Distortion Sense vs. Pure Boost vs. Gain Knob

The way I see it (I could be wrong), the Distortion Sense never needs to be adjusted, the Pure Boost is the same as increasing the Gain and the Gain knob is just a Gain knob.

Distortion Sense is a global gain adjustment, meaning if you find every profile has too much gain with your guitar, you can use it to turn down the gain on everything.

I'd like to point out that the DS only impacts distorted sounds, so it is not a global gain offset (again, only for distorted sounds).
the scaling might be different from the Gain control, but that's it.
Also, the Profilers Gain Control is tone neutral.

An addition: Pure boost acts like the gain knob when placed before the amp stack, IIRC. I think it's in the manual

Quote from SonicExporer

Doesn't the Pure Boost stomp go in a different stage than the Gain knob? I don't want to take any firm position on anything yet as I haven't done enough experimenting but maybe somebody else might also be interested in seeing if they hear things as being the same, or rather different.

1) Gain Control
2) Pure Boost Stomp
3) Input Distortion Sense

Pay particular attention to potential differences in the the low end, thickness and harmonic harshness when tweaking.

Sonic

Be aware that the scale is different for all these - so incrementing a value by 1 won't necessarily equal a boost of the same magnitude in one of the others.

Also, as Don mentioned, if you're going to experiment with the distortion sense, use a high gain profile.

Quote from SonicExporer

I vaguely recall hearing the "tone neutral" Gain comment before, but that's not what I found. IIRC when the Gain control increases so does the low end, much like way some tube amps behave.
Hope to do some more detailed listening later today.

Sonic

I guess since adding gain means adding lots of compression, the spectral balance of the resulting signal could be perceived as changing.

Quote from SonicExporer

Got it, thanks guys. Yeah, clearly there isn't a 1:1 relationship in the settings. I'm just interested in learning how those three elements tend to impact the sound.

they all increase gain (in case of the DS sense only in distorting Profiles)
that's it - no voodoo found here

Quote from SonicExporer

I have not done extensive testing yet on all permutations and parameters but I have discovered two gain/volume aspects that I wanted to share as an update:

- The Pure Boost stomp seems to be different than raising the Gain knob.
- The Cab/Amp Volume seems to be different than the Output knob.

BTW, when I say different, I mean as it pertains to impacting the gain and/or tone. It can be subtle but definitely different. That's what my ears are sensing anyway.

Sonic

+1.1!!! I was thinking and feeling the same thing!!!

And what's funny is , as of late ,most of my profiles I'm using right now have about a +1.1-2.2 at least, sometimes more on those volumes except pure boost. Amp volume , preset volume, and distortion sense. Clean and or heavy profiles. I also feel the same about the powered kpa and it's pwr boost, and was having some troubles until I stopped using the pwr boost at 75% and monitor out volume at 75% and starred using just monitor out closer to 100% with zero power boost going into a Spawn 4x12 with v30s.

Have you tried a treble booster in mod or X slot with the treble rolled way back and adding a little volume and then compared it to a studio eq with 3k bump plus a little volume in the same place? Or even an effect like the octave where you can basically turn every parameter down in its menus and just boost the effect parameters volume and use it like a boost in front and hear the character and after affect it can do on other sounds? This might further help to prove your theory. Or at the very least , help to understand the sometimes quirky nature of things that are suppose to be more of the same.

Reminds me of the graphic eq in the hd500, even with no values adjusted at all , it has a very obvious impact on the sound when it's it technically not supposed to.
Anyways,
Chairs.

In the real world, as you guys probably know, many EQ's and whatnot are employed at "zero" / null settings for the single reason of imparting some of their "magic" to the throughput signal.

I've always assumed, to be on the safe side, that algorithmic processes might act the same way as I'm not privy to the programmers' M.O.'s, and I therefore haven't employed this methodology for boosting. Should I be looking for some "magic", then sure, I'd try, say, the Green Scream at zero drive and so on.

I know for sure that Pure Cab™ at zero imparts some "magic", so the potential's there for any other process in the Kemper AFAIC.

Totally, IMHO Sonic.

This has been asked for before, and I've always supported it, as I do for pretty much all plugins too, which as you'd know saves a whole lot of messing around setting up parallel-processing channels in a DAW.

Have a search and if you can't find a thread to resurect with the request, by all means create one, man; you'll have an instant +1 from me.

Er... hmm... I think it's a feature, aimed at bass players primarily, that you may be thinking of. Probably the ability to affect a restricted bandwidth (the high end, specifically) with, say, chorus, in order to avoid compromising the low end.

There is of course the ability to blend the direct signal in at the amp level, which is often overlooked...

the dist stomps have a mix knob (most of em) and then there's the amp direct mix.

I have used that quite a bit in the past with a green scream , 65% mix into a muff 50% mix, and then direct mix .05-1.9 high gain profiles and clean profiles.