The Kemper Profiler

Kemper Profiler

The Kemper Profiler is the leading-edge digital guitar amplifier and all-in-one effects processor.

Hailed as a game-changer by guitarists the world over, the Profiler is the first digital guitar amp to actually "nail" the real, full and dynamic sound of a guitar or bass amp. This is made possible by the radical, and patented technological and conceptual approach we call "Profiling".

For decades, the electric guitarist has effectively been shackled to the tube amplifier as the only means of achieving "that sound". This combination is undoubtedly glorious, but far from ideal. Achieving consistent results between the practice room, the studio and the stage presents a significant challenge to guitarists, just as it has since the early 1940's.

Profiling

With the advent of the Kemper Profiler, everything has changed. For the first time in history, guitar players are free to create the most individual tones, reflecting the very essence of their playing style, and then capture these exact sounds into the digital domain with Kemper's unique technology.

Profiling is the key!

Profiling is a unparalleled technique to extract the exact tone and feel from any amp. The entire process takes you only a minute and can be performed on virtually every guitar and bass amp. A profile does not only capture the amp itself but every aspect of the cabinet and microphone configuration as well. The result is as living, vivid and dynamic as the original amps. A mandatory A/B comparison is done after every profiling run ensures the unique authenticity of the profile: So close that you won’t be able to distinguish from the original.
Connections for Profiling a guitar amp

  Click to enlarge

We use proprietary digital technology to analyze the sonic DNA of your amp. As a result, you can go beyond what’s possible with the original amp and tweak everything to your liking. Use the gain control and equalizer in a regular fashion to adapt the sound to your guitar. Add power sagging to the distortion and tweak the power of your pick attack without compression. Or exchange the cabinet later on.

The Profiler gives you more freedom of choice than any other real or virtual amp available.

Profiles you take in session while tracking your next song perfectly work on stage when you tour the songs you've recorded earlier on. It was never easier to have a unique and consistent tone in every situation.

The best amps in the world

Kemper Profiler Factory Content

If you feel that you do not own first class tube amps worth to be profiled, no problem. There is actually no need to create your own profiles.

The Profiler ships with hundreds of amps and rigs already installed. Profiled by pro musicians and engineers in top studios around the world, the premier selection of factory rigs grants you access to the rarest and finest amps on the planet.
On top, we constantly refine, update and extend what’s to your disposal by licensing additional content and fine tuning the existing catalog. We care for a high versatility of the cultural background of the profiles, even in the same genre.

The modeling amps you know are based on predefined algorithms, designed by the respective company for a number of specific reference amps. By nature, those algorithms are limited by number and cannot cover the variety of the individual nuances and differences of tube amps, even in the same product line.
This might be the reason why you rarely see an A/B comparison of a tube amp and the respective digital model.

The Kemper Profiler has no predefined amp models and therefore no signature sound. The model is the profile, and each profile was carefully created by its individual maker by carefully setting up the reference amp and chosing the combination and positioning of the microphones. Each profile has undergone the obligatory A/B comparison and passed the judgement of its maker. Each profile will sound like you have plugged your guitar into that same amp in this specific studio situation. And yes, the Profiler will react to your individual guitar and your playing style, as the original amp would have.

List Amps profiled for factory content

Where do you play?

Recording Studio

Kemper Profiler in Recording Studio

The Profiler revolutionizes the typical workflow of a recording session. By taking profiles of a mic'ed up guitar rig, guitarists for the first time, can freely move in between projects and go back at any time, for overdubs and alternative takes. Rent a professional studio for one or two days to create the best profiles of your amps. Record in your project studio later on with the sound and feel you had earlier on – without time or money pressure.
Think reamping … Wouldn't it be great to reamp tracks with the exact same sound and response later when you’re already working on the final mix? Without rebuilding the entire recording setup just because the producer want to continue working on a different song?

On Stage

Kemper Profiler live on stage

Playing live takes your initial effort to make profiles while recording the next blockbuster hit full cycle. Using the exact same sound like on the record without the need of multiple amp setups on stage opens up a new world of possibilities. You will sound better than before on the PA.

It is not necessary to mic up a speaker cabinet on stage, as the cabinet sound mic'ed in the studio is immortalized in the profile. As a nice consequence, it is not necessary to carry a cabinet up on stage at all. You can monitor yourself by the common stage monitor wedge and save a lot of backache and cargo costs. Your band mates and your mixing engineer might love you for leaving this loud sound source at home.

However, you might still be appealed to the raw energy of a real speaker cabinet in the rehearsal room and on stage. The Kemper Profiler is well prepared for this as well. You can run a speaker cabinet by a solid state or a tube power amp, fed by the Profilers monitor output. For the most convenience our 'powered' Profiler versions are equipped with a build in Class D amplifier with 600W. The virtual cabinet can be switched off exclusively for the monitor output, to prevent the amp sound going through two cabinets in a row. Still the virtual cabinet is active for the main outputs going to the PA.

Now that you use the speaker cabinet only as your personal monitor, you can adjust your individual volume on stage, independent from the signal volume going to the front-of-house.

At Home

Kemper Profiler at home

Rocking away at home is difficult for the most of us. Analog tube amps only sound gorgeous at a level where the neighbors half a mile down the street can enjoy your 10 minute rock’n’roll extravaganza as well. The Profiler sounds great at any level.
Play it by your home stereo or by your headphones. A dedicated effect called 'Space' will render the headphone sound more pleasing and fight ear fatigue. Play along your favourite music by connecting your MP3 player to the auxilliary in and mixing it with the amp signal.

The line-up

Head

Kemper Profiler Head

The Profiler Head comes with classic curves. It makes a perfect figure on a 4x12 cabinet. Still it's so compact and light that can be taken as handluggage onto an plane. The footprint of the Head is tiny, designed to stand on the desk of your project studio, right beside your computer. The Profiler Head is available in black and white colour.

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Rack

Kemper Profiler Rack

The Profiler Rack has a 19" enclosure. It offers the same feature set as the Profiler Head. The only difference is the absense of the LED collars around the controls on the bottom line (except gain) as well as the two controls for the MOD section. We 've omited those controls to fit the entire unit into only 3 height units.

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Powered

Kemper Profiler PowerHead

Both the Rack and the Head (black version only) are available with a build in Class D power amp. It produces 600 Watt @ 8 Ohm or 300 Watt @ 16 Ohm. The power amp was designed by renowned IcePower in Denmark. It offers pristine sound quality running linear speakers, as well as running classic guitar speaker cabinets.
The Class D technique makes the most energy efficient power amp solution, emitting only a minimum of heat. That reduces the need of heat sinks, as well as the size and weight. The combination with the Kemper Profiler turns the PowerHead and the PowerRack into a super smart and compact all-in solution. The PowerHead weights a little over 6kg.

If required, you can switch off the build-in power amp, converting your powered Profiler into a line level unit for recording purposes.

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Comparison chart

Profiler Eco System

Profiler Eco System

We offer a growing range of accessories from custom tailored transport solutions to a dedicated and highly integrated foot controller called Profiler Remote.

At the RigExchange, a free cloud service for users to share their own creations, thousands of additional rigs can be downloaded. And to stay on top of this enormous amount of contact, there is RigManager, a free librarian for Windows and Mac users.

Learn more about our universe

Signal Flow

Kemper Profiler signal chain

The signal chain comprises of 8 effect slots in addition to the amplifier stack. Up to four stomp effects can be placed "pre" the amp stack, another two "post" the amp in the effect section. The final elements of the entire effect chain are a dedicated delay and reverb section. Both delay and reverb offer "spillover" - meaning, the sonic tail is not cut off when you change to another rig. Pretty much every effect offers optional "ducking" to dynamically control the effect intensity just by dynamic playing.

All effects - even the whole signal flow can be accessed by 13 dedicated buttons. Editing a rig cannot get easier! The effects are individually colour-coded by LEDs. You can tell by a single view what type of effect will come up by activating an effect slot. You can lock an or more effects to its slots by simply pressing the Lock button. Those effects will stay when you change to another rig.

Also a number of parallel routing options are avaliable.

  • A effects loop (sending and receiving sound to the outside world) can be placed in any of the free effect slots.
  • The Amplifier provides a Direct Mix control, for instance to add the clean guitar to the distorted signal.
  • The Delay and Reverb can be configured in serial and parallel fashion using by continuous crossfader.
  • A parallel signal pass can be established, bypassing the whole signal pass. This is appealing to bass players for mixing the dry bass signal to the processed signal to maintain the bass fundament and original dynamics. This way, parallel compression for instance, is easily possible.
Signal Flow - Serial and Parallel Routing

Stomps and Effects

The Profiler offers a selection of the finest effect processors in the world. The company Kemper is responsible for creating the Access Virus, one of most successful hardware synthesizers of all times. A part of the success of the Access Virus are the highly regarded build-in effects. Nearly 20 years of experience in creating effects allow us to find the essence of classic and new effects and a well-conceived parameter set, without presenting dozens of ineffective controls per effect algorithm.

Among our effects, you will find algorithms that have rarely been implemented in a guitar processor, such as the Frequency Shifter, the Formant Correction for our Pitch Shifter, an absolutely authentical Rotary Speaker and the Beat Scanner to control the musical delay time and other effects just by the rhythm of your instrument.

Delay

Without doubt, the Delay effect types are some of the most advanced and comprehensive effects collections in the Profiler. However, the approach we have taken might be a bit different from what you've seen before. You will not find a dedicated Reverse Delay, Tape Delay or Ducking Delay, as we realized there is no sense in splitting such crucial features into separate delay types. Instead, we have equipped every single delay type with most of these features. Why not have a Dual Reverse Delay? Or a Serial Delay with analog tape character? Or a Melody Delay with ducking? All of these are possible with the delays in the Profiler.

Single Delay  
Dual Delay  
Two Tap Delay  
Serial Two Tap Delay  
Rhythm Delay  
Quad Delay  

Pitch Shifter Delay

The Pitch Shifter Delays are powerful combinations of the Delay Types with one of four different Pitch Shifter types.
Crystal Type: The Crystal is a reverse delay in which the pitched notes are altered by playing back the delayed signal faster or slower. The Crystal is placed in the feedback loop of the delay, causing a pitch helix with every repetition.
Chromatic Type: The chromatic pitch shifter is positioned at the delay input and can be played polyphonically (chords).
Harmonic Type: The harmonic pitch shifter is positioned at the delay input and is intended to be fed with single notes only. The pitch is set in musical intervals and will follow the selected key.
Loop Pitch Type: This pitch shifter works chromatic as well, but is positioned in the feedback loop of the delay, resulting in a pitch helix or spiral with every repetition.

Crystal Delay  
Loop Pitch Delay  
Frequency Shifter Delay  
Melody Chromatic Delay  
Melody Harmonic Delay  
Dual Chromatic Delay  
Dual Harmonic Delay  
Dual Crystal Delay  
Dual Loop Pitch Delay  
Quad Chromatic Delay  
Quad Harmonic Delay  

Reverb

The reverb offers studio-quality algorithms and works closely with the delay effect.
Taken over from the Access Virus synthesizer, our delay and reverb provide an outstanding sound quality. And very unique: they perform a full spillover when you change to a new sound. That means, both delay and reverb will decay by the previous sound and unchanged settings, while you play a new rig with all new settings.

Space  
Hall  
Large Room  
Small Room  
Ambience  
Matchbox  

Distortion

We have faithfully modeled the most prominent vintage distortion pedals. In addition, we have created a number of novel booster and tone shaping effects, that are not realizable in the analog world.

Green Scream Inspired by the Tube Screamer TS808 or OD808
Plus DS Inspired by the MXR Distortion +
One DS Inspired by the Boss DS-1
Muffin Inspired by the Big Muff
Mouse DS Inspired by the ProCo Rat II
Fuzz DS Inspired by the Fuzz Face
Metal DS Inspired by the Boss Metal Zone

Booster

The boosters feature several dedicated filter settings to perfectly shape your guitar for your individual amp distortion tone.

Treble Booster  
Lead Booster Tunable peak filter, emphasizes specific frequencies
Pure Booster Boosting or attenuating without coloring the sound
Wah Pedal Booster  

Pitch Shifter

One of the most advanced pitch shifter algorithm in the industry. It shifts single notes as well as complex chords by an unsurpassed quality. The Vinyl Stop effect drives the pitch of your guitar continuously down to zero and silence by an expression pedal. The Profiler introduces a new technique to the guitar world. The Formant Freeze maintains the natural sound of pitched notes, even at large pitch intervals.

Transpose “Digital capo” for your instrument
Pedal Pitch Inspired by the Whammy pedal
Pedal Vinyl Stop Turns the pitch down to zero
Chromatic Pitch Dual-voice pitch shifter
Harmonic Pitch Dual-voice pitch shifter, creates intelligent harmony voices
Analog Octaver  

Modulation

The Chorus effects span from the faithful recreation of the bucket-brigade chorus sound of the 70's to the crystal clear 80's multi chorus and the characteristic Micro Pitch effect, based on our Pitch Shifter algorithm. The Rotary Speaker effect, in combination with a profile of a real rotary speaker, is actually not to tell apart from the original.

Vintage Chorus Inspired by the Chorus Ensemble
Hyper Chorus Complex six-voice chorus
Air Chorus Inspired by the Jazz Chorus
Micro Pitch Detune effect, based on pitch shifter technology
Vibrato  
Rotary Speaker Inspired by the Leslie speaker
Tremolo  

Phaser and Flanger

While the Flanger is based on warm sounding emulation of a feedbacked bucked-brigade circuit, the Phaser allows very complex modulations by using up to 12 phaser stages. The distance between the Phaser peaks and notches can be controlled by the unique "Spread" parameter.
The modulation rate of the Phaser and Flanger can be linked to the song tempo.

Phaser Up to 12 filter stages for each stereo side
Phaser Vibe inspired by the Univibe
Phaser Oneway  
Flanger  
Flanger Oneway  

Wah

The Wah effects are a collection of different filter and lo-fi effects, have in common that they are automatically linked to your Wah expression pedal without further hassle. Control the various colours with your pedal or alternatively by the dynamics of your guitar using the Touch Wah function. There is an auto-off function available for each Wah effects, when you stop moving the Wah pedal. You will find a number of preset Wah effects that simulate your favorite Wah pedals.

Wah Wah The classic
Wah Lowpass DJ-like Wah effects
Wah Highpass
Wah Phaser The Phaser and Flanger controllable by your wah pedal
Wah Flanger
Wah RateReducer Lo-Fi Sample Rate Reduction by pedal
Wah RingModulator Two outstanding Sci-fi effects
Wah FrequencyShifter
Wah FormantShift Shifts the formants and character of your instrument

Compressor and Noise Gate

The compressor features the full compression bandwidth of well known compressor pedals, but without further colouring the signal. Our unique "Squash" parameter controls the sponginess of the compression.
The noise gates are not an alternative to the main noise gate, but a completition, especially for excellently shaped metal palm-mutes.

Compressor  
Noise Gate 2:1 Soft expander, expansion ratio of 2:1
Noise Gate 4:1 More aggressive expander, expansion ratio of 4:1

Equalizers

A set of parametric equalizers as well as a graphic EQ helps to shape your signature sound. As most effects, they can be placed before or after the amplifier section.

Graphic Equalizer 8-band, octave equalizer, with fixed frequency bands
Studio Equalizer 4-band parametric equalizer, adjustable frequency/ bandwidth/ Q-factor
Metal Equalizer inspired by the equalizer of the Boss Metal-Zone
Stereo Widener Creates a subtle stereo effect by using equalisation

Loop

To connect external gear, the Profiler offers a hardware effects loop on the back side of the amp. You can apply the hardware effect loop in any of the Stomp Modules or in X or MOD in the Effects Section.

Loop Mono  
Loop Stereo  
Loop Distortion  

Retain Control

The Live Insurance

The Live Insurance

Profiler has been designed with live performances in mind. A special, so called Performance Mode offers dedicated memory to create and organize complete musical scenes corresponding with your reportoir. All tweaks you make here will stay exclusive to the performance. There is plenty of space for up to 125 songs with five musical scenes each. During your concert you can simply step from song to song according to your set-list.

Profiler Remote and MIDI floor board support

The Live Insurance

The Profiler Remote is the perfectly integrated solution to control the Kemper Profiler. It connects via a single cable, no additional power cable is required.

Learn more about Remote

Traditional MIDI based foot controllers are also supported and pretty much every parameter can be controlled.

Free Feature Update

Free Feature Update

Wouldn’t it be great to beam a couple of different new tubes into your amp back from the 50s? Or magically let a couple of new stomps surface in your gig bag? In software you already can do that and we make extended use of it. Free feature additions by software updates for the Profiler is a tradition at Kemper. We pride ourselves to use what’s common in the computer world for a musical instrument as well, to your advantage. This way, your purchase becomes even more valuable over time.

Did you know?

The Hi-Z input makes sure every nuance of your playing comes through, and that your volume and tone pot settings work just as you would expect. This is also why your trusty old stompboxes work so well in front of the Kemper Profiler.
The Kemper Profiler has a built-in analog splitter that mirrors your DI signal to the direct out. Record this dry signal to a separate track, and you can re-amp it later, should you desire to do so. No additional 're-amping' hardware is required, as the Profiler is capable to connect to your recording gear by analog studio level or digital SPDIF.
The monitor output supplies a cab sim free signal for your (build-in) power-amp and cabinet on stage, while the FOH receives your signal with the cab sim intact.
Accurate models of classic, retro modulation effects and famous overdrive/distortion pedals. Wah, tremolo, delay, reverb and much more. Add up to eight effects at the same time.
Use the effects loop to integrate stompboxes or rack effects in your rig, at any point in the signal chain.
Delay and reverb can be adjusted from serial to parallel configuration - and to anywhere in between.
Lock any number of modules to keep their exact settings when you change rigs. This is ideal if you're curious to hear what your favorite Screamer setting sounds like in front of other amp profiles, for example.
Our frequent firmware updates will always be free of charge and a new OS version will never alter the sound of your existing rigs.
Right from the start the Kemper Profiler comes equipped with more than 300 profiles, featuring vintage classics, modern high-gain amps and rare boutique items. These profiles were made by top engineers and producers in premiere studios around the world.
Developed by the designers of the Access Virus synthesizer - 15 years of innovations in audio.
Yes. The profiles don't crush your tone, like so many other digital processors do, but bring out the sound of your fingers, pickups etc.
Yes. As a matter of fact, the Kemper Profiler comes with four factory profiles taken from one of the best-sounding solid state amps in history: the Roland JC-120.
14 endless analogue potentiometers combine the accuracy of classic potentiometers with the ease of encoders. They allow quick and easy control over the sound, without the irritating 'gear ratio' feeling.
In case you're encountering nerve-wracking hum due to ground loops, use one of the four ground-lift switches to eliminate the problem. This is helpful should in studio or live situations, where multiple devices are connected to your Profiler.
80dBs of available gain for the amp simulation lets you clean up a distorted profile or push a clean profile into overdrive.
The smart & transparent noise gate is easily adjustable via the front panel. Additional expander noise gates dedicated to metal sounds are available in the list of stomp effects.
Automatic spillover lets delay and reverb decay naturally when you change rigs. No need for special arrangements or parameter matching of the effects, the spillover is everpresent.
Every Stomp and Effect can be individually stored and called by a Module Preset.
Dedicated Copy and Paste buttons let you easily move effects to a different location, or even to a different rig.
Since the unit is cooled passively, there is absolutely no fan noise to disturb you, even in the quietest of studio environments.
The Kemper Profiler user community has already created and shared thousands of profiles, all of which are easily accessible via the Kemper homepage.
No. It ships with over 300 profiles, created in studios around the world, featuring vintage classics, modern high-gain amps, and rare boutique items.
Yes - and even better, you can have it both ways at the same time: use the stereo XLR outs to send your signal to the front of house (FOH), and use the dedicated monitor out to feed your power amp and cabinet with a signal that bypasses the cabinet simulation.
Yes. A profile consists, basically, of an amplifier portion and a cabinet portion.
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