Buying commercial profiles = deception Am I the only one?

  • That's not always the case. some guys set the amp up at a neutral dialed at noon state to allow the user to mod the EQ on the Kemper. They even try to use a more or less "neutral" speaker. I always offer many different EQ settings so you can ideally find one that works for you.

    That's probably where I'm going wrong then, as I don't tend to tweak much, just select a profile, play, if it doesn't sound good, move on to the next one.

  • That's probably where I'm going wrong then, as I don't tend to tweak much, just select a profile, play, if it doesn't sound good, move on to the next one.

    You don't buy a hw amp and expect it to sound perfect for you without tweaking it do you? In many cases its the same with a kemper/profiles.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • ...my guitars or my technique...

    ...when I compare the demos of the sellers and the result I got playing the same riff than the demo it doesn't sound the same AT ALL...

    ...mine worth 1000$ each (Gibson and Fender,all American) ...

    As others have mentioned, there are a lot of things that influence the sound beyond the amp. I remember hearing an interview with some recording artist (I think it was Steve Lukather) who got a chance to plug into Eddie Van Halen's rig and he was disappointed that it didn't sound like Eddie at all. It still sounded like him. Brian May uses a coin instead of a pick, and such a light touch that he says the stage is littered with dropped coins at the end of a Queen show. If I plugged into his rig, even playing that custom made guitar of his, using my Fender medium picks (and the fact that I'm most assuredly not Brian May), I doubt seriously that I would reproduce his tone. "The tone is in the fingers" might be a bit of an over simplification, but there's some truth to it nonetheless.


    By the way, I'm sure it's probably just a language thing, but I think the term "deception" is a bit harsh. I don't doubt that there are people who dummy up their demos to sell more profiles, but I suspect it's only a few. From what I've seen, most profilers put up sincere demos in good faith. Due to a wide variety of factors you may not get that sound, but most of them hang out here and I doubt seriously that they're trying to cheat anyone out of their money. From what I've seen, even the most famous among them are nice guys.


    If you're not happy with what you're hearing I don't know if this will help, but I've bought profiles from three of the most recognizable names here. I have a PRS, a Gibson Les Paul, an American Strat and an American Tele. In each case, I've found the profiles I bought to be exactly what I expected, and while I certainly have my favorites among them, I haven't been disappointed with any of my purchases.


    I'm not sure if this will be of use to you since you haven't mentioned profilers or the style of music you play, but perspective in terms of genre is also important. I came up playing classic rock, so those 70s / 80s sounds are what I want to hear come out of the speaker. I tried a ton of highly regarded profiles off of Rig Manager and in many cases I was shocked by how "bad" they sounded since so many people liked them. I finally remembered that an absolutely killer tone for death metal may not be the vibe you're looking for if you're doing a Zep song, and the killer tone that I love might be exceedingly lame for metal. In both cases, the profile is not bad. People dial in their amps based on the style of music they're playing, so you'll get the best results with profiles made by people who are into the same style of music that you're into.


    As many have mentioned, the speakers you're going through, the acoustics of your room, what you heard the demos on, your pick, your playing style, the genre you gravitate toward and more all have a huge effect on what you hear from the Kemper. And that's good news, really, because I think you'll find that a ton of people here will bend over backwards to help you solve your problems and get the sound you're looking for.


    Hang in there, man. Most commercial stuff really is good, and it's a great bunch of people here. Respond to some of the questions that they've asked you and I think you'll get a lot of help finding your tone. After all, that's why were all here.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • We are our own worst enemies. We might not like what we hear but others will probably say it sounds good and don't understand why we say something else. Too often we judge our self too hard. Its the same with tones as with music. Some songs take a few up to many times before we start to like. Never give up something too easily. Too often we have expectations that no one or anything can live up to and when it doesn't we get dissapointed. I've gone thru profiles I first didn't like and forgot about them and later gave them a second try. And guess what? Some of them I couldn't understand why I had rejected them.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau