Pushing Air

  • Someone asked to define "pushing air" - I remember when CD's first came out - I thought the sound was too sterile i.e. 2D vs. 3d - depth, richness, open sound of quality vinyl. For me, the Kemper reminds me of that - it sounds like a flat 2D digital tone vs. 3D open tone - so again for me 3D translates to "pushing air" or Analog vs. sterile Digital. This being said - I do hear videos where people have seem to have achieved this openness. My setup typically consists of KPA ==> DI ==> board for gigs and KPA ==> 500 series pre ==> computer interface for recording. Any help you can offer for how to set my KPA up would be greatly appreciated :)


    Regards,

    Brad

  • Pushing air is literally hearing the guitar amp in the room. Unless its a Kone - the sound you hear most often is one with a mic in the signal path.

    It does sound different.

    Personally, I would never call the sound a KPA makes to be 2D vs 3D.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Maybe your "2D vs. 3D" observation is based on the fact that a profiled amp on the Kemper will always sound super close mic'd, completely dry. There's no time based component in profiling, so you can't have the effect a room mic would add to the sound.

    Sometimes a small touch of delay/reverb trickery can help (especially with some highcut on the delay/reverb). Sometimes it can help to actually setup a room mic when recording (on a separate track). And sometimes a second Profiler with a different tone (amp/gain level/gain structure/cab) will do the trick.

  • I think higher volume is usually responsible for the perceived difference. Pushing air is just that - volume.

    I think nobody should expect lower volumes to envelop you like a tube amp does. The Kabinet does this.


    At the limit I think there's still a slightly more "chewy" or organic nature to real tube amps, so for me there's always a small tradeoff of perfection for a vast canvas of amp sounds to paint with.


    If I had "a sound" like some players I'd probably use a Princeton or Shiva and that's still what I prefer in a studio setting. But from home studio and live the Kemper is perfect for me.

  • Someone asked to define "pushing air" - I remember when CD's first came out - I thought the sound was too sterile i.e. 2D vs. 3d - depth, richness, open sound of quality vinyl. For me, the Kemper reminds me of that - it sounds like a flat 2D digital tone vs. 3D open tone - so again for me 3D translates to "pushing air" or Analog vs. sterile Digital. This being said - I do hear videos where people have seem to have achieved this openness. My setup typically consists of KPA ==> DI ==> board for gigs and KPA ==> 500 series pre ==> computer interface for recording. Any help you can offer for how to set my KPA up would be greatly appreciated :)


    Regards,

    Brad

    I think you're right... but those that don't want to hear it (the difference between analog and digital) are simply not going to. And while the opposite may also be true, that is not my own experience. My Kone sounds infinitely better through an analog/tube amp than through a digital/solid state one. Its nothing a YouTube (i.e., digital) recording is going to capture though... same as PIO caps vs ceramic and original PAFs vs clones. This is not to say that they (digital sources) don't sound magnificent... to my ear there is a noticeable difference.

    The older I get, the better I was.