So far they all sound bad to me. The Green Scream is ok but I wish it had an EQ. My favorite OD pedals are J Rockett Dude and Xotic SL Drive. I know I could use those in front of the kemper but I bought the foot controller with the intention of using only the amps and built in effects. If anyone has suggestions on how to make them sound great please share!
Better OD/Distortion options
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Also landed on the green scream, and i often put an eq behind it somewhere.
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I only really use the green too. The mix function is handy but am also not a massive fan of the other ‘distortions’. The fuzz isn’t particularly good imo although I kind of gave up tweaking it and chances are I didn’t get the best out of it.
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I have no luck with the inbuilt overdrives, too.
All of them could use a major overhaul, an then additional EQ features are happily welcome!
All the drives ad a lot more compression compared to their real world models.
I know, "dynamic drives" is kind of a contradiction in itself, but I clearly feel more grip and response when using pedals.That said, I myself can pretty easily live without the Kemper overdrives, because I can profile my amps with a real drive pedal in front.
But when it comes to fuzz pedals, the Kemper cannot recreate their sound most of the time when profiling with them, and the Muffin and Fuzz stomps are among the weakest among the drive stomps available.Pretty much to improve here, IMHO
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I started using outboard drives and haven't found one that doesn't sound better than the on board ones.
Fulldrive 2
Wampler Euphoria
JHS modded EHX Soul Food
Tumnus
old Grey DOD OD250
Keeley Modded TS
Monte Allum modded Boss SD-1
JHS Muffeletta Fuzz
and more, all sound great with profiles with low to mid gain(Britt, Tone Junkie, etc) -
@GuyJames here's some great thoughts on the subject:
Personally, I almost never use one of my many, many fuzzes in front of a clean amp. I like the amp to have a little bit of breakup and the addition of a let's say Fuzz Face gives me many options to shape the gain-staging:
- guitar volume alters the fuzz response
- fuzz gain the amount of clipping in the pedal
- fuzz volume influences the clipping in gain stage of the following amp
It's a tightrope walk to balance all these levels.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with the drive stomps in the Profiler, best advise is to select an amp (Profile) that works well with these.
Just like real amps they respond differently to drive stomps, there is no magic OD setting that will make everything sound better.It's important to keep in mind what you are trying to achieve with the stomp:
more gain? most likely not needed, the Profiler can create more gain than an tube amp
tighter, more mid-focussed distortion? the classic job for a Green Scream
adding the characteristics of a stomp to a Profile, see above this requires proper gain staging, which btw. also applies to real amps and pedals.Adding a stomp isn't a shortcut to great tone, it's an introduction of another preamp stage and this requires ears, intention and a careful touch to make it work.
hth
Also a vid from @Jonathanrsullivan
Kemper Tips and Tricks, - Green Scream Mix control
Mahalo
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Personally, I use fuzz more for the sustain and less for the distortion.
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I believe the OD's lack any real/serious headroom and this is a major issue IMHO.
The Fractal product suffers this even worse. Compression, compression and even more compression. Sound needs to breathe to sound real and alive.When I use a 1996 Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (Comp Cut mode) in front (100% important to be at the input and not the loop) the increase in dynamics/breathing makes the Kemper 100% real to me and I still own many of the very best amps in the world. (SLO, 2 x XTC 20th, Goldfinger, Elmwood M60 & M90, BE100, VH4, '68 Plexi, Shiva 20th & others)
If CK & team could physically revisit and AB the KPA with excellent examples of ODs and distortion pedals I'd be very grateful and others would be too I believe
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We´ll se if the they will be better in the future but for now it's better to use a real pedal.
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Try the soft shaper with the gain set real low, like .2 or .4 or up to you with the level around one.
Does some interesting distortion. Probably not a replacement for your pedals but it's free