So far, I have only used my profiler at home and due to limited time, have not learnt as much as I would have liked in how to get the best out of it. I made a last minute decision to use the Profiler at a gig last night as I figured I needed to start somewhere. I took my regular gear to the gig too just in case!
The gig was with a six piece band playing a range of styles from classic disco hits to modern pop songs with potential to let rip on a few more rock type songs, so it was a good test for the Profiler. I had no idea if the Profiler set up would work for me as I love the sound of my existing gear which is Strat into Vox AC30HW and quite a large pedal board with some cool sounding toys. Last night, I used Profiler main outs into the PA and monitor out into a Yamaha DXR10. I recently purchased a second hand Behringer fcb1010 via Gumtree and have added the Uno4kemper chip.
About an hour before the gig, I set up the Profiler by choosing two clean sounds and three dirty sounds that suited my playing and thought I would be comfortable with. I used the performance mode and used one bank of 5 sounds to keep things simple. I also calibrated the volume pedal so the tuner would work on the FCB1010 display as I need to silently detune to drop D tuning during a medley. The sounds in my studio were a bit boomy, so I was a bit concerned, but the Vox would be there as a backup plan, so I left for the gig.
Arriving at the venue, I positioned the DXR10 behind me, on an Auralex Gramma, pointing up to my head. I switched input 2 to 'monitor' which I thought would kill any boominess that I was experiencing at home. Firstly, I decided to get a sound through the PA. I needed to adjust the main output volume from the Profiler as the level hitting the PA was way too hot. After getting the level through the PA, I then set the volume level on the DXR10. The clean sound seemed much quieter than the dirty sounds, so I cranked up the input sensitivity to balance out the sounds. I also noticed that the volume pedal on the FCB1010 reduced the drive level on the dirty sounds. When using my Vox and pedal board, I have a volume pedal after my drive pedal so that I can ride the guitars volume pot to achieve a variety of sounds. I might have guitar volume very low through drive pedal and volume high on the volume pedal to get big fat clean sound. After a bit of searching, I set the volume on the Profiler to post effects which suited me better.
We then started to play...
Any concerns that I had of not liking the sound of my Profiler compared to my usual setup quickly disappeared. I have read many threads on Kemper vs real amp and the 'in the room' sound so I wasn't sure what to expect. The result was that I much preferred the Kemper! The band much preferred the sound too. Most of the band use in ear monitoring and for once, they could have a balanced mix of guitar through their headphones. I heard nothing but good comments all night! It was certainly different to the power and fatness of my Vox setup, although that is only really satisfying for me. I don't usually go through the PA at smaller gigs, so the Kemper will give a much better mix for everyone else which is really the most important thing to consider. I found that I could hear myself much clearer and even though I need to do some tweaking to perfect the sounds, the guitar fitted in the mix much better and it was easier to play.
So do I have any negative points? Not really, as they are things that I can rectify. My biggest problem was that when it came time to drop tune, the FCB1010 tuner display didn't work when I moved the volume pedal to zero. I quickly bent down and moved the knob on the Kemper to the tuner setting (luckily not too far to turn it off!) to silently drop tune. I presume that I simply need to re-calibrte the FCB1010 as it was working at the start of the gig. The issue with rig volumes not matching didn't seem to be a problem at gig level and I set the clean sensitivity back to 0. I turned off the 'monitor' setting on the DXR10 as if anything, the sound was a bit thin. Setting the switch to the centre position resolved this problem.
To summarise, my first gig with the Profiler was a resounding success! It went much better than I had hoped for. Now I have a setting that works for me, I am so looking forward to all the fun I can have with the virtually unlimited possibilities this box can offer. I will be backing up my Profiler today so my settings are safe. I thought I would share my experience with the Profiler on here in case there are other users out there who have not yet used it live as I was very apprehensive. Does it replace a real amp live? Oh yes!! And it has so much more to offer.
