Note that I'm only going with the retrofitted profiles I had so I didn't really test a ground up LP yet. Primarily, I was trying it out on Reampzone direct profiles (as he posts his settings) as well as Tim Owens HAWP 27 for the BE100 amp (where he also posted his settings).
First off, the workflow of retrofitting wasn't super intuitive to me. It goes something like this...
1. You hit the restore buttons for gain, amp EQ, and amp model. You "hit the button once" but is it all three at the same time or just reset them one at a time? Confusing as to why this is needed.
2. You then select the tone stack
3. Set the origin gain pot ref if you know it
4. This is where it gets more confusing to me. At the point you select the tone stack, it puts the amp EQ knobs at 50%. But, the EQ is still "working" on the new amp model knobs prior to getting the knob values to what the profile was originally made with. So, if you select an amp tone stack model that defaults Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence all at 5, and your original profile had BMTP settings of 6,7,6,6 (let's say), turning to those settings does audibly change the EQ of the model...it seems...before you burn it in. I would assume the way it should work is that the EQ should have no effect until you set it and burn it? Otherwise, aren't you kind of getting a double EQ thing happening unless the retrofitted profiles were done with all EQ on 5? Maybe I'm not doing something right.
In terms of sounds, my observations...
- I found I didn't like the real amp tone stacks and behavior for the vintage Marshalls. I tried a Reampzone 76 JMP (modded though) and a JCM 800 2203. Adding gain there was loose, woofy, and bassy and the amp EQ didn't correct what I wanted to hear for me ears. I think these would need pedals to sound how I liked or just the right guitar to match the original profile better. I don't care for Kemper's pedals as a means to tame and shape that, as people did with the real thing. In this case, score one for the original Kemper EQ
- I tried MBritt's pack and did find the EQ more useful in his vintage Marshalls, but the gain structure had similar limitations. Again...probably how it's meant to be in real life, and why people use real pedals in front of the amps. The EQ did at least perform better on the MBritt Liquid Profiles.
- With Tim Owens BE100 HAWP 27, I found the LP eq more useful, but, in comparing direct to the profiles with the old EQ method, the latter had more life and clarity. Maybe I could have got there with more EQing, but just my observation.
- With the Reampzone JJ100, I found the LP more useful to get to the gain and EQ I wanted in a better fashion. Score one for LP
- With the Reampzone Soldano 100, same as above. This one was the biggest beneficiary of LP because with everything at 12o'clock on the dials, it was pretty dark and not a great sound. The real amp EQ stack of the SLO100 was much better than trying Kemper EQ or gain. Score another for LP
So it was a mixed bag for me. I think what I found is for amp profiles done by the profiler where the EQ and gain was very close to what I wanted, Kemper EQ and little to no gain adjustment is the way to go. This was especially true for vintage style amps. For profiles where the original amp EQ is more interactive or useful, and where the profile was done with everything at 5, Liquid Profiling for the gain and EQ makes a big difference to getting what I originally wanted from the profiles and it kind of saves a few of them for me.
