No fat Solo sound - Overdrive / Booster (Kemper Stage)

  • Hello,


    I'm a bit disappointet by my lead sound;(. I can't create a more forceful sound. The tone is always weak. I've tried different Kemper booster and overdrive pedals.


    Here an example of the sound I'm looking for:


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    I've visited a friend an he uses a Fender Tube Amp + Overdrive/Boost pedal. The sound has blown me away. You really feel the pressure when he just hit one or two strings...Can you create such a sound with the Kemper or do you really need a tube amp to get it right?


    Yours Mr. Pick

  • How do you listen to your Kemper and how did you listen to the Fender? If you listen to the Kemper via headphones or studio monitors it will not have the same punch as a Fender amp.


    Just a suggestion: If you have a powered Kemper, next time you visit your friend, try to connect your Kemper with his Fender cab/speakers and see what happens.


    I would suggest trying out shapers as well but I believe your experiences have to do with what I mentioned above.


    Edit: Just realized you wrote about the stage. In that case you need to compare your Kemper with your friends recorded sound, not the live amp. The Kemper recreates miced amps, not amps in a room.

  • I don't use any headphones. I'm listening to the sound of my 1000W FRFR speaker.


    I have found out that when I turn up the master volume of the Stage it goes into the right direction. But then it's really loud.


    The tube amp of my fried had the fat sound at a more pleasant volume level... At least I have bear that in mind.


    So I think you can only achieve a fat sound when you crank up the volume level of the Kemper. Using a booster and only turn up its volume level, won't bring any results...


    I will try it again with a little bit more Volume + Booster. We will see if I can achieve a nice fat bluesy sound.


    But I'm thankful for any advise.


    Yours Mr. Pick

  • Thanks for your post. I've experimented with different settings.


    I found out that the compressor in the amplifier settings helps to create a fat sound. Aditionally I've put a booster in front of a distortion effect.

    You really have to play with the different controllers... Clarity, Definition, Volume, Distortion.... And I've noticed that it's a big difference when you turn of the cabinets. You'll get a much more direct and clear sound. So you'll get a better base for further settings.


    But in the end you really have to turn up the volume to get a tube amp feeling. I think the Kemper really emulates the character of a tube amp. The most tube amps sound well, when you crank them up. And that's the same with the Kemper...But I think you have to turn it louder than the tube amp to get a good result...

  • Nice job! Also, don't forget that turning up the volume on a tube amp is not the same as turning up the volume on the Kemper. The increase in volume on the latter is much more linear, whilst most volume increase on a tube amp is usually in the first quadrant of the volume knob, which can make it feel fatter and louder much sooner.

  • the compressor in the amplifier settings helps to create a fat sound.

    yes, that's what I've found. Nearly all profiles I tried and use sound way more "full" or "fat" with a compressor. And of course, with classic rock amps, you had to turn them up to get the cranked sound. The same is with Kemper. And remember: a good profile will react very dynamically when you turn the volume of your guitar up or down. And it will react when you are hitting the strings hard or soft.

  • When I was new to Kemper I took it to a rehearsal of my band which had two guitars at the moment. I connected to the return of an 100watt solid state randall amp which was connected to a 4x12 marshall cab with gt75s.


    The other guitar player connected to the rehearsals studio cheap tube amp (don't remember the brand) with a 2x12 cab.


    I couldn't get heard no matter what. No matter how much I turned up the volume, I couldn't cut and be heard over the other guitarist, and I tried a hundred different profiles. I added mids, treble, decreased gain, did everything without results.


    In the room, no solid state powered section can compete with tubes. The overtones of tubes make the tone sit and cut and it's not a matter of eq or compression Kemper is nice for recording and gigging through FOH. With a real cab you'll need a tube poweramp to compete with a real tube amp.

  • Profiling his amp is an good idea.


    I've noticed when you turn up the compressor to get a fat sound, the pickups react very sensitive. You will hear a scratchy sidetone. So you have to decide between a fat tone or a thinner tone without scratchy sidetones. I've tried to use the pick function to compensate that, but it did't work.


    Beyond that I've experimented with the studio equilizer in order to overdrive only low and mid frequencies. But you can still hear the distortion at high frequencies. :( What the equalizer can do is boosting the gain of certain frequencies (low, mid, high). But the gain reduction of frequencies show no good results.

  • A few thoughts:


    There's many different philosophies on fat tone and it's hard to help if we don't hear exactly what you hear. But I absolutely understand what you're saying though since I experienced similar "disappointments".

    My experience is that it depends a lot on the profile you use. A while ago I felt I had settled on a couple of profiles although they never made me 100% happy. Then at some point I went on the search again and this time I found profiles that seemed to clearly beat all my previous ones in comparison. It had a lot to do with fat sound. So one advice would be to keep searching.


    Then it's important to understand that most profiles are meant for recording or to go FOH. They are not usually aimed at creating the fattest amp in the room sound.

    And again, every profile is different here. As an example, when you want a Fender sound and buy one of the famous M Britt profiles, it will always sound less punchy than the real thing since he doesn't use the Fender speakers (for example Jensens). His celestions smooth out everything.

    If you get a Tone Junkie profile, my experience is that they are pretty hi fi and lack grittiness.

    I came across a Fender profile by Bert Meulendijk the other day and that was suddenly extremely punchy. Like with a real big Fender, it was almost unpleasant to hit the first strings because of the punch. It was by far the most amp in a room feeling I encountered with Fenders. Not sure if that's a good thing for the mix and recording - probably not. But it definitely felt more "live" sounding.


    Another thing: Rhett Shull always puts a shaper at the X module after the amp. In a youtube video he explained that he feels it gets closer to the feel of his real amps that way. It's definitely worth a try. Put a "soft shaper" into module X, no drive and +1 volume. It's worth a shot.


    You can also try to follow Tone Junkie's advice and put a fattening EQ in front of the amp. Definitely worth a shot, too. Here's the link: Do this for Fatter Single Coils...


    I own the Kemper Kabinet, by the way but still can't manage to make my favorite profiles (judging by studio headphones) sound good through the Kab. That's why I will most likely go back to real amps for that "in the room" feeling and keep using the Kemper for recording.

  • I couldn't get heard no matter what. No matter how much I turned up the volume, I couldn't cut and be heard over the other guitarist

    I can not confirm you. And of course don't know how loud your band is playing in the room. When I am playing with my band in a rented room with equipment, the Kemper is connected to the Return of a Boss Katana with a 2x12 Marshall Box. My band mates often give me the advice to turn the volume down.

  • I can not confirm you. And of course don't know how loud your band is playing in the room. When I am playing with my band in a rented room with equipment, the Kemper is connected to the Return of a Boss Katana with a 2x12 Marshall Box. My band mates often give me the advice to turn the volume down.

    Is there another guitarist in your band playing with a tube amp?


    My problem was that the tone wouldn't cut. With my tube amp I can be heard with relatively low volume and with another guitarist in the band who is also using tubes. With the Kemper I should be insanely loud.

  • Wow, thank you very much for sharing your experiences. I will give it a try :)


    Maybe one day Kemper is able to give you an amp in the room feeling. That would be great. I mean before they invented the Kemper, nobody thought that an electrical device can copy an amp sound so well.

  • I always create modify profiles at at least 85db to get that "fat" tone you are talking about. Besides that, I sometimes use very low gain profiles and boost them with OD's rather than use a high gain profile. I find this way cuts the mix better. Once I know the "tone" is there at 85db then I will drop the volume to practice with or just leave it until someone at home complains.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • My comments:


    1) I think there are a few SRV profiles out there with fender and TS included so I would not spend too long trying to modify endlessly 1 profile. If its not working, look elsewhere

    2) FRFR will always sound different to cabs. How you monitor is night and day..I use a Kab as I play 99% time live and love it.

    3) Volume makes a massive difference for tubes more so than solid state as you are not overdriving the power stage. Trying to emulate the power stage overdrive with boosters I can;t see will work. Volume for solid sate will be more impacted by speakers and Fletcher-munson effect

    4) Profile your mates amp but remember that you will be capturing his recorded sound not the amp in the room sound

    5) Much of that sound is in the attack i.e the fingers :)


    Good luck dude, sure you'll get there.