Maybe we can solve this together! I couldn't by myself

  • Hi yall!


    I've had the Kemper for over 18 months now, and there is something that drives me absolutely crazy and I just can't figure this out...


    Almost every profiles or packs I buy and try are too dark, muddy, lack character, and just disappointing... Every single time!

    It drives me nuts cause I hear people absolutely love these, and have so much fun playing & creating music with them...

    But for me, they're just disappointing !


    I'm talking about pack from well known and well loved profile makers that supposed to sound amazing!:/


    I really try to love them, but I don't...

    Feels like there are no good profiles for me & since I own the Kemper I try to figure out

    is it something in my setup, in the settings, or maybe it's me? Maybe that's just what good tone is and I can't hear it?


    I would love to hear your thoughts about this! Maybe someone experience the same thing?

    What's your setup/settings?


    I'm very thankful for whoever reads this and replies!^^

  • Standard question #1 : Does it sound good in headphones direct out from KPA ?

    Follow up questions :

    How do you monitor your KPA ? , FRFR , other "guitar" cabinet or studio monitors ?

    How are your room acoustics ?


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

  • When an issue is shared by almost all profiles, the issue is likely to be related to what you use to listen to your Profiler, or Output Settings.


    headphones, studio monitors, full range cabinet, guitar cabinet? Let us know the specific brands/models.


    what are your Output Settings? It may be helpful to post pictures of each Output Menu screen.

    Also, what guitars are you using? Fresh strings? Are the tone controls turned up?

  • For me, the issue is usually one of two things - not enough volume, or the acoustics (speaker placement also) is accentuating the bass. However, there have been times when a rig that was dialed in for a tele was just too dark for humbuckers. In those cases, I found that the treble booster in the Stomps section made a positive change.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • Profile to dark? Try turning up the Amp's Definition. Too Bright? Turn Definition down. I start their before moving to EQ. Also play it loud and try to play over a drum track with bass -even if it's just a random song because you really just want to hear how the guitar will project in a mix.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Hi bro,

    I actually don't have decent headphones to plug to the KPA so I don't know...

    I am using a pair of Rokit6 KRK studio monitors,

    My room doesn't have very well acoustics, I have thought about that, BUT I've played with it in different & better rooms and it's pretty much the same... (plus how much of a difference does it actually make)

  • When an issue is shared by almost all profiles, the issue is likely to be related to what you use to listen to your Profiler, or Output Settings.


    headphones, studio monitors, full range cabinet, guitar cabinet? Let us know the specific brands/models.


    what are your Output Settings? It may be helpful to post pictures of each Output Menu screen.

    Also, what guitars are you using? Fresh strings? Are the tone controls turned up?

    Hi paults!


    So as I said, I am using a pair of Rokit6 KRK studio monitors,

    I am using a Fender american 1989 strat with HSS

    and a Gibson 2011 Les Paul

    (The volume and Tone knobs are obviously open all the way)


    Good idea! here are my output settings:


  • I agree with paults,, if its across the board, its a system problem,jus my 3 cents

    I might have not been clear enough...

    Not all profiles are like that... for example, I got some Live Ready Sound packs and they are not at all like that


    What bothers me is the fact that so many as it were "great profile packs" like Tone Junkie's and M Britt's are unusable for me...
    I feel like I miss so much;(

  • For me, the issue is usually one of two things - not enough volume, or the acoustics (speaker placement also) is accentuating the bass. However, there have been times when a rig that was dialed in for a tele was just too dark for humbuckers. In those cases, I found that the treble booster in the Stomps section made a positive change.

    Cool tip about the treble booster Zapplendan:thumbup:


    My studio monitors are sitting on the desk, which I know is not ideal,


    but does it really takes so much high frequencies out?

  • Cool tip about the treble booster Zapplendan:thumbup:


    My studio monitors are sitting on the desk, which I know is not ideal,


    but does it really takes so much high frequencies out?

    My advice is to trust your ears, but be aware that different environments and volumes can have a major impact on your sound.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • I also have had my Stage for some months without really being happy with how 95% of profiles sounded without me making substantial volume edits to both the Amp Volume and Rig Volume.


    But, I think I figured it out just this past week. I am running my Kemper into a Focusrite interface, with my monitors plugged into the interface. But I always had to turn up my amp and rig volumes to get the presets to sound just closer to what online demos sounded like. Turns out the problem was in my interface settings. When I turned Down my Computer internal volume so that I had to turn UP my interface volume knob to compensate, all the Kemper profiles began to sound as they should.


    If you are running your monitors straight out of the Kemper, I dunno what to suggest— maybe turn up your Kemper Out settings and change your monitor volume controls to compensate?


    Make sure your Rig volume and each amp volume is at 12:00/0db to start, and evaluate from there? Make sure you don’t have some parameter Locked at a setting that is affecting all the profiles?

  • My room doesn't have very well acoustics, I have thought about that, BUT I've played with it in different & better rooms and it's pretty much the same... (plus how much of a difference does it actually make)

    a massive difference to be honest. However, poor acoustics and speaker placement typically make most difference in low to low mid frequencies rather than higher frequencies. One possibility is that poor room acoustics are causing substantial frequency peaks in those ranges that effectively make the highs sound quieter than they really are. Similar to saying my amp sound dull so I must need more highs when in actual fact you just need to reduce mids or lows which are masking the highs.


    I don’t know if this is the problem in your case but it can’t be discounted until you remove the room from the equation (headphones would be one way to do this).


    You also mentioned that you find Live Ready Sounds profiles to sound good while Tone Junkie, MBritt etc don’t. There are plenty of profiles that I don’t like which others love and vice versa. This is hardly surprising as tone is subjective and heavily dependent on genre. It may just be that your taste is different than that of Michael or Jonathan or whoever.

  • Profile to dark? Try turning up the Amp's Definition. Too Bright? Turn Definition down. I start their before moving to EQ. Also play it loud and try to play over a drum track with bass -even if it's just a random song because you really just want to hear how the guitar will project in a mix.

    Good advice man! I regularly do that :)

  • Hey,

    just realized that you are maybe dealing with the same problem.

    Everything on my kemper sounds undefined, mushy, boomy and in general: not good. I thought for a long time that it is just me, my guitars, my playing styleor my lack of knowledge in terms of sound. I coudn't fit my guitars (or basses) into my mixes. everything was always too oversaturated.


    With the help of another user, I compared a reamped DI signal and realized, that my kemper is indeed adding lots of bass (and maybe some other frequencie stuff) to my signal. After two days of trying and some additional frequency analysis of both reamp signals,

    I realized that I have to adjust the global output EQ to -4/-4,5 Bass and add some highs and maybe presence, depending on the guitar I use.


    Now all the profile are sounding pretty good. And quite comparable to the stuff that I see on youtube videos.


    Here's my thread. Maybe you can looka at the reamped DI and see if my sound is comparable to that what you are experiencing.

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

  • YoavHanuka

    Of course volume makes a difference. BUT I think this is not your problem.


    Let me explain. When you use the Kemper in a (home-)studio environment, most of the profiles you mentioned ARE to dark. Or as other people have described, are not popping at all.


    The reason is, that all those profiles have pretty raw and neutral miked cab section. The are mostly NOT eq'd mix ready. They are just a working base for later processing by mixing engineer.


    Be aware: Every guitar tone you like from any album you ever listened to is heavily processed guitar tone! That's why it pops.


    You can not easily reproduce with Kemper EQ. But I guess, as soon as you put the "Cut through mix" EQ preset after the cab (don't know the exact name, many TJ profiles have it already in a block, but deactivated), you will like the result.


    A better solution? There are a few "mix ready" profiles or Impulse Responses (Bogren!) that try to give you another experience and some benefits in this direction. Disadvantage is, you are loosing some kind of "authenticy" and they sometimes play a bit harder. Also someone else makes the (almost final) decision, how your guitar tone sounds.


    But what is authentic guitar tone? In the room tone? Miked guitars with nice preamps? Fully processed, mix ready tone we know from a recording?


    Depends what you need!

    For example for fun and recording demos I like "pre mix ready" profiles and sound 8)

    A tight and brighter sound that already "pops" and is almost mix ready, but still works for the player.


    How to achieve? For example making your own profiles or at least cab presets / IR. I do it with real cabs, but sometimes also "pimp" existing IR.

    Take signal or IR and run them through the same gear, as you would do fitting your guitar tracks in a mix. Than adjust from here and find a compromise that works. The new IR can not capture compression and so on, but this is not a downside here. With some try and error you can get very good IR that still plays dynamic, but now has an almost mixready "EQ curve" baked in.

    Edited 2 times, last by Ibot39 ().

  • In light of the things I said above:

    YoavHanuka We can try this. You tell me 1 or 2 rigs (for example TJ) you basically like, but are still too dark and disappointing. I have a LOT of profiles, chances are good I have it too.


    Then I make 2 new cabs for each. One cab preset that sounds just like the original, but finally pops and is exciting to play. A second one, that maybe sounds even closer to what you want.