Direct Profile vs. Monitor Cab Off (Huge difference)

    I'm interested in hearing about other people's experience with the Kemper Power units used with real guitar cabs. I've had a PowerRack for a few years now, and one thing that has always bugged me is that, when I create a direct amp profile (no cab engaged), I hear a very good rendition of the amp sound into a guitar cabinet. However, as soon as I add a cabinet to the direct profile, the 'cab in the room' sound changes drastically (yes, 'Monitor Cab Off' is engaged here). For reference, I play primarily high gain sounds (Mesa Dual Rec, PV 5150, etc.).


    As soon as I add a cabinet IR to the Rig, the real cabinet in the room starts to sound phase-y in the low end and is very boomy - even when I click off the cabinet block. It also loses a lot of the 'sizzle' that the direct profile had when played through the real cabinet. Is there something that happens when a cabinet is first added to a direct profile that noticeably alters the monitor output to a cabinet? Does anyone else notice this? I quit using this thing live for a while because of this effect. I'm considering keeping the Direct profiles as-is and just adding an IR pedal after the Main output, which seems kinda ridiculous, but would solve this issue...


    It seems to me that the cabinet is being added to the rig, then 'removed' imperfectly for the Monitor output. If this is the case, it'd be nice if you had the option to just tack the IR onto the Main Output only.


    Things I've tried with no improvement:

    (1) Merged Profile vs. just copying an IR into a direct profile

    (2) Pure Cab is OFF

    (3) System reset

    Sorry to hear you’re having issues.


    To answer your question


    Quote from bsawyer

    Does anyone else notice this?

    No. I get great sound in all situations. I initially used my Power Head with a real Mesa EVM12L cabinet. I now use it with the Passive Kemper Kabinet or just straight into the PA and through the monitors. In all case I get a sound that I am fully happy with.

    Thanks for your response. Just to clarify, are you saying that 'it always sounds great either way,' or do you not hear a difference at all between the two scenarios? Depending on the setup, I can imagine that this difference doesn't hurt the tone too much, but my main question is whether you hear any difference at all between a Direct Profile (no cab IR) and that same Direct Profile with a cabinet IR loaded (Monitor Cab Off). I'm hearing it most prominently when I test a profile of a very wideband high-gain amp (i.e. Dual Rectifier).


    I guess I should throw a microphone on the cabinet and show some FFT spectra to compare the two cases. It sounds like it's shaving off frequency content above ~6-8 kHz, which might only modify certain amp sounds.

    I can't really answer that with certainty as I no longer use a real cab. All my guitar cabs are in a storage container just nowise I can't do an A/B test I would only be answering from memory which isn't always perfect. All I can say is, when I did use a real cab I never had any issues with the sound and it always sounded and felt totally natural.

    I do DI profiles only and have been experimenting some time to get it as close as possible. All I can say is what sounds realistic as di profile through real cab does not always sound good in ya DAW with a IR. This is half my problem with profiles from rig manager or verndors. turning the cab off a studio profile doesnt get realistic results. Its either one or the other or lots of tweaking.

    Quote from goldensheaf

    All I can say is what sounds realistic as di profile through real cab does not always sound good in ya DAW with a IR.

    I agree with this, but I'm pretty happy with what the IR is doing to the sound in the DAW/in-ears. I think that is working exactly as it should. My issue is that adding any IR to a DI profile changes the Monitor Output sound to my real cabinet (even when Monitor Cab Off is selected).

    Quote from bsawyer

    I agree with this, but I'm pretty happy with what the IR is doing to the sound in the DAW/in-ears. I think that is working exactly as it should. My issue is that adding any IR to a DI profile changes the Monitor Output sound to my real cabinet (even when Monitor Cab Off is selected).

    This is what i am saying, it just not the same.