The Kemper user thread

[Michael Roe]

Hi all! I thought I would start another thread for us MFers that own a Kemper to have a place to discuss that digital beast and share our experiences etc.

I own the Kemper Stage and for the most part I don't like any of the factory presets. I would have sent the unit back until I started making my own profiles.

Any of you guys making your own profiles? having any success? How do you do it?

BTW, when I have been experimenting with creating profiles I am using a Two Notes Torpedo Captor load box and then into my DAW with IRs. I usually use 3 different mics on the cab.
1- a ribbon or large diaphragm condenser/dynamic
2- sm57
3- condenser room mic

I also use zombiecabs IRs. The main reason for this is because I am the creator of that site. Well, my brother is a partner and he built the site but I created the IRs. I'm not here to promote that site but you are welcome to try them out for yourself. Just PM me and tell me which cab set you would like to try out and I will send you one for free. There is also a free IR loader "ZombIR" to DL on the site.

 

[Tiboy]

I haven’t used my Kemper since the SV20 and SV212 arrived. I love the Kemper, but I’m currently enjoying the simplicity of the SV. I’m guessing the neighbors prefer the Kemper volume.

 

[Michael Roe]

I haven’t used my Kemper since the SV20 and SV212 arrived. I love the Kemper, but I’m currently enjoying the simplicity of the SV. I’m guessing the neighbors prefer the Kemper volume.

Trying to get an accurate profile of the SV20H is really hard. Any of you guys try it yet? How did it come out?
I am starting to think that the Kemper just can not profile a NMV amp very accurately.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

IDK if I would agree w/ that, but I know that when Sigi had guys come out to profile his amp's, there were some amp's, that just did not pass muster.

When they did the packages, they recorded as they profiled & if the profile didn't match the recording, the profiles were rejected.

I'm not sure all the details, which ones passed vs failed, as it's been a few years.

https://shop.katzbach.eu/kemper-profiles/

You'd probably have to ask Sigi about what issues they ran into. Sigi though, likes his amp's full throttle & probably has a different ear for tone, than someone who doesn't regularly run their amp on the autobahn all the time...

video samples page:

https://shop.katzbach.eu/all-bundle/167/all-bundle?c=39

 

[Michael Roe]

@Dogs of Doom I checked out that site some and quickly found this statement:
"During the fine-tuning process for the profiles I heavily relied on the various controls of the Amp and Cabinet section of the profiler. I found the Definition and Clarity controls as well as the Cab Character controls extremely useful to further tweak the sounds."

This is what I mean by "Not accurate". If you have to tweak afterwards then the Kemper is not capturing that sound correctly. Of course you can tweak afterwards but I find it odd that some amps come out really well with no tweaking needed and others are just initially way off. So far with my experimenting, I am finding that any NMV amp or a MV amp that is pushing the power tubes hard does not come out very well.
Have you tried profiling any NMV amps yet?

 

[Dogs of Doom]

@Dogs of Doom I checked out that site some and quickly found this statement:
"During the fine-tuning process for the profiles I heavily relied on the various controls of the Amp and Cabinet section of the profiler. I found the Definition and Clarity controls as well as the Cab Character controls extremely useful to further tweak the sounds."

This is what I mean by "Not accurate". If you have to tweak afterwards then the Kemper is not capturing that sound correctly. Of course you can tweak afterwards but I find it odd that some amps come out really well with no tweaking needed and others are just initially way off. So far with my experimenting, I am finding that any NMV amp or a MV amp that is pushing the power tubes hard does not come out very well.
Have you tried profiling any NMV amps yet?

not yet. My only NMV are my SVT amp's & I don't have a place set up to properly do it yet. My main amp is in the shop. When I get it back, I'll try & get some profiles. I find that most SVT profiles are crappy, as they have a funky distortion when you play up the scale, vs, when you play low octaves. But, even then, when you play the low octaves, the distortion sounds good, recorded, it's a bit much.

Have you checked out their videos? Plenty of NMV amp's...

 

[Michael Roe]

not yet. My only NMV are my SVT amp's & I don't have a place set up to properly do it yet. My main amp is in the shop. When I get it back, I'll try & get some profiles. I find that most SVT profiles are crappy, as they have a funky distortion when you play up the scale, vs, when you play low octaves. But, even then, when you play the low octaves, the distortion sounds good, recorded, it's a bit much.

Have you checked out their videos? Plenty of NMV amp's...

I will check out those vids latter this evening.
BTW, I do have some IRs of a 4x10 SVT cab and a SVT 1x15 cab. We never got around to uploading them on the site yet. The best SVT sound I have gotten recorded was using one of those little Mini Ampeg heads. I ran out of the FX send of that amp into a Rupert Neve DI just straight to the track. It sounded killer!

 

[Dogs of Doom]

I'm looking for the sound I used to get when I was cranking mine up in the '80s/90s... There was a sweet spot, around 4 on the volume, where it got a perfect breakup & growl. I also had to have 2 810 cab's running the head at 2 ohm. Tube heads run better w/ sealed cab's & get farty w/ ported. The 410 & 15 cab's are ported.

 

[giblesp]

I haven’t used my Kemper since the SV20 and SV212 arrived. I love the Kemper, but I’m currently enjoying the simplicity of the SV. I’m guessing the neighbors prefer the Kemper volume.

Could I just ask, do you record the Marshalls?

If so, do you prefer the result to that of the Kemper?

 

[saxon68]

I’ve got the kemper stage also. I went through all the profiles on it, flagged the ones I enjoyed without tweaking, and deleted the rest. Ended up with 25-30 I really liked.

bought some top Jimi packs that I really like also, and again cherry picked them.

I use Headrush 112 and 108 on mine, what are you using?

 

[Michael Roe]

Could I just ask, do you record the Marshalls?

If so, do you prefer the result to that of the Kemper?

Not sure who you were asking this to?
I have not done any direct comparisons yet. I guess if I was going to do an important recording right now, I would just record the real Marshalls.
Before I bought the Kemper I listened to a lot of YT vids which did A/B comparing. Most times I was able to pick out the real amps. In a mix, I'm not so sure I would be able to tell the difference. For me, the Kemper having the feel of a real amp is more important than nailing the tone 100%.

 

[Michael Roe]

I’ve got the kemper stage also. I went through all the profiles on it, flagged the ones I enjoyed without tweaking, and deleted the rest. Ended up with 25-30 I really liked.

bought some top Jimi packs that I really like also, and again cherry picked them.

I use Headrush 112 and 108 on mine, what are you using?

I'm not using mine for any live use as of yet. So far, I haven't tried using it with an amp and cab either. I do have an SS amp available to try that out at some point. For now, I mainly just use it for a quiet headphone amp I have a set of Beyerdynamic DT 880 Pro Semi-open back headphones. These sound really nice. Best set of cans I have ever used! I can also run it through my JBL studio monitors.

 

[Michael Roe]

IDK if I would agree w/ that, but I know that when Sigi had guys come out to profile his amp's, there were some amp's, that just did not pass muster.

When they did the packages, they recorded as they profiled & if the profile didn't match the recording, the profiles were rejected.

I'm not sure all the details, which ones passed vs failed, as it's been a few years.

https://shop.katzbach.eu/kemper-profiles/

You'd probably have to ask Sigi about what issues they ran into. Sigi though, likes his amp's full throttle & probably has a different ear for tone, than someone who doesn't regularly run their amp on the autobahn all the time...

video samples page:

https://shop.katzbach.eu/all-bundle/167/all-bundle?c=39

I didn't find any vids on that site but there were audio examples. I went ahead and purchased the Bundle and tried a few them out.
I found that these were just like any other of the NMV profiles that Michael Britt did. They have the "Definition" turned way down to tame that horrible annoying grainy upper mids thing going on.
I guess, when I am profiling amps I go about it like this: Does it sound good? And not so much is it completely accurate. Try to get it as accurate as possible but sounding good is more important I guess? A 1000 guys could record the same exact rig and get a 1000 different variations of tones out of it depending on all the recording factors involved.
The Kemper will auto adjust that "Definition" when you profile a rig. When it is a NMV amp, that setting seems to always be on the low side. If it isn't it will have that grainy sound to it. Turning the definition knob down does help to get rid of that grainy sound but then makes the profile sound much darker and now, not as accurate.
Profiling amps with a MV, it seems to be more accurate and not have to tweak that definition knob as much or at all.
I think that "Definition" knob has something to do with how hard you are hitting those power tubes.

As of now, I am currently experimenting with trying to get the Kemper to profile as accurate as possible without having to tweak afterwards.
Some things I have noticed so far:
NMV amps are a whole other ball game!
Amps with MV are much easier to capture accurately.
The volume or db level of the signal you are sending back to the Kemper while profiling makes a difference in the tone.

I ordered one of those JHS Little Black Box's to put in the loop and see if that makes a difference for the NMV amps. Although, in theory this would neuter that power amp distortion tone??? Will see!

One of the reasons at the top of this thread I mentioned my website zombiecabs is because while doing those I found out some things
A tube power amp does add a frequency curve to the tone and not just power amp distortion. The whole reason we did the site in the first place! We also found out that you can make an IR with a SS amp. Before converting the captured recording, if you make and put an IR of just the power amp section on that wave file, the out come is about 99% as accurate as just recording the IR with the actual tube power amp. Sounds easy enough, but just like the Kemper the volume levels have to be perfect. We then found out that in a recording session, if you just use a SS IR then add either before or after that IR player ( with the SS IR ), another instance of the same player but with an IR of just the tube power amp........the result is the same! Well, if that Tube Power amp IR was captured correctly! That is the hard part and takes some experimenting
So, my guess is that these companies that have IR players that allow you to change the "power amp" is really just another IR of that power amp section stacked on that SS IR.
Here is a little secret: If you make a Tube Power Amp IR, getting this right is not easy
So, if you are following me on all this The closest I have been able to get with a real rig compared to a sort of fake one is this:
I ran a loop recording into my real rig and recorded it. I then made an IR of the same speaker cab/mics and also captured that tube power amp section with it.
I then ran the loop recording into the preamp of the amp and out the FX send then followed that signal with the "tubed" IR made. It is almost identical. I'd say about 99% accurate.
Using a real amp and load box works really well utilizing SS IRs. This is still probably the best route to the most accurate without using all real components in the recording chain.

My next experiment with the Kemper will be to separate the tube power amp and speaker like I did with the zombie cabs "Tubed" IRs to see if that makes any difference. In other words let the Kemper profile just the amp and the IR to capture the power amp section along with the speakers.

 

[Michael Roe]

Any of you guys know how we could share Kemper profiles with each other here?
I just finished making a profile of my SV20H amp into a 1960AX Greenback loaded cab IR.
I have two versions of that. One is the normal way and the other is separating the preamp-power amp-cab.
They sound quite a bit different to me.
Would be curious if you guys could tell which one is which and also, just which one you think sounds better.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

do you have dropbox?

 

[Michael Roe]

do you have dropbox?

No, I don't think so. I think I used that one time but I think I have to pay to use it again???
Or, is there a free version?

 

[Michael Roe]

Here is a clip of the SV20H and a 1960AX:
Just a quick couple of chords. Each section plays twice. Ex. 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4
1) Real amp into Two Notes Torpedo and into DAW with 1960AX IR
2) Kemper profile of real amp and IR
3) same as #1
4) Kemper profile of SV20H preamp and then into DAW with a IR made from the SV20 Power amp and same 1960AX IR

No tweaking was done to any of the profiles afterward except for #4 because it does not contain all the power amp gain so, I added "Gain" on Kemper to match it.

 

[saxon68]

Here is a clip of the SV20H and a 1960AX:
Just a quick couple of chords. Each section plays twice. Ex. 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4
1) Real amp into Two Notes Torpedo and into DAW with 1960AX IR
2) Kemper profile of real amp and IR
3) same as #1
4) Kemper profile of SV20H preamp and then into DAW with a IR made from the SV20 Power amp and same 1960AX IR

No tweaking was done to any of the profiles afterward except for #4 because it does not contain all the power amp gain so, I added "Gain" on Kemper to match it.

I’ll have to listen on something better than my phone, but what I hear so far sounds killer, and the profile sounds as good as the real thing.


Edit: after playing it cranked I can tell there’s more gain on the last clip.

 

[Dogs of Doom]

Here is a clip of the SV20H and a 1960AX:
Just a quick couple of chords. Each section plays twice. Ex. 1 1, 2 2, 3 3, 4 4
1) Real amp into Two Notes Torpedo and into DAW with 1960AX IR
2) Kemper profile of real amp and IR
3) same as #1
4) Kemper profile of SV20H preamp and then into DAW with a IR made from the SV20 Power amp and same 1960AX IR

No tweaking was done to any of the profiles afterward except for #4 because it does not contain all the power amp gain so, I added "Gain" on Kemper to match it.

this is what you're saying?


& 3 is actually 1... maybe there should be a song about that... ...

interestingly, the wave shape of 3 looks different to 1, not that I know how accurate soundcloud's wave form is...

dropbox is free up to so many GB. Another site is mediafire...

kpr files, you could store thousands.

 

[Michael Roe]

this is what you're saying?
View attachment 67526

& 3 is actually 1... maybe there should be a song about that... ...

interestingly, the wave shape of 3 looks different to 1, not that I know how accurate soundcloud's wave form is...

dropbox is free up to so many GB. Another site is mediafire...

kpr files, you could store thousands.

Yes, you are correct! 3 is 1 and yes, the sound cloud wave form is Not accurate, at all!
I will look into that dropbox thing...….