KPA and bad guitars (bad guitarists)

    Hi guys!
    I have an odd question, so hope you will understand what I mean and probably give me some answers.


    I'm a sound engineer in a small studio in Sweden and I'm planning to buy KPA mainly for re-amping purposes, but there's only one thing I care about. How does KPA behave with non-quality DI signal? I mean bad guitar, bad cable, bad guitarist and so on. Let me give some explanation why I'm asking so stupid question. I have a lot of different clients, using different guitars and having different playing techniques, therefore in my experience quality DIs (recorded by a good player, with good instrument, with quality cable into proper preamp or i/o) sounds excellent everywhere, so they can be easily used even with amp-sims to achieve enough result. But when DIs are worse, amp-sim is starting to sound like a junk, and only live re-amping can rescue the sound to get a passable result.
    That's why I'm asking about KPA, can it rescue the sound the same as live amp?


    Sorry for my English guys, nevertheless I'll appreciate your replies.


    Thanks!

    in my experience even a very good amp cannot rescue a bad player, quite the contrary actually.
    ever heard a hack play over something like a Matchless?
    truely horrifying :D


    but if "bad player + good amp" works for you, then all you have to know is that the Profiler behaves just like an amp.


    it also features a few very simple to operate parameters that can not be found on traditional amps, like adjustable power amp sag, compression within the amp (very cool), a pick control and a very good compressor, that can also do parallel compression.
    Some of those might actually help to even out a performance a bit, but to tell you the truth, one of the best things a bout the Profiler is how dynamically it reacts to pickups, technique, picking etc.


    again, in my experience, if the performance suffered, there's generally no technological fix for that.

    The KPA input section follows the same rules as if you using are a real amp. I would use a SPDIF connection when reamping to make sure no degradation of the signal will occur. I often get poorly recorded DI track which result in the loss of hight frequencies and transients with a lot of hiss. Using the high quality noise gates within the KPA or maybe some filter before the gain stage you can try to compensate. I would say the the KPA offers more tools to rescue such a track than you would normally have at hand.

    Quote from DonPetersen

    in my experience even a very good amp cannot rescue a bad player, quite the contrary actually.
    ever heard a hack play over something like a Matchless?
    truely horrifying :D


    but if "bad player + good amp" works for you, then all you have to know is that the Profiler behaves like an amp

    Well honestly "bad player + good amp" combo doesn't work for me ideally at all, however in my experience it can help a little bit. Thanks!

    Quote from tylerhb

    The KPA input section follows the same rules as if you using are a real amp. I would use a SPDIF connection when reamping to make sure no degradation of the signal will occur. I often get poorly recorded DI track which result in the loss of hight frequencies and transients with a lot of hiss. Using the high quality noise gates within the KPA or maybe some filter before the gain stage you can try to compensate. I would say the the KPA offers more tools to rescue such a track than you would normally have at hand.

    Actually I was expecting that SPDIF re-amping and some tweaks could be useful.Thanks!

    In my opinion and experience it is like this:
    The better the amp the more sensitive and accurate it can display the nuances of a player's performance.
    In this regard the Kemper behaves like the real life counterparts (profiles of amps) it loads.
    A profile of a 'high expression' amp like a Matchless (look Don's example above) will reveal any nuance (strengths and weaknesses) of a player's performance, whereas there are also profiles of amps that are way more 'forgiving'.
    I don't have any doubt you'll be able to find a rig that helps you bring out the best in any given performance.

    Quote from Vinny

    Don can you say more about parallel compression? What is different in the effect of compression this way?


    a compressor usually compresses the whole signal.
    since our compressor has a mix control, you can mix the compressed signal with the uncompressed signal.


    the classic parallel compression sound would be a heavily 'crushed' signal (shortest possible attack & check out the squash parameter)
    plus the dry signal.

    My experience is the Kemper acts similar to real amps in terms of "cheap" guitars. Crappy pickups sound... crappy. Poor intonation isn't going to be fixed by the KPA. Sloppy Playing is a given, doesn't need to be asked.


    I've found that I have the same opinion on the Kemper as I did with certain real amps where I didn't like their hi-gain with humbuckers or P90's.


    I had a kid come over with a MIM Strat and it sounded materially worse through a Fender profile of the Deluxe '52 from Armin than either my America Strat with SSL-1's or my Tele 52 RI did. They sounded amazing.


    Summary:


    Kemper or Amp, Crap In = Crap Out, Quality In = Quality Out


    Your job I should think as a studio is to make a group sound the best that THEY can sound and if they CHOOSE crappy instruments and wires, then it's not your fault that you can't turn clay into gold. (maybe just nice shiny clay, lol)

    Quote from DonPetersen

    a compressor usually compresses the whole signal.
    since our compressor has a mix control, you can mix the compressed signal with the uncompressed signal.


    the classic parallel compression sound would be a heavily 'crushed' signal (shortest possible attack & check out the squash parameter)
    plus the dry signal.


    Don, thanks

    one thing to mention - the KPA does have excellent noise gates and the ability to adjust input gain, which you could still do in front of a real amp - but it'd be a separate process. So I think you'd get better results, but it depends. as always, garbage in = garbage out.


    some modelers can kind of gloss over noise during pick attack and stuff like that. but that's because they end up compressing things or don't respond as quickly to pick attack as a real amp. The KPA is not like that - it will amplify your mistakes, not mask them. Which ultimately means you can get much better tone with the KPA, provided you have good playing.

    If u got the feeling u can "rescue" the sound with a real amp, i think u'll get the same experience with the KPA.


    But the KPA is still "only" a preamp, not a "Klärwerk"


    So the main rule always counts:


    Shit In = Shit Out


    :whistling: