Kemper Profiler Amp Review

[BigToe]

don't know how to explain it to you but we obviously have a completely different perception of tone because I was an endorser for fuchs, two rock, gries and several other high end tube amplifier and the tone I get out of the kemper is better than anything I ever had before, be it clean jazz, SRV(ish) Lenny, Robben Ford Fusion, or what not.

I agree the effects are a weak point compared to the axefx but they are good enough for 90% of any applications. The reverb isn't the greatest but is as good as a fender amp's reverb and the overdrives and fuzzes are very good compared to their analog counterparts. The choruses and delays are good too. They are not fantastic but are good to very good.

I suspect you (and the salesperson) just didn't know how to dial in a good sound. My first day with the kemper I was very disappointed but it was all in my not knowing how to get out of it what i needed to.

thanks jzucker for your reply. It was likely a case of dialing in over saturated presets and my aesthetic preference for an analogue signal chain that got the best of me. I wish my perception of good guitar tone was less narrow. "Better than anything I ever had before" certainly warrants the Kemper some respect!

[jzucker]

quick 5 minute clip I did this morning, sorry about the reverb being too high.

[mr. beaumont]

I can't articulate the word for it, but there's a certain "snap" to the high end that I rarely hear in a solid state amplifier...this stuff sounds pretty darn good, Jack.

[jzucker]

I can't articulate the word for it, but there's a certain "snap" to the high end that I rarely hear in a solid state amplifier...this stuff sounds pretty darn good, Jack.

Thanks and the other interesting thing is turning off the guitar amp but using the cab modeling. That actually has qualities of the best SS jazz guitar amps but with a little more natural sounding response.

I'll post a clip of that tonight if I get a chance.

[NSJ]

I can't articulate the word for it, but there's a certain "snap" to the high end that I rarely hear in a solid state amplifier...this stuff sounds pretty darn good, Jack.

"Prescence"?? that's a word that seems to be reserved strictly for tube amps and rarely if ever mentioned in a solid-state context.

Recording sounds impressive, especially if it was direct into the computer via an audio interface. If so, did you use the USB direct info computer or the instrument cable into audio interface? Is there a difference in sound between the two approaches?

[Frank67]

quick 5 minute clip I did this morning, sorry about the reverb being too high.

Sounds great (and for me not too much reverb).

What was your physical and virtual signal chain? (i.e. what amplifier profiles and effects did you use in the Kemper?)

... and impressive playing of course!

[jzucker]

"Prescence"?? that's a word that seems to be reserved strictly for tube amps and rarely if ever mentioned in a solid-state context.

Recording sounds impressive, especially if it was direct into the computer via an audio interface. If so, did you use the USB direct info computer or the instrument cable into audio interface? Is there a difference in sound between the two approaches?

Thanks, it was recorded direct from the kemper into my Focusrite audio interface. I went from the XLR outs of the kemper into the 2 XLR ins on the focusrite. I've never tried to use USB out from the kemper so I can't tell you yet if there's a difference.

Sounds great (and for me not too much reverb).

What was your physical and virtual signal chain? (i.e. what amplifier profiles and effects did you use in the Kemper?)

... and impressive playing of course!

Physical chain was 175 into (all bypassed) fulltone clyde, vibe machine, TS9, Zendrive and into the kemper. Kemper was configured with ampfactory viboverb and hall reverb. No other effects. The kemper "rig" i was using is very bass and treble heavy so I had bass turned down to about -4 and treble/presence both turned down to -2

[rob taft]

Nice tone and fine technique as usual. The Vibroverb from the Amp Factory Fender Toolkit package is to my ears one of the best sounding Fender profiles of the various vendors producing profiles.

By the way, the Kemper does not output audio via USB. The rational being that this unit will be used in a studio or recording setup that has or prefers its own audio interface. I use a Focusrite Scarlett 18i6.

[jzucker]

choptones Fender twin amp model, hall reverb, delay

[jzucker]

An interesting comparison, here's my boutique tube amp, the gries 35 .

The kemper sounds more "tubey" than the real tube amp.

This is a quick video of me and my son Jeremy Zucker​ playing. Jeremy is an attorney but still has music (and jazz) in his heart.

[rob taft]

Jack, Thank for posting. I like the tone of the minor blues clip. I haven't tried the Choptone profiles. How do they compare to the the Amp Factory Fender profiles? Worth the money? I realize it not a lot of $$$ but it adds up.

[jzucker]

Jack, Thank for posting. I like the tone of the minor blues clip. I haven't tried the Choptone profiles. How do they compare to the the Amp Factory Fender profiles? Worth the money? I realize it not a lot of $$$ but it adds up.

I like the ampfactory clips in general. One problem with most of the profiles I have purchased is that 90% of them are overdriven, some of them heavily. On the choptones Fender Twin profiles, only one is recorded with the tone controls at 5,5,5. The rest have very heavy bass and treble and/or gain settings. I am going to try the JBL clean profile and see if I can eq out the heavy bass and treble or try to figure out if I can use the JBL cab with the aforementioned 5,5,5 tone settings.

The ampfactory vibroverb can be modified to sound really good for jazz as can the fuchs 2.6.0 which is a shareware one.

[rob taft]

Jack, Thanks. I've been using the Amp Factory Vibroverb and have been pleased. I'll have to try out the Fuchs. I agree with your comments especially gain on "clean" commercial profiles. Look forward to hearing your results.

[Hjalmiz]

I like the ampfactory clips in general. One problem with most of the profiles I have purchased is that 90% of them are overdriven, some of them heavily. On the choptones Fender Twin profiles, only one is recorded with the tone controls at 5,5,5. The rest have very heavy bass and treble and/or gain settings. I am going to try the JBL clean profile and see if I can eq out the heavy bass and treble or try to figure out if I can use the JBL cab with the aforementioned 5,5,5 tone settings.

The ampfactory vibroverb can be modified to sound really good for jazz as can the fuchs 2.6.0 which is a shareware one.

Check out the Clean tone king galaxy .

[medblues]

[jzucker]

as mentioned in the other thread, not a fan of that particular sound...The kemper is capable of much better tone IMO...

[yebdox]

I think those tracks sound great, Jack, very impressed with the hollow snap and "Benson-esque" feel.

I'm thinking about a Kemper, but one thing that holds me back is that, unlike a BF Twin, any piece of digital gear will be obsolete at some point, no matter how much I dig playing with it. I have a GR-55 that is gathering dust as we speak, and will probably pass into techno-oblivion long before I really have a chance to sit down and use it. Right now, buying $120 worth of tubes every 6 months or so is a relatively minor hassle, but I'm not gigging out much at this point. As people point out, though, the digital thing is likely inevitable and tubes will become truly an expensive anachronism.

Seems from a superficial overview, that the Kemper is a bit tidier and more manageable than the AxeFx, though the latter seems to have a better rep re: effects. I would lean more towards a grab and go, likely with the foot controller and a 1x12 cab.

Thanks for taking us along in your exploration.

[jzucker]

axefx and kemper have held their value pretty well over time but in general, digital gear depreciates more quickly. I think the days of analog gear appreciation have peaked though. There was just an article recently in one of the major magazines about how younger players are no longer choosing tube amps...It's just a matter of time IMO.

I think those tracks sound great, Jack, very impressed with the hollow snap and "Benson-esque" feel.

I'm thinking about a Kemper, but one thing that holds me back is that, unlike a BF Twin, any piece of digital gear will be obsolete at some point, no matter how much I dig playing with it. I have a GR-55 that is gathering dust as we speak, and will probably pass into techno-oblivion long before I really have a chance to sit down and use it. Right now, buying $120 worth of tubes every 6 months or so is a relatively minor hassle, but I'm not gigging out much at this point. As people point out, though, the digital thing is likely inevitable and tubes will become truly an expensive anachronism.

Seems from a superficial overview, that the Kemper is a bit tidier and more manageable than the AxeFx, though the latter seems to have a better rep re: effects. I would lean more towards a grab and go, likely with the foot controller and a 1x12 cab.

Thanks for taking us along in your exploration.

[jorgemg1984]

Of course digital pedals will improve, I would say mainly size and price. Tone too but most digital pedals these days already sound so good... I wouldn't worry much about that.

[jzucker]

Jack how's the EQ on the Kemper? If I understand correctly the Kemper stores the amp as it's sounding at that moment and then you're using a different eq from the original amp if you need to tune the sound... right?

yes, that's correct. EQ is fantastic on it. Tone controls are perfectly placed and then you have tons of parametric and graphic eqs you can add either pre or post amplifier and preamp

[jzucker]

i found the "amp in the room" to be a totally non-issue. i compared it to several hugely expensive real tube amps in the room and it was a moot point. For the most part, the kemper smoked them all. So, for me it just sounds and feels right even going through a PA type cab.

That's the best part to me, that I can run it through a pa-cab with total indeference to what speakers are in the cab or what size or brand as long as the cab is relatively flat. I'm so done with guitar speakers...

[Philco]

i found the "amp in the room" to be a totally non-issue. i compared it to several hugely expensive real tube amps in the room and it was a moot point. For the most part, the kemper smoked them all. So, for me it just sounds and feels right even going through a PA type cab.

That's the best part to me, that I can run it through a pa-cab with total indeference to what speakers are in the cab or what size or brand as long as the cab is relatively flat. I'm so done with guitar speakers...

Yes I can see how a profiler would be an incredible benefit to the gigging jazz guitarist.

In my situation the Kemper is channeled directly into ProTools via my Apollo 16 interface which provides no latency recording. I do everything from Metal to Folk tracks so the Kemper is an incredible tool.

But I'm not a gigging player and when I'm in the studio I'd like to have the choice of going through the monitors or putting a mike in front of an amp. Choices for multiple mike placement and room sounds etc.
The other problem I find when playing in front of my monitors is that I can really hear the acoustic quality of my guitar too much and I really don't like that. I'm not a fan of the acoustic archtop sound .....I mean I love what that acoustic sound ultimately does to the electric sound but I just want to hear the electric sound without the acoustic sound in the room.

Anyway here is an interesting email from someone at MatrixAmplification(I was asking if I should buy an FRFR) and a link to a very interesting article about FRFR (Full Range Flat Response) speaker boxes for Kemper and Fractal.


There is nothing to stop you using a Kemper or any other modeller for that matter with a standard guitar speaker. With the Kemper, it does leave a small residue of the cab sim in the profile when you switch off cab sims but in truth this has got better and there are now profiles out there that have been profiled with the preamp and cab separate so this doesn't occur. It's true that you'll get the most variety from a FRFR unit but if you can handle the range of tones you need coloured by the same speaker then a standard cab will be fine. For the style you're going for I'd say you'll probably be ok. I've tried the Kemper (I have one also along with the Frcatal) with standard cabs and didn't hear the "cab artifacts" that much. If you don't need various matching cabs with profiles (such as Mesa or Marshall etc) then your existing one should be fine. We recently did an article about FRFR which you may find enlightening regarding the pro's and cons here Modelling preamp systems and full-range, flat response cabs explained | MusicRadar

[jorgemg1984]

I completely agree with Jack, the lack of "amp in the room" feel is actually one of the best reasons to go digital. No more "on axis" beamy sound!

[rickshapiro]

Interesting conversation. I've been a user of amplifier modeling, both analog (Sansamps) and digital for quite some time. I've owned and still own many of the Sansamp modelers, old and new (RK5). I still have the original POD and the HD500. Still use my Digi Rack Eleven and TC Nova System. I own just about every software guitar modeler out there as well. For me, it has always been about convenience and the flexibility modelers provide. I primarily play keyboard live and lug around keyboards, mixer,stands and two wonderful JBL PRX15 speakers. So, being able to bring a small guitar rig is optimum.

I have also owned tons of solid state guitar amps. I kind of frowned upon and somewhat dismissed the "tube elitist" for what seemed like their never ending diatribes about tube feel and the subtle difference between types of tubes, transformers and the like.

Well in recent years, I've acquired a number of tube amps, including an Alessandro Working Dog, Princeton reissue, Orange Rockerverb, Boogie Mark V, AC15 and a few others. Each of these has provided a better experience playing live then any of my modelers. For practicing at home or recording I find myself spending the time to mic these amps rather then using the plug-ins or modelers. There is just something about tubes. I do not need to define what it is but I just feel and hear it.

That being said, I still bring out my digital stuff when I am short on space on stage or if time is tight to get setup.

Digital modeling will always provide more flexibility in sounds, will typically be easier to move and the technology will continue to get better over the years.

I do wonder whether people think about the useful life of a modeler. I have a keyboard graveyard. The technology and quality of sound changes so fast that nothing depreciates like a keyboard/synth. How long will Kemper or Fractal maintain O/S upgrades for their aging devices. As modeling gets better it will required more horsepower, older units may not keep up with new algorithms or expanded effect chains.

Comparably, tube amps from the 50's are still desirable and useful. Classic tube amp designs have stood the test of time. Not sure where ones Kemper or Fractal will be in 5 years. That beings said, many do not really care about the useful life of an amp, a 3-5 year depreciation for something that brings one satisfaction may be enough.

I am sure a Kemper or Fractal is in my near future but I do not think tube amps are going to go by the wayside, I see a major resurgence in tube amps going on these days. Look at the plethora of boutique amps out there these days. There are so many choices.

Anyway, it is a good time to be alive when it comes to amp options.

Regards,

Rick

[jzucker]

Comparably, tube amps from the 50's are still desirable and useful. Classic tube amp designs have stood the test of time. Not sure where ones Kemper or Fractal will be in 5 years. That beings said, many do not really care about the useful life of an amp, a 3-5 year depreciation for something that brings one satisfaction may be enough.

I think it's much ado about nothing. In my comparisons, the kemper holds up with the best $50,000 dumble amps, '50s bassman amps, '60s fender amps.

It's irrelevant whether the technology itself will get better and render the older technology obsolete. The point is that it's already at the point where it's better (IMO) than the amps that it is modeling that you're holding up as the "classics".

And the reasons (as stated before) are:

• I can get the sound I want at any volume level
• there are no weird beam-peaking artifacts like you get out of a classic guitar speaker
• I can use any classic amp from 1w to 100w and get the sound at any volume level
• I can use any classic speaker from 5w to 300w and get the sound at any volume level
• I can add ridiculous amounts of speaker and power for extremely cheap (about $0.66/watt) and that includes the cabinet.