Kemper dilema! Can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong?

  • Hi All,


    I have had my Kemper for over a year now and don't me wrong i love it but i can help but feel its missing something?


    To clarify, I run my KPA into a Line 6 Firehawk 1500 in w/d/w to get what is heralded as the greatest tone achievable now i know this isn't true wet/dry/wet as i am doing it through one cabinet as apposed to the traditional way of doing it but i looked into it and it seems a pretty good setup, anyway i digress!


    So the only thing in my signal chain is a Horizon devices Precision drive, i use this to tighten up the bottom end on certain profiles and get a more 'modern' gain if im playing djent/death metal and this is in front of the amp. (Works wonderfully by the way)


    So the profile i use in the main is TopJimi's 1984 profile as i play in a band covering 80's glam/hair metal, with the PD this tone can be tightened to make for a great death metal tone so i generally use this profile, and as far as high gain tones go the Kemper is perfect but when it comes to the cleans i cant get it too sound right?


    When i plug into my Firehawk 1500's own amp modelling and select a Fender deluxe tone the speakers seem to come alive and fill the room like you would expect with a tube amp, it just has so much presence in the room and its not EQ its just this massive room filling sound, on the kemper i use the famed Morgan profile as its a beautifully clean tone that can be pushed or stick a green scream in front of it and it sounds gorgeous, however (and this is a big however) it does not have that same presence?


    I know this must be something i'm doing wrong as some of the guys on here have a vast musical background and experience with so many great tube amps and I in comparison have barely any, so it would seem i'm doing something wrong as apposed to the Kemper sounding crap!


    I obviously know the Line 6 has the sonic capability to produce the tones i desire as it does it with the sounds it has built in so there something amiss between the KPA and the Line 6.


    If someone could kindly point me in the right direction to get my Kemper to sound that way!

  • Are volume levels matched, when you compare tones? What happens when all effects are turned off (reverb, delay, eq...) - still more presence in the room?


    Try to activate a compressor stomp - does this chance your perception of the Kemper cleans?

  • Bit confused, Can you get the right sound without the Firehawk for cleans ( i.e. do you have anything else you can test with)?


    Trying to work out if its the interaction with the Firehawk or a more general problem?

  • I also have a firehawk 1500 and I love it ! It’s heavy but sounds awesome !! Not to mention it’s the best Bluetooth speaker I’ve seen yet. I haven’t tried the onboard effects/models for a long period of time but from what I remember they were great but had artifacts that I couldn’t tweak out of the sound. I gave up trying to use the firehawk in stereo due to phase issues, it appeared to me that the onboard effects and models did not suffer as much from this issue though. I was hoping for a fix but sadly it’s been a year without an update and yet to have received a detailed manual on the thing, the current manual is unbelievably vague on just about everything.


    I just use mono monitor connection now and I’m happy with its performance. As for the Kemper I’ve gotten great satisfaction from experimenting with different cabs and using the cab section eq can really bring a profile to life. Another useful trick is experiment with an onboard eq pedal. I’d also check to see if the firehawk profile has any effects included such as chorus and if so add the same to the Kemper profile. I will give it another go when I get a chance and compare the Kemper and the firehawk onboard patches and let you know my results.

  • What if you are making profiles of the patches you like in the firehawk? I think you can get really close (raw amp tone - without fx).


    And then: Is there still something missing? If not, you know, that you are just liking the Line 6 modelling better than the sound of tube amps caught by Kemper :thumbup:

  • Thanks for your replies guys,


    @Ibot39 I have matched the volume levels to the best of my ability but its not volume that is missing its this big full sound that i'm getting with the Line 6 and not with the Kemper. I haven't tried using it with all the effect off no but on the Line 6 there isn't any effects to start off with and as you know there is a a couple on the Morgan profile when i get home i will try this and see but i have a feeling that wont give it that fullness i'm looking for!


    @V8guitar I don't have anything else to put the Kemper through, my pal has a DXR10 which i'm sure he wouldn't mind me borrowing to test this out. I feel like this is not a failing of either of the two unit's just a connection issue or some parameter that has to be changed on the Line 6 or vice versa.


    @Yzman82 I'm glad you have chimed in as another Firehawk user! I love the thing and as far as an all round amp goes i honestly done think there is anything out there that compares! you can do so much with it and being a 1500w Bluetooth definitely helps! I'd be interested on how you have yours set up s when i initially set mine up i had it in mono but it doesn't use all the speakers just the 12" cone and the tweeter?

  • What if you are making profiles of the patches you like in the firehawk? I think you can get really close (raw amp tone - without fx).


    And then: Is there still something missing? If not, you know, that you are just liking the Line 6 modelling better than the sound of tube amps caught by Kemper :thumbup:

    haha yeah i did think that! why don't I just profile the Line 6 profiles? but then it defeats the object of having a £1500 Kemper when i already have the amp i want to profile! lol


    My problem is that i know this is something that can be fixed, I have played real tube amps and they have the fullness that the Line 6 produces and i believe the Kemper can do the same as why would so many experienced players and producers use them?

  • I really don't understand this "wet/dry/wet setup through one cabinet" thing. I would test without to make sure, there are no phasing issues potentially caused by different latencies, when you mix those signals.

  • I really don't understand this "wet/dry/wet setup through one cabinet" thing. I would test without to make sure, there are no phasing issues potentially caused by different latencies, when you mix those signals.

    Yeah its not exactly the conventional means to do a wet/dry/wet setup but the cabinet was designed with this in mind, it has 6 speakers in it enabling you to use it in this way.


    I would imagine they would have got rid of any phase issues when they designed it, if you watch the Andertons review they have Paul Hindmarsh from Line 6 giving them a run down of the specs of the amp and i'm sure he mentions potential phase issues, i'm not going to profess to understand everything that he is talking about but i do believe he addressed phase issues.


    I should also mention that i don't think the W/D/W setup is the thing causing the issue as i have had this running mono also and the same problem persists.

  • Could it be that the Profiles are "a bit thin", Munkeh?


    Without naming "brands" and thus risking the thread's being moved, in my experience the ones you mentioned tend to be a little thin-sounding, even "scratchy" on some guitars.


    I can think of a few commercial packs that nail that fat, mojo-filled tone you might want for your cock rock / hair metal / zebra-pants metal / glam metal, so you might want to PM me if you're interested in a suggestion or two.


    Just puttin' it out there, fellow simian...

  • Yeah its not exactly the conventional means to do a wet/dry/wet setup but the cabinet was designed with this in mind, it has 6 speakers in it enabling you to use it in this way.
    I would imagine they would have got rid of any phase issues when they designed it, if you watch the Andertons review they have Paul Hindmarsh from Line 6 giving them a run down of the specs of the amp and i'm sure he mentions potential phase issues, i'm not going to profess to understand everything that he is talking about but i do believe he addressed phase issues.


    I should also mention that i don't think the W/D/W setup is the thing causing the issue as i have had this running mono also and the same problem persists.

    Dealing with such issues it is often useful to simplify the setup and definitely rule out possibilities instead of dealing with a bunch of assumptions.

  • Its more the clean tones that don't have that oomph i'm talking about? The High gain profiles i have work great and when at a substantial volume come alive! When im using the high gain profiles at bedroom volume they sound great but quite (obviously), but the clean tones are just lacking that presence and fullness that the one on the Line 6 do! this maybe purely down to me not using any aftermarket profiles.


    Thanks for the offer @Monkey_Man i may drop you a message and get your opinion on some clean profiles! :)

  • I was trying to send you a private message, @MOCMunkeh, but I'm getting:


    MOCMunkeh is not allowed to participate in a conversation.


    Have you registered your Kemper and can you participate in the Third Party Rigs Discussion forum? I have a few suggestions, but don't want to mention any commercial profilers, here, and get the thread moved to where you can't see it.

  • I was trying to send you a private message, @MOCMunkeh, but I'm getting:


    MOCMunkeh is not allowed to participate in a conversation.


    Have you registered your Kemper and can you participate in the Third Party Rigs Discussion forum? I have a few suggestions, but don't want to mention any commercial profilers, here, and get the thread moved to where you can't see it.

    I thought i had registered my Kemper? perhaps not, i will register it when i get home tonight!


    Thanks for trying though! :)

  • Are you able to post in the "Private" subforums, Munkeh? If so, you're registered.


    Also, in the "Privacy" settings of your account (top-left of this page), make sure "Can Add Me to Conversations" has "Registered Users" selected. No sure if this really matters 'cause it talks about being added to conversations, which might apply to being added to an already-existing one (multiple users can participate in a conversation) as opposed to being "invited" into a one-on-one, but just in case, you might want to check that the setting's configured as I described.

  • I hope I’m allowed to say this,( my apologies, and someone delete this if I’m not)
    … But I have never ever found one TJ profile that I have used since I bought them… thin scratchy tone... And I spent a lot of money on four different profile packages from TJ when I first got my kemper when I didn’t know anything…
    What a waste of money…
    My sincere apologies if I have stepped over the line with my experience/opinion but I think we should be allowed to speak her mind…
    Love my Kemper! Nothing beats it ( with the right profiles ) for live use…
    :thumbup:

  • Hi Squarehead,


    When I discovered how to tweak and change cabs even with regular profiles this made a HUGE difference in my TJ profiles I rediscovered and appreciate them now - while at first I was disappointed too . Their AC/DC , Hendrix, Bonamassa , Trainwreck , Marshalls


    I use them all the time and find them SPOT ON ! (it took some Kemper tweak knowhow - never use them "as is" but within a few tweaks IT is all there :thumbup: using a Strat with ML pups and JBL monitors) We all have different ears and gear though ;)

  • Without naming "brands" and thus risking the thread's being moved, in my experience the ones you mentioned tend to be a little thin-sounding, even "scratchy" on some guitars.


    I have a few suggestions, but don't want to mention any commercial profilers, here, and get the thread moved to where you can't see it.