Factory profiles vs. third party profiles

  • Hello! New to the Kemper. Regarding the profiles, based on your experience, to improve your sound, did you buy profiles or do you only use the factory profiles? So far I have only used new IRs (OwnHammer and Celestion) and I think it is much better than the original cabs. Thank you.

  • I've never purchased a profile and proud to say so. Although, I have scooped up on any free ones that Commercial Profilers give away. Any profile you use you will have to tweak to your own liking anyway.


    Get fluent with the free profiles and tweaking. Check out free profiles on Rig Exchange with 3 - 5 star ratings (but even Zero star ratings can be good). And ask lots of questions.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • My preferrence is different than BayouTexan. I have one particular commercial pack from MB and I am very happy with it. There are a lot of profiles with different settings and I can find best profile which needs almost no tweeking. But I think both approaches are OK. Depends on what works best for you.

  • Hello! New to the Kemper. Regarding the profiles, based on your experience, to improve your sound, did you buy profiles or do you only use the factory profiles? So far I have only used new IRs (OwnHammer and Celestion) and I think it is much better than the original cabs. Thank you.

    Most of my profiles are purchased but some free and some of the free are from commercial rig packs. If you haven't used rig manager yet, start using it. So easy and hassle free to test profiles compared to what we had to do before. Download on the computer, move it to the flash memory and install it on the kemper. Only to find out most of the free profiles sucked and had to start over again hoping to find something better. :rolleyes:

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Well, if one gal is not perfect then I just don't throw her away for the next one. I teach her. :P

    I don't think that's a useful analogy. I strongly suggest just moving on to a new profile if the one you're using on stage or studio doesn't sound great after EQ treatment.

  • In my case I use mostly purchased profiles from the same seller as there's a consistency across them and they're great sounding with my guitars. He also includes performances with some of them that I've found to be really useful.

    I never use IRs and don't see a need for them with the Kemper.

  • I have tried a little of both worlds. Some people like paid for, some dont. It comes down to how you are using them. For example people say M.Britt profiles sound great at a loud volume thru a PA.


    If you don't mind screwing around dialing in a tone, I would go the Rig Exchange and find some good DI profiles of the amps you want. Since you already have good IRs you may get better results that way. Most people have problems micing an amp perfectly, so a DI and IR setup gets rid of that issue. And gets a clearer picture of the amp itself.


    I also tend to get better results switching the AMP EQ to pre and using a Studio EQ after the amp. This works better with slightly brighter sounding IRs. Trying to push a freq that doesn't exist can be a losing battle. But trying to get rid of too much fizz is a fight also. But a HI CUT on the studio EQ can do a great job for the fizz.

  • I've had my Kemper for 5 years but just settled on the components to my setup (power amp and speaker) in the last month so I'm starting over. Reset my profiler back to factory and went thru those profiles first, kept 7 or 8 and deleted the rest. More of the stock profiles sound really good and were responsive to the touch when playing but sounded very similar to one another, so I just picked the ones that sounded best to me.

    I honestly could stop there and start setting up performances with those but I have over a thousand profiles I've purchased and will go thru them in the same manner then weed out similar ones again. In the end I'd like to have maybe 15-20 of what sounds and feels best to me and are different sounding from one another. And there are still many more in the Rig Manager folders that sound good, and surfing thru the Rig Exchange yields quite a few goodies also if you have the time and patience to go thru them, I just limited my search to the factory profiles and my purchased profiles I have and will stop there because it can drive you crazy🥴

  • I don't think that's a useful analogy. I strongly suggest just moving on to a new profile if the one you're using on stage or studio doesn't sound great after EQ treatment.

    Sorry I offended you. But "EQ Treatment" is tweaking which was my point. The jest was for someone else. I don't expect everyone to get it but there are similarities.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • Hello! New to the Kemper. Regarding the profiles, based on your experience, to improve your sound, did you buy profiles or do you only use the factory profiles? So far I have only used new IRs (OwnHammer and Celestion) and I think it is much better than the original cabs. Thank you.

    As you can tell, there is no right answer here, this is my summary:

    1) The issue is not which are best, but the sheer volume of choice and not getting lost in the volume. Get on to RM and check out the 18,000 choices

    2) Paid profiles often tend to have a flavour of the producer - you will often find many people like the profiles from a certain producer - try their free packs and see what peaks your interest

    3) Personally I don't think you need IR's. Its another rabbit hole. Yes they sound different, but to me they don't sound better.

    4) How you monitor has the biggest impact.


    Have fun!

  • Having spent around $150.00 in paid profiles from the most popular profilers and packs, I can safely say that the money was well spent in the effect that it showed me I could have easily not bought a single one and done just fine with factory content and free rig packs. I don't regret buying (most of) them as I only spent what you would on an FX stomp and make nice references but really there's everything you would want available for free. You can take ONE good profile and make a clean,crunch or metal sound from it. I could probably choose 3 profiles and make an entire rig to play in a group covering everything from Johnny Cash, Beachboys to Avenged Sevenfold or White Zombie.

  • I’ve had good luck with free and paid profiles.


    I used the free packs to find profiles I liked. I found that I gravitated towards the same profile maker(s) and tried more of their free stuff.


    When I found something I really liked - I bought that specific amp pack and have been very pleased. Guidorist makes badass profiles.


    Rather than look for a specific amp and ‘that’ sound (like certain Marshall or Fender or whatever), I just go hunting for the sound in my head.


    You’ll find that stuff you’d likely never think being killer.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • I've never purchased a profile and proud to say so. Although, I have scooped up on any free ones that Commercial Profilers give away. Any profile you use you will have to tweak to your own liking anyway.


    Get fluent with the free profiles and tweaking. Check out free profiles on Rig Exchange with 3 - 5 star ratings (but even Zero star ratings can be good). And ask lots of questions.

    You are spot on! I have purchased many profiles in the past and found that I had to tweak them all anyway. There are MANY great profiles available for free and its not hard to find them. Fine one thats close to what you are looking for and tweak away, just like you would do with a so called "professional" profile. I usually tweak the Definition setting first, then work on the front panel EQ.

  • Having spent around $150.00 in paid profiles from the most popular profilers and packs, I can safely say that the money was well spent in the effect that it showed me I could have easily not bought a single one and done just fine with factory content and free rig packs. I don't regret buying (most of) them as I only spent what you would on an FX stomp and make nice references but really there's everything you would want available for free. You can take ONE good profile and make a clean,crunch or metal sound from it. I could probably choose 3 profiles and make an entire rig to play in a group covering everything from Johnny Cash, Beachboys to Avenged Sevenfold or White Zombie.

    I agree 100%! Find a few good free ones and work on them to your liking and you are good to go. I use my powered head with a real 2x12 cabinet, so I find the DI profiles better for that type of setup, but you can certain get great results with some tweaking from Studio and Merged.