Advice to beginners running through a non-FRFR "regular" cab

    Hey everyone, new here and still learning the Kemper. Long story short, when I first plugged it in I went through all the settings, turned off cab emulation since Im using a Mesa 2x12, and started playing. I was pretty underwhelmed. Everything sounded kind of muffled and distant for lack of better words. I wouldn't say it sounded "digital", but it didn't sound like a real amp to me either. I figured I had to be doing something wrong so I did some searching and found a post or two on this forum with similar concerns but no definitive solutions. In some cases people would just say "The Kemper is for recording, or to be played through FRFR speakers, it will never sound right through a regular guitar cab". Since I bought a powered Kemper specifically to play through my Mesa 2x12 this came as disappointing news, but I wasnt ready to give up. With all that said, I found what I was missing and what helped me get really great tone through my cab! For anyone with this issue now, or in the future, I hope this post will help!


    1. First things first, be sure to disable the Cabinet emulation on the Kemper. There's probably two or three different ways to do this but for me I just turned off the cabinet on one profile and then used the lock function to make sure it stays off. That way any time you load new profiles you wont have to mess with it.


    2. You need to get a sense of your cabinet's characteristics. For instance to my ears the Mesa 2x12 is low end heavy with more than the average mid range. So anytime I download a new profile I pretty much just expect to have to lower bass and mids a little bit before I start judging whether or not I like the profile. Of course this is subjective, but just use your ears. This made a HUGE difference in how I felt about the sound of the kemper through my cabinet, and those adjustments can be routine for you as you bring in new profiles to save some time getting a desired tone.


    3. This one is also a big one, especially if you are into high gain profiles: In the "Input" menu there is a setting for "Distortion Sensitivity". This seems to go a long way toward adjusting the profile to meet your specific guitar. I was using an 8 string with Nazgul pickups which are pretty low output by modern metal standards. An increase to the Distortion Sens of 5.7db made the Kemper completely come to life. No more boxy, distant sound, that adjustment really changed everything.


    4. Be aware that since you are using your own cabinet, the only tonal difference you can expect to hear from profile to profile is the characteristics of the amp! What I mean by that is the cabinet is at least 50% of the tone of an amp/cab stack, maybe more. So if I put on a Randall Satan profile, and then switch to a Bogner Uberschall, Im hearing both through the same cabinet and therefore there isn't going to be this massive tonal difference. You will hear the difference for sure, but it may not be as much as you expect! I think this is an important distinction because if you listen to sound samples of a Satan on Youtube and then an Uberschall you'll think there's a pretty huge difference between the tonal characteristics of the two, but you have to remember that those two youtube clips almost certainly were using difference cabs, and that makes a huge difference. Just something to keep in mind if you feel like many of the high gain profiles sound pretty similar.


    5. Speaking of cabinets. One thing that can really help finding a profile you like will be to find a profile that was made using the same cab you are using. I have tons of profiles so far I really like that did not use a Mesa 2x12 when profiled, but the ones that did typically sound really good with me making very few adjustments because they profiled it with the same cab Im using.


    6. If you download a profile, especially one you paid for, and dont like the sound of it, don't give up on it easily! I have found some profiles I really hoped I would like but didnt at all until I did the proper adjustments to EQ, Clarity, Definition, etc. in the amp menu. Once I was done and shaped the tone around my Mesa cab they sounded awesome.


    Anyway, I hope that helps anyone that finds this post and is having similar problems. If anyone else has any other ideas to add please do! And if I find more tips as I learn the Kemper I'll add them here :)

    This tip may be kind of obvious but I should throw it in there:

    Not all profiles are equal quality. If you are new to the kemper understand the profiling process has a lot to do with knowledge of the person doing it. Profile an amp with bad settings in a echo-y room and the results are going to be pretty sub par. Get a profile from a respected studio and it's likely to sound awesome. There are lots of great studios out there releasing profiles, just google "best metal kemper profiles" or blues or whatever you're into. After a short amount of research you'll find a lot of consensus on who out there is making great profiles.

    In the end it is definitely a matter of taste. I tried a bunch of commercial profiles over time and most of them just did not match my taste. Regardless of the fact that they are most probably created in a rather professional way and with appropriate gear and by people who know what they do.


    So I tend to agree that the shortest way to good profiles is to obtain them from professional sources like studios etc. - nevertheless trying out a lot I still find a lot of good profiles on the RigExchange for instance which are rather made by enthusiasts who achieve good results as well. Just takes more time to find the hidden gems there. Unless you follow the thread on that here in the forum.

    Quote from soundtheory

    2. You need to get a sense of your cabinet's characteristics. For instance to my ears the Mesa 2x12 is low end heavy with more than the average mid range. So anytime I download a new profile I pretty much just expect to have to lower bass and mids a little bit before I start judging whether or not I like the profile.............and those adjustments can be routine for you as you bring in new profiles to save some time getting a desired tone.

    Instead of lowering the bass and mids in every profile try making an output preset for you monitor out with the output of the KPA adjusted to compensate for your cab. That way the profiles will have a better starting point and need less tweaking individually.