I have been wondering, when you're going to create a profile of your favorite amp, are you setting up the amps eq section (Bass, Treb, Mid, Pres, Master, Pre-amp) to the settings you normally would have it when you're playing through it?
What about if you need to use a TS-9 in the front to give it a little added grit? Are you including the TS-9 in the whole profile as well?
1. I have been wondering, when you're going to create a profile of your favorite amp, are you setting up the amps eq section (Bass, Treb, Mid, Pres, Master, Pre-amp) to the settings you normally would have it when you're playing through it?
2. What about if you need to use a TS-9 in the front to give it a little added grit? Are you including the TS-9 in the whole profile as well?
1. Yes. Set up your amp to get 'your' sound. Try to nail your real amp's sound before you start the profile making process. This will create a snapshot of the amp's tone that you use as a starting point. The profiler loads that sound and you can then use it to modify the tone, gain, etc. on the Kemper itself to add some variety.
2. Yes. Connect the TS-9 in front of the tube amp, just like you normally would. Here is a simplified schematic of the connections. Refer to the manual for specifics as to how to make a Studio Profile.
Guitar --> Kemper --> TS9 --> Tube Amp --> Cab --> Mic --> Kemper
I use a noise gate. Make the profile with it or without it?
Make the profile without it. The Raison D'tre of the noise gate is to block low level noise from your guitar's electronics.
When you make a profile, the Kemper provides a low noise set of proprietary tones that it sends through your tube amp to create the profile. Your guitar is connected only to check the result of the initial profiling stage and then to refine the profile if necessary. So the gate is totally unnecessary and it might even add some noise to the process.
Like the others said, dial your amp to your liking to get a nice sound "in the room". Then (ideally) find a mic position on your cab that gets you a mic'd tone that sounds similar to what you're hearing "in the room". Right on the edge of the speaker's dustcap with a little distance of an inch or two to the cab's grille is usually a good start when using an SM57. But mind that a close-mic'd amp sounds different to what you are actually hearing when standing in front of the amp, so be prepared to "compensate" the amp settings to a tone that sounds great mic'd. I might bet that your first attempts will yield some boomy bass or a slightly muffled tone (mic too far to the outside edge of the speaker) or too trebly of a tone (mic too far to the center of the speaker). Don't give up too early, move the mic in very tiny steps and you'll get your tone with some experience. Note the mic positions in the comments-tags of your profiles to learn better what works and what doesn't. Using some chalk to mark good mic positions on the cab might help to reproduce tones you like, too.
A Tube Screamer in front is fine, but there are two things to consider: 1) The KPA's manual says that it cannot capture the TS-9 circuit behaviour correctly, so I'd do one profile with and another one without the TS-9 (and use the TS-9 in front of the KPA). Gives more options as well. And 2) I found that - especially on clean(er) tones, not so much on distorted ones - I had to crank the tone knob on the pedal higher (=more treble) than I would normally do. Btw, in my experience the KPA can capture my TS-like pedals just fine.
Don't use a noise gate! The KPA does not like it and will even report that a noise gate has been detected, although it will make a profile. There are plenty of in-KPA-options for noise gating which work great. I like to have the 2:1 Noise Gate in Stomp-Slot 1, which I find works a bit better for me (more transparent) than the noise gate in the input section.
