Posts by Axewave

    It seems that not all amps can be DI profiled with the current beta. I have a hand wired 18 watt EL84 amp, and I haven't been able to create a DI profile off this one.


    Normally, when you create a DI profile, Kemper recognizes that it's DI and turns off the cabinet section. With this particular amp, for some reason that doesn't happen but Kemper thinks there's a cab. As a result, you can't merge, and selecting a cab from another merged profile doesn't sound right.


    Still some work to do for Kemper engineers before 3.0 is final, I guess.

    Right! +1


    Profiling at "live-level" is still necessary to reach authenticity.


    Well... Yes and no. For modern amps, the difference in tone seems not to be very significant. I have DI profiled H&K Grandmeister both at a "living room level" in 1W mode and at "live level" 36W, and the resulting profile is very similar.


    However, if you want to create a DI profile for live use, then you naturally need to hear the original amp at live level. Preferably, use the same cabinet that you'll be using live.

    i usually Profile DI only now....have my "golden merged cab" saved....paste it into the DI profile - without merging again, and it sounds awesome. Also on real cab


    Same here. It does sound awesome, and actually I think it sound identical to actually micing the same cab again in exactly the same way. I tested this the following way:

    • I created a merged profile of channel A of my amp (by profiling both DI and Studio and merging)
    • Did the same for channel B without touching the cabinet and mic setup
    • Created a Cabinet preset using the merged profile of Channel A
    • Selected that "Channel A Cabinet" preset on the DI profile of channel B. It now sounds exactly the same as the original Channel B merged profile!

    This is just great! Saves you a lot of time and will improve your results, as once you've created one or more good cabinet profiles, you can keep on creating DI profiles until cows come home without needing to worry about mic setup any more. Or, once great merged profiles start appearing for 3.0, you can just reuse the best cabinets from other people and create awesome profiles without never actually having to worry about micing.

    Just reporting out, as this is a tech preview: profiling does not seem to work reliably in 2.8.0.10548B. Sometimes I just get a horribly distorted DI profile although I'm trying to profile a clean(ish) amp. I haven't been able to pinpoint the situations in which this happens. Seems to happen randomly.


    Replying to myself: This problem appears every time with Hughes & Kettner GrandMeister clean channel. I'm able to create a perfectly fine "studio profile", but DI profile always comes out as very distorted. I have tried it with two different DI boxes.

    Just reporting out, as this is a tech preview: profiling does not seem to work reliably in 2.8.0.10548B. Sometimes I just get a horribly distorted DI profile although I'm trying to profile a clean(ish) amp. I haven't been able to pinpoint the situations in which this happens. Seems to happen randomly.

    Do you have the powered version of the KPA? I guess one would get similar results with a solid state power amp and cabinet. I don't have one at the moment. I do have a Mesa 20/20P and Stereo EVM 12's in wedges that I want to try this with, but I'm thinking the 20/20P isn't necessary and in fact might not give me the results you are getting because of what was in the .pdf : "The result is thus highly authentic, and ready to be amplified by a solid-state amp, or
    the optional, built-in class- D power amp of the PowerHead and PowerRack". So would it matter which Solid State Amp? Perhaps the built in Kemper one has advantages?


    Yes, I've got the Powerhead. I don't have other solid state amps to compare, but the Powerhead is perfect for my purposes as it's a simple, self-contained solution.


    I did a test with a stereo Marshall 4x12: connected a JVM410 to the 2 speakers on the left and Kemper Powerhead to the 2 on the right. Had an A/B box between the guitar and the head, so after profiling and level matching I could compare the two heads with the same cabinet at a gigging volume by just pressing the footswitch. Both tone and feel are virtually identical.


    Now, I also stick an SM57 in the front of the cab in my typical live micing position, created a studio profile, and merged the two profiles.


    This produced a merged profile that sounds the same as the Marshall in a live situation both when listening the 4x12 on stage and FOH - except for the drum bleed and other unwanted noise in the SM57. Combine this with the low weight, all the flexibility of the Kemper, and the fact that you can actually achieve even better FOH sound by switching cabinets etc...As far as I'm concerned, after this feature there's no contest any more. In a live situation, Kemper is better than any real tube amp even if you prefer a guitar cab on stage. Amazing stuff.

    I just did my first tests with merged profiles and a few IR's. Wow! Just wow!


    This is the best new feature ever. It really makes it possible for me to replace real tube amps with a Kemper, as the direct sound with a guitar cab is virtually identical to using a tube amp with the same cab, and you can separately tune the FOH sound with any merged or IR cab you desire.


    Also, profiling a direct sound is very easy and can be done without a great cab and worrying about micing. Can't wait to get a lot of merged profiles to RigManager.


    This is just perfect. Thank you Kemper!

    Hiya,


    Just for the fun of it, I tried to recreate an early Van Halen type of sound just by using a Hughes & Kettner GrandMeister on a lead channel. I used the isolated Hot For Teacher track from youtube as a model, and named the rig accordingly HOT FOR TEACHER.


    Find it in Rig Exchange, try it out and feel free to comment on how I succeeded. The rig is dry with no effects, but you can turn on Phaser, Flanger or Reverb if you feel like it


    -ax.

    Hi,


    I have a problem with the overall volume of Kemper PowerHead right after startup: everything sounds to be at 10, both the power amp and the main out, even if the settings are much lower. I need to turn the master volume, and go to output settings to reset main volume to fix this every time after startup. (I have set the master volume to only impact the monitor out).


    Anyone experiencing the same?


    -ax

    Thanks Quitty, I read the thread you referred to. It is the exact same problem.


    Unfortunately reading this doesn't make things sound better, but rather makes me very disappointed. From other threads I've though Mr. Kemper is quite customer-oriented, but in this case he seems to downplay paying customers who have found a flaw in his product, and shows no interest in fixing it. Very sad. It should be understood that if Kemper doesn't accept customer feedback and improve the product accordingly, someone else will create a better product and the customers will be gone.


    I found this flaw by listening, not by looking at waveforms, so it does impact real life performance. Real tube amps don't suffer from this problem, so Kemper's claims about replicating tube amp sound are false until this is fixed. I know there are workarounds, but we as users should not have to worry about this type of things.


    -ax

    Hi,


    I'm a new Kemper owner, had the PowerHead for a month or so. First of all, let me say Kemper is just an awesome product, and I'm very happy with it. I have recorded and gigged with it successfully, and created a few profiles of my own amps myself, with good results in most of the cases.


    However, I do have one problem with the actual sound: the attack can be extremely "spiky" when you hit the strings hard. This is difficult to explain, but there is a quick popping sound in the beginning that doesn't happen with a real tube amp. This happens mostly with the first note/chord after a short break, not so much if you play constantly. This can be witnessed with studio monitors or headphones, but is most apparent in high volume with a guitar cabinet. Some profiles are worse than the others, but I think this happens with most of them to some extent.


    I have checked that this is not because of any effects in the signal chain, or settings in the Amplifier section, but it does happen regardless. I can also hear and feel a difference when profiling and comparing the reference sound to the profiled sound.


    This is getting quite annoying, as this is practically the only issue to me that separates the Kemper tone from a real tube amp.


    Any advice? Is my Kemper faulty, or do others experience this as well?


    -ax