You create profiles in a mix with drums and bass and it will sound pretty good live. Then all that's left to do after is a little EQ-ing and the High Cut to fit in with your live bassist and drummer. Your own ears are what's going to work best.
Everything I have done at home has sounded shit live.
Really was a case of getting as near as possible then asking guys to play for 30.min while I tinkered.
Cut low freqs to about 170 Hz. Cut high to 10,000. But then maybe boost at 400ish as it could sound a bit lightweight.
Good boost at about 3500. Until it cuts vs other guitarist & sounds "whoooor fuckin hell".
EQ pre amp with a high cut at 2000 to take harsh high end off.
Sound gate pre amp in addition to IDP Dec.
For me as I'm a hetfield down picking fanboy....
Definition at 10 & a bit of Clarity.
No Reverb as it seems to add artifacts when palm muting. You can't hear it in mix anyway so it went.
BTW... ESP EC guitar & playing metal. Play into an ISP Decimator first then straight into KPA.
Ironically I got rid of an Engl Blackmore for the Kemper as I couldn't get a cutting tone I liked. Then after months of fucking about with Kones etc I went old skool into a 4 x 12 and...
Guess what profile I ended up with on the Kemper.... Yep. Engl Blackmore. Bit bizarre but it sounds great. Just seems like either 1) something up on engl head... 5% chance. 2) I couldn't get best out of it & KPA works better to get a good go to tone.... 95%.
You create profiles in a mix with drums and bass and it will sound pretty good live. Then all that's left to do after is a little EQ-ing and the High Cut to fit in with your live bassist and drummer. Your own ears are what's going to work best.
I didn't find that but I guess it depends on difference between home & studio/live rig.
I have a good entertaining set of speakers plus sub that sound incredible in a mix playing along at home. Take that live (cab turned off) & just not usable. Apples vs oranges to me.
At home: scooped tone sounds "pro"
Live: scooped tone = where have you gone?
At home : boost mids = honk honk honk
Live : roooooaaaaar.
But... Listen to this guy about "own ears". I spent a lot of cash looking for equipment to make me sound good. What it came down to was...
1. Spending a few quid on time in studio until I heard "yeaaaah ya fucker".
2. Lead guitarist dropping volume to let me into the mix.
Last bit important. He had very toppy gone plus sat lead boost high so when he played em I might as well have sat down. Reduced me to a vague rumble.
Finally, purely for guitars I got advice from studio.
Record yourself vs other guitar on phone mic. If it's balanced you'll sound OK live assuming just playing via amps & no sound guy.
I don't scoop or boost my mix so maybe that's why. Maybe mixing more grunge style instead of polished will help for live.
Here's what works for me
1. Home / Live FOH mix - I do this using the main stereo outs on the Kemper, or using headphones (Never through "Monitor Out"). I go into a quality pair of monitors/speakers, or headphones at home. All patches and editing on my Kemper, are created in this environment. Never through the monitor out jack of the Kemper. If you can get a good tone using this method, any competent engineer should be able to take the same signal (important), and get a similar or better tone for FOH. Note: Don't let the stage tech, try to place a microphone on your on stage monitor, basically bypassing all the work you did at home. That is where many problems occur, and it's going to sound like crap. Also, don't send your Monitor Out signal to FOH, unless you follow #2.
2. Stage Monitor Cab Only Method - If you need that "amp in the room" tone from a speaker behind you on stage, then forget #1 above and start this whole process by using the monitor out jack of your Kemper, into your on stage FRFR cab (only). Using this setup create and edit your patches/rigs (Do not use the stereo outs for creating your tones or for sending to FOH). If this setup sounds good at home from your cab, then the FOH engineer can get the same tone, by placing a mic on your stage cab. FWIW, this method require much more work, because most Kemper users are using #1 method above to create/edit their rigs for the rig exchange, so running them through your monitor setup is basically hit or miss.
3. Hybrid Option - Use #1 above as your primary FOH feed, and also add your on stage speaker/cab via the Kemper monitor out jack. Here's where it get tricky. Resist the temptation to adjust or tweak, your patches/rigs, based on what you're hearing from your stage cab. The minute you do this, you are screwing up your FOH feed. If tweaks to your on stage sound is needed, either tweak the controls on the FRFR speaker itself, or via the Kemper "Monitor Out" settings.
My view is they are not effectively interchangeable.
You need to tune profiles and sounds depending upon situation and monitoring, so rather that take studio sounds and eq the hell out of them, you need to start with live in mind.
What does that mean? As stated above, start with a number of sounds through decent headphones. Take to rehearsal, crank up and work out what works and what doesn't. amend at home and hone at rehearsal.
Most profiles sound totally different at volume.
