain high gain profiles, but now i look for them becuase i turn the gain down until it cleans out that metallic sound and then make up for it with a boost, or even a boost and distortion pedal and an extra eq. Change the cab and it's golden. also to add, i know this contradicts what i posed 2 weeks ago, but it's amazing what you can learn in 2 weeks.

  • I think the key take-away, is that you should profile your Marshall on '10'. I agree with the observation that you can turn down the gain to clean it up, and it's relatively accurate, whereas if you boost the gain too much above the gain setting you profiled the amplifier at, you can get mixed results.


    When I create my profiles, I usually do one or two at mid or low volume (for a cleaner tone) then one at max volume for the amps that I like to occasionally run that way (Marshall or Tweed Fenders).


    An interesting thing happened the other day when I profiled my Deluxe Reverb. I profiled it at a volume of 3 (mostly clean with just a slight bit of distortion) and then created another profile at volume 6. When I played with the volume on 6, I started hearing a strange distortion when I would play extremely loud or really dig into my picking. It was more prominent on the lower notes. When I investigated, it seemed to be an issue with my speaker; I think my speaker is blown or starting to go bad. On loud very dynamic playing with the amp volume up around 6, the beginning of the notes would have a weird buzz that would disappear as the note died out or not be there when you played softer. I assumed this would result in a very horrible sounding profile, but being curious, and since I already was set up to make the profile, I profiled the amp in that configuration with the speaker buzz. Guess what? I got a profile of the amp with speaker buzz. It might not be 100% accurate, but it's shockingly close! You can't hear the speaker buzz when playing quietly or with a guitar that has lower gain pickups, but when I play a higher gain guitar and strum hard I get the ugly speaker buzz that my amp has. When the note dies, it cleans up, and if I hit the notes softly the buzz isn't there. Honestly, it's a pretty cool profile...I'm probably going to replace the speaker in my DR though. Back to my original take-away...the Kemper seems to be accurate to the highest amp volume that you profiled at...or at least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!