Why do my purchased profiles suck?

  • Old timer here(pushing 50), have had my Kemper almost a year.

    Love it, but whenever I purchase a profile, they sound like garbage.

    Everybody else rants, and raves about them, and mine sound like an am radio, played thru a 3" speaker.

    Well, maybe not that bad.

    Specifically, the Top Jimmy, Ozzy guitar pack, and his metal pack.

    I use many different pups, active, passive, run the Kemper thru the return of a 5153, tube power amp into a 4x12, and high quality monitors, and it is all horrible.

    For example- The song, The Ultimate Sin- Heavy, powerfull, great dynamics and distortion, but the profile sounds like a reverb washed out, old single coil going thru a cheap solid state amp.

    Over the Mountain- Great grind, a bit of delay, articulate while having that great pushed plexi sound.

    But again, lifeless, no body, barely any overdrive, just crap.

    I can tweak the tone settings, gain, effects on and off, cabs, etc,etc.... and nothing.

    I play 90% heavy metal, and the only profile i have found even remotely cool, is a Lars Lutridge(i think thats his name) 5153 profile.

    A few of Ola's profiles are o.k. after some major tweaking, but I am really struggling trying to find a decent metal tone, ala Rectifier, 5153, Bogner, Deizel, etc.

    Help a brother out!!

    Tips, tricks, open to any suggestions.

    Thanks.

  • LOL. 50 is not old! I remember hearing that you have to adjust some setting (I can't remember which, sorry) but it is a minor thing. I'm sure someone will chime in.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I don´t know how can you love the Kemper but every profile sounds like garbage.


    It might be that you have not found the correct comercial vendor that has your "taste". In my experience some times everything that a particular vendor does, you like. And the opposite with others.


    Also it might be that those profiles are made to sound great in a mix, or at high volume or at low volume... and you are not using them in the same circumstances. All that affects the perception that you have of "good" or "bad" sounding profiles. We don't hear the same at different volume levels (fletcher munson effect) and also nothing sounds alone as it sounds in a mix. I am sure that you know all that, but you asked so...



    Finally, maybe go to the amplifier settings of the profiles and turn the knob Definition up or down. See if that does the trick. It is by far the most critical parameter to get right before a profile sounds good to you.


    Hope this helps.

  • Go check your definition parameter, then clarity, if this changes nothing, maybe you just dont like how top jimmy does the profiling process. As always, I rarely buy something without trying it first, and when Ive done it, I have been sorely dissapointed (I am looking at you tone junkies purple plexi...). My favorites are Michael Britt, The Amp Factory and some of tone junkies (even when sometimes the profiles are hit or miss). I believe your taste will determine which are great for you, try Guidorist, he has some awesome high gain stuff.

    The answer is 42

  • I've only had about 20ish hours on my Kemper, but I second that you might need to find a vendor that you like the style of. I purchased/accumulated several 5150, 6505+, and Friedman B100 profiler packs and for the most part only found the profiles made by reampzone to be the sound I was looking for, that felt like a tube amp (I recommend their 5150 6L6 pack for anyone looking). There were a couple packs that, like you said, had that "thin" feel to them, like they're modeled after practice amps. I found myself thinking "shoot, I wasted money on those". But I'm sure someone else thought they were perfect or fit well in the mix.

    Epiphone Les Paul - BKP Nailbombs

    LTD H-1001 - EMGs

    EVH 5150

  • you need to be systematic in tracking down the problem.


    first check the Kemper itself by using a good quality set of headphones in the front panel socket. obviously headphones won’t sound the same as a speaker in a room and may not be the sound you are after but they should at least be good enough to know if the basic sound coming out of the KPA is in the ball park or totally screwed.


    If headphones sound just as bad then the issue is something in the Kemper and you need to follow the full signal chain from beginning to end checking all settings.


    If the headphones sound OK, then the problem isn’t the KpA but something else in you monitoring chain. Start working along the path one stage at a time until you fond the culprit. It will be tempting to jump around as each eureka moment idea hits you but don’t do it or you will miss something. Stay methodical and work through the entire signal path until you find the problem.


    Finally, do you always listen in the same location or does this happen at home/rehearsal rooms/stage/etc? If you only listen in a single location such a at home then don’t underestimate how big a part the room itself plays. if you and/or the speaker are placed in the wrong point in the room you can have massive peaks and dips in the sound due to standing waves causing phase cancellations. It is entirely possible to have +/-60db at specific frequencies. If you have a huge dip in your room around 200hz for example everything will sound pretty thin no matter what you do.

  • And just for good measure check that nothing is locked unintentionally.

    Kemper PowerRack |Kemper Stage| Rivera 4x12 V30 cab | Yamaha DXR10 pair | UA Apollo Twin Duo | Adam A7X | Cubase DAW
    Fender Telecaster 62 re-issue chambered mahogany | Kramer! (1988 or so...) | Gibson Les Paul R7 | Fender Stratocaster HBS-1 Classic Relic Custom Shop | LTD EC-1000 Evertune | 1988 Desert Yellow JEM

  • Hi @elblotto00,

    I's strongly suggest (if you haven't already) to start with something (amp type ) you like..IE Marshall, Friedman etc. Plenty of option in RE.

    Once you've found what you like, check your commercial profiles for similarities. I'd expect a bit of tweaking.

  • I need to throw this in as well: try lowering the Pure Cabinet (on profile or global). I have mine set globally to 0.4, any more than that and I feel like the profiles "deaden .

  • I need to throw this in as well: try lowering the Pure Cabinet (on profile or global). I have mine set globally to 0.4, any more than that and I feel like the profiles "deaden .

    What exactly does the "pure cabinet" setting do?

    Epiphone Les Paul - BKP Nailbombs

    LTD H-1001 - EMGs

    EVH 5150

  • What exactly does the "pure cabinet" setting do?

    pure cabinet tries to minimize the sound characteristics of a microfone used when profiling an amp including a cabinet and bring you close to the specific sounds of the profiled cab. The manual states, it has no effect on clean sounds. HINT: read the manual.:)

  • Hi, elblotto00


    Check out these videos


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  • I have tried the Ozzy Top Jimi pack as well, and agree that it pretty much sounds as you describe. I don't like the Ola or Lars Luttge packs, either. As others have suggested, you should try samples from some other vendors. For metal, Josh Middleton's packs are great, I also like some of the metal profiles from ReampZone, Big Hairy Profiles, and Live Ready Sounds, but I mainly use modified MBritt profiles for everything up to more modern metal tones. By modified, I mean I use the V30 cab from MBritt's Wizard profiles on many of his other profiles, in addition to small EQ, definition, and overdrive pedal tweaks.

  • To be accurate, i did not say the Kemper sucks, it is the profiles I am having difficulty with.

    Your advice is appreciated.

  • Hello elblotto00,

    I understand your feeling.

    I bought a lot of STL tones bundles because I love the sound of their demos but each times I'm disappointed. It's like these profiles don't fit my playing.

    I bought some The Amp Factory profiles and it seems to fit better what I'm looking for.

    I asked on this forum here : STL Tones... I'm disappointed

    Users tips and videos tutorials helped me to tweak profiles.

    Advices help me to improve a lot my guitar sound.

    Hope it will help ?

    Edited 2 times, last by Trint33 ().

  • If I can provide my 2cents, I also downloaded the TJ Ozzy Pack and was really not blown away by the sounds. Isolated, the guitars sound horrible. If you add that to the song/mix, it blends in perfectly. Give a try to his Marshall Tim Caswell pack, seriously one of my favourites.


    Also, before sending it back, try some other profiles from other profile makers.


    Some of the have some free stuff available in rig exchange or their website:

    - Michael Britt

    - Big Hairy Profiles

    - Bert M.

    - Tone Junie

    - TAF (the amp factory)


    Hope you can enjoy your kemper better!!


    Also, if going through a guitar cab, make sure to disable guitar cab in output for monitor.


    :)

    Nice profile, but does it go to 11?

  • I've bought quite a few of Top Jimi's packs and feel the same, but to bring balance to this maybe it is how he runs his Kemper, and the volume used but I can't seem to get any of TJ profiles to be added as "go to" profiles. I have AC/DC pack, Caswell (which I had used to play GnR live, but stopped pretty quickly), Ozzy, SS100, BE100 (both packs) etc but I can't get the same result as his demo's which sound great. Sometimes when I start on one of his profiles it sounds ok, but If I go to an MBritt one after it there is a BIG difference. It's bit spoken about ad nauseum on the forum.