Need help setting up Kemper + Power cab --> Sound

Have you consulted the Main Manual e.g. the chapter related to KEMPER Kone? It describes how to run the KEMPER Power Kabinet and which options you have. From what you write it's not clear, if you have connected the KEMPER Power Kabinet to the MONITOR OUT of the PROFILER and that you have enabled Kemper Kone Mode. It's not even clear, if your OS is current and does already offer these necessary prerequisites.

You don't mention how the Output Source of the DIRECT OUT is set, when you connect it to the guitar input of another device. Is it at "GIt Analog"?

Quote from Steeldom

Here's my situation:

A few years ago after contemplating for a while I got myself a tube rig. An Engl Gigmaster, an OCD to push it and into a TAD 1x12 Cab. This is by far the best sounding equipment I ever owned. And its also for me the mountain that the Kemper (or any other digital gear for that matter) has to cross. And just to be clear I don't need THAT exact sound, but something AS good or better.

To be brutaly honest I have never been able to get the sounds out of the Kemper that I wanted and expected after listening to samples online. And everytime I thought "well it must be because I don't have this or that". So last week I decided to answer this question for myself and pulled the trigger on a powered Kabinet.

Imho that is the most "fair" way to listen to the Kemper. Its like pairing a Helix with a Powercab. These products have been designed to work together so I could expect a proper sound, at least that is my reasoning.

So yesterday it arrived and I've played a round with stock profiles for a while. It didn't sound bad of course. But it's not there, not even close.

Maybe I was foolish but I kinda hoped that it would already sound well with everything untouched. And that I then would "only" have to tweak the last 10% to get the effect combinations I want etc.

I did some experiments with the things I have (inlcuding a Helix LT). I went into the Kemper and straight out of the direct out into the input of my Engl. And it already sounds different than going directly into the amp. The same thing was true for the Helix. So maybe there already lies part of the trouble. I don't think anything is broken in my Kemper. Unfortunately I cannot properly record this to show you.

Another thing I noticed is that I can play my tube rig for hours even at higher volumes without any issue but after about an hour of the Kemper+Kabinet noodeling I felt my ears getting fatigued.

What I really miss is a body of mids that I cannot seem to add by eq. It's either there or it is not. And so far with the Kemper (and Helix and probably all other units as well) it hasn't been there.

At this point the only reason I'm still trying to get this to work is because I just can't believe that so many pro players would sacrifice that much sound for convenience. So it MUST be my fault.

So, what should I do?

EDIT in reply (sorry for the confusion):

- White Kemper Head, latest firmware

- I played the Kemper with the Power Kabinet exactly as instructed in the manual and as adviced in this forum and connected to the Monitor OUT.

- When trying to plug the Kemper between the guitar and ENGL amp, direct out is set to GIt Analog. I should also mention that the difference is not huge but noticable and becomes bigger when i turn down the volume knob on my guitar.

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Except for buying a valve amp I've had a very similar experience such as yourself, personal monitoring tone, ear fatigue, hours of trial and error etc. I have owned the Profiler for five years but didn't pursue what might be considered a proper monitoring solution until a year ago when I purchased a Kone to load in my own open back cabinet. I tried every combination of settings imaginable to no avail, my rig never sounded remotely close to online videos. I thought I had found the problem a few weeks ago when I got to audition a passive Kabinet I found at a store about 75 miles away, my initial reaction was it sounded really good and this must have been because the Kone was in a cabinet specifically designed for it. I immediately came home and ordered a powered Kabinet with the thought I could get another later and go stereo. I received the powered Kabinet, hooked it up, no changes in settings from the time at the store, and after two days of trying gave up, it was not the experience others have had and again sounded nothing like many videos I have watched a hundred times over.

I took my rig to the same store again a week later and they set me up in a room so I could compare my cabinet to the passive Kabinet, settings were back to what they had been on my previous visit, my wife had accompanied me which is a rarity as she tends to avoid music store outings over the past 25 years and she said after I had auditioned both side by side that "I don't think those sound as good as your old amp at home". The old amp at home is a Fender Mustang III which I ran the Kemper through for four years via the effects return.

I have purchased two Kones, just in case there may be a variance such as you hear at times in a 2 x 12 or 4 x 12 cabinet when you choose the best one to mic it up, but both Kones do sound nearly identical. I also tried an EV ZLX12P I had early on but never could get a decent sound. Last week I bought a QSC CP8 to try, I'm more familiar with the Kemper now than when I tried the ev but the QSC was a bust also, no matter what I did it had a slight fizz on every profile except completely clean. I have reset my Profiler to factory and started from scratch, following the manual to the letter with the latest os installed but still got the same results. I have came to the conclusion, at least for myself, that the Profiler may be a great tool for live and studio use, but for personal monitoring I can't come to terms with it. Since I have not played outside of the house since owning it and no longer have an interest in recording I am now on the fence about keeping it or going back to a traditional setup. I would prefer to keep it as it has so much to offer, if i could only get it to translate well through a personal monitoring solution for me. I have two more options I could try before I give up but can't decide if it's worth the money to proceed or pull the plug and go in another direction.

So it's not just you, at least two of us have not been very lucky so far in the pursuit of finding that tone we know exists and others have been successfully enjoying.

I'm afraid we are running in circles.

If you take the PROFILER out of the box with default settings and connect and configure a KEMPER Power Kabinet as instructed, you should find sounds amongst the Factory Rigs that sound excellent. Rigs provided by folks like Michael Britt, Bert Meulendijk, Guidorist and others are top notch. These are extremely experienced musicians and PROFILER users. However, they also know how to optimize a sound for a band mix. Perhaps that is something your ears are not used to. If you feel the need to customize the whole signal chain, something must be wrong.

I guess, if the PROFILER would be broken, you would recognize it as broken and not experience it as a mediocre sound.

The only setting coming to my mind, which could make everything sound bad is perhaps an Input Noise Gate cranked up to the extreme.

You could open a support ticket and send a recording based on one of the KEMPER Factory Rigs demonstrating your issue plus a backup of your PROFILER at recording state. Please record the dry guitar signal also and send that recording as well. Our support team can then restore your backup on one of our test units and reamp your dry guitar signal through that unit. We can then compare our resulting recording with your recording of your processed guitar signal. If these recordings are identical, we know your hardware is ok. If we think, there is a sound issue on both, we can check your settings and dry guitar signal.