Okay, I didn't JUST step into this world. I saw the Kemper at NAMM a few years ago and thought "oh right, another amp sim", but on closer look, I found it fascinating and I confess I've been using you guys as the incubator/guinea pigs until I knew the KPA was as advertised.
I'm a composer/music editor/engineer/guitarist, but not a gear junky, at least not a new-fangled gear junky. I've been building homemade amps for about 15 years. I have a habit of designing and building new amps and then after a year, out of frustration, I pull them apart to "rebuild them", but every single time I wish I still had that old 8xEL84 I built when I was 22 that kept crapping out on me on tour. So the Kemper is not just an amp and studio tool for me, but also insurance that I'll still have that sound 10 years from now, and that's priceless. Also, I've only had it four days and I'm already inspired to build more, just so I can profile, archive, and share with everyone.
I expected there to be a steep learning curve, or at least a lot of trial and error with profiling, but the first amp I sent the aliens through I must have hit a bullseye. I actually couldn't believe it. I had to walk to and from the iso booth a couple times to be sure that Mr. Kemper wasn't lying to me. I've had so much fun the last couple days that I had to post here. And that's a testament, because I have a phobia of forums (I seem to always be posting in the wrong place or not searching properly before inquiries).
I was still dubious. I thought maybe the gain and eq controls don't work very faithfully, and, well, they don't! But most of my workbench is covered with single volume minimal tone stack amps anyway, and the first sound I get out of a profile usually sounds right immediately. Once I go tweaking is when things start to get a little weird.
And I was dubious yet still...thinking that maybe this is one of those pieces that sounds great in the box, but probably don't translate so well in the mix. So this evening just for fun I replaced all the guitars from one track with the kemper profiles of the same amps (that I had just profiled in the same room with the same mics). And, as a crusty old tube tech, it was hard to admit that I didn't have to do much mixing at all. All the tones were right there in my face.
The one thing I notice, and maybe you guys can help me with this, is that it seems like the kemper is doing some kind of limiting. When I play lightly, the level is still loud (gain sounds fine), and if I transition into heavier thick power chords the level is the same. It sounds right on playback, but I can even see in the waveform display that I'm not getting much of a fade or swell (i.e. if I gradually play from soft to loud). There might be some sensitivity parameter that I still need to figure out.
It won't replace an amp with a guitarist in the same room; there's just no way to get that nuanced feedback. But for amp-iso situations, which seem standard practice now anyway, it's -- *a-hem* -- perfect. So far. It will be a blessing when the next band comes through to redo guitars. I won't have to give them talk about how the amp won't sound the same because of el nino or because mercury is in retrograde.
Anyway, thanks for welcoming me! I finally may own an amp simulator that doesn't make me throw up a little bit in my mouth. Might have to have to look at an LCD screen from time to time, but I'll live...
Looking forward to sharing some of my frankenstein amp profiles with the unwary. If there are any tinkerers out there like me, please say don't be a stranger.
