Is my Stage broken since I bought it? I’m desperate

....sounds good to me..no hi freq fizz here. How are you listening to it?

maybe you are especially sensitive to high frequency artifacts that can be introduced by close mic'ing?

have you activated Pure Cabinet and tried different values?

do you hear the issue also in this video (and only in the PROFILER when it is compared to the actual amp)?

You just need to get used to that top layer of fizz that a mic introduces that DonPetersen mentions. Your examples sound good, and any fizz you perceive will get squashed in a proper mix. It does take awhile for your ears to get attenuated to a mic'd sound but, rest assured, you are good to go!

As people have said already, it sounds pretty good. The fizz usually lives around the 3-5 kHz range. 5k and up gives you the pick attack and "airy" sound.

THINGS TO TRY:

M.Britt usually uses his P90s when making profiles. He may have used Humbuckers since these are a little more gain than normal for him. If you are then using Single Coils the amp will sound gritty and bitey, since it is tuned to the humbuckers. I would roll the AMP DEFINITION down. Too much and it will get real bassy and you will lose a lot of the pick attack. Which is another thing you mentioned. The AMP DEF really changes the sound of the pickups/profile so make large adjustments to find where your limits are, and then make slow adjustments to find just the right tone. There will be a small sweet spot.

Next I would try a little EQ. Generically set Presence on AMP EQ to about -2.3. Then bring the Hi/Treble up a little to get some brightness back. You may need to adjust the MID down a touch if it sounds too dark/muddy after killing the highs. After playing a while you may bring the Presence back up a little.

Next attempt would be to switch the AMP EQ to PRE. This will let you tweak the pickup response using the AMP EQ. Then add a studio EQ after the AMP. This will give you total control of the fizz and attack. The 3rd filter should be set around 3.3 kHz with a large Q and roll the gain down to reduce the fizz. I normally set the HI filter to around 800Hz and add a little gain to bring the brightness back.

AMP GAIN

Another thing to try might be rolling the AMP GAIN down a touch. A lot of profiles get fizzy/scratchy when you add more gain than the profile started with. Then you need to add a pedal to get some gain back in a cleaner way. Having a pedal and some AMP DIRECT MIX always results in a more dynamic sounding profile.

A Compressor before the AMP set to 4.5, 2.6, 85%, 1.0 is a good place to start. Dial the 4.5 up/dn for gain and the 2.6 up/dn for pick attack. The 1.0 gain can also be up/dn for gain, but this pushes the amp more like the gain control on the amp so it may result in the fizz coming back.

A pure DS pedal with gain set around 2 gives a decent push without mangling the tone.

CABINET

Sometimes the CAB in the profile just sounds wrong to you. And no amount of EQ will fix it. I would try some different CABs. This will squash that fizz before it even exists. I posted a DSL40 cab I made on here some place that sounds pretty good. There is also a FENDER DELUXE profile on the RE that has a great CAB. M.Britt has a great Rockman profile that has a darker sounding CAB that may work great for this Marshall tone and Single Coils.

DSL40 CAB POST

I have found when making profiles that the guitar used is key to the result. The bridge pickup has more mids, the neck more hi/lows. This imprints into the profile. Bridge will sound smooth and the neck will sound bassy and fizzy. So you can look thru the RE for amps that used humbuckers in bridge position (99% of gain profiles) and swap those CABs with yours in RM.

SUMMARY:

Your tone sounds amazing. Great playing also. Sounds like you are really close to where you want to be.

Quote from RosboneMako

I have found when making profiles that the guitar used is key to the result. The bridge pickup has more mids, the neck more hi/lows. This imprints into the profile.

Or maybe slightly more precise: This affects how the person profiling dials in the tone.

Quote from musicmad

Or maybe slightly more precise: This affects how the person profiling dials in the tone.

No, I think it literally alters the IR/CAB and locks in the tone (Freq Resp of the pickups). You will also see the AMP DEF being different. Same guitar same profile will sound different if different pickups are used.

What you play during the REFINE also tweaks the CAB. I am still trying to figure out what works best for me.

So if I were to make a clean Fender profile I would use the neck pickup. Doing high gain stuff, the bridge and a humbucker. Super high gain I would use a metal pickup like an EMG 85.

But I agree with your statement, that the profiler may adjust the sound to the guitar afterwards. M.Britt always has some small tweaks like a compressor or echo.

Quote from RosboneMako

No, I think it literally alters the IR/CAB and locks in the tone (Freq Resp of the pickups). You will also see the AMP DEF being different. Same guitar same profile will sound different if different pickups are used.

What you play during the REFINE also tweaks the CAB. I am still trying to figure out what works best for me.

So if I were to make a clean Fender profile I would use the neck pickup. Doing high gain stuff, the bridge and a humbucker. Super high gain I would use a metal pickup like an EMG 85.

But I agree with your statement, that the profiler may adjust the sound to the guitar afterwards. M.Britt always has some small tweaks like a compressor or echo.

Display More

Totally agree with that too btw. regarding refining (despite popular belief and direct quotes from Kemper people). Intuitively I suspect that how you dial it in affects the tone more. But I agree.

I think the good Fender Deluxe CAB is on Rig Exchange as:

Fen69DLX V-Clean

TorOskarOvaJohnsen

This cab has a ton of dynamic range, good bass, and a specific high end. It may work good a Marshall type sound.

Just a good example of how a good CAB will change things.

I still have not figured out how to get a good CAB sound. The CLEAN setting seems to make more dynamic versions but not always. And the frequency response does weird things to CABs and makes them sound very compressed and dead. I have made about 200 CAB only profiles and still not figured it out, because I am not to bright

Try a graphic eq in the x slot and lower 10k and the one beside it 6k I think it is. Also you could trylowering high shift in the cab block to a negative value, best of luck☘️

Quote from JoshuaL1

The profiles are M Britt 69 mars 50 9 3 and JCM 800 1 5 2.

What pack are these profiles from? The 2020 pack seems to have a 68 Marshall and a JCM800?

M Britt 69 mars 50 9 3 is a Kemper Factory Rig.

Quote from paults

M Britt 69 mars 50 9 3 is a Kemper Factory Preset.

Well now I am conflicted. No preset on my Kemper sounds that good. My Kemper must be busted also

I looked thru my M.Britt folder and did not see it. I removed a ton of presets, that one must some place weird. Thanks

The JCM800 is just J800 1 5 2 in the factory content MBritt Folder.

Set high cut at between 6,5 and 7khz. Problem solved.

Quote from RosboneMako

No, I think it literally alters the IR/CAB and locks in the tone (Freq Resp of the pickups). You will also see the AMP DEF being different. Same guitar same profile will sound different if different pickups are used.

What you play during the REFINE also tweaks the CAB. I am still trying to figure out what works best for me.

So if I were to make a clean Fender profile I would use the neck pickup. Doing high gain stuff, the bridge and a humbucker. Super high gain I would use a metal pickup like an EMG 85.

But I agree with your statement, that the profiler may adjust the sound to the guitar afterwards. M.Britt always has some small tweaks like a compressor or echo.

Display More

Kemper have consistently and persistently stated that the guitar used for profiling does not affect the resulting profile whatsoever. It only affects how you dial in the amp for that specific guitar and sound before the profiling process starts.

Quote from RosboneMako

Well now I am conflicted. No preset on my Kemper sounds that good. My Kemper must be busted also

I looked thru my M.Britt folder and did not see it. I removed a ton of presets, that one must some place weird. Thanks

Well it looks like there will soon be another Kemper on the USED market. My Kemper comes no where even close to Joshuas tone. I tried every guitar, pedal combination, added Noise gate, etc. My Kemper sounds like complete shit compared to the MP3 provided.

This is why I have been spending 40 hours a week on trying to get good at adjusting the Kemper tones, because mine is busted.

Looks like a Helix is on the near horizon???

Joshua I would kill to have the tone you provided. The whole reason I bought the Kemper was for this tone. I heard videos of M.Britt marshall profiles singing with harmonics like this. Mine has never done it. My $200 Peavey Vypyr does it. But not my $1800 Kemper.

Thanks for this post. You have saved me months of tweaking mine. I will just get rid of it.

My Kemper puts out a ton of like 50Hz and somewhere around 3-4 Khz. The low to mids are compressed all to shit. No matter what I do I can never get that mid range singing over tones. My Kemper never has that deep 4x12 cabinet thump either.

Well it was fun talking with all you guys, best of luck in the future.

_{RosboneMako Did you ever contact support? https://www.kemper-amps.com/contact}