Posts by HowardBrown

I had a powered kab briefly, demoed a passive cab with my power amp a couple of times, bought 3 kones and loaded them in my cabs (112 open and closed back) and tried those for close to a year but gave up on them and went in a different direction. Most people seem to get along well with them, I didn't. You may fall in the same category as me, especially if you are setting the HC that low with the kabinet (below 4500). One of the only things I've found on the profiler I wish was different is the global Hi and Low Cut filters, it would be nice if they were available on the Main output and a separate set on the Monitor output.

Quote from Wheresthedug

i have been using Adam A7x for many years and love them. My friend had Yamaha HS8 and they sound great with the Kemper too.

Honestly, I think either TV7 or HS7 will work well for you. The speaker position and room (treatment or lack of) will make a much bigger difference than the speaker model. Go with whichever ones you can get the best deal on.

I hadn't considered a smaller monitor until reading the post from Ingolf above, so I looked at the Adam T5V which looks like it would serve my purpose just as well as the T7V, being slightly smaller would also be a benefit for the space I have. Then I read your post again and speaker position finally got my attention, I had not thought about that. I've rearranged the room I'm in from when I used it just as a home studio, at that time the monitors were not near a wall so I never had any issues with a rear port, but now they will only be a few inches from a wall and I can't change the room around any longer.

I've been looking for an hour or so online at front ported monitors, I should have considered the speaker position from the start, but to be perfectly honest as I'm getting older it becomes more and more apparent that all the cylinders are not firing as well as they used to and I miss stuff, it sucks... I'm glad you threw that in, I'll have to limit my choices to monitors that will work better by the speaker placement available.

Quote from GearJocke

Been using ADAM A5...ten years or so. I'll keep them until they die. But if you live close enough to a music store go and test different brands and see what you like best.

Unfortunately its 280 miles to the nearest city with a store that would carry a small variety of studio monitors. The internet has really cut into stores that used to carry a larger selection of gear in my neck of the woods.

jon9max & Morph Thanks for the input, I've never had the opportunity to hear them in person, just the Yamahas.

I'm at a point were I believe it's time to make a change. I used to have a small home studio with decent studio monitors but they both died on me 8 to 10 years ago. I had stopped recording a couple of years prior to that so I didn't replace them. Over the last few years I've done a little video editing on occasion and a pair of PreSonus Eris E3.5 have been adequate for that, they don't work very well with the Kemper overall but sound great with the acoustic simulator.

I've had my Kemper for six years now and tried/used a plethora of monitoring solutions, pa speakers, Kabinets, Kones and several other 12" speakers in my own cabinets. I have not taken the profiler out of the house one time yet to play, though I do intend to in the near future. There are only a couple of places that I will probably go and both have pa systems I've installed. The easiest scenario I see is carrying in my guitar, Kemper, and plugging straight into the FOH, I have a 112 cab if needed for personal monitoring.

What I've found is my approach to dialing in rigs that will translate well at FOH is a losing battle when using the monitoring solutions I have. I have been looking at a couple of studio monitors to run my Kemper through, something I should have done several years ago as 100% of of my playing time has been directly in front of my pc.

The two I'm considering are the ADAM Audio T7V and the Yamaha HS7, I belive either would work well and are in a price range I'm comfortable with. I could use some advice with this, since I no longer do any recording is an audio interface necessary between the Kemper and the monitors or does it sound about the same going direct?

I apologize in advance for the long post before getting to my question, I just felt the more information I gave initially might enable others to better offer suggestions.

Thanks.....

Quick Button Assignment and PoE information are on page 16 and 17 of the 8.7 Addendum to the manual.

Quick Button Assignment information is on page 34 of the Main Manual 8.5, page 43 states this about the network connection port "NETWORK: Here, you can plug in a KEMPER PROFILER Remote", I can't find anything else on that connection but I might be just be missing it elsewhere.

I've had error messages pop up 6-8 times in the past couple of years, not really sure what they were associated with but after pressing Exit to restart everything worked as it should.

Each time it's happened I've had rig manager hooked up, hasn't happened in a while though. Since it only occurred a few times and with some time in between each occurrence, and with different firmware versions I just attributed it as an occasional clitch, much like I've experienced with a pc on occasion. Hopefully that's what your experiencing.

Quote from Ruefus

Ever plug everything in in prep for a gig, only to get no signal into your Profiler?

You stare at it. Restart….stare some more. Wonder…etc.

….and then…you realize realize it’s PINIP…..(Problem Is Not Inside Profiler).

On my toaster, I had plugged my guitar into the left input. Which is the headphone out.

Derp.

I've never actually done that one before. When I boot up to play at least 20% of the time I do one of the following:

Forget to turn the chicken head knob from tuner to browser mode.

Forget to plug the instrument cable into the guitar.

Forget to plug the instrument cable into the profiler.

Forget to turn the volume knob on my power amp up.

Everytime I do one of the above my anxiety level goes up because my first thought is that the profiler has stopped working, then the panicked search begins to find the source of the problem..... It's me every single stinking time.

I haven't used the headphone jack in five years, don't even notice it to be honest. But now that I've read this post I can guarantee my sub conscience will cause me to plug into the headphone jack and I'll never figure out what's wrong!

Use the input on the back of your Fender labeled "Power Amp In", not Effects Return as in the diagram. In the output section of your Kemper set Monitor Out to Master Mono and Monitor Out volume to -15 to -18 db for a starting point. Use the Master Volume on the front of your Fender to turn the sound up or down. Follow the other instructions that Wheresthedug gave you above concerning Monitor Cab off.

Quote from SoManyGuitars

I just got Lonestar (Michael Britt's band) tickets... 3rd row center... my first actual "Country" concert.

I should be close enough to see whose Kemper Profiles he uses. 😉 (not even sure if uses Kempers live...)

Would be even better if crgtr flew out to sit in on a tune or two!

Looking forward to the show....

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Saw them last year in August or September I think, he was using a Kemper Stage and his signature Valvetrain looked to be hooked up, though he did have in ears also. When he switched from the toaster to the stage he put up a video of what all he was using. Honestly, I only went to hear him play, never heard the group before as I'm not into country music very much, but when I told my wife we were going she went to another room in the house and came back with a Lonestar CD. I asked where she got it and her reply was it had been in the entertainment center since the late 1990's when she bought it, I guess she used to play it in the car when I wasn't with her. Live, they were really good and I'd see them again if the opportunity presents itself, but I've still never heard the CD.

Basic setup from the manual.

In the output section set Monitor Out to Master Mono.

Turn the cabinet section off for Monitor Out.

Try setting the Monitor Out at -18db to start, that's been a good average for me with most profiles, for power amps and guitar amp effects returns.

Make sure the Monitor Outputs volume is not controlled or linked to the Profilers volume knob. Use the evh to control your volume from there.

Quote from dderose

Thank you all for the responses. I appreciate all the feedback.

Would you all agree that the Kemper Power Cab produces the best sound compared to the other FRFRs and PAs out there?

The Kabinet/Kone is a different animal than pa speakers or studio monitors, it has a sound all it's own. I bought a powered Kabinet but I didn't gel with it, other people have a complete opposite experience with them. I also bought 3 Kone's over time to load in my cabinets but again, I didn't gel with them, but that all falls under personal taste and why the market can support and have such a variety of options available, that market base is continually growing. Looking back now, I wish I would have paid a little more attention while perusing the forum to the advice such as the three forum members have given above. I have in other instances, and found that these guys as well as many others advice based on their experiences is invaluable.

Another word of advice that is given often is read the manual, the more familiar you become with the stage, which takes some time, and the more familiar you become with the manual the easier it will be to make full use of the profiler and what it has to offer. To me that same application applies to every learning experience, for instance learning to play your instrument. You practice and practice but it seems to progress very slowly, then one day you hit a new plateau. What you've been working on becomes a new knowledge base that you can comfortably execute and build upon, and the process begins again until the next plateau is reached, that takes time and effort.

You'll never get a particular monitor solution that is agreed upon unanimously, there are to many variables and personal tastes involved. Your original post was about using the stage with a combo amp which whippinpost91850, Wheresthedug and Steve5478 already addressed. I used a combo amp at home for four years, plugging into the effects return, it amplified the sound but it defeated the benefits of using the profiler. If that's all you have available at the moment then use it, but it will not represent the profiles intended sound at all. Also, what is the main use of the stage going to be? Are you recording at home, just to use as an amp at home, or live use with other performers. Knowing the intended use will result in more specific advice for your situation.

Just my point of view here, if recording, headphones and studio monitors would probably be most beneficial. If you are just playing at home , studio monitors, pa speakers and the Kabinet will all work as a monitor. Live, pa speakers or the Kabinet are probably the best options. But keep in mind, to tweak profiles for live use, where you are plugging your profiler into a mixer for foh, you need a monitor that can give you a representation of what foh sound will be like. A very popular and more cost effective choice for that scenerio was given by whippinpost91850. I have pa speakers scheduled for delivery today and that is my final solution after six years of profiler ownership, I've spent way to much time and money on this pursuit. Don't repeat my mistakes, list your intended uses for the stage and you'll receive great advice from the forum, and last but not least, welcome to the forum!

Quote from alerich

I'm gonna go with the folks who have said that the Kemper may not be a great choice for the OP. He has already put substantially more legwork into this than I would have early on. I traded my Boogie JP-2C for a Kemper powered toaster, remote and bag about four years ago. Tried it with the factory profiles through a 4x12 guitar cab and said "Well, I can get my money back out of it". Went online and bought a few commercial profile packs (MBritt) and said "This has potential". Bought a Yamaha DXR10 and I was hooked. Bought another DXR10 a week later to provide a wider sound sound stage (I was used to a Soldano Hot Rod 50 and two Soldano 4x12 cabs) and four years later the honeymoon continues.

No one piece of gear is right for everyone. It may be time to move on. I am in awe of your tenacity with this. It far exceeds anything I am capable of.

I agree with V8guitar, I got to far into my own head with it, I lost perspective. After six years I still haven't even scratched the surface of the profilers capabilities, there are effects I've never even tried yet. I'm confident this is the right direction for me and things will work themselves out. I went with a pair of the Yamaha CBR10 passive speakers, they should arrive sometime tomorrow.

Quote from lbieber

It seems you have found something that you can accept. My experience led me to conclude that a PA monitor(FRFR?!?!) is the best solution. BTW, I don't buy into FRFR dedicated solutions. I see it as a rebranding of a good, neutral speaker that you pay too much for in the end.

When I ordered these speakers I called my sales rep to pick his brain, I gave a brief summary of what I had tried with the Kemper and asked his opinion about the speakers I was considering.

His response basically was all speakers vary in tonal response, and the term frfr was a little misleading. He thought this type of speaker was the best option to use with the profiler as a monitor.

Quote from lbieber

I view the defintion control as a critical knob for all profiles. The PA monitor(and the FOH by extension) has a bit too much high end for me in general. The high cut and presence are the next two main controls to tame any profile. The benefit of the PA monitor is that if it sounds good on stage, it should sound good in FOH. Tweak less, play more... I hope you get it sorted soon. Rooting for you.

I used these some with the Kone as well as the high shift under the cabinet section, but nothing I did with it ever gave a satisfactory result, it just wasn't for me.

With the em12 the sound is smoothed out so much those high end adjustments aren't needed, you can get a good sound with it. But what profiles sounded good adjusted through the em12 could have piercing high end when I ran through my studio monitors.

The short time I spent this week with the PA speaker I borrowed, and being able to hear the different characteristics between amp profiles (Fender, Vox, Marshall) was a new experience. I'm looking forward to next week, I purchased a higher quality speaker than the borrowed one and I'm anticipating an equal to or better result.

Quote from V8guitar

Makes sense bud...

another quick thought bubble....the best amp I ever bought prior to the Kemper was a Laney GH100L.....I went to the shop and they said "would you like to try it", and I said "no....because it won't sound the same in the shop more importantly....I'm not used it it".,..

I just went for it and it took we a few weeks to like it...then I LOVED it. I don't always recommend this approach but my point is, for me, it takes time to like a sound. I get profile "blindness" so much, I just can't seem to be objective.

I would make the worlds worst sound engineer!

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The early years were easier, I knew nothing about gear, and the concept of tone had not manifested itself with me yet. I just played what was in my possession at any given time, I didn't consider options because I had none which took most of the mental stress out of the equation. Good times!

Quote from V8guitar

Dude, I think you nailed it...I played Engl's for so long that anything that didn't sound like an Engl I instantly tried to make sound like an Engl. We get used to certain sounds even if they are sub par.

Everything you have said, I've been through and I think its fairly normal when you have so many options and many people saying they love their KPA.

I actually played my KPA through a 4x12 for the first 2 years and miked it...it sounded ok...everyone was saying " go direct", so I tried it...sounded really bad...turned out my profiles were pretty crap BUT the guitar cab smoothed it all out to the point it covered up inherent problems. In fact, I threw in so much presence and treble to cut through, it was a fizzy mess direct.

So what is the answer? This might sound crazy but its how I do it.....care a little less and trust other people more than yourself. This way you get back to enjoying just playing rather than tone chasing which is such a rabbit hole.

I remember someone of the forum sometime ago saying " I'm not happy with my sound, here's a sound clip"....I listened to it and thought, sounds fine to me. Then he said " its got this annoying fizz", so I went back and listened again and could just about make it out...I played it again and then I could hear it....then I couldn't unhear it....and could see why it bothered him...not because it was bad but we do focus on the little shit. Any sound engineers on here will be laughing at me because that level of analysis is what they do but for me when its my sound, I try so hard to avoid it.

So I grab what I know are good profiles and just play them, as if I've bought the amp and I have limited tweak options.

Crazy? Yes, but works for me.

Just don't come and see me play and say " your sound is ok but its got this annoying fizz..." Ha!!!!

You will get there bud!

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Your able to express my sentiments with far less words than me, I'll will pm you with my comments and let you edit them before I post from now on, everyone would appreciate it

I try not to tweak as much as possible, it's hard to stop once I get started. I've made a copy of profiles so I can adjust one and keep the original for comparison, if I come back another day to listen to them more than half the time, maybe 75%, I"d run with the original and delete the copy. And I have the mindset of an old school approach when using the profiler and remote, three channels (profiles) - cleanish/crunch/lead with the effects set up as stomp boxes. I plan on playing out some again and k.i.s.s. will definitely apply.

Quote from skoczy

This concludes all the topics, when people get disappointed after buying Kemper.

I also think that studio and live situations are when Kemper excels, but to get amp in the room, you need to have amp in the room. Which is most of the time inconvenient, so Kemper came here as a great "90 something" percent solution.

After spending time this week with the pa speaker I borrowed, my mind is settled on the direction I should go. I was noodling around last night and it hit me after a hour or so that I had been on one profile just playing, and hadn't actually thought about the Kemper, speaker or settings. I decided then this setup will work fine for me, and around lunch time today I got a passive pa speaker headed this way.

Quote from skoczy

Thank you for sharing your experience HowardBrown

I had very expensive studio monitors Neumann KH120, I had praised Yamaha DXR10, I had BAM200 with unpowered Kabinet. Before that, I had multiple setups that also didn't work for me.

I'm not trying to say, that Kemper is bad. It's great for what it is and the company and support is second to none.

But I think that amp in the room, can be only achieved by amp in the room. I was recently in a music store and the guy played some rock chops on Epiphone Les Paul on some Marshall halfstack. There is this 1% of nuances, that makes you miss it, when you're trying to emulate it.

I'm not an electrician, but I use me ears here. I think there is something in the interaction between real tubes in poweramp and speaker, that cannot be replicated.

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I agree with these statements. I believe the profiler was designed for studio and live sound for which it excels. The issue for me has been perspective, I have had tunnel vision based on my past experiences with gear. I've owned tube and solid state amps, stomp boxes, several multi-effects pedal boards and a digital amp, but I still used all of this coupled with a guitar speaker in a conventional manner, why I have struggled with the concept of monitoring in a manner with the Kemper that gives a good representation of what others will hear I just can't explain, my age and past experience are definitely factors.

I generally thrive in problem solving situations, whether it's computer or software based, audio/video/lighting, construction etc, I like the challenge of figuring stuff out and finding a solution to fix it. But in the last two years as I've experimented with a solution for monitoring my profiler a mental block has been present that has really impeded my normal thought process, again past experiences and age are the main contributors, but I believe I'll pass the blame over to covid. There are definitely differences between the Kemper and a conventional amp, the reaction between the player and a regular guitar cabinet is probably the biggest hurdle for me.

Me coming to terms and accepting those differences can open up a new realm of possibilities, as I found out yesterday with the pa speaker, and a low quality one at that. The profiles sounded closer to the originals, the differences between amp types was more distinct than I achieve with my em12 as it's character causes all of the profiles to have a more common tone overall, it is smoother sounding but at the cost of losing some of the quality's of what makes the actual amp sounds like it does. What also stood out was the difference in the sound of the effects, they were clearer and more defined which was to my liking. So I'm moving forward with the change to a pa speaker, I think the pros out-way the cons and I'll have to adapt.

Quote from V8guitar

Couple of points from me:

1) You are not an irritation, we have all been through periods of finding the right set up so we all understand your pain

2) There is NO perfect monitor solution, only what is best for you. And I mean this for all solutions, not just the KPA. Guitar cabs have massive impact on the sound, so every monitor solution you try, you almost have to start again

3) Not everyone loves the Kabinet. I do like mine BUT I also don't think about it too much as its mainly just for me to hear, I care more about the FOH sound. Also, increasingly I'm using it less and less because I'm tending to use the in house monitors, making it redundant

4) I think there is an element of this being in your head. I've often seen people get an amazing sound out of gear and then I play it and...oh, where did it go. The old addage of sound being in your fingers is true but I also think we hear other people different to ourselves. I'm convinced my sound isn't that great but so many people have told me it is. I even check with sound engineers at gigs and they say its great, so there is an element I suspect where you sound better than you think you do. I go round this cycle of " this sounds different to how I remember when I played it last week"...of course it doesn't but my head tells me something isn't quite right...

Feel for you dude!

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1) Thank you, I appreciate that

2) Starting over has become old and takes the fun of just sitting down to play away, I'm more than ready to find a few good profiles and call it a day. I do have mild ocd, when I'm working on a project it actually helps me as I'll get intently focused and work out the details in my head before my feet hit the ground hundreds of miles away, which has been helpful. It has not however been helpful in this particular situation, I have been to zoned in on one aspect of the signal chain and lost all ability of rational thought in making a decision.

3) My wife and I have been to four smaller concerts since 2018 where Kempers were in use, all but one had in ear monitors only. Michael Britt was the only person using a cabinet onstage (his signature Valvetrain) but his main monitoring source looked to be in ears.

4) That's usually where the greatest battles occur, in our own minds, and I'm absolutely guilty of that in this instance. I've watched a few videos in the past week where musicians, their techs and foh operators expressed the same shared conclusion about moving to units such as Kemper or Axe-Fx, the signal is consistent which helps eliminate many of the variables that are present with conventional cabs and mics as they go from venue to venue. If they can make that transition with all they have laying on the line and say it has made their jobs easier, someone such as myself really shouldn't be having problems.

Quote from Steve5478

I don't know if Howard has done so but it could be interesting to compare a combo side by side with the same Kemper's profile.... Just to see...

I know sometimes i dislike my sound even in the same room, same guitar, same profile, same pickups position, tone, volume....The day after i love it

The biggest percentage of perceived sound from one moment to the next probably only exists in the mental realm. I've learned that when ringing out a room, hit it and forget it, you can question your settings until you make yourself physically ill but that doesn't accomplish anything. Ringing out an empty room is usually a worst case scenario, if it sounds good then bodies wont make it worse. There are to many variables that contribute to the sound at any given time, number of people present, the temperature, ear fatigue etc... and that is just indoor venues. And as you stated, what sounded good one day to you might not the next, but step away a few days and it's a whole new world when you return. I just didn't apply that knowledge in this case, I was looking at it as two entirely different animals when really they share a lot of common elements, again, brain fog, it is my failure, I just got stuck in a very narrow mindset.

So here's what comparisons I have done. I've had the profiler for six years and for the last two it's been a struggle, switching from one speaker to another and I think a big part of it was the sound I had grown accustomed to from the first four years of ownership. I had used a combo as a monitor for the Kemper by plugging into the effects return, the tone was pretty dark. I never plugged my guitar into another amp during that time and didn't realize just how dampened the sound was. When moving on to different monitors from there everything has sounded harsh, but I now believe most of that was my perception of the sound. I went to my buddies music store about a week ago to catch up and played through a few of the amps he had while there, they all had some fizz to them as you added a little gain. I broke out what few band recordings I have that are in digital format from thirty plus years ago and gave them a quick listen, my guitar tone had a lot of fizz to it that I don't remember, I didn't notice back then but I do now. Same results from a twenty year old recording also.

The only thing I have at home is the old combo amp that I have had for 11 years, same one I used with the Kemper, but not a matching profile to compare to the same model amp. You made me curious so I pulled it out, a Fender Mustang III, not the greatest amp around but I played it for five years without issue and enjoyed myself. I remember the 3 or 4 patches that I had generally gravitated to so I fired it up and cycled through them, and guess what, they were fizzy and on the bright side. But to make completely sure I got my old guitar out that I played through that amp with, same result. I think V8guitar got it right, self inflicted in the grey matter area.

Quote from paults

Did you try pointing the Kabinet toward your face, in full range mode, like a PA monitor? If it gives you too much high end, you can place it off-axis, and adjust for preferred sound. I have mine side washed, tilted up, and a little behind me. I used a somewhat similar placement with the Yamaha DXR10 that I used before the Kabinet.

Yes, I moved my cabinet around to different positions several times and would try it for a while in each location, I found I preferred the cabinet 4 or 5 feet away pointing towards me. The imprints were ok, but for me that was another distraction so I left it in full range mode, kone function activated. It still is in fr mode with the em12 loaded in the cab, I've tried playing it with the kone function off but it sounds better leaving it on.

Quote from lbieber

I'm not at home and can't provide the exact model numbers, but can do that later if you want.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've installed several different passive and powered jbl speakers as well as ev on installation projects over the past 12 years. I was getting decent discounts on them but that ended a couple of years ago, I'm pretty familiar with the different series each one has, a little more so with the jbl's, but that is from a foh point of view, not as a guitar monitor.

"My view is that a guitar cab is not the best way and that it forces a compromise of the sound. I can't stress enough that I was not happy until I started using a decent FRFR type monitor."

I have come to the same conclusion for myself. I brought a speaker home with me yesterday from an install I did, its a low level unit (Gemini AS-12) but it does a decent job as an occasionally used monitor.

I don't know if I had something set wrong last summer when I went to demo the Headrush units and a qsc cp8, but they sounded awful, after today I figured I was the weak link in the chain.

I spent four hours going through profiles today while hooked up to the Gemini from the main outs on the Kemper (set to mono). I had an mbritt demo video pulled up and a load of Tonejunkies just to compare some of the profiles I have of theirs. Aside from the obvious differences of guitars and pickups they used compared to mine, and of course me doing the playing on my end, the sound coming from my studio monitors of their demos was real close to the sound from the Gemini when playing the same profile. I didn't expect that to be the case, and it caught me off guard somewhat. I started searching for passive pa speakers as soon as I shut my Kemper down.

Quote from RosboneMako

I know very little about speakers. A friend of mine knows 100x more. He throws info at me and some of it sticks to my smooth brain.

I built a 2x12 cab and threw some 12" Eminences in it. I didn't do any calcs to marry the correct speaker to the correct size cabinet. It sounds OK.

But the first time my friend listened to it he said "You dont have any material in that speaker". He could hear it. So I just do it whenever I can now.

But it raises the question with open back speakers. Is the amp next to a wall? Are you hearing reflections from that? Is it muddying up the attack? Creating frequency suck outs?

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No, the back of the cabinet had around 3 foot of clearance from a wall, and for a couple of months it was towards an open space with 8 foot of clearance. I didn't hear much difference between the two locations. That being said, after closing it off I realized it has had sound bouncing all over the place and yes it was affecting the overall sound, lots of unusable low frequency.

The closed back is a whole other animal, it's a drastic change that as I mentioned previously caught me by surprise, but in a really good way. I've moved the cab around the room and the overall sound stays pretty consistent, it's tightened everything up. I started reading up on cab design to get more familiar with the use of foam and when it may be needed.