Real quick - “geoffsct” you have to have your amp’s speaker output connected to either a load box with matching Ohms, or the amp’s speaker (if its a combo), or a speaker cabinet if your amp is a head and cabinet configuration. If you don’t do that, you will damage your amp!! All tube amps are built looking for a load resistance. Think of it this way, if you had a Ferrari up on stilts and floored it for hours on end with the wheels spinning furiously and never touching the pavement or anything that could offer a load resistance, you would burn through your engine very quickly.
OK, I apologize for the length in advance, but I’d like to address the bigger problem that I have with my Kemper. Especially when it comes to doing direct amp profiles. And since there are lots of folks who maybe are new to Kemper-land, I’ll explain it as simply and methodically as I can.
For those of you who have tried direct amp profiles, or in the process of trying direct amp profiles, most likely the reason why you want to do that is because you are interested in using an external cabinet either on stage, or potentially, and I say this with great skepticism, for studio recording to make your profiles sound and feel more like you’re playing your amp through a cabinet from its original speaker. Further detailed explanation follows.
Situation 1: Live
I have several heads that I play (Bogner, Friedman, Marshall, etc.) and I play them through my 2X12 cabinet loaded with Celestion V30s. One of the possible benefits of useing of the Kemper would be to have Direct Amp profiles of each head in my profiler, and be able to bring only my profiler, and my cabinet to a live show. Thus eliminating the need to bring multiple heads (In reality, I usually only bring one head and miss my others when performing). Note that I’m not interested in taking my “Main Outs”from the amp to the front of house as I’m only using Non-merged, Direct Amp profiles (those of you who have heard what an amp sounds like without a speaker now just how that sounds!). This is more for a club size situation where stage volume is loud enough to get the job done, or I’ll ask the sound crew to just mic my cabinet the old fashioned way. Thus, having a direct amp, non-merged profile should be perfect for this. But they fall incredibly short. Unusable really.
Situation 2: studio recording
We all know how to record an electric guitar amp (old school), and how to make Kemper “studio” profiles. Once the profile is made, the Kemper is really designed to be “recorded” - meaning you use the Main Output(s) and connect that to your interface/DAW - which is what I suspect 99% of Kemper users do (myself included but under duress). To me, the Kemper always sounds sterile, and doesn’t really hold up in the studio environment (There are really good reasons for this and I’m happy to explain that to anyone who is curious maybe in another post).
If you’re like me and are not happy with this, you have 2 options:
Running your profile through an FRFR cabinet (I own a Kemper Kabinet) and trying to record that using a mic is not recommended because now you’re essentially re-recording your profile. You’ve got the profile (orig amp, mic, mic pre, etc) and now your trying to record that set up again using another mic, mic, pre, etc. Redundant and not necessary. Kemper also does not recommend this. It’s like eating twice cooked pizza. Never as good as the first time.
So, that leaves us with the Direct Amp possibility, which on paper should be the panacea to all this. Theoretically, we should be able to use a direct amp profile - which captures your amp from either the output stage (or the FX loop stage) and bypasses your speaker entirely - thus eliminating the need for a mic, mic pre, etc., or making a Kemper “studio” profile. We should be able to bring the Kemper profiler and a cabinet to the studio, dial up a Direct Amp (non-merged) profile, take the speaker out of the Kemper Profiler, plug into a cabinet, mic the cabinet, and record it. It should also in theory be sonically indistinguishable from the original amp and speaker combo. Blindfolded, we should not be able to tell the difference. This is the main appeal of the Kemper for me, and again it has potentially the same benefits as the live situation. Except that it doesn’t.
The Kemper Direct Amp Conundrum:
There are a lot of DI‘s out there on the market, and Kemper has addressed the wide variety of them very well in their instructions for making direct amp profiles. I am using either the Two Notes Torpedo Captor 8, or the Rupert Neve Designed RNDI. Both of which are exceptionally good DI boxes. The benefit of the Two Notes DI is that it can act as a load box, thus allowing you to make profiles without using the amp’s speaker. It is capable of handling 400W so there is plenty of headroom. You can of course use the THRU of the DI and still use your cabinet as well and bypass using it as a load box. The Neve DI will require you to use the THRU as you need to have a load on your amp it does not have a load box function.
Once your connections are made: Guitar - Kemper - Kemper Direct out - Amp input - Speaker output to DI box IN, DI Thru to amp’s speaker (make sure to use speaker cables for these connections and NOT instrument cables), DI’s XLR output to Return Input on Kemper, check your signal strength, and you’re now ready to profile away.
To hear what your profile sounds like, switch to Browse mode, take the “speaker out” on the Kemper and (using a speaker cable always) plug that into your cabinet. It should sound identical. After all, you’ve taken the amp (minus the speaker cabinet), profiled it into your Kemper, so when you plug the output of the Kemper into your cabinet, it should sound the same. Except that it doesn’t. Not by a long shot.
The sonic result of the direct profiles, when compared to the original, does not retain the timbre of the original and adds too much top end as well as other artifacts that are not wanted or part of the original sound. This has been the case on BOTH DI boxes, used with the cabinets, and as a pure load box.
Do we have to buy a Kemper DI to fix this?
Which brings me back full circle - has anyone had total success using the Kemper DI or do you still have to tweak and refine and so forth? I’m interested in any testimonials especially by those who have tried other DIs and are still not happy with their Direct Amp profiles.
FWIW, when some of the best and most respected DIs on the market can’t really get the job done it tells me that this is a Kemper profiling issue. Perhaps having a separate Direct Amp Profile algorithm, instead of the original one which as far as I know has never been updated.
Cheers,
Bryan