New tip: Turn the knobs!

  • I know this may sound crazy, but when I got the Kemper I felt like... it was somehow going to be bad if I took these profiles of amps and started messing with them. Like Photoshopping an Ansel Adams. I didn't have as much of an issue adding effects before and after, but for some reason I had a strange aversion to messing with the amp itself. :wacko: There also seemed so many good ones out of the box that not much tweaking seemed needed anyway.


    That... is silly. There are also plenty of Rig presets that weren't really doing anything for me. Last night when I came across one that I thought was kind of lack luster I figured I'd see if I could make a silk purse out of this sow's ear. I could! I'm not sure why I was apprehensive about messing with things... especially the gain. Maybe I thought because the interaction of the controls hadn't been modeled, like they are in an Axe FX or in Amplitube, that I wouldn't get good or "true" results, but I see the error in my ways now.


    Maybe I'm the only one who's nutty like this but I figured I'd put it out there to the tweakers of the world who might not feel the Kemper is as good a tool as an Axe FX or other "modeler" type of product. Maybe I was getting away from a "true" representation of the amp profile being used, but to that I say "so what?" I was able to take a "meh" rig and turn it into something awesome.

  • e only one who's nutty like this but I figured I'd put it out there to the tweakers of the world who might not feel the Kemper is as good a tool as an Axe FX or other "modeler" type of product. Maybe I was getting away from a "true" representation of the amp profile being used, but to that I say "so what?" I was able to take a "meh" rig and turn it into something awesome.


    I am exactly like you, I have tweaked exactly zero profiles. But what I did notice when I tried it is you only need to change a few of the parameters and BLAM you get what you want. What is interesting is for me is that I find changing cabs gets me huge differences that I wouldnt have expected as well.


  • I am exactly like you, I have tweaked exactly zero profiles. But what I did notice when I tried it is you only need to change a few of the parameters and BLAM you get what you want. What is interesting is for me is that I find changing cabs gets me huge differences that I wouldnt have expected as well.

    You know, you'd think I would have tried the change the cab route right off the bat, but I didn't. I should know better considering I do it all the time in the software modeling world. I'm actually a bit fuzzy on how the Kemper separates the amp from the cab when it's profiling...

  • My favourite tweaking now is with cabs. Also like the pick setting and tube setting (the one which defaults to 3.3) on amp. Definition is also worth tweaking. I've given up using any eq. This sort of tweaking seems to work better.

    Vintage amp obsessive

  • My favourite tweaking now is with cabs. Also like the pick setting and tube setting (the one which defaults to 3.3) on amp. Definition is also worth tweaking. I've given up using any eq. This sort of tweaking seems to work better.

    I'll readily admit I'm still a n00b at the Kemper so I'm going for what I know, but I will start to explore those too. Thanks for the tip.

  • Well said - when you're drowning in amp models, it's a unique curse - the variations possible with the built-in knobs are huge! And with the cabs, even more so. Gotta give them knobs more love ;)


    -djh

  • Well said - when you're drowning in amp models, it's a unique curse - the variations possible with the built-in knobs are huge! And with the cabs, even more so. Gotta give them knobs more love ;)


    -djh

    One thing I found amazingly responsive and can dramatically change the characteristics of the sound if you want it to, is those two knob settings for tuning the amp cabinet....There are instances recording when I wanted a certain 'filtered' or off axis type of sound and just bumping those two knobs gives dramatic and cool changes. So useful!