Help me? - I want to love my new powered Kemper Kabinet...

  • Hello,


    I'm struggling to get a good sound and good feel out of my powered cab. I'm very accustomed to playing through my studio monitors and getting nearly (subjectively) perfect tone. I thought the Kabinet would be a logical extension of my setup for getting amp in the room and for personal monitoring in gig settings. I though it would be at least as good as the sound out of my monitors. But I'm just getting, well, comparatively very crappy tone out of it. Its not even close to the quality I get out of my studio monitors, even in FR mode. And it doesn't feel nearly as good to play. I think I must be doing something "wrong." I tend to trust the wisdom of the Kemper crowd and it seems like just about everyone else loves it. I'm on the verge of sending of it back...


    Has anyone else had this experience? Also, wondering - the manual says to use an instrument cable for the powered kab. Is that actually correct, or should it be a speaker cable, or perhaps a microphone cable? Has anyone found that the type of cabling matters?


    Thoughts?

  • AaronJ16 , the first Kone I purchased was a lemon, Kemper exchanged it and the second one is night and day difference. The Kone that wasn't good was extremely harsh no matter what settings I tried. Here are some adjustments to try, these were from posts off of the forum, some may be mentioned above, it's a good starting point.

    1. Press the System button to open its menu, on page 1 press the soft key above Init Globals, exit out of system menu

    2. Press the Output button to open its menu, on page 8 (Kemper Kone) press the soft key above Kemper Kone and make sure it is checked, this will use your profiles cabinet not an imprint.

    3. Go to page 5 (Output Filter) and set the Low Cut to 70 Hz and the High Cut to 7000 Hz (mine is set as follows, Low Cut 90 Hz and High Cut 4650 Hz, I have a Kone loaded in my own cabinet so I adjusted to my personal taste)

    See if that makes a difference.

  • I have my cab since a year or so and unfortunately it‘s the same for me. During band rehearsal I decided to turn it off completely now and only listen to the PA. Since so many people seem to love the Kabinet I assumed I just don‘t like the amp in the room sound with studio profiles. That being said, clean tones are ok, just not overdriven tones and especially not fuzz.

  • I play through my monitors out in front of me and have my Kabinet behind me. So practice time actually sounds more like live on stage. My tone should be dead-on when going live.


    Use a instrument cable for a Powered Kabinet BUT use a speaker cable for an unpowered Kabinet.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • I've also noticed back in the day that there are some studio profiles that just don't work well with imprints for some reason - the tone is somewhat off, but the punch and dynamics even more so. I had to dump some awesome sounding profiles from the live set because of this.

  • I've had my Kabinet for a little over a week now and finally managed to sit down with it and fiddle with profiles. For some odd reason, the direct profiles I made of my Morgan RCA35 and Friedman Smallbox 50, which sound quite nice with IRs or even as as merged profiles (used an OX bosx while profiling), sound fizzy and annoying through the Kabinet with Imprints.


    However, using one of MBritt's Champ profiles, that seems to be a Studio profile actually, sounds very authentic in Imprint mode. In fact, most of MBritts profiles sound way better through the Kabinet than my own profiles do!


    I just wonder, if the Kone straight from the factory is quite stiff and needs to be broken in. It can be pretty harsh-sounding.

    Stage user

  • Having run a Kabinet live virtually since its release and I love it. It isn't for everyone but I also don't think you should hear "night and day" issues. My Kabinet has a very full sound, certain not fizzy or thin and fuller than an FRFR speaker.


    I think a couple of points here ( some of which have been mentioned):

    1) Check your output settings as mentioned above

    2) I have found that every single Monitor solution does sound different. You may have spend sometime "tuning" your sound to your Studio monitors. I would suggest checking other profiles or if you have specific e.q. to bypass it temporarily

    3) You may have a faulty one

    4) Cable will make little difference in terms of sound - you only need a speaker cable when connecting a power amp to a passive cab.

  • You may have spend sometime "tuning" your sound to your Studio monitors.

    This! I think that‘s usually the issue. Problem is that in my experience the studio monitors are much closer the PA/FOH sound than what comes out of the Kabinet (kinda self evident since you get the sound of mic‘ed cab). So I don‘t see much reason to „tune“ the profiles to the Kabinet, unless you use it as your main sound source on stage/rehearsal.

  • This! I think that‘s usually the issue. Problem is that in my experience the studio monitors are much closer the PA/FOH sound than what comes out of the Kabinet (kinda self evident since you get the sound of mic‘ed cab). So I don‘t see much reason to „tune“ the profiles to the Kabinet, unless you use it as your main sound source on stage/rehearsal.

    Yes, but that‘s only one side of the story.

    You can of course set the Kabinet to Full Range and have the studio monitor or PA sound on the Kabinet as well.


    For using imprints please check the following mandatory settings (Some aspects have been mentioned here already):


    Check „Kemper Kone“ mode On

    Check „Monitor Cab Off“ mode On

    Don‘t switch off the „CAB“ in the signal flow.

    For Direct Amp Profiles, add a CAB in case CAB is empty.


    CK

  • Don‘t switch off the „CAB“ in the signal flow.

    For Direct Amp Profiles, add a CAB in case CAB is empty.

    I have asked that in a different thread, but got no answer so far. Would you mind explaining why these have to enabled while "Monitor Cab Off" is set to on? I would have expected (especially on a Direct Profile), that "Monitor Cab Off" equals disabling the Cab module.


    Thanks!

    Bollie

    Stage user

  • Love when the man steps in to enlighten! Great support!

  • I have asked that in a different thread, but got no answer so far. Would you mind explaining why these have to enabled while "Monitor Cab Off" is set to on? I would have expected (especially on a Direct Profile), that "Monitor Cab Off" equals disabling the Cab module.


    Thanks!

    Bollie



    For some odd reason, the direct profiles I made of my Morgan RCA35 and Friedman Smallbox 50, which sound quite nice with IRs or even as as merged profiles (used an OX bosx while profiling), sound fizzy and annoying through the Kabinet with Imprints.

    Direct Profiles of guitar amplifiers sound fizzy with Kone Mode enabled because a Direct Profile automatically enables Full Range Mode. This is by design, for use with acoustic guitar profiles. If you want to use Direct Profiles with Imprints, you have to include a cabinet, to prevent automatic Full Range Mode.

  • You can of course set the Kabinet to Full Range and have the studio monitor or PA sound on the Kabinet as well.

    The more often I read statements like this, the more I think my Kemper Kone must have been broken before it arrived. Alas, in full range mode it sounds nothing like our PA or my monitor speaker. Very different EQ with shrill highs and boomy bass. I don’t even bring it to rehearsals or recording sessions anymore and only go directly into the PA.

  • Direct Profiles of guitar amplifiers sound fizzy with Kone Mode enabled because a Direct Profile automatically enables Full Range Mode. This is by design, for use with acoustic guitar profiles. If you want to use Direct Profiles with Imprints, you have to include a cabinet, to prevent automatic Full Range Mode.

    Thanks for the explanation. However, it doesen't seem to be really full range mode, because if you keep that Cab module off and change the imprints in the output section, it still affects the tone. So, that whole signal flow is still confusing me. ;)