Waza Tube Amp Expander - Profiling for Dummies

    Howdy,


    I'm brand new to the Kemper world and completely inexperienced when it comes to recording my guitar sound but I'm interested in experimenting with making my own profiles. I am a bedroom player and have traditionally only played through tube amps with speaker cabinets. I have never recorded and I don't play live so I don't currently have any mics. I do however have a Waza TAE and thought it could be a good tool for creating profiles silently using the built in Resonance and Presence controls. I'm a little confused on the actual signal chain and even which cables to use to best profile the sound of my amps. I have not seen any good YouTube videos on profiling that are aimed at Noobs like me. Any direction on this process would be much appreciated. Think of it as Profiling for Dummies. I apologize for the ignorant question but so far it seems like the Kemper Forum is a "Safe" place to get/share advice. Thanks in advance!

    i dont have the TAE but I do have a Two Notes Torpedo Reload which is quite similar. N my case here is what is required. I assume the TAE will be very similar if not identical.


    1 - take the speaker out from the tube amp via a SPEAKER cable to the Amp In on the TAE. Make sure the impedance on the TAE is set to match the amp’s impedence.


    if you want to hear the real speaker in the room while profiling connect a further speaker cable from the TAE speaker out to the speaker input. Again set impedance accordingly. If you don’t want to hear the real speaker but just use an IR when listening then skip the stage and monitor via studio monitors using your IR loader of choice.


    2 - take the XLR line out from the TAE to the Direct input of the KPA. Regular mic cable.


    3 - send the Kemper signal from the direct out to the input of the Amp being profiled. Regular guitar cable.


    4 - plug guitar into KPA as normal.


    From here on just follow the normal profiling process.


    remember this will give you a Direct Amp Profile with no cabinet. You will need to load a kemper Cab preset or run through an IR loader or plug-in in your DAW to get the sound of a speaker. In theory you could run the whole signal path through an IR during the profiling process and bake this onto the profiling but I Cabinet see any advantage in doing this but can see disadvantages so I would go for a pure DAP profile.

    I'll give it a try.

    The signal chain I use is like this:

    The guitar is plugged into the Kemper guitar input.
    And the output of the Kemper is connected to my audio interface/speakers

    The input of the amplifier is connected to the Direct output / send on the back panel of the Kemper.
    The speaker output of the amplifier mus be connected to the speaker input of the Boss Waza Tube Amp expander

    I use one of the L/R outputs of the Boss WTAE and connect this to the Return input on the Kemper back panel.

    You can use the Mono output too, but the level cannot be adjusted by the Line out knob on the front panel.


    For profiling just read the Kemper manual.
    Switch kemper to Profiling mode.
    On the display you see the option to listen to kemper or real amp.
    Here you can set the level of the return input so it matches the kemper.

    If you have any questions feel free to ask

    I was wondering about the same thing, trying to make a direct profile of a tube amp using the xlr out of the Waza tube amp expander with the cab ir turned off in the TAE software. But when I checked out the manual for the 9owered Kemper head, they seem to warn against it?

    Quote from Feckless

    I was wondering about the same thing, trying to make a direct profile of a tube amp using the xlr out of the Waza tube amp expander with the cab ir turned off in the TAE software.

    I think the manual is saying that an amplifiers output interacts with the impedance/resistance of a physical speaker. The amplifiers sound is designed to work with a speaker loading its output stage. It is an integral part of the electrical circuit design.


    So your amp should always have a physical speaker or load connected.


    A speaker or load box create the needed electrical load. That signal is captured and reduced to a line level signal where an IR can be used to "color" the sound. The IR is not part of the electrical circuit.


    Imagine you took a picture with a great camera and great lights (Amp and Speaker). Then you took that picture and put it under a blue film (IR).


    Speakers are rated at their 0 Hz resistance (DC). But they are made of large coils of wire which are inductors. Between each winding of wire is some capacitance. You also have a magnetic field and moving parts. These things have resistances (impedances) that change with frequency. So an 8 Ohm speaker at DC (0 Hz) will be wildly different at other frequencies (AC). This is what can give an amp/speaker combo a certain voice.


    So you may not get an authentic sound when using a load box that has a fixed 8 ohm resistance (only using resistors, no inductance/capacitance) that does not change with frequency.

    Thanks for the informative reply. So it looks like a DI box is the only way to go for making a proper direct profile then. I don’t want to damage thr Kemper, the TAE or my amp so I guess I’ll save my pennies and get a DI box too.