HELP! Sounds fantastic through cab but really bad through headphones/through interface

Quote from layne81

These presets sound fantastic when running to my Orange PPC412HP Cabinet (I have the powered Kemper) but the presets sound overly trebly and overly distorted through the headphones.... Absolutely nothing like the presets sound through the cab. I am not understanding why this is....

I'd say that is because the guitar cab rolls off the high end very heavily for anything over 5kHz but the headphones don't.

Sorry to state the obvious but have you tried turning down the treble and gain?

The guitar cab colors the profiles a lot (that Orange cab is known to be really dark sounding too) so you'll need to tweak the profiles accordingly for flat response monitoring like the headphones.

Hi Layne,

how did you profile the Axe? Had the Axe-patches some cam sim involved? Sounds like you hear a 'cabless' tone.

How can headphones sound the same as a Cabinet with speakers in it?...it's scientifically impossible.

Try making "headphones" versions of your profiles by changing the cab in your profiles to a cab from another Kemper rig.

Hi Layne,

before all, how do/did those patches sound through the same HPs when using the Axe-Fx?

You profiled them DI, that is not using a cab and mic'ing it, didn't you? If this is the case, you have to keep cab simulation on on the Profiler even when using a real cab, for sound coherence (no cab was actually profiled, so this will keep the original sound straight). But this is not the answer to your issue

If you used cab simulations/IR in the Axe while profiling, you should hear the same sound you heard from the Axe through the same cans (but you'll have to keep cabs on on the Profiler).

If your HPs were completely linear they should sound like the profiles
you took. Not like the sound you hear from the Orange, since each
different cab (as already stated) gives a very strong character to any
amp. If they are not, well, as I said the Profiler should sound like the axe heard through cans. Meaning... equally bad.

OTOH, not all the profiles come out well, sometimes one has to make them again... could this be the case? If it could, the Orange might just hide their defects?

Anyway:

• check that there's no volume overload when using the cans; does it sound bad at any volume?
• check that cans work properly whit music programs: they might be damaged/defective;
• try another pair of cans, possibly with a completely different impedance;
• download some Axe-Fx profiles and see how they sound (doesn't matter whether they fit your tastes, just check sound integrity).

HTH