Kemper at low volume.....

  • Why does my Kemper sound so crappy at low volume? I play P&W and when I try and play quietly or do a swell, at low volume, it sounds very digital. There has to be a certain amount of volume to get it to sound good.....what am I missing?

  • Why does my Kemper sound so crappy at low volume? I play P&W and when I try and play quietly or do a swell, at low volume, it sounds very digital. There has to be a certain amount of volume to get it to sound good.....what am I missing?

    You aren't missing anything..it sounds better turned up.

  • Why does my Kemper sound so crappy at low volume? I play P&W and when I try and play quietly or do a swell, at low volume, it sounds very digital. There has to be a certain amount of volume to get it to sound good.....what am I missing?

    Listen to these guys, as i found this out the hard way. I think it sounds good low, but just badass loud. Now quit whining and ROCK.

  • I really want people to explain what "sounds digital" really means. I see that posted a lot about profilers and modelers a lot. I have been seeing that for well over 10 years and still have no clue as to what that term is supposed to mean. Maybe for fun I will start up a thread about that so we can all see what the various descriptions of this sound are.

  • I really want people to explain what "sounds digital" really means. I see that posted a lot about profilers and modelers a lot. I have been seeing that for well over 10 years and still have no clue as to what that term is supposed to mean. Maybe for fun I will start up a thread about that so we can all see what the various descriptions of this sound are.

    Digital- lacking organic natural sound....not as open and grand....Digital can sound compressed, lacking cut and some definition, a "digital synthetic" version.

  • One thing that always sounds "digital" is taking the tone of a cranked amp and playing it at low volume.


    There's no tube amp version of that unless you use heavy attenuation or a really low wattage amp. In those cases it still sounds a lot weaker than when your hair is moving a bit.

  • Digital- lacking organic natural sound....not as open and grand....Digital can sound compressed, lacking cut and some definition, a "digital synthetic" version.


    One thing that always sounds "digital" is taking the tone of a cranked amp and playing it at low volume.


    There's no tube amp version of that unless you use heavy attenuation or a really low wattage amp. In those cases it still sounds a lot weaker than when your hair is moving a bit.

    I created a post on TGP asking this exact question. The responses are telling me exactly what I thought. Most people have no clue what that term means. Most people can't describe it. They use other vague terms to support it like sterile, non organic, artifacts, flat etc. I even had a couple of people suggest that they get these thing with tube amps. Hello? There is nothing digital in 99.9% of tube amps. The rest have digital effects in them that should never have been put there. I tried an amp like that once and it left very quickly.


    What I have picked up from the responses is that what a good number of people term as "sounds digital" is the fault of the user. If you crank the gain up on anything, it gets more compressed, including a tube amp. Using too much gain on anything will create a poor quality not clear tone. The cut through argument can be fixed with the proper EQ settings.


    I am not trying to purposely offend anyone. I just find it interesting that a lot of people use vague terms that they cannot define without using more vague terms. I know that some of the early modelers were not great. I am not a huge fan of digital drives and that comes from the early years when they were really bad. Kemper has changed my mind on that btw. However, today's modelers and profilers are running at bit rates that IMHO has solved these issues. I personally think the term "sounds digital" is just a catch all for something someone doesn't like the sound of. I also think that with the right knowledge these things can be overcome. As proof, I saw a guy playing in a local bar that had a killer tone going. I had to see what he was using for a rig. He was using a Boss GT100. I talked to him at his break time. He was running it into the amp's effects return so he wasn't using it's preamp at all. ALL of the sound I was hearing was coming from the GT100, the power amp and the speaker in the amp. His EQ was dialed in perfectly. I was as shocked as anyone when I saw what he was playing through. I gave him some high compliments on his tone and his ability to dial in that Boss unit.

  • You're talking about a term that's really nebulous, not a physics definition. It's tricky to take a position like "most people have no clue". Taking advice from TGP is also a dubious idea.


    If you want a definition, I'd say:


    "An electric guitar tone that sounds like a digital simulation of a tube amp."

  • I created a post on TGP asking this exact question. The responses are telling me exactly what I thought. Most people have no clue what that term means. Most people can't describe it. They use other vague terms to support it like sterile, non organic, artifacts, flat etc. I even had a couple of people suggest that they get these thing with tube amps. Hello? There is nothing digital in 99.9% of tube amps. The rest have digital effects in them that should never have been put there. I tried an amp like that once and it left very quickly.


    What I have picked up from the responses is that what a good number of people term as "sounds digital" is the fault of the user. If you crank the gain up on anything, it gets more compressed, including a tube amp. Using too much gain on anything will create a poor quality not clear tone. The cut through argument can be fixed with the proper EQ settings.


    I am not trying to purposely offend anyone. I just find it interesting that a lot of people use vague terms that they cannot define without using more vague terms. I know that some of the early modelers were not great. I am not a huge fan of digital drives and that comes from the early years when they were really bad. Kemper has changed my mind on that btw. However, today's modelers and profilers are running at bit rates that IMHO has solved these issues. I personally think the term "sounds digital" is just a catch all for something someone doesn't like the sound of. I also think that with the right knowledge these things can be overcome. As proof, I saw a guy playing in a local bar that had a killer tone going. I had to see what he was using for a rig. He was using a Boss GT100. I talked to him at his break time. He was running it into the amp's effects return so he wasn't using it's preamp at all. ALL of the sound I was hearing was coming from the GT100, the power amp and the speaker in the amp. His EQ was dialed in perfectly. I was as shocked as anyone when I saw what he was playing through. I gave him some high compliments on his tone and his ability to dial in that Boss unit.

    There are also a lot of amps with digital preamp sections and tube power amps, not just 0.1%. Just like the guy with the GT100.

  • There are also a lot of amps with digital preamp sections and tube power amps, not just 0.1%. Just like the guy with the GT100.

    I have seen tube preamps and solid state power amps but have not seen a digital preamp with a tube power amp. Interesting...

  • What amuses me the most is when some guys in U-tube comment fields arguing with each other over videos

    where other guys is comparing real amps to whatever digital gizmo they have at hand and even doin "blind tests"

    and the comment guys says that "The A amp sound real and B amp sounds digital" sitting at home by their

    computer, phone or Pad, witch per definition only deliver digital sound ( and pictures and text ) over the net ....

    Everything you hear on / from a computer is D I G I T A L up till the D / A converter and output 8o


    Cheers !

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

  • As proof, I saw a guy playing in a local bar that had a killer tone going. I had to see what he was using for a rig. He was using a Boss GT100. I talked to him at his break time. He was running it into the amp's effects return so he wasn't using it's preamp at all. ALL of the sound I was hearing was coming from the GT100, the power amp and the speaker in the amp. His EQ was dialed in perfectly. I was as shocked as anyone when I saw what he was playing through. I gave him some high compliments on his tone and his ability to dial in that Boss unit.

    I noticed that I had a typo in my post. This guy was not using a GT100. He was using a GT-10. There is a pretty big difference in these two units. I gigged with a GT-8 for a good hand full of years. I basically just used it for effects. I got all of my drive tones from my amp along with reverb. To hear what this guy did with a GT-10 blew me away. I didn't know you could make one sound that good.


    Another one that changed my mind on modelers was a guy in a band named Hyper Static Union. He played a show that I was in the second row for. He had a line 6 Pod kidney bean on the floor by his mic stand. That is what he was running into and that was run into the FOH and monitors. His sound was huge and he had a really good tone. I completely changed my mind on modelers at that moment.


    For me the bottom line is that someone who knows what they are doing can make these things sound and feel fantastic to play. I think most people don't understand the units well enough to get there, at least the ones that complain about them. I have been asked to come up on stage and play a few songs quite a bit with friends bands. I have played tube amp rigs that had no feel to them. They were either full on or off. It isn't just a digital thing. It is how you set this stuff up. I have had a few friends tell me that my rig is way more touch sensitive than theirs. This is the first thing that I noticed about the Kemper. I can roll my guitar volume back just a little and it acts like my gigging amp and pedals. I was hooked at that moment. I then profiled my own amp and I can't really see me needing anymore profiles than what I have right now.

  • I was at the bleeding edge of digital amps. I ordered a Line 6 Axys 212 as soon as they came out. That was a really good amp and sounded excellent. 50W stereo. But... it was always missing something. Part of that was my misunderstanding of volume. I initially thought it sounded "digital" because I was expecting the huge Marshall lead patch to sound realistic at home levels. Then I got it into the band and it really sounded like an amp.

    I used to use a Boss GT-8 with my Bogner in 4 cable mode and it sounded great. The amp sims not so much.

    Kemper has raised the bar so far that when I go back to some of my old stuff it sounds really low-fi and "digital".