Profiles generally sounding dull and lacking top end

  • I have the feeling that my profiles generally sound a bit dull and flat. And I'm talking about commercial profiles. They sound awesome in the demo videos, and the guy demoing the profiles plays a flat eq...


    Sometimes it's like there is a blanket over the loudespeaker (I mean the virtual loudespeaker as I play the Kemper through headphones).


    For almost all profiles, I really have to increase definition, treble and presence quite significantly to make it sound more open and realistic. I have to say that I mainly use my neck position on the strat. The pickups are also aged, not only visually, but the magnets aren't as strong anymore (they're supposed to replicate original 61 strat pickups and they sound stellar through tube amps).


    I often need to increase definition by +1 or +2 (and even more in some cases) and treble and presence around 1.8-2. Is that normal? It kind of bugs me to do such drastic changes...


    Anyone else experiencing something similar?

  • Audio technica ath50 (Or something similar)


    I was talking to Bert and he advised trying the Beyerdynamic dt770. He told me that the audio technica are quite heavy in the bass and low mids.


    I’ll also try to use my Yamaha hs8 which are in storage right now.

  • I have a pair of ATH M50x and don’t find they make things dull so O suspect they aren’t the cause of your problem then.


    Do you have the Space control set very low or off? Have you tried adding a little ambient reverb. Dull and lifeless could be the lack of room sound from using headphones rather than simply lack of high end in the profiles.

  • Hey Alan, it's true that things improve dramatically as soon as I mix in some Reverb (definitely brings livelyness to the sound). Also, I noticed that I need a relative loud volume for the profiles to shine. This kind of defeats the purpose of using headphones for me, but the harsh reality seems to be "the louder, the better". I really want to try my HS8's to see if there's any noticeable difference. I most definitely am looking forward to the Kemper Kabinet though. Much more to that than the Kemper Stage ;) Everybody seems to have forgotten the Kabinet...

  • I think volume is important.

    If you play in a mix or playing after CD or mp3 eq and high-pass filtering is a must. I had the same impression in the start couse I thought Kemper would sound just as good at low volume as higher volume, but not. The sustain and character change dramatically with volume.

    I wil recommend to lower the low frequencys and boost around 3-5 kHz. With a equalizer in x slot at lower volume or playing in a mix. You can also adjust the main output in the output menue, but then you might adjust it if you crank the volume.

    I guess that will make your Kemper come to live.

    Regards Paul ?

  • The duller profiles seem to work extremely well when going direct to a PA and playing loud. Just as stated before in this thread.
    Tweak your sharp sounds and make them duller for a great live sound, and the other way around for your dull ones to practice in headphones :) Usually a little prescence tweak does the trick!

  • Personally I've found the same thing - so many profiles I download or buy sound a bit dull and lifeless to my ears. Recently I experienced this with the Tone Junkies 'Stu G's Arshall' profiles....until I turned up the definition a bit - then Holy Mary Mother of God!!!!!!! By default the Definition was 5 point something. I brought it up to 7.5 and immediately had the best Marshall tone I've ever heard come out of this lil bugger! Previously I had been using profiles I made myself of my Marshalls and thought those were great. Pffffffft, a week and a half later and they're not even on my Kemper anymore LOL!!!!! (they ARE backed up though ;)

    So since then I've gone back and re-explored a bunch of the other packs I've downloaded and, for the most part, bringing up the definition brings life into profiles I thought were crappy.

    My main guitar is a Strat I parts'ed together myself and tends to be a little dark. It has some serious mojo though & the darkness seems to add to that.

  • Noisenet


    I also mainly play a strat which has been built by a luthier. As I mentioned in the initial post, the pu's have been conceived and built based upon original 61 strat pickups (which the luthier owns and which is absolutely stunning btw). The pickups are made by heartbreaker, you can't buy them though. The luthier explained to me that aged pickups loose quite a significant amount of treble and top end over time. The pu's sound a bit more mid-rangy, but you also may describe it as fatness.


    I was surprised that I had to increase top end quite a bit (as well as definition) on profiles as a strat is supposed to be a very bright guitar. I have a super light alder body, which is supposed to sound bright, but then again my fretboard is rosewood, which has the tendency to darken the sound. I think the dullness I was experiencing was due to a combination of the darker pickups, the headphones I used and loudness.


    I went through MBritt profiles, which sounded quite dull before and now it's like the sun has gone up.