Posts by Ibot39

    I like to discuss this topic here :


    IMHO does profiling the complete chain (Amp, Speaker, Mic (placement)...) sound the best.

    (the good 'old school' original profiles - now called 'studio profiles')

    Profiling just the amp and use any other speaker cabinet or external IR sound different - but IMHO not better or at least not realistic.


    Funny. After reading your latest post showing your nice room with amps and gear I thought it would be great to have some direct profiles from you and some IR to combine.


    I was a long time defender of authentic profiling chain...some remember.... Today, in my experience properly refined direct amp profiles combined with IR sound closer to the source chain than studio profiles of the same setup, most of the time. Despite direct amp profiles are being profiled after power amp section and IR shooting with neutral power amp for example.

    I think refining only direct am profiles can get the amp part closer to source (bass, lower mids). While I often struggle to get studio profiles refined, sometimes no refining works better. IR work at least as good as Kemper cab, but I get the cabs, speaker, mic captured quicker, more reliable and can mix IR (different mic combinations...).

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    Sounds (almost) the same. I guess it gets truncated and will loose some bass in the area I high-pass anyway.


    I have MANY Choptones IR packs. But the cab and speaker combination in the brit rock are not my cup of tea. So I don't bought it. But I don't think they sound "artificial". My experience with Choptones is, they really capture how this cabs and speakers sound miked. But there is a tendency for mix-ready tones, especially in the mastered packs. You have to try them in a mix to really judge if they work for you. Could sound artificial and weird out of context.


    And Choptones often use a specific MD421 in their mixes that I don't like that much. In some of the big packs there is an alternative, less harsh MD421 added.


    One of my favourites is the Roadking 4x12 V30/C90 blended pack.

    Kemper automatically converts IR to 44,1 kHz and 24 bit.


    I have tried thousands of Kemper cabs and IR. In the end Choptones always sounded best for me. (Their newer profiles are all DI profiles with copied IR.)


    I like their big IR packs for picking exactly the mics and combinations I prefer. Works better than everything else for me.

    Kemper is an all-in-one solution. But regarding pure "amp tone" Tonex did surprise me (and I think many others). In a fair comparison (not presets, but with the same setup captured) Tonex does a better job atm. It's even closer to the source, feels great and can easily capture amps, pedals and setups that Kemper struggles.


    Also how well the gain knob works on Tonex (even adding quite an amount of gain) and how it reacts with pedals is just really awesome.

    For getting best results when using drive pedals with Kemper, I need to search for a profile with more gain than needed, than reduce the gain to around 2.1 and adjust some more parameters to get it working right.

    With Tonex I just engage the drive pedal and it sounds as expected from the start.


    And it is dirt cheap imo!! I bought a second Walrus Ages overdrive for my pedalboard and these two alone cost more. Now I can even make captures of my favourite settings and put them before Tonex in Amplitube for example. Just fun for me.


    I really hope Kemper does introduce some kind of "automatic improved refining" process. That could be a strategic move to keep up with the evolution and give better results for people struggling with how to refine a profile the proper way.

    Here is what dacop1313 said about Kemper (!!) only a few weeks ago:

    Kemper Power Head w/Real Cabinet

    "Well, I finally figured it out, playing a powered Kemper head with a real cabinet takes lots of EQ-ing. Maybe its just not made for that, most profiles are dark and honky and need to be EQed, in some cases very drastic. I also find many DI profiles are too bassy and mid honky. I found the stock "Vintage" EQ preset does a pretty good job in shaping the profile to start, then taking it from there on the front controls. And yes...my CAB/IRs are off."


    And now that same guy tells us how bad Tonex sounds with real cabs. Sometimes it's definitely not the gear that is the problem...

    There is NO WAY that Tonex sounds better then a HELIX. I tried like hell to like this thing to sound good, again I do not use or like CABs or IRs. I use a tube poweramp and a real v30 cabinet. After I was done jerking around with it, I went back to the Helix and Kemper and it wasnt even close. That Tonex through a power amp and real cabinet reminded me of a Line 6 spider combo.

    Helix sounds like Helix. But with Tonex (as with Kemper) it's all about the captures. (In theory) Tonex does not have it's own sound. Using captures you don't like, you never get pleasing tones.


    Clear questions: Have you tried only factory presets OR also your own DI captures and other user captures?

    Have you made captures of your Kemper or Helix and compared the results?

    I only have Tonex Pedal for one day. But no way does Helix sound better - are your serious? Not even with Tonex factory presets (there are some gems also). With real cabs I don't use tube power amp, but Hotone Loudster or Rocktron Mainline. Tonex Pedal does have some points that could be improved (no real editor yet...), but soundwise it is in another league (galaxy) than Helix line! And at least as good as Kemper.

    I have ordered a ToneX Pedal. I was expecting a higher price. So for me it will be just fun to try. I will definitely keep my Kemper as an all-in-one solution and because my profile library is big and with lots of gems.


    But I also use a Strymon Iridium as a pedal board solution. The ToneX Pedal will probably displace it. More flexibility in choosing any amp I want and I also will experiment with capturing my favourite settings of overdrive and fuzz pedals and run it into real amp for example.


    I won't sell the Iridium neither. I really like the resonsiveness and how great it takes drive pedals! I think this is due to the analog jfet front end. The combination of jfet preamp and modelling just works for me and feels really great.


    For the ToneX pedal it seems to be a good advise to use a high quality power supply instead of cheap switching power supply generating and picking up noise of all kind. In my experience old linear 9v power supply or somthing like the Harley Benton ISO-1AC Pro with grounded power cable prevents better from unwanted noise.

    I’m really thinking about buying the tone x Pedal and use it for playing at home, while the profiler stays at the practice room.

    400€ is not that expensive… the only thing that annoys me is that I bought the software last month and now it comes bundled with the pedal…

    There is a discount for the pedal if you bought the max software. The coupon was visible for me at the ckeckout and saved me 100 €!! Login to your account and try it.

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    For me it is not clear what kind of profiles we get?! The free rigs seem to be studio profiles that just got another cab copied to them (Tone Junkies Two Rock 2x12). There is only one profile with the original 1x12 speaker. None of them seem to be actually profiled with the 2x12 cab and they seem also not real merged profiles.


    My guess is that HW did make just studio profiles with the built in combo (Jupiter 1x12) speaker. But then they decided that a Two Rock IR / cab sounded better and just copied that to every studio profile. That's how the profiles sound to me. I'd rather have liked proper direct amp profiles of the Milkman... and then combined / merged with the original speaker and various mics.

    I have bought Tonex max, but only tried for a few days. So far there are some user "Tone Models" already that really feel and sound excellent - also edge of break up tones! I really forgot playing a plugin.


    But it seems they are almost too uncompressed and open sounding. Also people have to add gain later and the attack seems to be softer with less bite.


    Regarding the video I am pretty sure you can get closer results with the Kemper Profiler if you don't use a loadbox (with certain amps) and master the refining process. But as Tim said before: Refining is art. Maybe Kemper should consider introducing an automated / more sophisticated refining process too?!


    Tonex needs some more time and updates (and better UI). But it is a great product, no doubt.

    Good question. What about uploading free Tonex captures of Kemper profiles to tone.net?

    People upload free Kemper profiles of axe-fx, Amplitube and other vst. So why not?


    Capturing my Kemper rigs, maybe even including my real pedals I use, would be a good reason for me buying Tonex one day.