DI profile not even close

  • Make a studio profile, turn off cab, test. Adjust, reprofile, test. Adjust, reprofile test.


    Even better, mic and record your amp to your liking and use that as your control. Don't touch the mic, profile, record second track through speaker and mic and compare. Adjust, reprofile and test until you get it identical. Tedious, but worth the effort


    I realize, in your mind it may not seem as "pure" as getting a direct profile, but it doesn't matter how you get there...as long as you get there

  • I appreciate everyone trying to be helpful. The point of this thread is to get to the bottom of a glaring technical issue with the Kemper’s DI profiling process. I’m not looking for some new, unique sound. I’m trying to capture my amp. I had it built in 2004 because I used a prototype and had never heard anything quite like it. And still haven’t to this day. It has been my main amp for almost 15 years. It’s puzzling because I can profile other amp’s DIs, just not this one. It’s not only my amp either. There is something about the various amps mentioned in my last post (as well as others, I’m sure) that doesn’t jive with the KPA. I sincerely hope Kemper will work on a solution. It would probably improve the profiling process overall. Not just for the “problem” amplifiers.

  • Make a studio profile, turn off cab, test. Adjust, reprofile, test. Adjust, reprofile test.


    Even better, mic and record your amp to your liking and use that as your control. Don't touch the mic, profile, record second track through speaker and mic and compare. Adjust, reprofile and test until you get it identical. Tedious, but worth the effort


    I realize, in your mind it may not seem as "pure" as getting a direct profile, but it doesn't matter how you get there...as long as you get there

    I tried turning the cab off. During a gig last Friday night, I went through a few amps including the studio profile of my main amp. It’s ok but it seems like there are peaks and dips in frequency response that make certain notes sound smeared. It just doesn’t cut through like a genuine capture of a DI. When I used true DI profiles of a ‘65 Deluxe & my ‘68 Bassmaster, I immediately heard the difference. The difference is focus. The Kemper's way of removing the cabinet is close and sometimes sounds ok on its own, but side by side with a true merged profile, there’s no contest. It really isn’t “pure” and will never be based on what I’m hearing. There are so many ways to mic a cabinet. How does the KPA decide which part of the profile is the cabinet? Does it just alter the frequency response? Depending on the angle & axis of the microphone, and even the microphone itself, there can be a big difference in not only frequency but also transient response. How does it decide? That’s just expecting too much, IMO.

  • I appreciate everyone trying to be helpful. The point of this thread is to get to the bottom of a glaring technical issue with the Kemper’s DI profiling process. I’m not looking for some new, unique sound. I’m trying to capture my amp. I had it built in 2004 because I used a prototype and had never heard anything quite like it. And still haven’t to this day. It has been my main amp for almost 15 years. It’s puzzling because I can profile other amp’s DIs, just not this one. It’s not only my amp either. There is something about the various amps mentioned in my last post (as well as others, I’m sure) that doesn’t jive with the KPA. I sincerely hope Kemper will work on a solution. It would probably improve the profiling process overall. Not just for the “problem” amplifiers.

    Just a comment, but I have run into setups that the Kemper just could not handle. In a recent case I was trying to Direct profile a tone I was getting with a Joyo American Sound pedal driven by a Visual Sound Comp 66 compressor. The Kemper simply could not get anywhere near the tone of that combination. However the issue turned out to be the compressor, the Kemper did not like that in the chain at all. Taking the compressor out yielded a very good profile. It's a shame the Kemper compressors do not have the detail in the highs that the Comp 66 does (it's an outstanding pedal).

  • Maybe this will help a little, as you may remember I had problems as well.


    I typically use a Suhr reactive load for my direct profiles... so this time I decided to do that still, but to plug in a cab off in another room to turn the "soak" off.


    While the results were not 100% they were closer to 98% with my 5153 Stealth which was a problem amp before. Totally useable, and the refine worked and with normal tweaks I got it to work.

  • Maybe this will help a little, as you may remember I had problems as well.


    I typically use a Suhr reactive load for my direct profiles... so this time I decided to do that still, but to plug in a cab off in another room to turn the "soak" off.


    While the results were not 100% they were closer to 98% with my 5153 Stealth which was a problem amp before. Totally useable, and the refine worked and with normal tweaks I got it to work.

    I’m listening but I don’t think I understand 100% what you are suggesting. Would you mind elaborating?

  • Update - I profiled some of my other amps recently. I have couple that are lower wattage. One is a tweed deluxe I built. Profiles sound really nice and accurate. The other one is a Gibson Minuteman. It has EL84s I believe. As usual, the studio profiles of this amp are fine. When trying to capture a DI profile, I couldn’t even complete the process because the level was WAY too hot. This was using the Kemper DI with the input level at -32. I could’ve probably used an inline pad but I didn’t feel like digging one out. It’s crazy to me how I can profile a 35 or 50 watt amp with the same setup but somehow a little peashooter like the Gibson will be too much for it. Now I’m really puzzled.

  • the kemper does not do crossover distortion very well. certain amps just do not profile well. Buzzy splatty things like matchless an old class a amps.

    Much agreed with this. One reason I love the Kemper so much is it does not generally do crossover distortion, and I DESPISE crossover distortion. I spent a LOT of time when I built and modded amps trying to rid them of crossover distortion, there are tricks to do so. But not always with modelers.


    I firmly believe this harmonic behavior with Kempers is why some folks love them and some don't. If you want intentional accurate ugly distortion in a model, the Fractals are good at that. Line 6 modeling does ugly too, but some of the ugly bleeds over where it doesn't belong (it always makes me laugh seeing the Hum parameter in some Line 6 models). The Kemper just sounds gorgeous IMHO and it is sometimes hard to get it sounding ugly.

  • I recently profiled a very heavy distortion pedal all by itself. It is going for that swedish buzz saw sound and has ton of gain. The Kemper profiled it fine, but destroyed the profile when I refined it. There was something about the freq response that completely confused the Kemper so every time I played a chord the entire sound of the profile changed. Like I was using a wah pedal. I redid the profile and skipped the refine. Sounded fine.