Just for comparison, this is a Blackface tone I am getting from my POD:
Try TJ‘s profiles:
Thanks. I know about this profile as well but first I wanted to find out why I sound (that much) different compared to the rig presentation before spending money on another one, since the situation might be the same with another rig as well.
On a general note, do you guys find commercial profiles really better sounding than those available at Rig Exchange? (I understand that the quality of RE rigs varies, but let us speak averages/consider only those RE rigs with high rating).
No. I have a feeling that either there is a major difference with your pickups/guitar set up or your Profiler settings.
Ok, interesting. Fender Player should supposedly have the characteristics of the US Fender Strats of the 2000´s, so nothing extreme. But those Alnico V puppies are quite bright, I reckon. And will check the KPA settings too (so far I left everything as it came out of the box).
I recorded via the main outs into the line in of a Mackie Big Knob interface, into Logic. The Clean Sense was set to zero, input noise gate to zero, Pure Cab to zero, output EQ flat, no tweaking, no processing in Logic. I must just say, the first two clips I had the output set to Master Mono, but the last two I remembered to switch back to Master Stereo, if you were wondering about the different respond in the reverb.
Ok, thanks. I ordered used Focusrite 2i2 for about 80 bucks so I will play around with that as well once it arrives.
Do you perceive any substanstial difference between direct Kemper -> headphones setup and recorded session using the same rig and listening to it with the same headphones?
I just bought the TJ 64 Dlx Rev set and made this quick recording with my Custom Shop strat (bear in mind that TJ tunes down a half step or so):
That sounds pretty much like it. Which set up did you please use to record this? And any additional tweaks?
He recorded with a cam mic, maybe you're hearing the non-amplified string attack.
Yes, actually at the beginning I recorded while sitting by my desk (where both camera and monitors were also situated) and after listening to the recording I noticed that the (non-amplified) strings were quite audible. So for the takes I uploaded I sat about 3 m from the camera but it might be that it still picked some of the string sound.
Hey guys,
Thank you all for your replies!! It is nice to see that one is not left alone here.
In exchange for that, some news from my side. In the meantime my new monitors (Kurzweil KS-40A, for some reason virtually unknown on the Internet) arrived so I decided to make a short test to make things a bit more demonstrable/tractable/rigorous etc. My only recording device currently at hand is Canon 7D camera with its internal microphone so I did the following: first I recorded the first two parts of the YT video above using PC - monitors - Canon configuration and then played myself and recorded the same sections through Kemper - monitors - Canon pathway, using the same profiles as stated in the video with no additional tweaking whatsoever. For the first excerpt I used the neck pickup, for the other one bridge pickup since I think these may have been used on the original recording. Here are the results:
(for both files the first section is the original recording and the second one is my take)
Well, they do sound different but listening to this now I surely cannot say that my parts sound much worse, at least as the sound itself is concerned! I guess my parts are considerably more chimey (thanks go to Fender) and I actually like that! For the first excerpt I do prefer my sound, for the second one I still like the chime but would probably like to hear it a bit more "condensed" (if this is the right expression) but that´s more the matter of mic´ing than the Kemper itself, I guess.
So overall there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. If you have any comments on the recordings above (positive, negative, whatever), please let me know.
Best
c.
P. S. I hope I did not infringe any of TopJimi's rights. If I did, sorry for that.
Hello fellow Kemperers,
So I bit a bullet and purchased KPA this week, purely for home use. Before that I looked for some good profiles and was pretty much impressed with this one:
(Top Jimi "'64 Dlx Rev" Pack) so I bought that one too. But alas! The profiles sound absolutely nothing like that when uploaded to my Kemper. They sound bleak, boring, aargh, in a fit of disenchantment I immediately deleted them (just from the KPA, though). I use the headphones for listening the YT video and used the very same headphones with the KPA (using headphones output, of course) so I expected to hear something very similar out of the box but that was not the case.
I am using Fender Stratocaster Player Series, one of the best sounding guitars on the market (at least for me and for its price) so that one is not to blame. The presenter is probably better guitarist than I am but still I think I can strum a chord as he did in e.g. 0:43, so "the tone is in the fingers" is not likely to apply here either. Also the KPA itself is obviously fine (not a faulty unit).
I would love to record a sample and post it here to illustrate my point but to my dismay I realized that I can´t record KPA using just a USB cable (unlike with my trusty Line POD XT costing fraction of a fraction !!) but have to use an audio interface which I do not own.
So far it is pretty much of a disappointment as I can´t even match the Blackface tones I am getting from POD XT, even using the dedicated commercial profile. But obviously, there has to be a way, since the video was recorded using the same amp and profile.
Could you please guide me as to what I am doing wrong here? Could it for instance be that the video was shot using mic'd amp and the tone is THAT much different compared to direct KPA-headphones path? (but in such a case I wouldn´t like it, my POD XT does quite fine using just headphones)
I understand there is some learning curve with KPA but still I expected something different. On a final note, my seller provides with a generous 90-day return period so I still have some time to catch up.
Thank you for your inputs, should there be any.
c.
