Kemper vs torpedo live, blind test

    note: im after heavy, mid to hi gain distorted sounds. I normally play through an early 90's Dual Rec.




    Hello all


    i just got my first kemper about a week ago. I've been playing with it every evening after work, and trying to record with it to compare to other things I had been using. So far, I'm not very impressed, and I'm hoping you might be able to help me.


    I've yet to find any profiles that I really dig. Unfortunately for me, I can always tell/hear that I'm playing through something other than a true tube amp. And don't get confused..... I REALLY want this thing to work for me, cause it will be soooo much cheaper,and convenient than collecting amps and lugging them around everywhere.


    i also got a torpedo live just a week or so before I got the kemper, and so far, i find I like the results I'm getting through it more than the kpa.


    I went through A LOT of profiles on the rig exchange and picked out some decent ones. so I decided to set up my own blind test, with the help of my wife, to make sure that I wasnt subconsciously disliking the KPA because "its not a real tube amp".



    I played the same chorus from 1 of my originals a total of 22 times (blah), using 11 different tones, 3 from torpedo live, the rest from the KPA. twice each so i could pan them L and R. I then EQ'd them to make each one sound as best as it could. I then had my wife go through and randomly choose 1 at a time and let me listen to it a couple times. She wrote down what order she played them in, and i made notes on each profile, things i liked and things i didnt, and made a guess for what tone i thought it might be. and finally she gave me her sheet, and i compared it to my notes.


    Much to my disappointment, i got them all right :( I knew exactly which ones were KPA profiles, and which ones were the torpedo live. and i still preferred the torpedo over any of the KPA tones.


    the only thing i havent done yet, is profile MY Dual Rec and try to compare its tone to the real one..... but even if it matches it 100%, i havent found any other hi gain tones i like, so what would be the point?



    Does anyone have any suggestions for improving KPA hi gain tones, or do you know of any Dual Rec profiles that youre sure are gonna blow me away? If i can find a few tones that i love, id love to keep the KPA for all of its easy transportation if nothing else.



    thank you!

    Why don't you just make some profiles of your amp with the Torpedo?


    ???


    Profit! (The point is what you described...)


    What bothers you abouth the profiles?

    MJT Strats / PRS Guitars / Many DIY Guitars -- Kemper Profiler Rack / Kemper Remote / InEar

    I dont know what sound you are after, but you have to make sure you got the right setup for cab output/input
    You have to understand how the Kemper work! irealy like it and have found many rigs i like, and use for base for kreating my own rigs! I know users with expensive amps like Bogner and Diezel who have switched to Kemper! The kemper as far as i can see make the sound of a micked amp trough PA! I only use my Kemper for live playing and realy like it.

    I didn't find much that I liked as far as presets in the Kemper. I have several tube amps that give me the tones that I want, and those tones are the result of decades of playing and experimenting, and finally designing my own amps that I had built. They are also a result of finding the right mics, mic preamps, and mic placement, also things I have experimented with for years.


    The "holy s**t" moment with the Kemper is when I began profiling those amps, mics and pres. That to me is where the value of the Kemper is. If you have a particular amp setup that does it for you, the Kemper can profile it and "do it for you" as well.

    I don't think I found any stock rigs on the Kemper for high gain that I liked, although there were a few that were pretty good. I also didn't really care for Ola Englund or Keith Merrow's profiles.


    There's lots of washed out or phasy sounding profiles on the Rig Exchange, but some duds can be made to sound real nice by putting a different cabinet profile on them. I like Till's Recto cabs in the 55-60 range. Also, most of Lasse Lammert's cabs sound very good.


    I am a big fan of Lasse Lammert's pack. Also, DJEMass's Mark IIC+ profiles are very good, although I had to tweak them to get them where I wanted. R.u.sirius's Diezel Shiva profiles are really good. His Herbert profiles are also good, although not as good as the Shiva IMO. Thomus's Mesa/Boogie Mark III profiles are good. Erik Stamm's Legacy profiles are quite good. DeadLightStudios, MillA, German Schauss, GRStudios, FRAENGGERS, Marco Cudan (Mago), James Stephenson, Dan, MOSS, Fluff, Sacha - these guys have made some awesome profiles for free on the rig exchange. EDIT: forgot Thomas Kruck.


    For the commercial side, there's lots of good stuff. I really like Sinmix and Arthur-D's stuff. TAF ENGL pack is good. Pete Turley has lots of great stuff, but a lot of it is a bit 80's-ish for my tastes. Choptunes has great stuff as well. G1productions has good Cobra and JVM profiles. Till's Chimera pack has plenty of good sounds, although it's a bit of mystery what is actually profiled.


    What amps/sounds are you looking for?

    The point (after you profile your own amp) is to see that those other profiles are just different, not inferior, and that then you have your amp's tone stored for "eternity" in a really convenient small package for live or studio, and you can then tweak that tone to be better than the original if you really want to.


    Your ability to discern which is which is not your ability to tell the Kemper from a real amp, but to tell different amps apart. And that's what's tainting your opinion, you didn't say if you actually liked the tones, only that you could tell which were your amp and which were the Kemper, which is reasonable, because you didn't profile your own amp so you're listening to other peoples amps.


    The point of profiling your own and it matching in this situation is to help you get past this bias and then go "oh wait, now I get it, and yeah those profiles also sound and play exactly like real amps, just not my own amp, so now all i need to do is go and find the right amp + cab + mic + preamp combo that someone else made that will be the sound I want to use", rather than assuming that because it sounds and feels different to a setup you've been using for years it's inferior. It's different, same as if you changed your amp or cab, you would notice a difference. So given this why would you think it's inferior rather than just different if it wasn't for simple confirmation bias?

    Quote from deadpan

    I would suggest this rig on the exchange:


    MESA-DR 2ch.RED


    by Peter j.


    was this a joke? cause i found the profile you suggested and it almost broke my eardrums. i dont know if theres something wrong with my KPA but this profile is so loud, even with the master volume even barely on, the output light turns red and your ears start bleeding??







    I also just got off the phone with focusrite, and they got my KPA and Torpedo working with the saffire pro 40 using SPDIF. absolutely fantastic tech support!


    so anyway. Im gonna try profiling my own amp and try to find some more profiles before i give up.


    thanks

    Quote from SoulDesign

    was this a joke? cause i found the profile you suggested and it almost broke my eardrums. i dont know if theres something wrong with my KPA but this profile is so loud, even with the master volume even barely on, the output light turns red and your ears start bleeding??


    This was no joke. The profile is great. Something else must be up. As you can see on the exchange this has multiple 5 star ratings.


    Are you playing through a guitar cab with Kemper cabs off or FRFR?

    Sounds like something is screwed up in your master settings, the quickest solution rather than hunting around for the culprit is to just do a reset. Do the following :


    1. Reset your Kemper to factory default settings from the system panel, instructions in the Wiki..
    2. Make sure that your output has the cabinet enabled (within the master section (Monitor Cab Off should be disabled),
    3. Disable constant latency in the master section.
    4. Disable the noise gate on the input section (press and hold input, dial down the noise gate to 0, then press the lock button to lock that in place for all rigs so it doesn't turn back on when you change rig).
    5. Make sure your clean and distortion sens settings under input have been set up to be appropriate to the guitar you're using (no clipping on input).
    6. Check that your monitoring solution isn't at fault.


    Your Kemper should sound exactly as you have heard in the various clips of the Kemper online as they are nearly all DI recordings, if it does not then you may need to contact Kemper or whoemver you purchased it from to get it fixed.

    If you have your perfect tone in your hands, through the Torpedo, then profile with the torpedo.
    Have you tried it?


    i don't think there is anything wrong with your Profiler.

    I have checked this rig also and while it sounds a bit to metallic to my ears, it definitely works well!
    I get the masteroutput LED to orange Insane 12/15th volume, e.g. +5db.
    This should be a hint. the other is: what do you mean by: the master volume barely on?
    you are recording via SPDIF, right? have you checked all output settings in the master section?
    i am sure we'll get this sorted out.

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    Back when I had my JVM410HJS and my Torpedo live, I recorded a simple guitar track and panned them hard left and right. It was a great setup and sounded awesome but I really didn't need to have a 100Watt 58lb head to take with me to gigs.


    I found a Tony McKenzie profile with the mid shift on (same way I ran my amp) and recorded this with the Kemper.


    I had a couple of friends who are also guitar players listen to it and they always picked the Kemper as the real amp.


    Interesting.


    That being said, the Torpedo is a fantastic unit and I really enjoyed using it. If I went back to a tube amp, I wouldn't hesitate to get another one.

    Oh I really don't want to reset it! I just spent prolly 12 solid hours the last 2 days getting some tones with effects and things that I liked. I'll have to just check the output section when I'm with it again.



    Ive managed to get some nice clean tones with some fender twin and AC30 profiles.





    ive also found an author that must have similar ears, haha. Pete something, can't remeber right now. but most of his profiles use 3 mics . Im enjoying some bogner xtc and fortin marshall





    When i get home, I'm going to profile some of my mesa's tones with the torpedo

    I havent done it in a while but the system reset shouldnt wipe out your rigs. It just resets global system settings. Someone correct me if im wrong. Thats why i said to do a backup first. If anything goes wrong you can easily restore the rigs.


    Im betting you're talking about Pete Turley. Great guy with lots of great profiles