Neural Quad Cortex

    out of curiosity...

    Is there any video in which one of those guys scrolls through a serious number of factory presets?

    I mean..I saw that they used a few factory presets in some of those promos.But I expected that neural will show us how good this quad cortex sounds "out of the box".

    If their capture & modeling is so good..what about a "quad cortex vs AxeFX III" kind of thing?

    A direct comparison of certain amps,fx etc..

    Quote from Per

    I am interested in how it does it’s cab and the ability to set up different mics. If it’s just an IR loader that ignores your real cab’s sound then bugger that. If instead it can separate cab from amp as the Kemper does and also allow you to virtually change the mic you used originally keeping your own cab and room in the picture then that would be impressive.

    I think the Captures are like the Rig Player in TH-U, in that it is an enclosed block in the signal path. In TH-U, they have included the Kemper parameters stolen from the Amp block, but if they have "profiled" the whole chain, you can only turn the Cab on or off, not swap it out (I assume that turning the Cab off will activate the equivalent of Kemper's Cab Driver algorithm, guessing at where the amp ends and the cabinet begins). As far as I've seen of the QC, you can't even turn off the Cab of a captured "whole" rig. I think most users will likely have to rely on capturing DIs via a dedicated output or through a load box and then add an IR after the Capture block in the signal path.

    Yeah sorry, thought the link would take you straight to it.

    Also please double check the definition setting - the profile SHOULD be at 5.7, but I noticed when I turned my Kemper on it was at 3.4. Might be because I was futzing with it last night. I didn't save anything though, so the profile should be 5.7.

    Quote from Per

    Where are the people knocking out Hendrix or SRV tones? White Stripes even? Tones that are pure unadulterated mid to low gain amps, and not just country chick’n picking either.

    There are a few videos out there that have sections of low to mid gain tones that sound fantastic, imo.

    Super high gain sounds from any modeler sound like POD tones to me. Not a high gain guy at all.

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    As a long time Kemper user, I don't generally reach for Tube Bias, Tube Shape, Power Sagging, or even Clarity and Definition when shaping profiles. I almost always reach for Gain and/or BMTP. To be honest, the advanced amp parameters don't usually shape the tone in ways that suit my needs, but that's me.

    Not sure what kind of music you play. But for rock/high gain amps, Clarity and Definition are incredibly useful and typically yield significant results. Particularly on amps sounding dull/muffled/dark.

    • Any suggestion that Kemper spent ten years refining the quality of its amp tones is incorrect. In late 2012, it sounded fabulous—hence its wildly fast adoption among pros. And to the company’s credit, despite years of incremental advances in conveniences and in internal effects, the tones that sounded great back then sound essentially identical today. So no, today’s KPA is not a completely different animal than the one released way back when.

    • Periodically, Kemper announces complimentary profile packs. Some are simply commercial vendors sharing a taste of their wares, and others are designed specifically as free packs in collaboration with artists. Either way, at this point pretty much anyone can find what he needs in the rig manager, without ever surfing the exchange or purchasing commercial packs. The fact that the company hasn’t itself monetized device add-ons is important to me. I love the plug-ins that UAD creates and own pretty much everything they’ve released, but the prospect of turning on my guitar amp and seeing an a la carte menu of features I have to purchase in order to use is a turn-off.

    • I always become excited about the latest form factors and functionalities and do lust a bit for these new products. Inevitably, at least thus far, my infatuations pass. This is not a judgment about what those new products ultimately turn out to be. It has more to do with that what I already own, the KPA, continues to deliver what I need. If it didn’t, sure my investigations for alternatives might take on a greater urgency.

    ymmv

    (All this from a guy who is rooting for the QC to be great, but who is also finding the roll-out and much of the surrounding related discourse a bit yucky.)

    Quote from Blackbird

    Not sure what kind of music you play. But for rock/high gain amps, Clarity and Definition are incredibly useful and typically yield significant results. Particularly on amps sounding dull/muffled/dark.

    For muffled, dark, and/or blanketed tones I almost always reach for the Treble and/or Presence control, because while the Clarity and Definition parameters will improve clarity and definition, they aren't necessarily suited for making dark tones brighter. Whereas Treble and Presence will brighten and improve clarity/definition. If the tone was bright enough but simply lacked definition, I'd reach for the Definition control, but I rarely find a use case for it(or Clarity).

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    For muffled, dark, and/or blanketed tones I almost always reach for the Treble and/or Presence control, because while the Clarity and Definition parameters will improve clarity and definition, they aren't necessarily suited for making dark tones brighter.

    Actually, for modern rock and high-gain amps, they are well suited for helping improve muffled/dark profiles. :thumbup:

    Quote from Blackbird

    Actually, for modern rock and high-gain amps, they are well suited for helping improve muffled/dark profiles. :thumbup:

    Clearly what works for you doesn't work for all.

    And vice versa.

    I value the Definition and Compressor controls in the Amp section. Clarity less so, but I do use it sometimes. The others have no use for me.

    Quote from Blackbird

    Actually, for modern rock and high-gain amps, they are well suited for helping improve muffled/dark profiles. :thumbup:

    I'm a high gain player and as I said, Clarity and Definition can improve clarity and definition, but as far as brightening up dark and blanketed tones, they have a minor effect on the frequency response. Treble and Presence will do both, brighten and improve clarity/definition. That isn't to say Definition has no effect on the frequency response. It does. It gently shelves the low end below 600 Hz and likewise provides a gentle boost to everything above approx. 900 Hz, so it can perform some mild brightening, but it's often too mild for my needs, and I don't necessarily want or need the mids to be affected.

    Quote from drew_fx

    So I spent a chunk of today making a video to try to demonstrate the issue I run into time and time again with the Profiler. Link is here:

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    Thanks for the free profile and nice video, honestly I would use any of those tones I heard in the video.... assuming they work well in a mix anyway

    I am waiting for powered version of quad, but I feel like it might not come soon, as separate power amp is already proposed in FAQ.
    I agree there are some areas in which Kemper might improve:
    Tone

    • for some amps it is hard to capture both sparkle and proper bottom end - thick, fat and clear. Elmwood Modena, 5150 - not that good. Super bass heavy with clarity - Splawn Nitro - really good. No idea why.
    • at least for me refining brings more clarity and natural response, especially if you play on low volume, in my case it shifts tone towards midrange, but might lack clear fast bass. Once you decide to use refining, that's bit of lost battle, because the result depends on you, which means, success is not guaranteed ;) I used to do small changes to setting and do a few profiles, these days I refine same setting in a different way to achieve the result.
      This has some good sides and bad sides:
      - you can fine tune the profile once you figure out how refining affects the output
      - you can make bad profiles ;)
      I actually think that except bass spectrum, the feel is better profiled than the tone, maybe I am crazy :)
    • lots of profiles I made had definition at 10. This raises a question, was there some limitation during profiling, as one of 'blocks' is maxed out. I believe this was mentioned already. I never used any drive and I profile for amp in the room settings, I just like it tight, sharp and heavy, whats wrong about it.
    • I think the lack of immediate attack and sparkle was also mentioned by some youtubers a lot time ago(for example Paul Davids -sparkle), so I find it surprising that some people find it surprising ;)
      Once I've heard Rabea comparison I really wanted to buy the new thing.
      I did not, because:
      - it has no power amp. I don't like the hassle, and I want to have the whole ecosystem to recreate sound properly, instead of buying 20 power amps to figure out which one sounds good with which profile.
      - probably lack direct profiling, for amateurs like me who like amp-in-the-room sound. I use Kemper DI and I definitely prefer direct profiles over the mic ones
      - the profiled amps were not bass or low-end heavy, I'd like to hear this with amp like 5150, Diezel Herbert. What if this one is just...middy.
    • Maybe refining could be more customizable, it seems like it has quite short memory, which I kind of get, as it could be affected by random outliers or lets say local minima, so I wonder if it could use all the input you provide if you insist. Profile made by playing chord at 1st fret might sound quite different from 7th fret, yet both cases should provide an info and lead to most accurate profile.
    • All of this begins with a question how transparent the capture is, there were some comparisons posted here years ago (bass area, top end).
    • On the other hand:
      The process will never be perfect. Even using additional cable changes the sound (in direct profiling), and with some amps it is harder to get proper tone that way. Maybe selling some profiling set, bundle with some really transparent cables would make sense, though transparent does not mean better in many cases ;)

    UI

    Twekability

    • I've heard this a lot, especially when people compared Kemper to Axe - that the controls in some other units work in more natural way. Personally I just take a lot of snapshots, not a big deal, though it could be better probably. It would require some kind of advanced mode, where user provides info about profiled amp, like secondary custom set of controls. From this info system can kind of simulate the behaviour and estimate or morph the profiles for other settings. Definitely can be done with neural networks, but might be harder than it sounds, even these days in some areas there is a lot data processing going on before it hits the actual network or some dedicated layer designs are used for certain blocks. to make it more controlled.

    I just saw this video, check the pedal profiling. It's mind blowing. Would the profiler be able to profile just the stomp boxes?

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