Using Kemper like I use an amp

Quote from philbrown

Should I start a new thread with the above post?

No, I think it's fine here. Start a new thread if you don't feel you get enough responses maybe

Hmmm... Do you have the ability to record a sample of the higher gain stuff you're talking about?

I assume you're familiar with the sound of a mic'ed up amp for these kinds of levels of gain, is that correct? (I mean, as opposed to hearing just the speaker cab). If you haven't tried them already, I'd point you toward the profiles of Guido - for example the bogner XTC profiles.
His shop is here: http://www.guidorist.com/en/pr…gory/kemper-amp-profiles/

Mind you, tastes differ greatly

Also: How are you monitoring?

One thing I like to do with my profiles and pedals, is add a bit of the direct guitar signal to the rig. It adds a little more of the guitar character as well as the pedal character. I add an amount from 2 - 4 depending on the profile. You will find this under the amplifier section of your profile.

Give it a go!

Quote from philbrown

EDIT: I'm coming in S/PDIF.

Please double-check that the clock source of your interface is set to spdif - and more pertinent: is set to 44.1 kHz

Quote from philbrown

When I try to track with the higher gain sounds just using the Kemper I’m hearing a high-end fizzy digital-ness that I really don’t dig and it’s pretty much present across various profiles from various sources, some more than others.

Michael's suggestion of Guido's Profiles might not quite get you to where I'm reading you want to be, Phil. Guido's are dynamic, clear and beefy - no mud or tubbiness, but I suspect that they may generally be on the heavy side for you. For the vibe I'm getting from what you posted, they might be a touch "clinical" for your tastes too. They're German-accurate, man, which is a great thing for when you need that.

Assuming I'm right about what I think you want, I can highly recommend Bert Meulendijk's two electric packs. Heaps of variety from clean to decently-overdriven, and pretty-much record-ready out of the box. Definitely none of that fizziness you spoke of. IMHO, and this has been discussed at length on the forum in the past, unless you're cranking the Kemper's gain way beyond what was captured during Profiling (for this, you'd logically want a Profile created with the amp set thusly), any fizziness you hear in general will be that which was present on the amp due to the way it was tweaked / set up and the mic used and so on (angled placement of an SM57 increases comb filtering due to the differing sound-pressure-wave path lengths captured as a result of the physical dimensions of the capsule and grill, and accentuates fizziness, for example, IMHO), and then captured by the Kemper.

Michael Britt's fall into a similar vein, except that his have much more bottom end (a 2-integer cut to the bass knob in the EQ stack does the trick, but perhaps not for live work; I'd leave that to the FOH engineer) and are arguably-less mid-rangey. He also offers some heavier packs if you need to go there.

I've already mulled over who might the be more-appropriate for you of the these two Profilers, and I'm going with Bert. I feel the already-tamed bottom end, increased mid-range character (and mojo) and slightly-mellower top end will suit you down to the ground based solely on that clip you posted the other day.

As a bonus, you'd only need to grab 2 packs (that'd be pack 1 and pack 2, duh), and therefore would be able to avoid the scratching-your-head-thing whilst you contemplate which of Michael's to buy (he has a bagful). You can always explore his stuff later, which I recommend you do, but as I've suggested, I think that for a baseline collection, for you, there'd be no-finer place to start than with Bert.

Quote from philbrown

I mostly use pushed-clean sounds up through mid smooth-distortion sounds. Yes I know “smooth distortion” is an oxymoron.

Hey, that's cream to me, brother. The heavier guys use the therm to describe, say, Slash's lead tones, but to me that's just thickened cream; it's cream either way.

The advice I gave above will get you into light and regular cream territory right off the bat; I guarantee it.

Hope you're well, mate, and check your PM's for goodness' sake! LOL

Quote from philbrown

Thanks Michael. I'm at 44.1 but the Apollo is set to internal clock. Not sure of the downside of switching the clock to S/PDIF it but it sounds great (with pedals) so my feeling is not that's not the issue, although it could be. I may go back to using analog ins just for comparison.

If you have the clock set to internal, you'll get clicks It should be synced to SPDIF instead to avoid this. However, since you're set at 44.1, this is not the issue you're having with the sound.

It's best to post an example of the issue you don't like (and say what point in the video you are hearing it, i.e. 0:26 seconds) so ppl know what you mean, since it's a subjective thing, sound.

Possible Remedies (in general for anyone, not specifically your issue):
1) My first guess is to toy around with your gain staging. When I hear something off with distortion, I immediately assume it's a VOLUME thing (gain staging problem) and go to the Master and turn down to -10dB up to -14dB depending. I do this even on SPDIF. The Kemper tends to go out a bit too hot for me to control it after the Kemper.

Tip: The thing to remember about the Digital Domain is you do NOT want to hit your Audio Interface or DAW tracking software HOT like you do for Analog recordings. This is a common error of us former analog dudes. In the Digital Domain, you can always make up for the volume later. Check your DAW and see that your guitars are tracking about -10 dB to -15 dB.

(also, toy around with your pedals to make sure they aren't going into the Kemper too hot. This is also a good idea in DAW tracking, using a -10 dB trim before hitting certain plugins that don't handle very hot signals w/o boosting their noise too much)

2) My 2nd "goto" is just hit "Init Globals" under the System Menu to undo any global tweaking parameters you might have messed with.

3) Sometimes, for certain guitars like my LP, I like to adjust the INPUT "Distortion Sense" counter-clockwise to clean up any fuzz and get a cleaner clearer distortion. Not always, but sometimes.

4) I prefer tracking with SPDIF and not using the 1/4" leads. I've noticed a cleaner signal that way. That is, what I hear in my Audio Interface through headphones matches what I hear in headphones directly off the Kemper when I go all digital. I sometimes use this to tell if global settings or gain staging out the MASTER OUT is an issue. That is, if it sounds really good in headphones, but like shit out the back or in your Audio Interface, then it's a settings issue that is easily corrected.

5) Probably not the cause, but cheap cables often break, can be the cause of signal loss, and are often no where near as good sounding as quality cables (which cost much more) If you are using $,$$$+ of recording equipment over $10-25 cables, well, that's a weak link IMO and experience. Another reason I use SPDIF: to avoid analog cables as much as possible, aside of the obvious DA/AD conversion signal loss.

Hi @philbrown. Thanks man
About the global settings, my profiles should work well with any guitar, LP strat or tele.
If you're a les paul player and the output of your lp is very hot you can decrease the clean sens a bit. It's under the input softknob. Same thing with distortion sens if you experience too much gain. I can use my les pauls keeping both on 0. For strat and tele first try just zero. Enjoy the profiles !!!

oh haha, just see your second posted message Thanks Phil !!

I just bought the Rock and Blues pack 11 from The Amp Factory, I highly recommend it. Great from blues to rock and lots of wonderful cleans and work great with my pedals.

TAF'S packs ten and eleven are great. More high gain in Pack ten, but great cleans too. Besides, you can buy separate amps till pack ten included. Andy says individual amps from pack 11 will be available in the future. If you like the five freebies (link in the other thread Andy started days ago) you will like either pack. There is also a great Fender Bassman he profiled in an earlier pack. In Pack 11 there's 122 rigs for single coils and another similar 122 ready for humbuckers.