Very interesting Kemper profiling experience - with sound clip

    Hi,


    A friend of mine has a very interesting amp setup. He has an old modded BF Twin that he runs into either of two 2x12 cabinets. One with EV speakers and the other with Celesions. In front of it he has a pedalboard with some choice pedals. He always sounds great whatever style he plays. He and I have one thing in common. We are both looking for a clean sound which will allow us to play like it was a distorted sound. I don't know if you get what I mean, but my friend and I know exactly what we mean.


    He's come futher in his search than I have, until lest week when we had some time to talk and experiment. I thought he had the sound almost there but not quite. But the feel was not. I on the other hand had a better feel but not the sound. So we took his basic setup with the Twin and the EV cabinet and in front of it we put my Frantone Sandwich. This is an optical compressor that I use more as a tone shaper than a compressor. I don't know if it's faulty but it's probably the most non-transparent compressor I've ever tried but it does wonders to humbuckers. Bang! There was the sound. Fat and juicy with excellent sustain.


    Now why am I jabbering about this decidedly analog setup here? Well since I have a Kemper I couldn't resist profiling this setup. In the KPA manual it says that the KPA can include gain pedals in the profile but no other pedals so I was curious to see if the KPA would in some ways "include" the Frantone. Especially since it affects gain, tone and feel.


    YES! It did! Now I have a profiles that I'm having a lot of fun with and since the KPA has editing features that's not available to me not being a soldering genius and not being allowed into my friends amp even if I was, I'm now fine tuning it to be even more precisely to my liking.


    https://soundcloud.com/bt-king/kpa-twin-ev-demo


    Cheers,


    Mats N

    Good to hear you found the tone you were looking for. Even better that you were able to get a good profile of it. How about sharing the profile? If not, at least put up a sound sample so we hear it.

    Time-based effects, like reverb and delay, flanging, chorus, etc. are the kind of effects that will not be accurately included in a Profile. Although a compressor typically has an attack and release time parameters, the effect of compression is on the fundamental response of the signal chain, just like the transient response of an amplifier.


    A compressor is the kind of effect that the Kemper WOULD be able to include in a profile, just like other gain-related effects - fuzz, boost, overdrive. The compressor's response to the Profiling signals would be captured by the Profiling process.


    If Mats and his friend are looking for clean sounds that respond to playing dynamics more like a gain sound does, adding compression to a clean sound will do a good job of moderating the dynamic range of the clean sound.


    Mats - have you tried using the Amplifier section compression? Does that also do it? (I've not played with that parameter much - I like to use before the amp Compression as an effect, but don't use it to even out clean sounds - I prefer them to get a little bit bluesy when I lean into them.)

    Quote from paults

    If Mats and his friend are looking for clean sounds that respond to playing dynamics more like a gain sound does, adding compression to a clean sound will do a good job of moderating the dynamic range of the clean sound.


    In my experience very few compressors give me the response I was looking for and until I found the Frantone, all the ones that worked were very expensive units usually found in high end studios.


    Quote from paults

    Mats - have you tried using the Amplifier section compression? Does that also do it? (I've not played with that parameter much - I like to use before the amp Compression as an effect, but don't use it to even out clean sounds - I prefer them to get a little bit bluesy when I lean into them.)


    Yes, I use the Amp section compression a lot depending on what result I want. While I like it a lot for certain musical applications it doesn't replicate what I wanted with the Frantone. Fact is that I got closer using the stomp compressor in the Stomp X slot after the amp as I would use a compressor post amp in the studio.


    Cheers,


    Mats N

    Quote from Mats_Nermark

    a clean sound which will allow us to play like it was a distorted sound. I don't know if you get what I mean, but my friend and I know exactly what we mean.


    Mats,


    I know exactly what you guys mean as well.
    The demo sounds spectacular BTW, and very different - I agree - from when you use just a compressor.


    What kind of guitar/PU did you use?