Making the power amp sound good

  • So I've spent a couple of hours with my Powerrack, messing around with different tones. Mainly high gain metal stuff. Tried a whole bunch of profiles including Sinmix, Reampzone, Choptones, ended up settling merged profiles from the STL Tones Lasse pack. The full profiles by themselves sound amazing - 10/10.


    My main problem is making them sound good through a cab. I've tried running my Kemper into my Engl Pro (V30, 8 Ohms) and my Marshall 1960 Lead (G12T-75, 16 Ohms) cabs but had no luck getting a decent sound of out it. Every single profile sounded flat and lifeless. Hard to describe, but let me put it this way: no matter what amount of low end and how much of midrange I dial in, the punch is kind of missing. Never sounded "in your face" like the real amps. I gave up and tried running the monitor out (cab sim off obviously) into my Engl 930/60 tube power amp. And voila - instant eargasm with every single profile I tried.


    Lots of people seem to be pretty satisfied with how the class D amp in the powered Kempers sound, so I guess I must be doing something wrong. Anything I should be aware off when running the Kemper into cabs?

  • That's exactly why I almost completely gave up the Kemper for live use. I still like it for recording or if I play with inears and would also be interested in a solution.


    For a while I used the Kemper over the FX return of my Friedman or Koch amp. Both amps actually have quite neutral power amps.

    The class d power amp of the Kemper always sounds flat and feels strange in comparison.

  • That's quite a bummer, because I only got the Kemper for live usage in the first place. For rehearsals, I have an array of tube amps that sound great. For recording purposes, I think we're at a point where there are 10$ plug-ins from audio-assault and such that sounds absolutely amazing. The Kemper would've been an amazing tool live, combining the best sounds you can get at almost no weight. If I have to carry around a 10-15 Kg power amp with me to make it sound bearable on stage, it kind of defeats the purpose :(

  • I bought and only use my power rack for live use.


    There is nothing wrong with the Kemper power amp although its is a SS amp and so adds no flavour and I think you would see the same result with a matrix SS amp.


    The issue is the lack of valve thump that some users comment about for the "in the room" sound. This has been commented on a number of times. I kinda know what is meant by it but at volume I don't miss much so I don;t see what is so bad that the experience is ruined. I have my power amp on full boost so I've got it on on tap.


    Couple of things to consider


    I realized that because I go direct FOH, the in the room sound is way less important to me. I wanted a great sound so I could mike and then send to FOH. This is now not important because my direct signal has what I need.
    It is dependent upon the profile; and finding one good for both FOH and cabs is difficult. My priority is FOH though..

    FRFR is definitely better - I have ditched my 4x12 almost permanently.


    Can't think what else to suggest, expect that I have NEVER had such good comments about my live sound. So regardless of if I think I might be missing something, no one else thinks that...

  • FWIW: I’m super happy gigging with my PowerRack into the Mission Engineering KM212P cabinet. I love the lightweight, clean and fast to setup rig. Every venue soundman has raved about the DI tone into the PA.

  • I run my Power Head stright into FOH with my main monitor being IEM. However, the singer wants an onstage guitar cab. Therefore, I use a little Mesa EVM12L Thiele Cab turned low enough that it doesn't interfere with my IEM sound. For me that's close to the ultimate gigging rig. The only thing that would be better would be if I didn't need to carry the Mesa 112 cab.

    Having said all of that, I did some gigs before I got my IEMs where i had to use the power head into the Mesa as my only only stage sound source. It performed perfectly. I suppose some of it might be how loud (or not) you need to be on stage. Until I got the KPA I used to run a Dual Rec pretty hard to be heard over the drummer and 4 or 5 piece horn section. It was a horrible experience for 20 years but the only way to hear myself. Now that I am IEM I can be much quieter and enjoy the experience much more. I hope I never need to go back to regularly using a valve power amp again.

  • So I've spent a couple of hours with my Powerrack, messing around with different tones. Mainly high gain metal stuff. Tried a whole bunch of profiles including Sinmix, Reampzone, Choptones, ended up settling merged profiles from the STL Tones Lasse pack. The full profiles by themselves sound amazing - 10/10.


    My main problem is making them sound good through a cab. I've tried running my Kemper into my Engl Pro (V30, 8 Ohms) and my Marshall 1960 Lead (G12T-75, 16 Ohms) cabs but had no luck getting a decent sound of out it. Every single profile sounded flat and lifeless. Hard to describe, but let me put it this way: no matter what amount of low end and how much of midrange I dial in, the punch is kind of missing. Never sounded "in your face" like the real amps. I gave up and tried running the monitor out (cab sim off obviously) into my Engl 930/60 tube power amp. And voila - instant eargasm with every single profile I tried.


    Lots of people seem to be pretty satisfied with how the class D amp in the powered Kempers sound, so I guess I must be doing something wrong. Anything I should be aware off when running the Kemper into cabs?

    Hey mybyte


    I've been having a similar issue with direct profiles. I recently purchased the bogner uberschall twin jet pack from reampzone and was at first extremely disappointed with the way the DI profiles sounded through my Zilla cab. Just like you said they just didn't sound "in your face' like the real amp, which confused me because I thought that DI profiles are gonna get me as close to the "real amp-sound" as possible and still being flexible with the cab module part of the profile.

    The trick for me was the EQ right after the amp module. I guess the guys from ReampZone add that one in every DI profile they make. After tweaking that one to my taste and to the sound of my guitar the profiles sounded AMAZING. I also played a bit with the other controls but the EQ right after the amp module is what really made a difference to me. I added a bit of bass and scooped the mids and also the highs a bit (because in my case the profiles sounded waaaay too mid-rangy) and got an amazing and tight high gain bogner sound. At first I regreted spending 15$ on the profiles because they sounded like shit when I first played them but now they are one of the best profiles I have.

    I hope that helps.