Thinking about giving profiling a shot

  • So I have been a Kemper user for almost a year now and have yet to attempt an amp profile. Do I need a fancy mic and pre-amp to get decent results or can I just plug in my mic directly to the kemper and get good results? I have a Marshall 2555x that I have thought about profiling and then adding a cab from another rig I like.

  • Don't do it!


    Once you start profiling you will never hear your tube amps as magical or special again. The Kemper will suck out their souls just like camera's did to indigenous peoples, you'll be left with hollow husks and false totems. You will literally be doing the audio equivalent of eating the forbidden apple in the garden of Eden, the veil will be lifted and the truth will be out, you'll realize that every profile is true and accurate and how the amp actually sounded, there are no more or less true profiles and that profile packs are also a lie, they're just done in a nicer room with nice equipment and engineering choices, but they're not more amp like than anything else. You will be left a broken man/woman.


    You want my advice - keep away from profiling. Maintain your innocence. It's the devils work!

  • Thanks guys. I only have two tube amps at the moment. A Marshall 2555x and an old 1978 Peavey Deuce. I don't think anyone wants profiles of that old Peavey. I think I will try and get a hold of a sm57 and give it a shot.

  • I’m pretty new to profiling but I make two profiles of everything- one with a SM57 and one DI. The DI box is a cheap ART Xdirect which works great.


    There’s no magic to it and I don’t even think the room makes much of a difference. There is some truth in the fact that some professional profiles may sweeten the sound with really nice mic preamps but thats just icing on the cake. A 57 straight into the back of the Kemper works just fine.


    So far my experience is that although many of the profesional profiles and profiles on rig exchange may be technically better than my one attempts I tend to use my own profiles 90% of the time because they sound exactly like I expect my amp to sound.

  • Ive just done my Vox V125 Head...a bit of messing around but soon got it going...the worst bit is editing the info...I edited the forts one on the Kemper itself, the rest I did in RM but..RM editing is so tiresome...and slow.

    No Gain - No Pain.... :D

  • You may have already done this, but edit the first one so it has all your data as you want except maybe a couple specifics and then use it to start your next profiles. The data will carry through and you have less to adjust.

    "More Guitar in the Monitors" :thumbup:

  • On several occasions I selected one of my profiles with all the fields completed as a Reference Rig but when I profiled the new rig I got random Rig information that was driving me mad. I think I finally figured it out while doing some profiling yesterday. I was turning the Chicken Head knob in stages from Browse to Performance then Profile. I think I was accidentally loading the first rig in Performance mode as my reference rig - DOH!!!


    Moral of the story when you have loaded the reference rig in Browse mode make sure you turn it straight to Profile - go straight to jail do not pass go do not collect £200 :)

  • You could also try a DI profile and add that cab. No mic needed. Once you get a mic try both and see what gives you your preferred results.

    +1 to that.. especially if you're already planning on using an already profiled cabinet.


    For me, personally, this approach made it so much easier to get into making profiles. I'm not a studio engineer and have no experience mic'ing up cabinets, and I also don't have a good room to profile in anyway.
    Much easier to only concern yourself about dialing in the heads to the tones you like. Grabbing that as a DI profile is extremely easy and satisfying.


    All of this assuming your amp has a direct out of course, or perhaps you have a loadbox...

  • +1 to that.. especially if you're already planning on using an already profiled cabinet.
    For me, personally, this approach made it so much easier to get into making profiles. I'm not a studio engineer and have no experience mic'ing up cabinets, and I also don't have a good room to profile in anyway.
    Much easier to only concern yourself about dialing in the heads to the tones you like. Grabbing that as a DI profile is extremely easy and satisfying.


    All of this assuming your amp has a direct out of course, or perhaps you have a loadbox...


    Do I need to hook a DI box from the recording out and then into the Kemper? I was thinking it was possible to take the FX send and profile the pre-amp that way.

  • Do I need to hook a DI box from the recording out and then into the Kemper? I was thinking it was possible to take the FX send and profile the pre-amp that way.


    I guess you could do that and get a pre-amp DI profile. I was just assuming that you would want the power tubes in your profiles as well

  • With a Marshall 2555x I don't see any other way than using a loadbox, if you want to create DI profiles. Or a DI box that accepts amplifier out signals and can forward to your cabinet (which you then would need to always have hooked up). Something like a Torpedo Captor, Suhr Reactive Load, Rivera RockCrusher or similar... or perhaps the official Kemper DI box, if you don't need the load.


    The DI on the amp is frequency compensated, and is 99% certainly taken before the power section anyways.

  • With a Marshall 2555x I don't see any other way than using a loadbox, if you want to create DI profiles. Or a DI box that accepts amplifier out signals and can forward to your cabinet (which you then would need to always have hooked up). Something like a Torpedo Captor, Suhr Reactive Load, Rivera RockCrusher or similar... or perhaps the official Kemper DI box, if you don't need the load.


    The DI on the amp is frequency compensated, and is 99% certainly taken before the power section anyways.

    Thanks for the info. I have heard that the recording out is crap on these. I think I will look into getting a sweet deal on an SM57 and profiling it that way. The only reason I have not done so is that there seem to be a lot of 2555x profiles out there. Big Hairy Profiles did a great pack of 2555x and JCM800 geared towards a Zakk Wylde tone.

  • and I also don't have a good room to profile in anyway.

    As far as I understand it the room has minimal impact on the profile as it doesn't capture any time based information (reverb etc) so unless the room is extremely poor sounding or you position the mic in a cancellation node you should be fine for making profiles. Maybe someone from Kemper ( @Burkhard ) could confirm this please?



    With a Marshall 2555x I don't see any other way than using a loadbox, if you want to create DI profiles. Or a DI box that accepts amplifier out signals and can forward to your cabinet (which you then would need to always have hooked up). Something like a Torpedo Captor, Suhr Reactive Load, Rivera RockCrusher or similar... or perhaps the official Kemper DI box, if you don't need the load.


    I made a couple of profiles using an ART ZDirect with the speaker attached and Torpedo Reload as a reactive load. They sounded very different. To my ears the Torpedo was dull and muffled compared to a cheap DI with a real speaker. I have since made some other profiles with the active ART XDirect which @Burkhard recommend as one of the suitable DI boxes and the results are slightly better than the passive ZDirect. I suppose some people might prefer the loadbox profiles but to me there was no comparison (and I actually really like my Two Notes as a load box) witht he cheap as chips DI winning by a mile.


    They aren't necessarily great sounds as I only wanted to do an A/B comparison so I didn't spend any time setting the amp but they are on Rig exchange if you want to hear the difference between a conventional DI with speaker and a Loadbox.


    Author Wheresthedug, Vintage Recto DI ART and Vintage Recto DI 2Notes

  • Option 1 - You would run your speaker out into a loadbox and then line out into the Kemper (No Speaker in the profile)


    Option 2 - You would run your speaker into a DI box (similar or exactly like the Behringer GI-100. Then plug into a speaker cabinet taking the line out into the Kemper. (No Speaker in the profile).


    There are other devices but these two would cover the scenarios and you can choose what best works for you. I've tried both. Currently use my Weber Loadbox / Attenuator and then line out to the Kemper.



    Both of these options include the Amp pre and power section. Add your own cab profile or another that you like......or plug back into a speaker cab (with a SS power amp). Good options, good consistent results, no mics needed.

    "More Guitar in the Monitors" :thumbup:

    Edited 2 times, last by bshaw92 ().