KPA vs. Real Amp – Live

    I played two outdoor rock gigs this weekend, one day I used the KPA with profiles of my amp and cab, and one day I used the real amp and cab. The amp settings, mic placement and everything was as close as I could get it to the profile settings. On the recording you’ll hear setup-1 play a riff and then setup-2 play the same riff, there are several riffs and each is the same order, first is setup-1 and the second is setup-2. Can you tell which is which?


    There are two guitars, my guitar is the more distorted guitar, and in most cases it is the more dominant guitar. The recording was made with a Zoom H4n sitting next to the sound guy and the post processing included levelizing and wave hammer (all dynamics processing).


    Here’s the link to the recording: https://soundcloud.com/tim-owens-2/kpa-vs-real-amp-mp3
    https://soundcloud.com/tim-owens-2/kpa-vs-real-amp-mp3

    I initially thought the 1st riffs were the KPA, but changed my mind listening to the later examples. So basically I have no idea what's what.! Any guess from me would be just that - a 50/50 guess so I'm not going to bother :) Both sounded good!


    I think this is a great example of the Kempers strength in live sound. A live band mix being presented to an audience through a PA makes any minor differences of profile vs stage mic'd amp so much harder to distinguish. Just my opinion of course.


    Thanks for posting :thumbup:

    To me there is know reason to demonstrate how close a kemper can sound these days. We all know it can cut the mustard. The truly impressive thing is the feel. No clip can demonstrate this unfortunately.

    New talent management advice to Laura Cox -


    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

    Quote from Delinquent

    To me there is know reason to demonstrate how close a kemper can sound these days. We all know it can cut the mustard. The truly impressive thing is the feel. No clip can demonstrate this unfortunately.


    Yes, but are there any live A/B comparisons? I'd like to hear them if anyone knows of any.

    Thanks for all the comments everyone. This certainly wasn’t a scientific experiment by any means, the sound guy and PA were provided by the venue and we’ve never played with him running sound, the mix was clearly different between the two days. And it is pretty much impossible to put a recorder out front and get consistent results with people wondering around. The reason I did this is because I don’t think there are any live A/B comparisons like this, at least I’ve never heard one. And I was really curious how the KPA would do in a live setting like this. I was very happy with the KPA, I actually enjoyed using it more than the amp and that surprised me because I’m an “Amp In The Room’ guy, this experience might be changing that.


    Anyway, to answer the question, the first sound was the KPA and the second was the amp.