Posts by drew_fx

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    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.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from paddyc

    why do the palm mutes act like that? Seems a fair few db quieter

    I'd like to do another video demonstrating the phenomenon with all of amps. Because it's been pretty common for me over the last 10 years of on-and-off Kemper ownership and profiling. I remember it being a big discussion back in the day, and it sort of petered out. But I never stopped noticing it.

  • The next step of having a real competitor

    It really depends on how far they've taken the Kemper hardware. I don't think any of us really know that. But for me, I'd like to see:

    - More accurate profiling

    - Somehow reduce the need for refining, and/or have an exact specfication of what we should be doing when refining

    - Full rig-to-rig spillover for all ABCD slots (I really like delays and reverbs in front of the amp!)

    - Ability to run more than one amp+cab at once

    - Multi-stage profiling: Kemper asks you to "set the gain to 9, set the gain to noon, set the gain to 3, set the gain to full" and has a way to interpolate between all of those settings in a single profile. Same with tone stacks.

    I think possibly they might need new hardware.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    As with the Kemper, there will be a huge number of owners who will be using captures created by other people, and unless a specific capture is available as a DI, there's currently no way to separate the amp from the cab in a full capture. In the case of the Kemper, a lot of what makes studio profiles sound so great comes down to the cab section, in my opinion. I've tried combining amps / DI's with third party IR's and there's generally no comparison. A lot of the KPA's mojo resides in its cabs, in my experience, and I suspect the same will be true for the QC. If there's no way to separate the amp from the cab, then your only option is to combine a DI capture with an IR.

    Only time will tell I suppose. I can see a world where you make a set of cab-less captures, and cab+mic captures, and run each of them on their own paths. One for on-stage monitoring, and one for FOH.

    The thing is; as rule the market is generally more savvy about this now. When Kemper launched, this wasn't something that was generally on our radar. But it's become quite a focal point over the last decade or so.

    That's how I would run my Kemper or a QC in a live situation.

    Tell you what thought - I've been burned by "professional" profile packs in the past, to the point where I just don't pay attention to them anymore. I make my own. Because they sound better for me.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    With the QC's full captures, the bigger issue for me is the inability to separate the amp and cab.

    Um... easy, no?? Want just the preamp? Tap into the FX loop. Want just the amp head? Tap the speaker output with a DI, or use a loadbox. Want just the poweramp?? Route into the FX loop return, tap the speaker output with a DI or loadbox... capture that.

    Use QC to mix and match up to 4 captures on one preset.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from Clanker

    post your profile on rig exchange for "educational" purpose (jk just gonna jam some tool tunes to it) :)

    p.s have you played palm mutes when refining?

    I'd be happy to throw up the profile, will do tomorrow! Yes I have played palm mutes when refining. I sometimes find that if you excessively focus on palm-mutes, that the lows can become even further away, so I think a good blend of low and high notes works best.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    thanks for posting Drew. Nice video and, yes I can hear differences. Perhaps subtle but definitely there.


    “How close can the Kemper get.....” “.....90%, 99%......?”


    In this particular example, and to my ears and persona tastes only; 125%. The Kemper significantly improved the tone to my ears. I was actually surprised at how uninspiring the Diezel was compared to the profiles. Of course that is just personal taste but I would actually be disappointed if the profile was closer to the real amp this time round.

    Haha! I knew someone was gonna say that! The Kemper doesn't sound bad, it just sounds different. And in some cases, it would be preferable over the actual amp, that's totally a valid perspective.

    Thanks for watching :)

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from dahla

    ... and now it’s delayed again? :D


    It is kind of funny that the only people playing these are social media «influencers», and yet it’s the hottest topic on multiple forums. That’s hype and marketing for ya, I guess.

    Wake me up when its available. Until then, meh. It’s not better than anything. It’s not available, that’s what it’s best at right now. :D

    Yes I'm pretty annoyed by that actually. Our other guitarist had pre-ordered one from the 1st batch. Still doesn't know when he will get one.

    I get it - Youtube is a huge marketing tool for companies, especially music tech companies, but a little more transparency about the hold up's from NDSP wouldn't go amiss.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from lightbox

    Erm, yes. At 11:09 you make the mistake and at 11:12 you can even hear the "doubled" sound.

    No that is 100% incorrect.

    The DI track is *only* routed to the Kemper. It's not routed to the main audio output. So you're not hearing that track at all at that moment. There is no signal coming back from the Kemper, because the Kemper return track is not armed.

    At 11:12 all you are hearing is the NOT refined profile recording.

    I know that the DI track looks "active" because there is signal showing on the meter. But just because you see something on the meters does not mean you are hearing it.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from andreio23

    Wouldn't that be fixed by increasing definition to decrease some of the low mids?

    Possibly I could get closer tuning those post-profile parameters in the amp block, I'm not going to say that they're not useful.

    But if QC doesn't require any of that and gets closer to the amp with less faff, then I think that could be a lot better.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from lightbox

    Only after 20 minutes you finally mute the DI track before you compare the recorded tracks.

    Some of the comparisons before had both, recorded track and DI reamping active at the same time.

    Erm, sorry but no. When I solo a track, you're only hearing that track. You're not hearing the DI signal being sent to the Kemper whenever one of the three recorded tracks are solo'd.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    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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  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Quote from Veguero

    And for those who still are looking for an ultimate copy, as many already pointed out: Sure, the QC seems to be the better plug-and-play capture, but does anybody of you really think that with all the adjustable parameters in a Kemper you could not get to an equally perfect match?

    I do wish we could remain balanced here - we're not saying the Kemper is bad. We're just (and have been for years) trying to identify a particular issue, and establish what could eventually be a fix for it. Christoph seems happy enough to have the discussion.

    Yes. I really do think that with all of the adjustable parameters in a Kemper, I cannot get 1:1 match in terms of palm-mute response and low-mid frequency response using the Kemper. And since I play metal, post-rock, and progressive styles, doing a lot of palm muted and stacatto runs, this is important to me.

    And a lot of other people care about it too.

    This isn't a new discussion, the QC videos have just reignited it, which is to be expected when the goal here is to capture the souls of our valve amp collections.

  • Neural Quad Cortex

    Hey Christoph! Thanks for these thoughts.

    What I would say is that changing the amp block parameters (pick attack, compressor, sag, tube shape, etc) can radically change the sound of a profile, and many many times you can get better sounds and/or closer to the real amp.

    But it isn't really fun to sit there tweaking all these things, trying to get closer to the real amp. Playing my guitar is fun for sure! :)

    I remember many a year ago we exchanged emails about profiling the Diezel D-Moll, and palm mute differences. I don't know if any extra work was done in this area since then, but I am happy to do some more tests if you want, focusing specifically about palm mutes and the low-end cloudiness that Rabea describes it; because over the various years of owning the Kemper (I had my first one in 2011, and have owned several since then too) I can agree with him - the palm mute reactions and the low-mid frequency response has always been a little off.

    It's a great device - and you're a very intelligent and admirable company, so I'm sure there is something you could do in this space.

    I have to hand:

    Marshall JVM410HJS

    Diezel D-Moll

    Diezel VH4

    Orange Rockerverb 100 MKIII

    VHT Sig:X

    cabs:

    Marshall JCM800 4x12 with T75's

    Marshall Mode Four 4x12 with K100's

    Egnater Tourmaster 4x12 with Chinese V30's


    I'd be totally happy to take some profiles and really explore this with you.

    Cheers!

  • Which of these effects can I ditch if I get a Kemper Stage?

    Still mulling over Kemper Stage. I think I want one, and I want to use it for a few purposes:

    1. Home recording with full rig profiles of my amps (boost pedal+amp+cab+microphone)

    2. Preamp-only profiles with a valve power amp or into the FX Return of a valve amp, then into a guitar cab.

    3. Preamp+Poweramp only profiles with a solid state power amp into a guitar cab.

    4. FX-only board for rehearsals and live performances, coupled with a valve amp and cab.

    It's the last use-case I'm puzzling over right now. Here are the effects I currently have (I don't use them all at once of course):

    Strymon Mobius

    Strymon Volante

    Strymon Timeline

    Strymon Big Sky

    MXR M300 Reverb

    Boss DD-500

    Boss DD-7

    Boss RV-500

    ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud

    MXR Micro Amp

    Electro Harmonix Pitch Fork

    Keeley 4-Knob Compressor

    Boss GE-7 EQ pedal

    Digitech FreqOut

    Dunlop 535Q wah

    I know it might not seem intuitive, but I think the Kemper Stage could work really well as an effects unit with it's seamless rig changes, delay+reverb trails, and X/Y morphing. The delays are great quality, the reverbs are excellent quality, and I'm fairly happy with the pitch effects I've tried. I'm not too keen on the modulations, the drives, or the fuzzes.

    Sounds I use in terms of effects (again, not all at once):

    regular forwards digital delay

    quarter note reverse delay

    tape delay with high-pitched squeal oscillations

    Dotted 8th note analog delay sound

    medium sized hall reverb (7 seconds)

    100% wet "supernatural" reverb

    Huge ambient pad reverb sound (no pitch shifting)

    50/50 mixed Octave Down pitch shift

    a 30/70 mixed whammy pitch shift going from unison to 5th above (interesting harmonies this one!)

    Deep robotic flanger

    slow phase 90 sound

    fast phase 90 sound

    Little bit of a crunchy boost.

    Compressor for tapping riffs.

    The most I ever use at once is 5 effects, and I always run everything in front of the amp. So I don't need to worry about running in 4-cable method or anything like that. And it means I can leave the delays and reverbs in their "native" slots for full spillover availability.

    So what do you reckon I could ditch from my live rig? I'm fairly sure the Kemper Stage can do all of the above except the drive sounds, and I hate the Kemper compressor sorry to say!!

    I'm very tempted with something like this:

    I'm still not 100% comfortable with the idea of ditching 100-watt valve amps and 4x12's from my live rig, but I'm slowly coming into the 21st century! :D

    But I figure over time I can start to transition to full on profiles as and when touring and gigging requires it.

    Thoughts?

  • Spillover for A, B, C, D, X, Mod

    +1 yes please.

    I play post-rock influenced metal, and having delays and reverbs in front of an amp is key for that sound. Having spillover from rig to rig in the ABCD slots would be absolute heaven for me.

    I'm about to buy a Kemper Stage. This is the one thing that I find a little off-putting.