Posts by alligatorlizard

Just thought I'd report back now I've had my Kemper for several months, and bought profile packs from a dozen or so different profile-makers.

Firstly, I definitely have found all the tones I was originally after, and more (e.g. never really liked Vox before, but the AC30 is now one of my favs)

However it's not without spending a LOT of time researching/demo-ing etc (Kemper facebook groups are also very useful for advice btw), and a fair bit of money spent on profile packs...

Also spent a lot of time delving into the Kemper's various parameters to tweak the profiles - though I've concluded if a profile doesn't sound right to begin with, there's only so much you can do - however if it does sound good straight away, it can probably be tweaked to perfection with the amp and cab parameters and a bit of eq.

Anyway, here's what's ultimately made it into my favourites folder:

Live Ready Sounds (covers all styles & gain ranges really, can't say enough good things about their profiles)

Top Jimi (like his medium/low gain stuff the best, more vintage tones)

SinMix (metal!)

There a few other profiles from here and there that I use occasionally, but the ones from the above three profile-makers are hands down the most realistic/detailed/dynamic/well-mic'd profiles I've found. All these "feel" great to play as well, alive and responsive/expressive under the fingers.

Well it's up to date now! And restarts in seconds again, like it used to. But still curious why it decided to randomly re-build the Rig Exchange database (and why it took hours to do so) - if it's a one off glitch, fine - but if it's a sign of a problem with Rig Manager, I'd rather delete and re-install and restore recent backup than risk further problems...

For the last six hours or so I've been trying to get Rig Manager working - usually the Rig Exchange profiles load in a few seconds and it's all ready to go, but when I started it up earlier today they starting loading SUPER slowly from scratch - over the course of a few minutes, a few hundred or so will load, then Rig Manager will shut down (crash). When I restart it, it starts again where it left off - am now up to a few thousand Rig Exchange profiles loaded... but that's obviously nowhere near the full amount on there. Even the first time I installed RM I don't recall it taking this long - and ever since then (until now) it's only ever taken a few seconds to fully load up.

Have restarted Rig Manager (and computer) multiple times, and my internet connection/speed is definitely fine. Both Rig Manager and Kemper are updated to latest software versions.

Do I need to remove and re-install Rig Manager? Or might restoring recent backup (if it'll let me) do the trick?

Or is maybe there a temporary problem with the Rig Exchange server? Anyone else having problems?

I have had numerous weird things like this happen with Rig Manager... Even had it randomly delete profiles before (though that was after laptop "went to sleep" - which I have since remedied) - another time it started changing (and saving) the gain of profiles a bunch of profiles - seems better after recent updates but I make several backups per day just in-case...

For all the improvements that are added, the most important thing would be to make it more stable - we need to have confidence that all the time consuming tweaking and cataloging won't just get lost! It is usually stable of course - and generally a very useful and intuitive piece of software - but when it goes wrong, it can be devastating to whatever creative process you were in the midst of.

Looks like this has been tweaked - much better now, thanks!

It could be just a touch slower/less-sensitive though...

e.g. when fine-tuning EQ stack, it's not easy to much by just an increment of 0.1 - often have to go back and forth a few times till I land on what I'm after - slows down workflow a bit.

But definitely much better than before! Don't know if it could be refined slightly if others are finding the same as I describe above? Or a global "knob sensitivity" parameter added?

Do we really all have to send support tickets and send profiler backups etc? Clearly this is a common problem, and not user error...

Also having this problem...

Small issue, but but annoying - using the up/down arrows to navigate between performances, about 50% of the time it'll skip to the next but one performance - e.g. if on performance 2, and press up once, it'll go straight to 4 instead of 3. The up/down arrows don't do this when browsing profiles, so have ruled out dodgy buttons.

Also, occasionally when I enter performance mode, it displays the name of a different performance to the one actually stored in that slot - e.g. will be on slot 3 but it'll display the name of the performance I've stored in slot 1... If I move to a different slot, and back again, it'll then display the correct name though.

Just wondering if these are known bugs, and if so, is there a fix on the way?

Thanks!

Been meaning to leave a review of Live Ready Sound for ages – and having just bought a bunch more of their packs in the sale, now seems like a good time! I now have their Rockerverb, Plexi, JMP, KSR Ares, Fender Champ, Revv Generator, and Trace Elliot packs, and can’t say enough good things about these profiles - all feel ultra-responsive and “alive” under the fingers, tons of cab and mic variations, and a wide range of different amp settings and drive/boost pedals added in each pack. The overall sound is hi-fi and modern, but in quite a “neutral” way a way which doesn’t limit you to one production style. It’s also nice that most of the profiles are presented “raw” - i.e. without tons of effects activated, or EQ added, or values already dialled in for sag/clarity/etc. that you’d inevitably have to change anyway. Really feels like I now own all the above-mentioned amps. Highly recommended!

Sounds great! This is one of my favourite amps - will definitely pick this up. Got your JCM800 recently too, and that's now one of my go-to profile packs.

Also might grab "The Frog" one at some point - never heard of this amp in my life, but sounds awesome in demos.

Quote from HamerJo

Hi aligatorlizard,

it took me quite some time to find decent bass profiles but then I'm more of a guitar player than bass man these days.

I came to quite like two profiles of The Amp Factory which i do use most of the times. I found that I can do the rest with my fingers.

The two profiles are

Amp Pig Cln

Amp Pig Drt

I think they're free of charge.

Good luck

Display More

Thanks, I did favourite these early on in my search! However the Guidorist and Rock Profiles Ampeg have since rendered them obsolete

Thanks, good to know!

Is it possible to change the behaviour of the knobs on the Kemper? Find them much too finicky - turn them slow, it takes ages to get to the next value - turn them fast, it accelerates way too quickly and you're past the value you want. Makes it very frustrating to fine tune settings!

Would rather have a smoother, more linear behaviour - is there any way to adjust this?

Yes, it did change - confused me too at first!

If you've double-clicked on it (i.e. it's loaded in kemper to "audition") you now have to hit "store" (bottom right red button in editor) to get the favourite mark to stay.

OR double click on another profile, then you can go back and check the favourite box of the one you were previously on without having to hit store (just single click on it first of course to select it without loading it for audition)

btw, a tip for those wanting the SD-1 in front of Marshall sound - BHP's JCM 800/Jubilee pack! Not such a fan of the Silver, but there are 3 great profiles with SD-1 into the 800.

Would still like one in the stomp section to use with other profiles tho

+1 for this! I know we have the Tube Screamer, but a lot of people prefer the SD-1 for a reason. Perfect in front of a Marshall for early Zakk Wylde style tones etc.

Quote from Wheresthedug

I’m just curious but why would the addition of a boost get closer to what the original profiler was hearing with their setup?

It's just a theory - and maybe not, maybe they're hearing the same thing I hear without a booster, but I prefer a little "hotter" sound. But then again, it's not just that, I feel like often a tiny bit of boost (e.g 0.6 db) makes the amp feel more realistic. In which case, maybe the profiler used slightly hotter pickups, and the booster is simulating that. I find this especially necessary using the "single coil" setting on my humbuckers - I don't know exactly how close this gets to a genuine single coil sound - I'd say it's a bit weaker - hence a bit of boost (and increasing clean & dist sens) gets me closer to how the profiler's genuine single coil pickup sounded. Who knows... But nonetheless, adjusting clean & dist sense, and subtle use of boosters, is getting me some very authentic amp tones, so that's all good!

Yes, am doing this too! The booster's actually one of my favourite "pedals" on the Kemper - not so much for big solo boosts, but just a tiny bit seems to fine tune the amps gain & response - I'm guessing getting closer to what the original profiler was hearing with their setup.

Just coming back to this as I found a bunch of old threads with people arguing with "ckemper" (who I presume is the creator of this great device!) about whether or not clean sens affects sound of distorted profiles. He seems to be insistent that it DOESN'T - however I have to agree with those who disagree - it definitely does affect the sound, albeit subtly. Good news is the same settings I chose above seem to work for all profiles, at least while using my main guitar with humbuckers. Have tried tweaking the settings on numerous profiles, but keep coming back to the exact same ones. Done blind tests, lots of A/B-ing, definitely makes a difference!

However I had to alter the input settings for single coils - although it's not strictly a single coil, it's a setting on my Patrick Eggle which halves the humbuckers to give "single coil sounds", so not sure if it's exactly the same sound as a dedicated single coil. But anyway, it sounded weak and lame with profiles I'd already ascertained to be great with the humbuckers, so this time raised the clean sense a bit, and dist sense too. Sounds great now - thinner and brighter of course like singles coils are meant to be, but not weak and lame anymore Just need to remember to change input settings when switching between humbucker and "single coil" settings on my guitar...

OK, back on the bass trail now - started recording a few new tracks, and the free Rig Manager bass stuff really isn't cutting in the mix, at least to my ears - hunted down a few decent profiles on Rig Exchange too, but not much there (again, to my ears - if others have found stuff there that works, then no disrespect!)

So have now bought Top Jimi's SansAmp DI pack (which sound way better in the mix than similar SansAmp profiles in the Rig Manager) and Guidorist's Ampeg SVT-CL for more of a live mic'd up rock sound - and I can't say enough good things about Guido's SVT, it's only 8 profiles, but exactly the sound I want to hear from an Ampeg, and enough tonal variations that I think it'll be quite versatile - sounds great with added "Muffin" pedal too

So I definitely have some great bass sounds now, but would like to add to my options a bit. The Steve Cook pack looks like it would do this, my hesitation is that most of them are DI, and most of the time I prefer a mic'd up cab bass sound - how easy, and how effective, is it to add a cab to these? Not after a tutorial here (I'll read the manual!), but just wondering if this really gives as good results as a mic'd up "studio" rig?

Other packs I've bookmarked are:

http://sonicunderground.bigcar…oduct/bass-bundle-pack-v1

https://livereadysound.com/pro…ed-bass-ell-starter-pack/

https://www.stltones.com/produ…GXQizKANFxn4xgqmwacU2KgN0

https://mattfig.bigcartel.com/product/ampig-profiles

Not sure if any of these are quite what I'm after though - all sound a bit metal/fuzz oriented (or in the case of the Trace Elliot, a bit too clean!) - but if anyone's tried any of these, or is aware of any other commercial bass profile packs, could you let me know? Thanks!

p.s. if any profile-makers are reading, please do an Orange AD200!!

EDIT: bought these too - https://www.rockprofiles.com/ampg-svtcl - more Ampeg SVT-CL, different sound from the Guidorist pack, but also great!