I gave up...the Kemper ships back tomorrow. (Solved)

  • I think there is an element of psychology going on here...


    Firstly I hate tweaking....I just want to plug in and play.....BUT I also want flexibility. With a valve, I never had enough channels, had to keep adding annoying, noisy pedals etc.


    I treat my KPA just like an amp. I don't play with clean sense, Power amp sag, definition, pure cabinet etc. Just plug in, minor fiddle ( ooh err missus) and play. If it doesn't sound good, find another profile. Every so often I think I've found an amazing profile. Play it for a bit, love it, compare to my original, fall back in love with that profile and ditch it.


    Feel is in the mind. If you expect digital, you get digital. I've stopped thinking about trying to find the issues with it and learned to love it. When I now go back to valves, I'm so disappointed.


    I see so many people getting great sounds, if I can't, where is the issue?....Its with me..

  • My buddy in our band had so many great tube amps, tons of custom Marshall’s, Vox, Fender, Victory etc. He did not like my kpa at first, but when I found the right combination of guitar and profile, he scrapped his tube amps and bought a kpa, too. He is all happy now, no more fiddling around with amps, pedals and mics. Everything is set up quickly at a gig and the sound is consistent at every gig. And some of these profiles sound like massive tube amps. You can’t distinguish between them. I find some tone absolutely unbelievable live and in the studio.

    It' s only Rock n Roll, but I like it :D:thumbup:<3

  • I have been using Amplitube 4 for the last couple of weeks and have got some pretty dang good hi-gain metal tones out of it. No fizz or grit. The clean tones are just as nice. I don't know how well the amp and cab sims or modeled for that program, but in the end -- I just want good tone. Amplitube 4 blows Helix out of the water. It's great for recordings and playback thru studio monitors.


    I am hoping Kemper blows away Amp 4 tone wise. Then I am "there". But I would recommend trying out Amplitube 4 as a plugin and as precursor to digital modeling.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I have been using Amplitube 4 for the last couple of weeks and have got some pretty dang good hi-gain metal tones out of it. No fizz or grit. The clean tones are just as nice. I don't know how well the amp and cab sims or modeled for that program, but in the end -- I just want good tone. Amplitube 4 blows Helix out of the water. It's great for recordings and playback thru studio monitors.


    I am hoping Kemper blows away Amp 4 tone wise. Then I am "there". But I would recommend trying out Amplitube 4 as a plugin and as precursor to digital modeling.

    Tonally, the Kemper is as good as it gets without a tube amp, and without the headaches of pedals and processors in front of a tube amp. The delays in the Kemper are heavenly and the effects are great too. If Kemp added some classic Boss chorus in there, it would be the be all end all. I love all the Boss choruses...CE1,CE2 and Dimension. Wish we could get those in there. I'd pay for a package with that trio of choruses.

  • Sorry it didn't work out for you. Funny how mileages vary.


    I've been using my KPA for 1,5 years now and I'm using my tube amps less and less. I do treat the KPA like a real amp though on stage. I always bring my 1x12 or 2x12 to "feel" the amp and I almost exclusively use profiles I made of my own amps in my own studio. I use merged profiles on stage. For recording it's just awesome. Have you tried to make profiles yourself?

  • If Kemp added some classic Boss chorus in there, it would be the be all end all. I love all the Boss choruses...CE1,CE2 and Dimension. Wish we could get those in there. I'd pay for a package with that trio of choruses.

    The Vintage Chorus in the Kemper is modelled on the CE1. I’m not experienced with the real pedal (not a fan of chorus myself), but I had to use chorus on a studio session gig I had a while back, and the engineer set it up like his old CE1 and was very pleased. Make of that what you will :)

  • Tonally, the Kemper is as good as it gets without a tube amp, and without the headaches of pedals and processors in front of a tube amp. The delays in the Kemper are heavenly and the effects are great too. If Kemp added some classic Boss chorus in there, it would be the be all end all. I love all the Boss choruses...CE1,CE2 and Dimension. Wish we could get those in there. I'd pay for a package with that trio of choruses.

    A couple of years ago there was some discussion about this. I have a real vintage made in Japan CE2 and I did a comparison between the two. Using the Vintage Chorus in the Kemper. Do you hear a big difference?


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  • The Kemper chorus is obviously stereo, while the CE2 example is mono, but listening to them both with my monitors set to mono, they're actually pretty close.

  • The Kemper chorus is obviously stereo, while the CE2 example is mono, but listening to them both with my monitors set to mono, they're actually pretty close.

    They do sound alike, but I cant make the chorus on the Kemper sound my old analog choruses. Maybe in a subtle setting like your examples, but it just doesnt do what my old chorus pedals would do. Doesn't respond the same.

  • They do sound alike, but I cant make the chorus on the Kemper sound my old analog choruses. Maybe in a subtle setting like your examples, but it just doesnt do what my old chorus pedals would do. Doesn't respond the same.

    It is true that it is a subtle setting. I used the knobs at noon on the CE-2. But I guess most people would use subtle settings like that. I guess that for Chorus lovers the range of settings that the Kemper has is not as wide. I can see that. Just tested again.

  • The Kemper chorus is obviously stereo, while the CE2 example is mono, but listening to them both with my monitors set to mono, they're actually pretty close.

    I only hear web suff over my mono CrapMac™ speaker in the Cheese Grater, Sammy, so I had no choice but to compare them in mono.


    For the doubting Thomases out there, I can confirm that it's really close.

  • The CE-2 has more movement around 200 Hz :/

    You can hear it as the cord rings out at the end ....


    But thats in my ears 8o


    As with everything else it´s a matter of taste

    and the average listener doesn´t give a crap ....


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

  • The CE-2 has more movement around 200 Hz :/

    You can hear it as the cord rings out at the end ....

    Ha! My CrapMac speaker produces zero bass and not much below 300Hz, so that might explain why the clips sounded more-similar to me. Still, I'd expect that the Kemper's "version" comes close-enough for the most part.


    I did detect more "chewiness" (technical pro-audio term I'm sure you're aware of) from the pedal itself, which we all know translates to more mojo as expressed in the equation:

    More Chewiness = More Mojo™

  • Echo that 100%.


    I try to think that the commercial profilers have already dialed in much better than I would ever do with my experience. If i don't like the profile, move on (same amps from different profile sellers may also sound different). I am sure you will end up finding your cup of tea.

    Nice profile, but does it go to 11?