Posts by Wheresthedug

ckemper explained Clean Sens in another thread a while back where he exained that the signal is optimised to minimise the noise floor and maximise dynamic range. I can't remember the details (and I am sure CK can describe itmuch better than I ever could anyway) but basically there is gain make up and limiting going on which applies independently to clean and distorted sounds. This is why clean sens is such a difficult concept to grasp.

I alwas run my clean sens around -6 or -7 and it performs le an amp. Turning it up to 0 gived the problems that Martin is describing where adding distribution reduces volume.

They are definitely settithe amps oen tone controls to where they think tjeysound good then making the profile. If you leave the KPA tone controls alone you will get the sound the profiler crested. However, if you want to yweak these to your own taste go for it that's what they are there for.

Quote from Ccunningham99

angus also has his guitar on 6 or 7 and rolls to 10 for the solo....

Many people complain about Tone Junkie, Top Jimmy etc and how the demos don't sound like the actual profiles when they download and play with them. However, they fail to appreciate just how much those guys are using the guitar's volume knob to vary the sound. If someone plays those profiles with guitar volume always at 10 it isn't surprising the profiles sound different.

The profiler is very much like a really amp in that the speaker and cabinet male up AT LEAST half the tone. Ehen you get to recorded tones or mic'd live tones the speaker and mic(s) probably maktup at least w/3rds of the tone. It is not surprising therefore that changimg cabs in the kemper has a dramatic effect on the overall tone.

Quote from Livingroom-Studio

Since I play music alone, my feet on percussions, and my hands on my guitar, I can't play bass so that crossover stuff on the octaver is the only solution.

You have my total respect!

I can hardly walk and chew gum at the same time ?

this seems strange to me. I almost never feel the need to reduce treble or presence at all. I don’t run an EQ fx either. I just find a profile that floats my boat and play. Of course, I understand that many of us do want to tweak the tone to achieve a very specific result and that is absolutely fine its all just personal taste and different workflows. However, the need to reduce treble and presence to that extent sounds like something else is wrong in the signal path or the KpA is faulty.

many of us have asked for No1 in the past. It just seems so logical I can’t understand why it isn’t already possible.

i can also definitely see a use for no3 too.

Quote from Ibot39

The thing is, having spring reverb, an editor or decent drive pedals is just standard! It's standard, because many want and use it.

People just wanted spring reverb - Kemper gives us thousand of Delay and Reverb options. O.k. nice - people would have been happy with spring reverb.

That analogy doesn’t make sense though.

The spring reverb is a totally separate class of effect requiring its own algorithm. The various other reverbs and delays also require different engines. Therefore, the Kemper Drive is similar to Say the Natural Reverb engine and the FullOC is like adding a spring reverb (it is a different engine). When the redid the Reverb and Delay engines they didn’t add a Lexicon, AMS, SPX90 Etc. They simply added a very powerful flexible effect that can cover a lot of that ground. The other reverb types were necessary to go beyond natural sounding reverbs.

Another comparison for your analogy would be similar to Kemper adding a Memory Man delay and a Echoplex Delay and a Carbon Copy etc etc. With Spring reverb they added a single spring reverb engine not a Fender Reverb and a Mesa Reverb etc. It just isn’t the Kemper way.

Ooooooo, i like your thinking!

It’s probably not something I would use much but I can see how many people could find a lot of uses for it. In fact I would go even further and say ad a crossover effect type that can be used anywhere in the chain. This could work like a parallel signal path but with unique flexibility options. Say, you insert the crossover before a Fuzz pedal: only the notes above the threshold would get fuzz while anything below the threshold would stay clean but could then go to say an autoway insead ??

Quote from DonPetersen

following this 'logic', most of the parameters available in the AMPLIFIER slot would need to be removed as well.........


.........Why impose the limitations of an analog device?

I actually think Kemper have done a VERY smart thing by NOT including clones of multiple real pedals.

No matter how many pedals you do include there will always be people who want another pedal and complain that Kemper don’t offer it.

Even the pedals that are offered will differ from the real versions by at least as much as different examples of the same pedal differ due to electrical component tolerances. Therefore, there will always be people complaining that the xxxx pedal just doesn’t sound as good as the real thing and Kemper sucks. In many cases the people complaining on forums and Facebook have never actually played the real thing anyway and are simply quoting internet “facts”.

If people want to have a unit with dozens, or even hundreds, of emulations of physical pedals the AxeFx and Helix already have this covered (and do it very well). If Kemper want to enter this market space they need to do it even better than the two established players. However, as no two real pedals sounding exactly the same and many people have never tried them anyway, it would be extremely difficult to beat Fractal and Line6 at their own game.

Adding features just because the competition has them is a pretty stupid business model. Kemper has never been a “me too” company. Instead they appear to look for a problem and then seek a way to solve that problem efficiently. They don’t seem to care much about what other people are doing but rather focus on the “problem” itself.

The Kemper Drive strikes me as an incredibly simple and elegant solution to the Overdrive Pedal “problem”. Adding separate stand along pedal models would seem unnecessary and a classic case of “me too” design be committee. In fact, I would compare it to software companies “bloatware” all it does is take up space with “features” no one ever uses and it slows down my computer for the privilege .

Quote from Job Posthuma

The gain knob is nothing more then a clean boost...resulting in a more gainy sound when you dial it up... because you hit the input of the amp harder.

exactly. And we know that putting a clean boost pedal in front of an amp doesn’t necessarily sound the same as increasing the gain on the amp itself. This is why increasing gain on profiles is often said to sound unnatural or less authentic in some way. Doesn’t mean its a bad sound or wrong just different sometimes.

Dynochrome if you are worried about the cab section when going direct and are concerned that finding the right cab portion to lock might be too time consuming I have a couple of ideas.

First, gave you use IR in the past when recording? If so do you have a go to IR already? If so import that into Rig Manager then us it in your Kemper rigs.

If you don’t have a favourite IR already create your own IR or Kemper cabinet. That way you would literally just be sticking a mic in front of the cabinet as if you were doing it at a gig, setting up a sound you like and capturing it for future use. You would get your sound but with total consistency and ease of set up at gigs.

there are two ways to do this. One is make a proper IR using a good quality poweramp and IR maker software. the other option which would give fairly similar results but only requires the Kemper is to make a merged profile yourself. The actual amp you use shouldn’t be that important as you are only after the speaker cabinet part of the profile anyway. Set up an amp and cab and mic it to your liking. Now make a Studio profile (its dead easy and only take a couple of minutes). Next insert a DI box between the amp and speaker and make a profile of the DI signal. Finally perform the merge command which will subtract the amp from the studio portion By comparing the Direct and Studio profiles. This will leave you with a Kemper Cabinet preset of your own speaker cabinet and mic preferences. The whole thing will guarantee you get the sound you want (and would have achieved at a gig) and should take far less time than diving into the rabbit hole of searching for the perfect cabinet or IR.

Quote from Dynochrome

. They are often called "Mississippi Marshalls" and It is easy to see why. But I believe the fact of the solid state pre turns people off (which makes no sense to me as people love Klons, Tubescreamers, OCD, Timmys and guess what? Their drive is coming from SOLID STATE.

Not only that but I believe the JC800, JCM900, Jubilee etc all use solid state diode clipping and nobody seemed to mind ?

Turning up the Gain on the Profile itself will be less “authentic “ as the Kemper needs to estimate how the amp would react to more gain. However, in reality it does a pretty good job of guessing. Regardless of “authenticity “ the bottom line is - whatever sounds good to you is good so go with whatever gives you the most pleasing results. Remember that what Clapton did on the Beano album and almost everything Hendrix did was considered “wrong” by studio engineers at the time. They practically refused to record Clapton’s amp because it was too loud and was distorting. If he hadn’t insisted that was the sound he actually wanted modern guitar tones might sound very different.

I would agree with your assessment of the situation.

for a Kemper Only rig the Remote is PERFECT. For a rig with external midi switching I would strongly recommend a dedicated midi controller. There are several great options all with theor own pros and cons. I am familiar with the RJM Mastermind series and can highly recommend it. Also, if you want the option to have pedal on the floor but still be in true bypass loops the new GigRig G3 looks like the one to beat. When I bought my RJM Mastermind PBC it was a close run race between that and the GigRig G2. The G2’s ridiculously poor midi facilities ruled it out for me. However, G3 appears to solve that and more! If I was in the market for a midi controller with pedal loops it would definitely be top of my list now.

lightbox thanks for the interesting insight. One thing crossed my mind though which may or may not be relevant.

you are using the Ceriatone in the Mono Loop. What happens in the following alternative scenarios:

1 - Ceriatone in front of the KPA input rather than in a loop?

2 - Loop Distortion instead of Loop Mono? I don’t expect any difference in this instance as the change is really the way they behave on input rather than output.

3 - adjustments to Loop Volume. Is there any possibility that the Loop level is actually slightly boosted compared to unity gain? I know you are well versed in gain staging so I assume you have already thought of this but thought it might be worth double checking just in case.

Quote from Dynochrome

And explains that he's used to three piece (me too) so he needed a fat thick sound.

I come from the opposite extreme. I’ve played in 8 - 10 piece bands most of my life. The biggest problem for me has always been trying to get a niece sound without taking up too much space which the Hammond and Horns are occupying. However, it is a lot easier to EQ away some excess bottom end or lower mids than it is to put in something that isn’t there in the first place. So I still like the MBritt tones a LOT.

sounds like a useful feature.

many people have asked for this before. I completely agree it seems really strange to NOT have an undo button. It would be a very welcome addition.

totally agree

the ability to program buttons on the Remote via RM would be a massive benefit.