Refining problem SOLVED!

  • Hi yall


    Been making some profiles of a kickass Marshall DSL40

    and I suspect there might be a bug in my Kemper...


    When I refine a profile (not only from this amp)


    it goes super "Flubby" and really unplayable, as if someone turned a harsh

    compressor on full and cut most of the high frequencies... and it happens very quickly too,

    from the second strum approx...


    I've watched all YouTube vids I could find and no one seems to have this issue


    Does anyone here know what I'm talking about? Maybe you can confirm it is actually a bug?

    Or am I doing something wrong?


    Btw, they turn out fireee without refining, but I want to have the option, and want to know if it's actually a bug...

  • I did some profiles of an amp of mine last night. I was putting different overdrive pedals in front of it that I normally use live. All were coming out pretty good and I did refine all of them. The last one I did was with a Friedman Dirty Shirley pedal in front of the amp. It sounded really nice and thick. The profile sounds terrible. It is really flubby and fuzzy on the low end. I would say it is even a little harsh on the top end. I did add an EQ to it to try to salvage it. It is somewhat usable but doesn't sound anything like the amp did. I am wondering if I am experiencing something similar to what you did. I can try to profile it again if I get a chance and not refine it to see if that makes a difference.


    I was actually digging for information on profiling higher gain tones to see if I could find something to try to make this profile better because I love the sound of that pedal through this particular amp. I had thought about starting up a topic on it here but wanted to do my homework first.

  • yes Bro I usually refine. Even when is not actually necessary to my hears the profile already sounds 99 % like the real rig, I used to refine always.

    For 1 minutes or so.

    Never had a behave like You described.


    The last profiles I did it was with os 8.0 so I cant say if now there may be a bug or whatever with the lastest OS.

  • The kemper part of the process is quite simple. The micing part is the key. Try to record a few samples of the sound you want to profile in your daw. Are you happy with it? Sound good? Profile it.

  • I've never had a profile that didn't need refining.


    Your issue sounds like there is something wrong with your routing setup. Could you post a breakdown of the full rig? Are you going through any digital gear when profiling? Any soundcards or pedals or anything that could introduce latency into the chain?


    The refining process doesn't respond well when there is latency built into the system. So when making profiles, you should always strip the entire setup back to the most basic approach - guitar into kemper, direct send into the amp (a drive pedal can be put here too) and then amp into a loadbox or a speaker cab, and then a microphone feed or a loadbox feed into the return on the Kemper.


    If you introduce mixers and other bits of gear, you're introducing more room for error.

  • Just had an Epiphany (in the shower lol)!!

    I think I figured it out...


    Do you guys leave the amp on with the volume turned up during the refining process?


    Cause I did not do that, I turned it down after the profiling signals... and I think that was my mistake!


    Just made a quick profile and refined it while leaving the amp on and I think it worked like it should :)))

    (Didn't realized that during the refining the Kemper was listening to the amp and not just to the profile reaction)


    Still need to test it a little more seriously but that might be the answer:)

  • I did some profiles of an amp of mine last night. I was putting different overdrive pedals in front of it that I normally use live. All were coming out pretty good and I did refine all of them. The last one I did was with a Friedman Dirty Shirley pedal in front of the amp. It sounded really nice and thick. The profile sounds terrible. It is really flubby and fuzzy on the low end. I would say it is even a little harsh on the top end. I did add an EQ to it to try to salvage it. It is somewhat usable but doesn't sound anything like the amp did. I am wondering if I am experiencing something similar to what you did. I can try to profile it again if I get a chance and not refine it to see if that makes a difference.


    I was actually digging for information on profiling higher gain tones to see if I could find something to try to make this profile better because I love the sound of that pedal through this particular amp. I had thought about starting up a topic on it here but wanted to do my homework first.

    I would experiment with different mic placements, on/off axis and distance from the grill

  • Yeah, don't touch the settings of the amp when refining. Some people think it's a cool way to trick the algorithm, but 9 times out of 10 it will make your profile worse.

    That's just a stupid thing to do lol...

    I haven't changed the settings, just put the amp on standby cause I didn't realized the Kemper was actually listening to the amp?

  • Yep. I have those. I do want to get a MD421 to try.


    I've only tried one DSL40 profile from RM as it was all I could find. Didn't like it much so I am hoping you can make one better than me so I don't have bother profiling mine. I would still like to put some more hours on it's speaker to loosen it up more. Have only played it once in the last 6 months since owning the kemper.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I've only tried one DSL40 profile from RM as it was all I could find. Didn't like it much so I am hoping you can make one better than me so I don't have bother profiling mine. I would still like to put some more hours on it's speaker to loosen it up more. Have only played it once in the last 6 months since owning the kemper.

    Actually Bayou, if you want I can send you a couple of profiles I made, I would love to hear feedback :)

    Don't know how to message personally here, so sorry if it's a little off topic guys

    Just write me your email address bro

  • You definitely don't want to change any settings as others have mentioned. In the manual it says that the profiling process is picking up the response of the amp during refining. That is why they suggest playing some full chords and hitting the strings a bit hard when you do it. That way the Kemper picks up the response to the heavier hit chords and therefore knows how to react dynamically when you pick harder and softer.