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Post by ragan on May 25, 2015 17:24:21 GMT -6
I am a total tube amp snob and have a hefty collection of old fenders etc but I recently closed down my studio (my job for the past decade) and moved across the country due to a family situation. I fell into a deep depression not being able to mic amps and I still had some guitar tracks to record. I got a Kemper and life is good again. It delivers. I had read about mbritt profiles before I got my kemper and had pack 1 and 2 before it arrived. I find the Kemper a great tool because I can switch my amp so much faster than if I use a real amp. Makes it fast and easy to find the right tone for the song. That is inspiring to me. I had to spend a lot of time finding my favorite tones and ones that matched my guitars etc but once that is done its fast. I played more guitar during the first couple months of having the Kemper than the last 3 years. Fun shit! Like being a teenager again. Welcome, maxy! LesC is right about me going analog...I think it sounds better - but that's just me. Don't bother with the profiles that come with the Kemper - they're not very usable. I believe Kemper has some free downloads from The Amp Factory and Michael Britt though...This latest Michael Britt Vintage Pack is just the bomb. Just remember - compare the Kemper to the sounds you recorded to when you played your mic'd up amp. Just by sheer volume, a real amp in a room is always going to be more "impressive." Sure. Makes sense. The whole Kemper Dream for me is that I could sit in front of the monitors and track along to that. I don't have much interest in putting it through a cab and playing it in the room. Yet... |
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Post by Johnkenn on May 25, 2015 17:37:41 GMT -6
That's exactly what I do...it's freaking awesome.
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maxy
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Post by maxy on May 26, 2015 12:30:30 GMT -6
I go analog as well. I go main out to a CAPI VC528, APA Leviathan and then an API 550A. Hitting some transformers on the way in and a little compression. Sometimes I want to EQ with the 550A but it sounds good in the chain even if I don't. I treat the kemper pretty much the same as I did when micing an amp.
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Post by ragan on May 26, 2015 12:37:38 GMT -6
Interesting. Well I'll experiment. I ordered a pair of Warm Pultecs in the sale too so I'll see if I like hitting them and/or the Heritage on the way into the Burl.
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maxy
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Post by maxy on May 26, 2015 14:29:07 GMT -6
It would be hard to imagine you not liking it but I will be curious to hear your opinion.
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Post by cowboycoalminer on May 27, 2015 12:38:32 GMT -6
I record analog outs in stereo. Makes the Kemper effects so much nicer. Still pan in the mix to taste but remnants of the stereo sides work their magic.
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Post by LesC on May 27, 2015 13:00:04 GMT -6
cowboycoalminer and Johnkenn - Do you guys record Kemper analog out straight into your Burl's, or do you go through a preamp? If preamp, which preamp do you use and do you go line in or instrument in?
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Post by cowboycoalminer on May 27, 2015 13:11:55 GMT -6
Les I go straight into the Burl. I modeled one of my bass amps the other day though and went mono out into the Sta then the Burl. Sounded great.
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Post by ragan on May 27, 2015 13:33:39 GMT -6
Mine should be here in a couple days. Real keen to check this business out....
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Post by LesC on May 27, 2015 14:14:03 GMT -6
Les I go straight into the Burl. I modeled one of my bass amps the other day though and went mono out into the Sta then the Burl. Sounded great. Thank you! |
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Post by Johnkenn on May 27, 2015 16:27:17 GMT -6
yeah - straight out into Burl. I did try a bass amp through the Heider and FC526...sounded fantastic.
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Post by LesC on May 27, 2015 18:01:00 GMT -6
yeah - straight out into Burl. I did try a bass amp through the Heider and FC526...sounded fantastic. Thanks again. I always overcomplicate things. For example, I'm thinking of bypassing the Kemper DAC by taking Kemper digital out into the Svart or Pure2 DAC, then into the Heritage or TB12 preamps, then into the Svart or Pure2 ADC. I may still try it when I get the Svart or Pure2, but I'm hoping there won't be much difference and I can just keep things simple. |
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Post by Johnkenn on May 27, 2015 22:21:33 GMT -6
It sounds fine the way it is...but hey - go for it!
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Post by mdmitch2 on May 29, 2015 14:08:44 GMT -6
Got a kemper today (black toaster). Hopefully I'll have some time to play with it tonight and this weekend. Seems pretty well built, and the knobs and buttons have a decent feel. I'll be loading up the various sample packs from Britt, Amp Factory, Top Jimi, Wagener...
Gonna try to profile a mesa boogie express 5-50 + that I have for a few days.
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Post by ragan on Jun 1, 2015 23:01:49 GMT -6
Man. I gotta say. I got my Kemper today and it is not going smoothly. The factory loaded "profiles" have not blown my hair back but I understand the Kemper experience is heavily dependent on the profile itself. The very first thing I'd like to do is try some of the Michael Britt profiles but the process for loading new profiles is BEYOND COUNTER INTUITIVE. How are you guys getting profiles onto your Kemper? The manual says next to nothing about it but through Googling around I see that the Rig Manager is supposed to make things easier. The Kemper site has no instructions that I can find about the Rig Manager though. And when I insert my USB stick into the Kemper to be formatted, jack shit happens.
I could be being an idiot here (certainly wouldn't be the first time) but none of this is laid out on the site or in the manual. Help??
Meanwhile, I plug in my Dr Z here and...damn that sounds good....
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Post by ragan on Jun 1, 2015 23:06:43 GMT -6
Ok so I got the Kemper to see my USB stick (on the fifth try). There may yet be hope....
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Post by mdmitch2 on Jun 1, 2015 23:17:05 GMT -6
Ok so I got the Kemper to see my USB stick (on the fifth try). There may yet be hope.... Yeah, weird not to include in the manual something so basic as adding profiles. What I did was format the USB drive on my PC to completely erase it, and then stuck it in the Kemper, and select 'external storage' at the top (takes a few seconds to appear). Then there should be the option to format it. Once it's formatted by the Kemper, you can put it back into the PC and just drag the britt profiles (*.kipr files) into the 'shared' folder on USB drive. Pop it into the kemper and again click 'external storage' and then import. Should only take a few seconds to load a small number of profiles, or a couple minutes if you're loading hundreds at once. Another option is to go to Rig Manager and highlight whichever rigs you want, and then go up to the menu and export from there to the shared folder on the USB drive. |
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Post by LesC on Jun 1, 2015 23:25:14 GMT -6
Wow, using a USB key is such a pain, I couldn't stand it. Why not just plug the rear USB port into the PC and install Rig Manager? You'll immediately have hundreds of profiles available, and it's easy to load new ones. Just double-click on one you want to try and it immediately loads on the Kemper.
If you install and run the Rig Manager, I don't think you'll need a manual for it, it really is very simple.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Jun 1, 2015 23:33:57 GMT -6
My mini review of the kemper after a couple hours:
Initially I tested the stock profiles with headphones on, and wasn't very impressed. When I ran them through my monitors though (via VP28 pair), I found some that I liked... With the guitar I was using (strat clone), a lot of them sounded muddy, but a quick twist of the tone knobs made for much more useful tones.
Then I loaded about 300 more profiles from the kemper downloads area, as well as the ~13 free ones one from Michael Britt's site, which seemed nice. I also got a free high gain pack from SinMix, which I found on the kemper forums. It was much better than the other high gain tones I'd heard, and sounded very convincing.
So far there's a lot more bad profiles than good ones, but there's also a lot more bad music than good music, so it makes sense that there's a lot that I find unusable for the genres I work on.
Overall, it's definitely leaps and bounds above other amp modelers I've tried, and I think it will get a lot of use in the studio. But I'm reserving final judgement until I can put in more time and use it on some projects.
Any comments on the sound of the older Britt profiles vs the newer Britt profiles? Is the "Vintage" pack the 'must have' of the lot?
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Post by ragan on Jun 1, 2015 23:42:29 GMT -6
I was able to get the USB stick working. I've only tried the free M Britt samples. They are better. I didn't dig much of what came stock on the thing. I'm still trying to decide what I think of the whole paradigm though. It doesn't feel like playing through an amp, at all, but then again, I'm NOT playing through an amp. I'm playing through a snapshot of a MIC'd amp. Very different.
I'm gonna need to take some time to decide whether this thing is a keeper or not (for me of course). I may buy the Britt Vintage pack and just eat the $50 if I don't keep the Kemper. It would be so supremely convenient to use this thing for tracking, it's just a matter of whether or not it inspires me or not. Jury's still (way) out on that score. Thus far it feels a little weird. But it does sound a lot like a mic'd amp. Way more than other amp sims I've heard.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Jun 1, 2015 23:53:27 GMT -6
It doesn't feel like playing through an amp, at all, but then again, I'm NOT playing through an amp. I'm playing through a snapshot of a MIC'd amp. Very different. I'm gonna try running the kemper through a neutral 50 watt tube power amp (carvin ts100) and see if it brings back the fun and feel of a real amp/speaker cab. I think you can disable the cabinet sim on many (if not all) profiles. Anyone else try this? |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jun 1, 2015 23:54:50 GMT -6
If I were you guys, I would just erase all the profiles that come with it. Then download some of your favorite amps from The Amp Factory and DEFINITELY the MBritt Vintage Pack. I also have packs 1 and 2 and there are stellar ones on there too. Download the Rig Manager and then import the files into there. Although, I often use the USB stick.
Ragan - the biggest game changing knob on the whole thing is the "Definition" parameter. I'm doing this form memory - but I think you hold down the amp button on the top center of the Kemper...I find with a lot of profiles, I'm turning the definition down - because they're usually too bright. It's a totally different thing than EQ - you will hear it when you use it. The great thing about the MBritt stuff is that it's almost just plug and play.
I went through much the same thing you are going through - I bought and sold three of them before this last one stuck. Honestly, I think it took me that long not to be overwhelmed by it, find my groove of how I would implement it and find the tones and tone makers that got it done right. I would go back and forth with the whole price thing, blah, blah...but man, eventually I got in the groove with it and now it's indispensable.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Jun 2, 2015 0:08:42 GMT -6
If I were you guys, I would just erase all the profiles that come with it. That's a good idea -- definitely doing that. It's not like you can't easily get them back if you want. Start from scratch, and build... |
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Post by ragan on Jun 2, 2015 0:19:17 GMT -6
Yeah, for me it's not the overwhelming parameters/options thing. I immediately (upon downloading the free Michael Britt stuff) gravitate towards about 4 or 5 profiles and I've been trying to decide if I can make playing through them feel like tracking through an amp. So far I can't quite do it, but that's somewhat to be expected. When you play through an amp, you're not (depending on your monitoring) primarily hearing just the sound of one mono mic on a cab.
It's a different beast. It's attempting to let you track guitars as if you were playing in the control room, only hearing the mic'd signal (which I have done, to mixed results). For me, thus far, it's the sustained single notes that make me still feel like I'm playing through a sim. They don't seem to respond with the nuance of an amp. You know how when you're playing licks and your finger will accidentally touch an unintended string and it'll brighten or air-ify that string? Or certain aspects of a rhythm riff will be choked and certain ones will ring out or whatever? .....or a bunch of other stuff.... It's still too early for me to tell. Playing through an actual amp just has so much variation from note to note. The Kemper (after a whopping couple hours) doesn't seem to have that. And I don't see how it could.
But it would be immensely convenient to track through this thing and just sit in front of the monitors and let er rip. I'd love to love it. So far I'm pretty so-so (which I mean as a huge compliment because all the other amp simulations I've played through I have hated with a passion).
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Post by ragan on Jun 2, 2015 0:40:13 GMT -6
I do though, seriously, think that some of my impression so far is due to the fact that playing through a (virtual) mic/d cab is fundamentally different than standing in from of an amp, even if the modeling is perfect.
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