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

  • 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.

    I dont do much tweaking to my HS8 monitors. I tend to leave profiles as-is in that respect. Having shuffled through more than a hundred quality commercial profiles, the average profile sounds multiples better through my monitors vs the Kab, even in FRFR mode. To my ears anyway. A good profile is created with the intention of sounding like an amp would on a recording, or otherwise hitting the listeners ears directly in a live situation. So I’ve come to expect great amp tones at my desk…just puzzled as to why I dont get seem to get that same sound quality in FRFR mode…

  • I dont do much tweaking to my HS8 monitors. I tend to leave profiles as-is in that respect. Having shuffled through more than a hundred quality commercial profiles, the average profile sounds multiples better through my monitors vs the Kab, even in FRFR mode. To my ears anyway. A good profile is created with the intention of sounding like an amp would on a recording, or otherwise hitting the listeners ears directly in a live situation. So I’ve come to expect great amp tones at my desk…just puzzled as to why I dont get seem to get that same sound quality in FRFR mode…

    Exact same experience and I own the HS5.

  • 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. ;)

    Paults was speaking about a Direct Profile, where the Cab block is empty, not turned off. Turning the Cab block off just enables the Kone.

  • I hope you don't mind if I share my recent experience, as that is related to the initial post in a way.


    I've had the Kabinet for two weeks now and used it on two band rehearsals.


    On the first rehearsal, I simply loaded a merged profile I had made of my Morgan RCA35 and used it with the Creamback imprint. The Kab was elevated and positioned close behind me. I was totally unhappy with the sound. Either it was harsh or lacking defintion. Then I set it to the V30 imprint and that was a little better already, but nevertheless I returned home after the rehersal feeling rather disappointed.


    What I did a little while after that, I sat down with the Kabinet. I placed it about two meters away from me on the ground and played through a couple of profiles in imprint mode until I found something, that sounded and felt most amp-like. To my surprise, that was actually a Studio profile by MBritt (Champ). I picked a Jensen imprint, since I thought it would make the most sense. Comparing it to the sound on my Neumann monitors, it was actually pretty similar.


    At that point, I had learned the following things:

    - "Don't stand so close to me" - The Kabinet sounds better at a distance, not if you sit close to it. Fiddling with "Directivity" didn't help me much.

    - It sounds better placed on the ground than in an elevated position. Bass Boost didn't do it for me.

    - MBritt's profiles are way better than mine! ;) My RCA35 profile sounds way too harsh through the Kabinet. But he's the god of the profiles anyway. ;)


    Tonight, I took the Kabinet to another band rehearsal. I placed it on the ground, two meters away. At first I noticed, that the Jensen Imprint wasn't right for that situation. So I chose the Creamback. For most of the songs, I kept using the Champ profile... and the tone was amazing, interacting perfectly with my PRS. The sound was... there.. it was present, had a certain pressure to it and I could easily go from clean to mean just with my volume knob and shape the sound with the guitar's tone knob. For a more distorted sound, I used my own Smallbox 50 (merged) profile with the V30 imprint. That might need a little more tweaking, but it could "compete" with the rest of the band. I returned home all happy, because it was so much fun to have this tone and let it inspire me to just... play and be creative.


    So lesson learned:

    - Certain profiles work better than others

    - Don't give up too easily. Sit down and fiddle with it, get your hands dirty. It's so worth it. :)

  • 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. ;)


    Yes, it might look a bit confusing.


    Here is the full story. It‘s all about switched off cabinet and empty cabinet modules.


    The crucial use case of the Profiler is feeding the full stack signal including virtual cabinet to the main output, while creating the amp signal without the virtual cabinet for the monitor output. That is for running a traditional speaker cabinet or the Kemper Kone/Kabinet.


    „Monitor Cab Off“ is the key for that, it defeats the virtual cabinet for the monitor output in a global fashion. Since there is no major reasons to tap the signal without cab on other outputs than the monitor output, „Monitor Cab Off“ is the way to go. Therefore there is no real purpose for switching off the CAB module in the signalflow instead, affecting all outputs. Seen from that perspective, the CAB switch in the signalflow is a bit useless and misleading. Use „Monitor Cab Off““.


    Direct Profiles have the CAB module empty (not off). The Profiler cannot distinguish between Direct Profiles e.g. for acoustic guitars or basses, and Direct Amp Profiles of guitar amps. The latter need a virtual guitar cab for the FOH, while the former don‘t. Also the Kone/Kabinet needs this distinction and will play either fullrange when CAB is empty and Imprint, when CAB is defined.

    Please add a CAB for Direct Amp Profiles, even if you never use the CAB sound through the main outputs.


    CK