I've had my Kemper for just over a year and I've come to the conclusion that it's just not sounding great. I've spent hundreds on professional profiles and have used the Kemper on every project since it was purchased, with multiple guitars and players. I just finished a project where I opted to use a Neural DSP amp sim instead because it simply sounded better.
I am running the Kemper into an Apollo Twin via SPIDF and capturing the DI and STACK sound simultaneously, with the clock source set to SPIDF and the sample rate matching my session at 48k. I've compared the sound of the raw DI coming from the Kemper to the HI-Z input of the Apollo and the sound virtually identical.
So I decided to do some experiements. I purchased an Orange Rockerverb from a German profiler that sounded amazing in the youtube video and tried to recreate the sample track from the ground up. Note that I don't have the exact same guitar as the profiler, so I understand it will never sound exactly the same. He is using a telecaster and I am using a high end statocaster. What I am mainly concerned is the quality of the tone. Here's my results:
REFERENCE TRACK RIPPED FROM YOUTUBE VIDEO
KEMPER PURE CAB OFF
KEMPER PURE CAB ON
NEURAL DSP FORTIN
GUITAR ONLY- REFERENCE-KEMPER-FORTIN
The last clip is the most telling. It playes the riff 3 times, first being reference, second being the Kemper and third being the Fortin. I feel like the Kemper lacks fidelity, even with some added presence and treble to the eq. I've messed with clarity and it hasn't gotten me and closer, just a brighter mediocre sounding tone. And while I don't think the Fortin sounds like an Orange amp, I included it because I feel like it actually has fidelity comparable to the reference track.
I'll finish by saying I don't enjoy doing this; spending almost 3 grand Canadian to not be happy with the sound and having to spend hours troubleshooting. I WANT the Kemper to sound as good as it does in demonstrations and I want to be blown away like other users. What am I doing wrong?