Is my Kemper amplifying bass/low mids too much or are my guitars crap?

  • Hi Kemperfolks,




    First:

    I’m not sure if this is the right sub for this thread, so don’t mind to push it somewhere else, thanks.

    I couldn’t play guitar for quite a long time because I hurt both of my hands and this kind of threw myself back in terms of playing guitar and recording music. My ear for guitar sounds are on “reset” right now and I want to restart recording and making music.


    Everyone seems to sounds absolutely awesome with their kempers, but I can’t seem to find a good tone. For weeks I’m just digging through profiles without really playing, only looking for sounds. If I find something that I like, I record it and realize that it sounds crappy, cheap, fizzy, grainy, flat, ugly ect.




    I think one of my problems is the bass/lower mids in my guitar(s). But I’m not sure if my guitars are to blame, or if the kemper somehow is amplifying the lower frequencies too much.

    This means that I need your help to tell me: Do my guitars suck? Is something wrong with my ears? Is it the kemper? My monitoring situation?

    I recorded a DI of each of my main guitars into my Focusrite Clarett and reamped it with a (randomly chosen) profile from Lars Luette (Mars SL 100 E).



    Could someone please tell me if my thoughts are correct? Or even better: could someone reamp my DIs with the same profile and upload it? Or upload some own DIs so that I can reamp them?


    dropboxlink with wave-files:

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w61…mccSwT0X4eJ3sRqbqLLa?dl=0


    soundcloud files:https://soundcloud.com/whaip/di-no1?in=whaip/sets/kemper

    https://soundcloud.com/whaip/1…00-e?in=whaip/sets/kemper
    https://soundcloud.com/whaip/di-no2?in=whaip/sets/kemper

    https://soundcloud.com/whaip/2…00-e?in=whaip/sets/kemper


    My guitars:

    Di1: Ibanez S5470 with a DiMarzio Evolution2 Pickup

    Di2: Ibanez RG1570 with a Seymour Duncan SH6


    Interface: Focusrite Clarett 4 Pre

    Reamped via SPDIF

    Kemper is basically on factory settings for this recording: space, pure cabinet are on zero


    Monitoring is done eather via headphones (AKG K240 DF or Shure SRH840)

    or studio monitors Yamaha HS7.


    Thank you all!

  • Nothing wrong with your guitars. I'd suggest you record in a mix or with at least a drum track to check how the profile sounds. Also tweak the profile and record with it at 85-90db for the best sound. Maybe raise the Low Cut to 90hz.


    Check out this fizzy mess isolated from the mix...

    External Content www.dailymotion.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Nothing wrong with your guitars. I'd suggest you record in a mix or with at least a drum track to check how the profile sounds. Also tweak the profile and record with it at 85-90db for the best sound. Maybe raise the Low Cut to 90hz.

    Heyho,


    actually, most of the times I'm playing to my EZdrummer. I might be an amateur, but I think I know the basics of mixing.

    A lot of times I have to reduce the bass (or lower mids, up to around 300-360 hz) to at least -5 db (s5470) or even -9db (with my drop c tuned Ibanez RG 1570) to get rid of boominess and overwhelming low end. A simple standard low cut at 80-90 hz is not enough. Not just on this particular profile, but rather most of them. Or at least, I start to feel like I have to! I'm just somehow unsure if everything sounds alright or...not. And I'm starting to loose the fun with my kemper.

    Either the profiles are too boomy and need to be tweaked with drastic EQ, or they are too bright and artificially fizzy and need to be tamed on the top end (but most of them are too boomy, that's why I thought my particular guitars could be a problem)>>> I collected about 7000 profiles on my computer and I just feel the need to tweak nearly every time.


    I just want to feel good again about my sound. Please tell me that me ears are just wrong.

    is the CABINET module of your PROFILER active (lit)?


    what is you MAIN OUTPUT (assuming you record these outputs) set to?

    Hey,

    I use the cabs ;D
    My main outs are rarely in use, I play mostly over SPDIF. So no main-out EQ in the signal chain.



    Thanks to you both for the replies=)

  • the first of the Lars Luetge files sounds really good to me. The second one sounds very muffled and would get lost in the mix.


    I can’t reamp your DI at the moment as I am in between houses and can’t set any of my gear up.


    I typically find around 200 -300hz is the zone I want to cut all the time. I have never been able to understand why the classic Mesa V GEQ curve has a big boost at 240hz which is smack in the middle of the mud zone for me.

  • I have to agree about one thing and that is most of all high gain profiles have way too much bass and gain. Wait, that was two things. ^^

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • the first of the Lars Luetge files sounds really good to me. The second one sounds very muffled and would get lost in the mix.


    I can’t reamp your DI at the moment as I am in between houses and can’t set any of my gear up.


    I typically find around 200 -300hz is the zone I want to cut all the time. I have never been able to understand why the classic Mesa V GEQ curve has a big boost at 240hz which is smack in the middle of the mud zone for me.

    Okay, that's good. Now several people told me ha here is no problem. So neither my guitars, nor the kemper is to blame.
    Then it must be me: After relistening to my samples, and paying close attention to my playing.... I think my main problems are not the general sound, but rather the palm mutes: If I play open chords, everything sounds indeed pretty normal, but the palm mutes have this overbearing low end boom..

    If I move my palm slightly away from the bridge, then the boominess dissappears. I wrote that I couldn't play for a long time, because of an injury:So I guess, I just have to re-learn palm mutes again? At least his would explain why two completely different gutars do have he same problem:...it's most probably the player.

    DonPetersen and

    GearJocke


    thanks to all of you for your answers

  • Just glad you sorted it.


    I also thought its sounded good BTW.

  • Oh guys,


    I changed my mind. I'm still not convinced: Again, I'm trying for days to find a good tone and I'm sick of it.

    I'm starting to like the headphone-out of my Blackstar Ht5 more then the kemper ;D



    Just for my inner peace: could someone be so kind to reamp one of my DIs? I really wanna listen to another kemper and compare it to mine.


    i'm playing a lot of "chugchug" metal recently, so here's another DI you could use, additional to the ones above.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/xbu5pe9us78umss/Chug%20Di.wav?dl=0



    This one is a good example of what I can't get rid of. High end sizzle(but not bright enough?) and a awful boomy lowend.

    It is the stock profile of Guidorist, GB Engle Shouter. Way too much gain, but I wantet to keep it "stock".

    pure Cab/space/eq in the output section is off. I just matched the Clean sense and distortion setting in the input-sector to about -8 to prevent clipping.

    External Content soundcloud.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1q3k…0Engle%20Shouter.wav?dl=0

  • I think some of that sizzle will clean up in a mix. The low end is too boomy no doubt but did you try to increase the amp's Definition to get rid of the boominess? You can increase the Definition while also increasing the Amp's bass EQ without it mudding up - if you find the low gets too thin.


    I dl'd the wave file. I'll see if I can reamp later after my practice.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Hi to you all,

    thanks for the answers.


    I think some of that sizzle will clean up in a mix. The low end is too boomy no doubt but did you try to increase the amp's Definition to get rid of the boominess? You can increase the Definition while also increasing the Amp's bass EQ without it mudding up - if you find the low gets too thin.

    Yeah, high end sizzle is hideable underneath the high frequencies of the drums, for sure. I know that amps have different low end characteristics and that i can modulate that easily with the definition knob. What I showed to you was just a general problem that occures on a majority of rigs. (Of course, if theres a very bright profile with no bass baked into, it doesn't sound boomy =) )
    But no matter what I do, I can't control the flubby boominess. I mean, setting a high pass up to 200 with additional reduction of peaks in the 80-200 hz up to -6-9 db just leavs a whimpy sound. Something is fishy here, and I just want to know what part of me/hardware/software is causing it.

    tbh, if you want a tighter low end, an Engl Profile seems an odd choice, lots of low end it's what they do.


    try the factory content Mars Golub Profile, it's the first one when sorting alphabetically for a reason ;)

    Of course, this one from guidorist (over)exaggerates the problem. But the Mars Golub is having the same low end issue. Palm mutes are just ugly sounding, except when I increase the distance to the bridge a lot. But then they sound whimpy.

    Nordan I reamped your DI file using the Mars SL 100 E profile. No problem with the low end. The only thing that may be different from my setup to yours is I have Low Cut at 80.6Hz and High Cut = OFF.


    I reamped using a Motu M4 interface and rendered with Reaper. Reamp sense at 0.0db.


    https://drive.google.com/file/…eqVO6ayL/view?usp=sharing

    Thanks a lot for your work. I highly appreciate that!!!
    I also reamped my Di with the same profile and added the same low cut. Interestingly, I had to adjust the Reamp Sense to -12(!!) and I had to adjust the Dist sense slightly to mach the gain of your reamp, otherwise mine was way to distorted. The Di leaves my DAW with about -6 db peak. My interface (Focusrite Clarett 4Pre) tells me the Di volume that goes to SPDIF out is about -12 db.

    Edit: Solved that one. I modified this profile in the Rig Pack folder and saved it by accident. I thought this was the stock profile. Now I downloaded the original profile again and used that in the samples below


    I think my ReAmp is having the same problems as before.

    Somehow yours is having more mids and sounds more lively, more "there", warmer. Mine sounds bassy, boomy and scooped(?). Perhaps this is the reason why I never really liked my tone and interpreted that as sizzly and harsh? Because theres something missing in the mids, which leads me to hear more of the crappy frequencies from 5k upwards?
    (And to be honest, I always thought that there was something missing somewhere in the mid area. Or that they are quite compressed or something...but it is possible that I'm getting fooled here by myself)



    I tried to match the volumes in this short comparison snippet. The first four seconds are yours, then my reamps comes is.

    External Content soundcloud.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    Do you share my opinion? Or, what do you think?
    And what should I do next? I'm somehow happy that the reamps do sound different. But...is it my kemper? My interface? The SPDIF cables?

    My first thoughts are that I could use the Main outs of the kemper and use the analog inputs of the interface. But tere will be a slight colouring of the sound. But I will do that in the evening. I also have another forusrite interface, the Saffire 6 USB, which has no SPDIF.


    I do think it has nothing to do with my hardware, because my headphone out is giving basicly the same bassy-EQ balance. I kinda can sort it out by reducing the output bass eq to about -4, but there's still something more not right.


    Here's the complete reamp, if anyone is interested.


    External Content soundcloud.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/fo6y2k9m3sf1ygy/Chug%20ReAmp%20Slo100E.wav?dl=0

    Edited 3 times, last by Nordan ().

  • I had a short break to relief my head from the noise and tried to readjust the output EQ to match the sample from BayouTexan.

    I'm somehow right with my bass correction on -4.0 to -4.2 db. If I add some mids(0.2-0.3) and highs (0.5-0.7) I also get mor of this lively , more "there" tone.

    DonPetersen And the Mars Golub profiles sounds also way better ;)



    Now i went through a bunch of profiles and somehow they all make much more sense. I was used that nearly all the high gain profiles sounds shit, because they are a boomy mess of mud. With my settings, they make way more fun. But, I'm not getting a 100% identical to Bayous reamping.



    And I ask myself: Why is the basic EQ from my Kemper so odd?

  • It can depend on one or more of the following: the sound of your headphones or monitors and room or guitar cabinet and how you have your pickups adjusted.

  • It can depend on one or more of the following: the sound of your headphones or monitors and room or guitar cabinet and how you have your pickups adjusted.

    Of course every headphone is EQ'd differently and every room has it's problems. But this doesn't matter here. I compared two reamped signals through the same monitor source(s).

  • I am starting to wonder if it's your gain settings on your interface, or if you have the mic preamps coming on when they should be off for instrument input. IMO, Focusrite has some finnicky interfaces.


    Do you have the Forcusrite Control panel installed?


    On my Motu M4, I only have the input gain knobs set at 25% (or between 2 and 3 on a scale of 10). That gives me a recording level in my DAW of -12 to -6 depending on how hard I hit the strings. I have rig volumes at 0.0 and Clean and Dist Sens at 0.0.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I am starting to wonder if it's your gain settings on your interface, or if you have the mic preamps coming on when they should be off for instrument input. IMO, Focusrite has some finnicky interfaces.


    Do you have the Forcusrite Control panel installed?


    On my Motu M4, I only have the input gain knobs set at 25% (or between 2 and 3 on a scale of 10). That gives me a recording level in my DAW of -12 to -6 depending on how hard I hit the strings. I have rig volumes at 0.0 and Clean and Dist Sens at 0.0.

    I'm sure the interface is not to blame. I thought about that, reevaluated every 'in' and 'out' in the control panel, checked the gain levels everywhere. Meanwhile I also tried it whith the analog inputs. It's the same.


    And most importantly:if I take the interface out of the signal chain and listen through the headphone out of the kemper it is the same. Way too much bass(and maybe additional stuff that I can't figure out).
    Meanwhile I performed several factory/init resets to exclude some whacky things there and bring the kemper back to factory setting. But still: nope.


    If no one has an idea, I might open a support ticket.



    I'm still very thankful to all of you here =)