[Public Beta] PROFILER OS 8.0.0.21450

  • As dickjonesify said, when you push the amp, you're mainly hearing its characteristic rather than the pedal's.

    If this was any indication for me doing something wrong, then tell me if the use of the Klon 4 preset in front of an amp is pointless ... or the use of a Ceriatone Centura pedal with Gain at noon, tone at noon and output at 3 o'clock. I can only wonder what you're trying to tell me.

  • If this was any indication for me doing something wrong, then tell me if the use of the Klon 4 preset in front of an amp is pointless ... or the use of a Ceriatone Centura pedal with Gain at noon, tone at noon and output at 3 o'clock. I can only wonder what you're trying to tell me.

    All I meant by it was that since both your pedal and the stomp are pushing the profile significantly, they’ll sound more a like than maybe they actually are. I’m left wondering how similar the pedal actually is to the Kemper OD. To that end, I would say try to match them without pushing the volume.


    All that is just for science and comparison. If it sounds good, it is good. That’s all that really matters to me. Personally, I’m very happy with both of the new OD’s. Very exciting.

  • The coolest of nerds. Since day one, the Kemper philosophy seems to be built on a combination of sincere reverence for the history of beloved tones—it’s the ultimate living, open-source working musician’s sound archive—and in equal measure a dismissive waving-away of historic misconceptions and myths about what makes analogue legacy tones so special. Add to that a dash of novel even felicitous parameters so that guitarists aren’t strap-locked to the past. ckemper is still the best. ymmv

  • I would say try to match them without pushing the volume.

    That's what I did first and it just doesn't work. When I use the Klon 4 preset in the Kemper Drive, I have to turn down the output of the Centura Centura almost all the way ... somewhere around 8 o'clock. And then the character of the Ceriatone Centrura is COMPLETELY different, no matter how I set Gain and Treble on the pedal. Just wayyyyy off. And it can also be seen in the frequency response etc. Not just slightly different but totally off.


    Generally speaking:

    The purpose of the Kemper Drive would be to make it sound like the "real deal". So I setup my Ceriatone Centura the way I like it and then try to match it using the Kemper Drive. That's what I did (with astonishing success) ... but I had to considerably push the Kemper Drive's output volume.

  • Have spent the day putting the various new drives in front of favourite amps from M.Britt, TAF and others. Wow! :love: Loving the way they push these rigs and make them sing. Huge smile on my face, fingers aching...


    Going to do it all again tomorrow but this time with a Strat... ;)


    Huge thanks to ckemper and team :thumbup:

  • Have spent the day putting the various new drives in front of favourite amps from M.Britt, TAF and others. Wow! :love: Loving the way they push these rigs and make them sing. Huge smile on my face, fingers aching...


    Going to do it all again tomorrow but this time with a Strat... ;)


    Huge thanks to ckemper and team :thumbup:

    Totally! I think they push profiles super well. I’m trying cleaner profiles than I would otherwise go for.

  • That's what I did first and it just doesn't work. When I use the Klon 4 preset in the Kemper Drive, I have to turn down the output of the Centura Centura almost all the way ... somewhere around 8 o'clock. And then the character of the Ceriatone Centrura is COMPLETELY different, no matter how I set Gain and Treble on the pedal. Just wayyyyy off. And it can also be seen in the frequency response etc. Not just slightly different but totally off.


    Generally speaking:

    The purpose of the Kemper Drive would be to make it sound like the "real deal". So I setup my Ceriatone Centura the way I like it and then try to match it using the Kemper Drive. That's what I did (with astonishing success) ... but I had to considerably push the Kemper Drive's output volume.

    The reason for that might be:


    1. The Volume control for the Profiler effects allow a boost of up to +24 dB, when set to +5.0.

    If you bypass the AMP section (something that is not possible on a real tube amp), then the boost is scaled down to +6 dB for security reasons.

    +24 dB would blow your speakers otherwise.


    2. The real Klon has large boost capablities, due to an internal 9 Volt to 18 Volt conversion. Still this is not as much as the +24 dB from the KD.

    However, if you listen to that without a distorting amp involved, you will notice the Profilers input or Loop return being overdriven.


    As you have observed, these analog and digital necessities do not dilute the target use of either analog or digital distortion/overdrive pedals, but it's truly a hurdle when you try an analytic approach to a true A/B comparison without an AMP model involved.


    I also suffered from the same aspects when developing the KD, but the whole system is well thought out for regular use.

    For example, the impact of the volume control of an analog pedal connected to the Profilers input (this is how I tested) is fully dependent of the Clean Sens setting. That drove me nuts sometimes, but it makes sense if we want to take advantage of the Clean Sens philosophy.

  • I think a really clean (linear) amp like a Roland JC-120 would be a good candidate for side by side comparison of drive pedals.

    I think taking it this far might be missing the point. You can compare DI signals into a convertor if you really want to do direct comparison without any other coloration, but it won’t tell you whether it sounds good.


    For me if Kemper Drive covers the same ground sonically and in feel as real pedals then that’s enough. I’d love a pedal profiling mode for the future, but just getting OD and Distortion that sounds great is a first step as if I were to buy a pedal it would be because of that, not because of brand or what it’s trying to be a copy of.

  • it's truly a hurdle when you try an analytic approach to a true A/B comparison without an AMP model involved

    Exactly ... and that's why I use an amp profile. I might have to make a video to demo what's going on here. But this might take a few days.

    In the meantime I give it a last try with a picture and a list of what I do :)


    1. I connect my guitar to my Ceriatone Centura and this goes straight into my actual 1982 Marshall JCM 800 Bass Series. I set it up the same way I had profiled it about a year ago.
    2. Now I setup the sound I like on the Centura, Gain: noon, Treble: noon, Output: 3 o'clock
    3. Result: Glorius crunchy sound, highly dynamic and the same round bottom end I love from this amp
    4. Now I go from the Centura into the Loop Mono of my Profiler (slot B) with the same amp's profile loaded
    5. Result: Exactly the same glorius crunchy sound, love it so much!
    6. Now I disable the Loop Mono and put the Kemper Drive with preset Klon 4 in another slot (A)
    7. Result: Pretty thin sound, no mojo at all, not even actual crunch going on. What a disappointment
    8. Now I increase the Kemper Drive Volume to max (+5.0)
    9. Result: There we go, almost there, just about 2.8dB volume missing (I mentioned in an earlier post that I would need more than the +5.0 to exactly match)


    Look at the screenshot below which documents quite well what's going on (apart from the distortion component).

    Measured with the amp profile active!

    Red Line: Ceriatone Centura

    Dark Green Line: Kemper Drive Klon 4 default (see how it has much less bass bump?)

    Light Green Line: Kemper Drive Klon 4 with Volume +5.0


    Now regarding the distortion component of matching the sound:

    At 40Hz the Distortion with default Klon 4 preset is a whopping 24dB less than with my Centura

    At 80Hz the difference is still 10dB

    It's very easy to hear the difference!


    Interestingly, when I push the Kemper Drive Volume of the Klon 4 preset to max (+5.0), the Distortion is pretty much a perfect match to my Centura.


    Bottomline:

    I can make a dead on replica of my favourite Centura (Klon) setting, with the exception that I need 2.8dB more to perfectly match the overall volume.

  • Veeeerrrrrry interesting haha. That light green curve is impressively close.


    So the bass curve changed that much from just raising the volume?! And this graph is of the stomp only or it includes the profile?

  • Why do you wonder that the sound with KD is thin, when you have not treated the KD's Volume at all, as you did with your Centura?

    It is crucial to drive your profile by the same level boosts to achive the same sound.

    Have I missed something in the story?

  • Why do you wonder that the sound with KD is thin, when you have not treated the Volume at all, as you did on your Centura?

    Well, probably because I thought that the preset is supposed to act like an overdrive pushing an amp into a nice crunch? :)

    But I (almost) got it done ... remains the question about the missing 2.8dB to make it a 100% perfect match. It's audible and it's also visible in my screenshot (red line vs. light green line).

  • And here's the distortion graph, same color code as the previous one:


    Red Line: Ceriatone Centura

    Dark Green Line: Kemper Drive Klon 4 preset (default)

    Light Green Line: Kemper Drive Klon 4 with Volume +5.0



    See how extremely close both are with Volume set to +5.0? Just again these 2.8dB missing for a perfect match between 35Hz and 11kHz.

    And again it's interesting to see how the Volume parameter of the Kemper Drive affects the bass response up to roughly 120-150Hz.


    PS: Just for the record ... I did the sine sweep for all measurements with -15dB which is close enough to the average level I get when I strum my Gibson Les Paul medium hard.

  • In all this time spent debating the technicalities of the new Kemper Drive, ya'll could have already found a bunch of great settings on it and recorded a hit single that sounds great. Just sayin'. ?

  • Hi Guys, just downloaded the latest version and the Kemper drive and the OC are both not working very well.

    Does anybody have any experience in downloading beta files and then not have them working properly?

    If so, is there a way to remove them>

    Thanks, in advance Jeff