Posts by easstudios

they’ve been quite hit and miss for me - I first bought the Friedman BE pack which just sounded bad to me. I’d given up based on that until recently and after buying a few more packs, some are much better. I do find them slightly on the dark/dull side though

Park amps - both the more obscure Marshall ones like the Rockhead 1210, also the plexi style ones and the new Mitch Colby era ones. They seem to be really hard to find - only Tone Junkie has anything close to these AFAIK

it can absolutely be done. The Kemper IR loader is a bit of a weak spot IMO; IR loaders with a longer sample length sound better to me and more representative of real cabs. Some can be truncated without too much loss but I feel like the built in Kemper one is a bit too brutal. I've been running direct profiles with external IR loaders and am very happy with the results that way.

Not just you I'm afraid..... couldnt get on with these at all, sounds like something is wrong. I wonder if they are using a unique method to create the profiles or if they are comparing before and after tones.

Just wondering if anyone is aware of any Park profiles? The only ones I've come across are the Tone Junkie ones.

Ideally it would be great to hear some of the Rock Head and more unique amps rather than the ones that followed Marshall circuits closely. Mitch Colby's reissues seem great too but I cant seem to find any profiles of those. I have some similar Marshall's (2144 which is a Park 1239 and a 2150 which shares the same PCB and components to some Parks) but I'd love to find the others. Bonus points if there are direct profiles....

Quote from absrec

I understand. I’ve just had a different experience with regard to DI profiles. They just always feel drab to me. Who knows? Cabinets vary so much too so I’m sure that plays a role. One of the packs I tried specifically states that if you aren’t planning on using a cabinet to favor the studio profile. I don’t remember what it said verbatim but it was related that the merged profiles just don’t retain all of the magic contained in the studio version. Especially when working with an amp that doesn’t agree with the KPA! ?

I just stumbled on this thread as I'm having the same issues with some amps - its usually when the sounds are clean, or very light crunch OR if there a lot more power amp distortion. I was thinking of trying the Kemper DI as that seems to be the default response from people, but it sounds like the result is exactly the same (and what I'd expect given the DI's I'm using currently are designed to be used between amp and cab without changing the signal at all).

Its frustrating because for most sounds direct profiles work amazingly well and I much prefer that method. On the times when it doesnt work, rather than capturing a beautiful clean sound, it ends up sounding like Smashing Pumpkins.

Quote from errrrrl

Just incase anyone was wondering the RNDI needs phantom power which the Kemper XLR in doesn't supply, which is a bummer.

So I am now looking to buy a Kemper Di box in the US, is it still the best box for direct profiling? I have a Suhr RL IR and a Waza TAE and not really happy with the results I'm getting. Some amps when profiling seem really way off like my Rivera Ktre or Sunn Enforcer.

are the results off when you are using the TAE and Suhr as the load? Or when using those devices in “through” mode with the cab as the load?

I get some strange results when using the Suhr as a load, mostly on cleaner or mid gain tones. If I use a cab as a load and the Suhr just as a DI, it’s fine.

Quote from errrrrl

Just incase anyone was wondering the RNDI needs phantom power which the Kemper XLR in doesn't supply, which is a bummer.

So I am now looking to buy a Kemper Di box in the US, is it still the best box for direct profiling? I have a Suhr RL IR and a Waza TAE and not really happy with the results I'm getting. Some amps when profiling seem really way off like my Rivera Ktre or Sunn Enforcer.

are the results off when you are using the TAE and Suhr as the load? Or when using those devices in “through” mode with the cab as the load?

I get some strange results when using the Suhr as a load, mostly on cleaner or mid gain tones. If I use a cab as a load and the Suhr just as a DI, it’s fine.

Sorry to bump an old thread, I feel like its more relevant to continue this discussion rather than create a new one as the gear is fairly specific.

Just curious if anyone has had any luck making direct profiles using a Suhr Reactive Load? It works perfectly for me on crunchy and high gain tones, but anything light on gain makes the Kemper produce very peculiar results. I have done some comparisons of different load's (10 different 4x12 cabinets and 2 reactive loads that are modelled on 4x12 impedance curves). https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2pjs97gru5vvwc/Impedance Load Test.zip?dl=0

Kemper have stated that the amp needs to see a cab load and I'm a bit baffled what could be throwing it off so much when both reactive load units cause very similar behaviour from an amp. I don't mind using a cab and DI if thats the only way, but it seems strange firstly that there are no issues when there is more gain, and secondly in that using a reactive load response is what I want to capture for an accurate result for how I'm intended on using the profiles.

If anyone has had luck profiling clean and lower gain tones with a Suhr, or encountered anything similar then I'd be curious to hear!

It would be great to see the cabinet section upgraded.

It’s quite common for emulations to offer the ability to sweep through IR’s as you move a microphone position. Likewise, it would be great to be able to maintain the same mic position and switch microphones. IR’s lend themselves to do this easily and it’s such an advantage to dial in a tone by sweeping a mic around.

I’ve recently made a huge IR library capturing cabinets across each speaker fully left to right. At the moment they are numbered corresponding to position - it works quite well but it’s a little clunky, having the software support it would be far more elegant.

It’s not just Neural offering this, STL, Amplitube, GGD and many others have this feature.

I’m actually most excited about the algorithmic models in the QC more than the ability to capture. The list of amps on launch is pretty comprehensive and will surely get bigger with time. Neural already makes amazing software emulations and has a great track record with that. Having all the knobs/switches/behaviours of each amp works way better as an algorithm; profiling is amazing for capturing a snapshot in time but it’s a different thing to me. I’ve actually been loving doing direct captures and using my own IR’s - you have to be careful compensate for the power amp/cab interactions as they’ll vary a lot depending on what gear is being used and is an important part of the sound. This is something that makes it hard to mix and match various components, and I think algorithms would lend themselves better for accounting for these interactions.

The profiles always worked best when I made them myself of the amps I already own, and i’m sure that will continue to be the case with a QC. It would be amazing if the Kemper profile process gets developed further, but it’s already very close and I have no issues with it. I do tend to avoid adjusting any parameters after refining; while things can be improved, it’s SO easy to make them worse or further from the original, and it’s hard to fully understand what each control does (you just have to listen and guess essentially). Most profiles tend to fall apart the more they’re tweaked, I barely ever touch anything once it’s captured accurately.

I think it’s a good thing for guitar tech, Neural are pushing things forward and have an amazing track record so far with their software products. More good gear is better for everyone so I hope it’s a success!

Just a quick thought, I'd love to be able to quickly collapse all folders in Rig Manager using a shortcut. Im kind of OCD with how my profiles are organised and have found myself thinking this a few times.

The direct send is used to drive an amplifier for profiling (or pedals in an fx loop) though, so it should be high impedance, not line level surely?

When I was trying to find this information, I checked Axe FX and Helix (being competitors products) and it was possible to find this information for both. Likewise, any kind of DI or splitter would list this information as it can affect whatever is driving it. Check out the Creation Audio Labs MW-1 - it has a variable Z for the output so you can dial it between 50Ohms and 100kOhms https://www.dropbox.com/s/rpw4…8z2/MW1%20Manual.pdf?dl=0

For line level it’s less of an issue but some transformer balanced gear can be fussy. The thing that got me curious was actually a fuzz pedal that was only making a lot of his when it was plugged into the direct send from the kemper. Works fine when connected directly to a guitar.

its probably more information than you'll need but its important to remember that a cabinet and head interact with each other a lot more than people realise.

Cabinet impulses are essentially just applying a filter over the sound - a real guitar cabinet puts a load on the output transformer, and there will (usually) be some negative feedback in the circuit going back into the input of the amplifier. In short, an amplifier ITSELF will sound different when different cabinets or loads are attached.

This means regardless of whether you use direct profiles or studio ones, switching cabinet IR's will lose that initial interaction between amp and cabinet. If you're switching from one 4x12 with v30's to another impulse of that, its not going to really present an issue - if you're switching from a 4x12 with v30's to an open back 2x12 with Eminence's then its not going to be as accurate as a profile capturing that in the first place. The same goes for various load boxes, or DI's placed in between an amp and cab - the resulting load will influence the sound of the amplifier and changing IR's doesn't account for these changes.

That said, just go with whatever sounds good. If you're looking for the most accurate reproduction of an amplifier and cab, then this information is very important but its more important to just have a sound you like.

Quote from Monkey_Man

There is no impedance figure provided because it's an output, not an input.

Thanks - I was already aware of this information as I'd already checked the manual.

I'd like to know what the output impedance is - It being an output rather than an input should have no bearing on whether they provide the information.

Hi there,

I use my Kemper as a kind of central hub for my guitar signal - it gets routed to a tuner, spdif, patchbay, pedalboard-> amp.

I noticed today with a new pedal that I was getting a ground loop issue with a particular fuzz pedal when using the kemper and it made me wonder what impedance the kemper is outputting? The ground loop button didn’t really help in this instance.

I’m guessing it’s like a buffered output in the 10k-100k range? Doesn’t seem to be listed in the official specs.

makes sense with the noise floor, profiles are always more quiet than a loud amp rig. so I guess there is an argument that if working at sample rates higher than 44.1, it may be preferable to use the analogue outputs (except for recording a DI for instance) - it avoids some of the internal resampling weirdness

Quote from goodadvice

Great idea . I admit I am not an expert on DI (direct injection right?) so I must plug this in this order: Guitar - to DI to Kemper ??? is that right? Or Guitar to Kemper to DI ? Do you recommend a specific DI box? Thanks (I will also read about Ohm , I dont know NOTHING about it) Thanks

it sounds like your issues are elsewhere in all honesty, but I can recommend the Countryman Type 85, Rupert Neve RNDI, Creation Audio Labs MW1 and Avalon U5 as amazing quality workhorse DI's. Several of those are suitable for capturing Direct Amp DI's too.

Redid some of the tests at 41kHz, and also recorded the analog output from the Kemper as well as SPDIF. There doesn't appear to be the obvious mirror line at 11.025kHz as before, but there is a definite change in the signal vs the direct amp signal above there - check out the sections where its black/blue.

One thing you can try to make things feel snappier is to use a different DI. The kemper one is 1MOhm, but I’ve used others at 2.2 or 10MOhm’s that make most pickups sound a bit snappier than using the kemper input.