Thinking of selling my Kemper for the Tim Henson Neural DSP?

  • So I've spent hundreds of hours playing tons of different profiles, changing settings, trying fx, everything on the kemper ect... Trying to dial in the best tone I possibly can, to be fair some of which I do enjoy. However I tried out the demo for the Tim Henson Neural DSP and it just instantly blew any tone I've ever heard from the Kemper out of the water. I just can't help but feel like the Kemper requires way too much time and attention and not to mention luck to just find a good sounding profile out of the box, hell even WITH spending hours to make it sound better. The Neural DSP was instantly amazing by default, didn't have to mess with anything and that's honestly how I feel it should be. Somebody convince me why I shouldn't sell my Kemper to buy the DSP, I could even probably buy a new guitar with the money which would be nice.

  • Different people have different needs.

    I was able to profile my own amps, and get their sounds with little effort. I also use profiles from The Kemper Factory Content, Rig Exchange, and Commercial Rig vendors.

    If you get a Neural DSP and enjoy it, I am happy for you.

    Having to buy commerical rigs is something I have a big issue with as well even though I have done it quite a bit, I feel as if I shouldn't need to just to find a decent profile to work with. I could revisit the Kemper factory content but I remember not being very impressed with any of the profiles from them. Everything I have downloaded on the Rig Exchange has been either unplayable garbage or sub par except for maybe stuff from Michael Britt, or Mago something something I forget his name.

  • I had the opposite experience.

    When the QC was getting all the launch publicity I got curious about Neural’s plugins and downloaded a couple to demo. I hated them. None of them sounded good to me at all; too harsh and fizzy with hyped super super tight bass. Too “metal” for my tastes (even the Cory Wong who iis abboutas unmetal as you can get ?).

    My final test was to try profiling the Neural plugins. The Kemper nailed them. I still didn’t like the result but it did sound just like the Neural plugins. I never bought them when the free trial expired but it was a fun experiment.


    Bottom line is, it is all tone which totally subjective and just personal taste. Kemper works for me. Neural works for others, Helix, Axe, real amps……….. if it. Sounds and feels good to the player then it is good. Enjoy it and make music ?

  • I think it all depends on what you want from the units. To me the interface is a huge part of that. I found the Kemper to be very easy to work with. I have used a Boss unit and my Old AxeFX and the Kemper is by far the easiest for me to use.

    I don't have any experience with the QC but I am betting you can go down an adjusting rabbit hole there as well. One thing I saw someone post was that they started turning off all of the effects in the QC to get to just the profile of the amp and they all sounded nearly the same. Maybe it is an effect that you liked better that could possibly be adjusted in a similar way on the Kemper?

    I too profiled my gigging amp and got a really good result from that so for me the Kemper is doing exactly what I wanted it for in an easy to work with interface that logically makes sense to me. There are multiple successful units for a reason. Some like the interface better on specific units. They are all capable of very good tones in this day and age. Some just like the sound of a profiler and others like the sound of a modeler. I also think they each have their shortcomings. People also seem to want one unit to do everything that every unit on the market can do. Honestly, most people wouldn't use half of those capabilities in one unit.

  • My experience with my KPA has been the exact opposite.

    When stacked against everything else I’ve tried, I spend a fraction of time dialing in great sounds on the KPA and more time playing. Love it to death.


    With that said, if the $119 Neural DSP plugin is what makes you giggle when you play, covers how you play (studio/live etc) and the KPA is frustrating….sell the KPA.


    Simple. Go with the giggles.




  • Not getting why this is a mutually exclusive (either or) kind of situation. I just spent some time on the NeuralDSP website to check this out.

    If you already have an audio interface, a decent computer, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), studio monitors or Front of House (FOH) system or headphones, a MIDI controller (optional), and a free iLok account, and of course, the Neural DSP Plugin, you're ready to go.

  • So I've spent hundreds of hours playing tons of different profiles, changing settings, trying fx, everything on the kemper ect... Trying to dial in the best tone I possibly can, to be fair some of which I do enjoy. However I tried out the demo for the Tim Henson Neural DSP and it just instantly blew any tone I've ever heard from the Kemper out of the water. I just can't help but feel like the Kemper requires way too much time and attention and not to mention luck to just find a good sounding profile out of the box, hell even WITH spending hours to make it sound better. The Neural DSP was instantly amazing by default, didn't have to mess with anything and that's honestly how I feel it should be. Somebody convince me why I shouldn't sell my Kemper to buy the DSP, I could even probably buy a new guitar with the money which would be nice.

    Sorry, but am I the only one that has the impression, that guys like him are not really Kemper user but (maybe payed by a competitor) user of other gear, who just want to make trouble?

  • So I've spent hundreds of hours playing tons of different profiles, changing settings, trying fx, everything on the kemper ect... Trying to dial in the best tone I possibly can, to be fair some of which I do enjoy. However I tried out the demo for the Tim Henson Neural DSP and it just instantly blew any tone I've ever heard from the Kemper out of the water. I just can't help but feel like the Kemper requires way too much time and attention and not to mention luck to just find a good sounding profile out of the box, hell even WITH spending hours to make it sound better. The Neural DSP was instantly amazing by default, didn't have to mess with anything and that's honestly how I feel it should be. Somebody convince me why I shouldn't sell my Kemper to buy the DSP, I could even probably buy a new guitar with the money which would be nice.

    Whatever works for you :thumbup:

  • I tried some of the dsp plugins when I had to ship my kemper for repair. There were much raving about those plugins and how good they are. I wasn't impressed. They were ok but nothing more.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • MarshallCW , I think that Ibot39 is on to something here.

    Contrary to popular belief, one of the aspects of the guitar signal chain that dictates your guitar tone in a major way-is your Cab/Speaker choice and mic placement when capturing that tone or the Impulse Response being used.

    One of the consistent things among the Neural DSP plugins is the IRs that Nolly Getgood does. I think what you're liking the most about the tones you're getting is due to that.

    I've actually disabled the cab section and used the same IRs when comparing Kemper Profiles and the Neural DSP plugins, and the result was just really unnaturally tight bass/low end and a lot of high end content with the Neural DSP plugins in comparison to Kemper Profiles (when comparing just profiles and the amps from the plugins with no EQ and without any low or high cuts on with either)

    Before selling your KPA, maybe try just using the Cab section of the Neural DSP plugins along with the Amp section of your fav profiles and see how you like the results.

    If you like those results, then you'd probably be just as happy with investing in GGD ZIlla Cabs Studio or the ML Sound Labs Mikko Cab plugin. The GGD Zilla Cabs Studio is an entire library of IRs made by Nolly Getgood made with different speakers and taken with different mics, and you can mix the IRs in a really easy to use interface in order to create your own custom IR's with Nolly's library of IRs. Definitely something to look into as an alternative if it really is the IRs that are the make or break factor in the tones you like.

    It's definitely something to look into! Because your KPA unit is capable of so much in comparison to a plugin, its worth putting in some time to see if you can figure out what you can do to get tones you want out of the unit imo. I think if you sold it and went with plugins, they'd leave you wanting more out of them in some situations and you'll probably have to compensate for that with other gear. Just consider how many high quality effects and stuff like that the KPA has in it and compare to the basic few pedals in each plugin and going with the choice with more options usually gives you more versatility in some situations. But I think that's why you're asking for the community to help you see more perspectives on the situation and kudos to you for that my brother. We can learn a lot from different perspectives and I hope some of what I said can help at least a little bit lol