What is Kone and imprints?

The Kone is the brand name for the actual speaker inside of the Kemper Kabinet.

The kabinet/kone has a feature that it emulates certain speaker types. These emulations are called imprints.

so if you use a studio/merged or di profile it puts the chosen imprint into the signal chain.

maybe a video makes it easier to understand:

See also Main Manual 8.5 page 95, chapter KEMPER Kone.

Basically, if you like the cab sound of a Celestion Vintage 30, you would select that imprint and the Kabinet will mimic it. And you have a dozen or so other speaker imprints to use. You can even set the Kabinet to be FRFR for colorless monitoring. I suppose you could place a 3rd party IR Loader in between. It's all so much easier to do using a DAW.

Quote from keem85

What is "full range" compared to imprints and cabs? I see on the forums that some people say that you need to leave cab to "on", which makes no sense to me if you're gonna use imprints? Manual wasn't so clear on that part

I believe it is the original sound captured by the cabinet that was profiled. So, the purest form of the authors profile. Which doesn't mean crap cuz only your ears know which imprint sounds the best. I find that there is not much difference between imprints if you try them out one by one at normal talking volumes. You really need to crank up the Kab/Cab to hear a difference.

Usually, the cab is the last module I will tweak and most of the time I have cab imprint default to the V30 and Pure Cab to 0.0 to 2.5. Of course, Rig Manager makes al this simple to do with a click of the mouse.

I don't know if the OP has understood something, i know and use Kone (and Powercab+/Helix before exact same philosophy), and i think it needs more explanations to catch all the differences.

It has not been said here but i think it's the first thing to tell :

Imprints (and Kone) are done to provide the "Amp In the Room", it means that they give you a NON-MICED cab simulation. It only works on monitor outputs !

Then you can get closer to the real thing. It doesn't mean that it brings another cab simulation.

When you tick "Kemper Kone", The profiler do an EQ change i assume and stays FRFR (use the originals sims).

When you tick "Monitor cab off" (+Kemper Kone), you can select the imprint you want.

Wether globaly in the output section or per Rig in the cab section.

FRFR provides you the mic'd original rig' cab sound.

This vid explains all the parameters :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neeqwMizHDQ

Quote from spotter

The kabinet/kone has a feature that it emulates certain speaker types. These emulations are called imprints.

so if you use a studio/merged or di profile it puts the chosen imprint into the signal chain.

It won't work ; imprints are only available when a cab sim is activated.

Merge/etc... are done to work with an actual cabinet/speaker. You just have to tick "monitor cab off" and use your V30/green back...

When the cab block is empty and Kemper Kone Ticked, it switches to FRFR mode.

Logically, you will put the same Imprint as the Rig's speaker sim.
On stage, you'll have your Non-mic'd speaker behind you and you'll send the mic'd simulation to FOH from main output....

Of course, you can do as you want.... A lot of possibilities with Kemper

The Kone and Kabinet are really for monitoring. They’re for the player - to get an amp in the room sound.

I point the Kab at me and away from the audience. The audience gets the mains sound, the sound engineer doesn’t have to contend with a speaker they can’t control and I can tweak so I can hear myself.

It works beautifully.