Posts by RosboneMako

Well, Firewire worked for a little while. I had an Alesis Multimix 16 so I could record 8 mics at once for drums. I retired the PC it ran on and gave it to my young daughter. I finally dumpstered the Multimix because it would never run again. I tried PCs, laptops, everything I owned for a few years and it never worked again. While working on it I read that laptop Firewire chipsets were trash and they didnt work

I should have kept it because it still worked as a mixer. But I was so mad I just tossed it into the trash.

So I bought my Line 6 UX8 (USB 2.0) and it worked flawlessly for many many years. Well the USB worked. The multiplexer on the input was terrible and I lost most of the channels over time.

I only run my Kemper on Rig Manager USB. And it connects every time no issues.

Quote from musicmad

Please take the time Kemper to make good drivers. So few companies do that.

Is it even possible to make good drivers?

Windows is the wild west for reliability. And Apple seems to have more issues than Windows (which makes no sense).

I Normally buy Behringer UMC404HDs and I have no issues. But I decided to buy another brand last time. It was heavier, had VU LEDs, etc If the CPU is busy at all...I mean at all... the audio warbles like you have a weird tremolo going. Tried various buffers, no joy.

I always think of getting a more expensive interface until I read the reviews of "its bad.", "Crackles", "etc". Makes me wonder how good USB is. Then I remember my Firewire days and how that NEVER worked ever. And dont get me started on Bluetooth. I have never even seen that work on Windows.

I have not tried the Kemper because I record a bunch of other stereo stuff like drums, keys, bass, mics, etc But some day I may have to test it for the giggles.

Quote from Michael_dk

Is this the new or the old DSL40? (sorry, can't remember when the new ones were release, so I'm not very specific here)

I have not tracked the versions. I have the DSL40C. There was a popular ez to do mod people did on the C to get the channels more tonally balanced. I think Marshall included that mod on the CR version.

I never spend money on equipment (because I am not very good at guitar). But I splurged and got the Les Paul Traditional (avatar) and the DSL40C on the cheap. I had an old JCM800 that I let go to a friend. So I thought the DSL would be a good replacement. Its ok. I still have it. It is no JCM800. But I only pull it out to make profiles on the Kemper when I get bored. I never use it.

NOTE: I dont play loud. That extra high freq may be a good thing at volume. I will have to do some profiles some day. I have heard people say a TubeScreamer and the DSL are all you need for metal. Maybe they are playing really loud.

Quote from BayouTexan

Not even a Fractal with an A. I. sex-bot.

Well it has finally happened. We knew this day would come. I have to disagree here.

I would love the ability to self profile. Get a profile, EQ it up and get it just right then profile that so you get all your stomps back. But nothing that is a deal breaker.

Quote from Dynochrome

Agreed. I still kinda want a Tweed Blues Jr. or a DSL40 but don't want to pay over $450.00 ish.

Hmmm. I have a DSL40C and I am not a fan of it. I put in a good Eminence and it got better, but it has this ridiculous high frequency that I cant get rid of. Its built into the power amp section or something, using effects loop makes no difference. It is always there. I always run it with treb and pres full off and its still too much.

The irony is I cant even hear highs anymore and its still too much for me

The good part is the DSL is so bad, it prompted me to get my Kemper.

The good thing with saving local copies profiles is you have THE profile you used.

If you just reference it like "Mars-72_01", two weeks from now you have no guarantee you didnt change that profile. Maybe you play on headphones, monitors, practice, etc and you may adjust it for that scenario. Now you cant reproduce it on the song.

Playing at different volumes is also a thing. So you made the sound at low vol. Now a week later you are playing it loud and it sounds different, so you change it. Now your recording is borked.

I like ALL of the suggestions made so far. I would do ALL of them

How you are listening is the place to start.

1) You have headphones. Are they any good? I personally dont like guitar in headphones, especially for distorted profiles. I use mostly flat studio headphones and guitar sounds bad in all of them. I have some gaming ones that guitar sounds pretty good. But your mileage will vary.

2) You should also try the Kemper thru whatever you are watching videos on. Are you watching vids on your headphones or PC speakers? That way you can compare on the same speakers/headphones.

3) What type of gain sounds are you looking for? Metal, Rock, certain band?

4) This YouTube video has 5 metal profiles that are in ALL Kempers.
Top 5 Profiles

Cheers

Before I record anything I make a local folder with the song name. Then copy the profile with a useful name like "Songx-verse-clean". Now you can go back 10 years from now and get the same tone.

Quote from RosboneMako

AMAZING EQ OVERDRIVE THING

When I started writing the Mako Distortion VST, I had no good idea how to create an amplifier EQ. My first thought was to make a Low Pass filter and a High Pass filter and then mix them.

So I started with:

- 2nd Order Low Pass with cutoff of 150Hz

- 2nd Order High Pass with cutoff of 1500 Hz

The new version of the VST has PEDALS/STOMPS. So I made a stomp using the original bad/incorrect EQ. Only this time I ran each filter thru a TanH function to get variable OD/Distortion on each band. The result is this super chimey soft OD sound.

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I guess I should have put my "separate EQ bands into TanH functions" code in a small PC and sold it for $200. Maybe even $300.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CarnabyHE2--cranborne-audio-carnaby-he2-harmonic-eq

Quote from BayouTexan

Finally here! The color is pretty dark but pops when light hits it. I've waited for this one a long time. Whew!

I hope you are enjoying this tele. As I said in the past my friends G&L Tele is the best sounding guitar I have ever heard.

The other day I noticed all of my fav guitar parts I have recorded over the years were my cheap G&L Tele Asat. So I put it to the test and it is hands down the best sounding guitar I own also. I think it was $250 Stupid Deal. Now I am on a mission to track down any info I can on the pickups they use. Alnico 5 I think? Still searching.

When I bought it I was amazed how well it sounded with heavy distortion. It didn't matter what I threw at it, it sounded great. Anyway, hoping its your new fav as well. Pickups are everything just like Jim Lill told us on YouTube.

Is there a thing where playing loud thru a speaker is always going to sound better than an IR?

A speaker will eventually go into compression. When this happens, its freq response may change depending on the source material (guitar notes, chords). Where an IR is probably always the same no matter what you play.

Maybe that is why people complain about digital fizz in digital gear? You are playing something that on a speaker would not have fizz, but the IR always has fizz no matter what? Our bodies are so much more in tune with feel than our heads

Just a note: I have Behringer 2031Ps and was never happy with the Kemper on them. To the point of almost selling the Kemper. I swapped the tweeters out with something similar and they, of course, are not FLAT anymore. And now the Kemper sounds amazing.

So it is good you are asking people with Kempers their thoughts.

Every tweeter has its own sound and some super flat ones are meh for guitar playing. On the original tweeters I could never get the high end right. I would EQ it up and it just got very harsh and ice picky. Never crisp and snappy.

I am with Bayou. If you are getting a note that low it is something resonating on the guitar. If it has a trem, it may be the springs. I also am lacking a C string.

Some of volume comes from the CABINET/IR. Did the Kemper create a CAB when it did the profile. A lot of times if the profile is very clean, the Kemper will not decipher a cab from the data.

A standard full range IR (LEFT) is a fast pulse with full volume of 1.0 and it never goes below 0.

An IR with some low freq removal (RIGHT) will have a sinusoidal shape that quickly rises and then goes below 0. This low freq removal also forces the IR to be quieter than a standard IR.

The IR values are all multiplied and summed with your guitar signal when playing. So the negative going dips reduce the overall volume.

There are also instances where the IR oscillates a lot and you get a lot of sinusoidal values. And these sometimes come out much louder then the single pulse IR.

The amount of low bass in the IR also tends to add to its apparent volume.

I usually have the reverse happen when doing clean profiles. Mine are super quiet. So who knows

Quote from Moregainac20

It’s the wooden cabinet sound I guess. This tone has a mid range gained honk to it mixed with a bit of gain.

Ahhh yes. I am writing a VST and I added a 150Hz low Pass filter and run it thru some distortion to get that cabinet thump. Then I made a pedal that is just a mid range bandpass filter with some distortion.

Not sure how to recreate that in the Kemper. Could try some Overdrives and use the mix control to just add a touch. But most overdrives are bandpass filters set to around 700Hz. And you are looking for something between 100-400 Hz.

Another option would be post amp EQ followed by a compressor. Then you could over boost the lows and then try to tame them with the compressor. (Thats right 5 words in a row that start with T, a new world record). I usually set the low EQ of the Studio EQ to 180Hz and boost up gain from there.

The distortion I am using is similar to the Kemper Soft Shaper. You could play around with putting that before and after the amp. But it will be pushing ALL frequencies. So the next step would be a parallel path setup with an EQ and KSS before the amp, but then it bypassess the amp so that wont really work either. Need a parallel path mix option in the Kemper Before Amp/After Amp. Does it exist?

So basically just download JUCE and write your own VST is what I am saying

The last option would be to get some IRs in WAVE format (normal type) and edit them in an audio program. You could then add a ton of low freqs to the IR. Generically they start to get compressed sounding when you do this so a little high boost is also necessary. I have made IRs using a graphic EQ after the mic to adjust them at creation.

If you get crazy, I have added one of my IRs that I tend to use the most. It is a little more thumpy than most IRs but also a little crispy and in your face. Made on homemade 2x12 cab with eminence speakers and EQ'd Behringer C1 and SM57 mics.

What about this tone is missing? A lot of this tone is high end. Are you trying to get that tone on the same speakers you are watching the video on? monitors?

That tone sounds pretty generic to me (I have bad ears). Like any Marshally sounding profile would work. Am I crazy?

DGBURNS has been posting wild Marshall Profiles on RIG EXCHANGE.

If you grab his latest Marshall Clean:

GEQ -> OC Stomp (Pushing Marshall) -> Amp ->Studio EQ -> Soft Shaper

Adjust the gains to get where you want to be.

OC defaults to gain of 3.3. Drop that down a little.

AMP - Could change the EQ to a FREED LP.

Soft shaper defaults to 2.2. Adjust as needed.

If you need more sustain, the Kemper Comp Stomp is amazing set to SOFT default.

Hope this helps.

Having some more info would help. Until we know what you are doing, we are just guessing.

EXAMPLE:

High Freqs are very directional. Meaning they beam out the front of the speaker cone. So you need to tweak the sounds with your head at speaker level. If you tweak the sounds standing up and then mic your amp, it will sound like complete trash because you will have boosted a ton of highs to make up for the fact they are beaming at your legs and you cant hear them.

The speakers high freq response is crucial to the Kemper doing its thing. But in general it is hard to get a bad sound out of a decent cab with good flat speakers. The problem may come from the tone of your speakers not matching up with what you are trying to play thru them.

If you are not doing anything crazy, then your best friend may be the HIGH FREQ CUT. All of the pros on here use it. Somewhere between 4-8k. Below 5-6k you may start noticing the pick attack is starting to get soft, but you get rid of the most fizz.

Loud volumes can change your tone A LOT! Maybe you are playing loud enough that the speakers are driven hard into compression and you have boosted the Highs to try and bring it back to life.

REPAIR HELP FROM KEMPER

Since you say you got it used, there may be a reason it was being sold. Contacting support may be a good thing.

Quote from cmbrowns

you can create your own folders (and subfolders beneath those folders) in any of the Local Library sections. This is how you can organize your own rigs/presets and performances to use however you'd like.

An example of how you might manage cabinets:

Make a folder beneath All Presets\Local Library named My Cabinets. You can only make folders beneath the Local Library section, not the My Profiler sections. Local Library is your library of components.

Load any rig that you like in the Kemper - either from the Kemper or from a rig in All Rigs.

You can now copy that rig from your loaded rig into your new My Cabinets folder. Repeat this for any profile you find where you like the cabinet and may want to reuse it. Remember that you can also make additional sub-folders beneath My Cabinets, such as Celestion, 4x12, IR files, and so on if you want more organization. Also keep in mind that if you have any third party IR files, you can save them as cabinets in your folders as well.

Once stored, you can now use these cabinets from your folders in any rig that you load. Just save the rig with the new cabinet if you want to keep it.

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All of this ^

I made several folders and I drag and drop CABs into those folders. In rig manager just click on the CAB block and drag it into the new cab local folder.

Since the folder only has CABS, I can then double click on a cab in the folder and it loads into my current profile. Then I just use my LEFT-RIGHT arrow keys to move thru that list. Just dont go fast, the Kemper needs time to pass the CAB data thru the USB. Easiest way to sort thru CABs looking for the right one.

HINTS:

- It is best to probably have a pretty flat EQ before you go scrolling thru IRs.
- I always do my profile edits in a LOCAL folder, not in the profiler itself. It runs much better and you dont fill your profiler with 5 versions of every amp and CAB combo.
- I name the profiles with the CAB name. Like FedDLX01 becomes FedDLX01_Mars1960.

Spent a little more time with JTM50 liquid 4 cleanish. Perfection. Only profile I would ever need for 70% of what I play. One profile to rule them all!

Tweaked it a touch for my strat to get some jangly bluesy tones. Added the OC stomp and it goes right to Eric Johnson. Sings and solos like butter.

Swapped the IR-Cab (used LL 1960AV), added the OC, and tweaked it for my Les Paul and its right between early Alex Lifeson and Van Halen 1 depending on gain. Roll off the volume and you got AC/DC also. Sounds amazing.

I have been trying to get these sounds since I bought the Kemper. Thank You.

I have been struggling with my Kemper since I bought it. Swapping out the tweeters in my speakers made a huge difference and the timing couldn't have been better for me and these profiles.

I always say the Kemper is the best piece of gear because one day someone will frankenstein some crazy profile and it will be amazing. You are always pushing the boundaries in cool ways and giving us these creations.

Tried these out today after putting new tweeters in my studio monitors and was taken away by the sweet tones! Great job!