I'll be joining the Kemper Crew again, at the moment the Kemper is dictating the sort of audio interface I look at. The Apollo Twin Duo seems a good fit but it's optical in. Anyone running a Toslink / S/pdif converter with something like the Apollo twin?
Posts by shadowamd
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Armin,
For sure he is not talking about aliasing, since it does not yield to an impression of a 22 kHz recording.
Shadowamd, if you are that technically skilled, you should have identified your Profiler as a faulty unit, or sent us some test recordings for evaluation.
You are right and I apologise for not doing so, it was on a 30 day policy from Thomman so I decided to give it back for a full refund.
I really like the Kemper and I think what you have done with it is fantastic, I may still have some recordings from somewhere and would be happy to work with you. I used to design audio interfaces if it accounts for anything..
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If you believe the Kemper aliasing issue is due to a bad anti aliasing filter...I'm pretty sure that filter has to come before digital conversion which means it likely can't be fixed with a firmware update. CK had hinted it had to do with something else.
Well whatever is causing it, when it's fixed I will jump on it having chance to already own a Kemper, POD, Axe FX and real amps.. The Kemper can become the best product on the market with the best cost reflective price..
This isn't in any way to put down the Kemper, these are my findings and what I require for it to work for me and potentially others.
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Hi Shadowamd,
None of your topics have been improved or modified since the advent of the Profiler.
A guitar amp does not produce much energy above 10 kHz.
So you are right, all Profiles sound a bit like a 22 kHz recording, as every guitar amp recording sound like in the last 50 years.
Still there were a number of users that had to get used to the relatively bright sound of our profiles.
Sorry I think there is some confusion as to what I meant by a 22khz recording, it sounded like how an A/D converter would react with a poor Anti-aliasing filter in accordance to the Nyquist band limit. In essence it sounded like a sloppier version with less fidelity compared to the actual devices it tried to re-create... As I mentioned above I LPF anywhere from 9 - 11KHZ anyway so it wouldn't make a difference to me..
Now I'm not saying this couldn't be an issue on my end, I might of had a defective unit and / or there were something I was doing wrong. Like someone else suggested I did lower the amount of input gain to nearly bare minimum, the profiles I used could of been a bad recording although I did try many.
I never encountered these issues with the Fractal Axe FX, although I preferred the overall tonality and ease of use with the Kemper.
So it would be ideal to go back to it.. I just need to make sure it's the right decision.
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What is your "regular amp" point of reference? Do you use stomp boxes, multi-effects? What style(s) of music?
1) There are plenty of Youtube and Soundcloud clips to demonstrate it doesn't have the high end sheared off, or sound like a low sample rate. Direct monitoring requires studio-quality monitors or headphones. What kind of guitar/pickups, into what kind of amp profiles? A Les Paul with Super Distortion pickups will sound useless in a Fender Twin profile, just like it would into a Fender Twin. See #2 for another reason it may have sounded too dark.
2) If you are putting too much signal into the Kemper, the low mids can get out of control, because hot pickups tend to have a lot of those. This is especially noticeable with clean sounds. The manual, WIKI, and this forum both have details about setting the Input parameters for guitars with high output pickups. With the right settings, you can have the guitar wide open into the Kemper without going into the red.
3) It was originally designed for full range cabinets at volume, and sounds like a real amp does, if you are listening to a real amp in a studio control room. Some users prefer using the Monitor out, with the cab sims turned, off into a power amp/guitar cab, for more of a "guitar amp right next to me" feel.
4) Unless you are used to monitoring through Studio Monitors, real amp feel (dynamics) may require a similar volume level to a real amp. It isn't necessary to use third party sounds to get that feel, but there are thousands of great sounds (both free and for sale) in addition to the stock ones (and the three additional Kemper packs that have been added in the past several months).
Well on number one, I have Focals and Event Opels as a reference.. Along with some Sennheiser HD650's, so I am certainly not lacking in studio quality equipment. I know how to EQ and compress to get what I need, it wasn't necessarily frequency shearing as such. As I tend to LPF Guitars down to around 11K or less anyway.. It sounded like a lower quality version of what the amp was actually playing, now whether this was down to the kemper or the profiles has yet to be seen. Youtube has also yet to show me otherwise..
I use a mix of guitars, I normally use some sort of Seymour Duncan JB or Bare knuckle selection.. I have a selection of amps e.g. an Engl savage 60, Peavey 6505+, 5150, Freyette, Framus etc. etc.
I should of tried it really through a cab, although that kind of made the product slightly mute as I have several heads to choose from.
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A 22kHz digital recording can only reproduce frequencies up to half that, i.e., 11kHz. I think he means it sounded dull.
-djh
Yeah not far from, when a converter samples at a lower sample rate all sorts of sound quality issues can occur. The Kemper I had sounded of lesser quality than an Axe FX, VST or Real recording. Although on the other hand it also sounded more convincing.
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So, I tried out the Kemper about six months ago.. It had it's moments but it seemed to lack so I sent it back. After many discussions and talks about it and a nice tax refund I'm looking at going back to one. Because as a package it seems to good to miss out on.
So, in the points below what can I do to improve on what happened before?
1). Tried around 50+ different profiles, all of them sounded like a 22 KHZ recording of the amp. Why was this?
2) I had a fair few issues with input gain on my stronger guitars, it hit red alot and when I turned the guitars down. The tone just wasn't there..
3) Is there any specific downsides to get around, does it sound better through a cab with a poweramp? I always went direct.
4) Any third party packs to really give it a real kick into the real amp realm? -
Ok so I believe I'm getting further, I used an unbalanced from the kemper to the desk.. It seems to sound better, but I'm getting quite a bit of digital corruption going on. I turned down the clean sense to non, lowered the master volume very low and backed off the amp volume (And bass) and I still see it going red some times in output when chugging?
I ordered an MOTU for live work I'm going to bypass the whole chain and record via S/pdif when I get.
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Not really hearing anything weak in the EVh or out of phase really. The powerball was more scooped which will make them not sit as up front. I don't experience what you are experiencing and in fact for me the kemper recordings have sat the best in a mix bar non (digital direct). of course the more you track, the more phasing you may run into, specially if there is timing differences with the same sound.
Palm muting and all have worked great for me..
Care to post a clip? I only track twice, one L one R...
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Can you try a different profile?
It might just be that..So I have tried the Till Recto, Ola *Special*
Patch, Fireball Metal (1,2,3) EVH 5150 Magik 1&2.. They are all sounding pretty weak in a mix :(.. So I had a laney ironheart before.. I mic'd it and it really jumped out and give you too black eyes LOL! Shame I didn't like the fizzy distortion on it. -
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sorry!
and: yes, strange!
Didn't mean it to come across harsh, no need to apologise.. Thanks for chiming in. -
before profiling, set up the 2 mics and then record a second hitting a string with your pick
zoom into the waveform and look how the signals from booth mics align...if they are not in perfect line, move one of the two mics some milimeters to or from the speaker and redo the recording...do this till the waveforms aligne perfectly.then profile
I always do, I have been an engineer for around 10 years. BTW these profiles are from the exchange rig and are a single SM57, so I'm not sure how you could really get them out of phase?
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Well its a good desk, I have one of these at my home studio
Bypass the Pre's is all you need to do, so use line level (bal)
your dont need to go into another pre on main out.Having said this, I dont think this will fix the phasing problems. - it might be the profile, it might be something else (I remember reading about it here on the forum, a few others were experiencing phasing problems when they multitrack guitars) - but cant find the post now.
Also are you on FW 1.1
Also, the Zed has amazing EQ.. so you might want to reroute (the master out from DAW) back through the desk again and back into the daw, this will give you a MUCH better sound that using the codecs in your DAW. just a FYI.
I do route it through the Zed for some analogue summing, but I'll be honest I don't use the EQ's because it's a nightmare having reset them all the time when working on different tracks. I'll try line level, I didn't have a spare XLR to TRS / Unbalanced hanging about
Edit: Sorry yes I am on 1.1
I didn't actually have these issues recording from an actual mic with a 57 / MD421 combo. Which that combo is asking for trouble
Two close mic's and phase LOL, -
Hi Guys,
I bought this two weeks ago and still playing about :), Being honest I'm a little sat on the fence about it at the moment. There seems to be something missing and this may not be the Kemper's fault, when recording palm mutes etc. seem to disappear a little and the general quality of it doesn't seem as good as it should. Also when listening to it, there seems to be a bit of weird phase going on somewhere so it comes down to is it my interface AD / DA? (Allen and heath Zed R-16) Which is $2499.99 new so it's not cheap and only heard good things (I'm recording XLR to XLR into A&H pre. Although for some reason this unit does not have S/pdif so I'm wondering if that could make a difference recording via S/pdif?
I attached an example one is mixed with a limiter (So turn down to listen to that), the other is a seprate profile with nothing but panning.
http://soundcloud.com/theshado…emper-metal-test-mastered (EVH 5150)
http://soundcloud.com/theshado…mperfireball-noprocessing (Engl Fireball)
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Hi Shadow. There are currently 1776 profiles in the rig exchange that are yours for the downloading, with more being added pretty much daily by the forum members. So, you don't have to profile an amplifier unless you have one that you really love and want to preserve with profiles. As for a power amp, no you don't need one if going direct for recording.
I love my KPA and haven't regretted buying it EVER.
Thanks guys, so much friendly great advice here and my wallet's not in tears looking at the price
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Hi Everyone,
I just spotted this beast whilst looking at the axe-fx, a couple of things before I pull the trigger.. (I'm an amp and mic guy usually so excuse the ignorance).
I don't have access to any decent amps like diezel's or Engls, does this have preset's that come out of the box?
Can you just plug and play kind of thing?I keep hearing about power amps? If I'm doing direct recording, do I need one? Or will I need one if I use it on a cab? An explanation of why I'm using one would be awesome.
Thanks everyone..
