Three months with the Profiler.

    I've had the profiler since January, so I'm calling it three months. I made myself stick to just using the profiler and no extra outboard gear, which was a real challenge. I've done a number of gigs with it, between an hour and three hours in length. I thought that I'd write a quick post to share what I've found and the fixes that I've worked up to deal with them.


    Each our 52 songs has at least one profile, with some having as many as three. I also programmed a set of six basic settings with which are available for me to use when I want to improvise on stage. I've used about fifteen different amp profiles to come up with all of the tones I've wanted and I've gotten most of the levels where I wanted them by hooking my Profiler up to my DAW and using a Waves plug in to get all of the levels set evenly on the meters and I also used the frequency analyzer to see if any subsonic sounds were sneaking in and making the level meters display inaccurately, and I did catch a couple of profiles that were a little too powerful in the lows but it was hard to hear because they were not coming through my in ear monitors.


    My main high gain sounds are from a profile I made of my Guytron GT-100 running through a Two Notes Torpedo Live, using their stock Mesa 4X12 IR with a Blue Ribbon Mic IR. After a little EQ I got this to sound nearly identical to my GT-100 running really hot, which is a sound I love. I also used a couple of CAA PT-100 Profiles and Several different Class A style amps for the cleans, Matchless DC-30's and Vox AC-30's being the two I tended to go to the most. I had to EQ the clean tones a bit to get them to sustain the way I am used to. Shortly I'm going to do a few profiles with a couple of boost pedals and the Guytron clean channel and see if I can't get closer to what I was using on stage before for certain songs.


    In general, I've been able to get pretty close to what I envisioned for each song, but there's still a lot of tweaking to do. The amp sounds that the Kemper puts out are amazing, once you get the right profile, which is really the trick. I haven't bought any profiles yet, but very shortly I will get the first two of Michael Britt's amp packs, his sound samples are great and the amps are a pretty good cross section of what I want/need for a variety filled cover band show, not to mention for writing and recording radio jingle packages, which is one of the other side jobs I fill my time with.


    Where I've had a harder time getting what I wanted is with the FX. The limited slots and routing have made it impossible to get exactly what I had before (I used an AxeFX Ultra with an Eventide H3000 DSE in the loop. I will admit that it's probably too much to ask of the little profiler to keep up with a heavy hitting FX rig like that, but I wanted to push the little box as far as I could. In the end sounds I had to completely dump were all things where I set up chains of parallel fx to fill out sparse rhythm parts or to replicate keyboards. All of my shimmer tones are gone from the set, which is annoying as we do a couple of U2 songs, but I get by with giant globs of reverb and riding the volume pedal.


    I use two of the front end FX slots for a clean boost and an OD of some sort in every Profile, in fact all of my slots are static except for the fourth pre-stack slot so I can keep everything straight on stage. My chain goes like this: Compressor---OD---Clean Boost---?---Stack---EQ(boost)---Chorus---Delay---Reverb
    The ? is usually filled with one of three FX; Wah, Whammy or Vibe, depending on the song. I'm still tweaking the FX a lot for some songs, and thankfully a lot of songs don't need much at all.


    My main gig uses IEM's, as I stated before. The Kemper really shines when I use it with the in ears. It's cleaner than micing a cab and there's no inconsistencies from having the mic in a different place on the amp or gain staging. This keeps my in ear mix the same from venue to venue. It also makes it easier for our FOH guy, particularly since I boost all of my own solo's via the EQ block. I just copied one setting that gives me a gentle mid boost and some extra volume and dropped it into every profile. Easy! (Just remember to give yourself enough headroom for the extra output when righting your profiles.)


    I have the Powerrack version of the Kemper and I've had to do three gigs so far without my IEM's, and relying on stage volume instead of micing up for the PA. It worked just like any amp would, great most of the time but certain frequencies go in and out of the mix depending on where you're standing and what kind of tone you're using. My cabs all sounded like their normal selves, my 4X12 is punchy but directional and my 1X12 is a little sloppy in the low end but fills the stage nicely at lower volumes. I think this speaks to how well the Profiler emulates the amps, which is the best compliment you can give it. If the sound is really that bad, you have a bad (or at least improper) profile or have tweaked it incorrectly.


    Just my thoughts....


    JT


    PS. I've haven't update my Kemper to 3.0 yet, I'll wait for the next software version. It seems like there's been an awful lot of bugs and I really value consistency and reliability.

    Quote from Impulse101


    I've used about fifteen different amp profiles to come up with all of the tones I've wanted and I've gotten most of the levels where I wanted them by hooking my Profiler up to my DAW and using a Waves plug in to get all of the levels set evenly on the meters and I also used the frequency analyzer to see if any subsonic sounds were sneaking in and making the level meters display inaccurately, and I did catch a couple of profiles that were a little too powerful in the lows but it was hard to hear because they were not coming through my in ear monitors.


    Thanks for your thoughts, the above is an interesting idea, did you find this translated consistantly? I'll lok to do the same myself :)

    PAZ-Analyzer was the plug in but any metering plug would work. There are plenty of free ones out there that do the same thing. PAZ is nice because I'm used to the meter ballistics, it has a phase display, freq. graph and a mono sum meter. I use it in my day job so I use it at home too.


    The results have been very consistent. I've learned what to listen to based on how different adjustments sounded and displayed, put together with your ears it makes for an excellent reference.


    JT

    I agree that the KPA really shines with iem's and the consistency from show to show is way above a traditional rig where every minor mic movement and placement was changing slightly as well as pedal knob settings. I can't wait to get my Guytron back… I miss that amp. It was in the '10 flood and it's been in the shop since.

    Running down the list,


    I checked out the shimmer sounds on rig exchange but I can't use those profiles and have my amp settings so that I can fade the shimmer in and then under my usual amp sounds, I came up with something that works but I miss the real thing.


    Lonestar/ Mike, My GT-100 is a Rev B that Guy modded for me after I got it. It runs a little hotter than most other Rev B GT-100's and it an amazing amp. It's also amazingly heavy, which is why I got the Kemper. I mwanted it all in one small/light rig.


    My musical style... A lot of them, I play in a cover band that does 80's Rock and alternative. My original stuff is more prog, ethereal stuff with lots of layered effects.


    JT.

    Thank you for your detailed description and welcome.
    As far as stomp slots are concerned I was happy to find that I use pretty much the same configuration. Actually I put the clean boost before the lead boost (or od). I always wondered where to put the compressor (not the amp compresser in the stack section). I now follow M. Britt's rule to put it in front of everything. M. Britt's compressors are quite effective but in no way dominating the sound. I tend to use them quite often.


    Have fun
    Joachim

    The biggest reason I put them where I did is that I didn't want anything to hit the front end of the compressor and overdrive it. In the regular analog world I do the same thing. The compressor is always first so that its consistent.


    The OD/distortion blocks sounded better to me with the OD first if I was stacking the pedals in front of the amp. I do this a lot with my Guytron so it made sense to try it with the virtual Guytron and it worked in a similar fashion.