Thank you for sharing your experience HowardBrown
I had very expensive studio monitors Neumann KH120, I had praised Yamaha DXR10, I had BAM200 with unpowered Kabinet. Before that, I had multiple setups that also didn't work for me.
I'm not trying to say, that Kemper is bad. It's great for what it is and the company and support is second to none.
But I think that amp in the room, can be only achieved by amp in the room. I was recently in a music store and the guy played some rock chops on Epiphone Les Paul on some Marshall halfstack. There is this 1% of nuances, that makes you miss it, when you're trying to emulate it.
I'm not an electrician, but I use me ears here. I think there is something in the interaction between real tubes in poweramp and speaker, that cannot be replicated.
I agree with these statements. I believe the profiler was designed for studio and live sound for which it excels. The issue for me has been perspective, I have had tunnel vision based on my past experiences with gear. I've owned tube and solid state amps, stomp boxes, several multi-effects pedal boards and a digital amp, but I still used all of this coupled with a guitar speaker in a conventional manner, why I have struggled with the concept of monitoring in a manner with the Kemper that gives a good representation of what others will hear I just can't explain, my age and past experience are definitely factors.
I generally thrive in problem solving situations, whether it's computer or software based, audio/video/lighting, construction etc, I like the challenge of figuring stuff out and finding a solution to fix it. But in the last two years as I've experimented with a solution for monitoring my profiler a mental block has been present that has really impeded my normal thought process, again past experiences and age are the main contributors, but I believe I'll pass the blame over to covid. There are definitely differences between the Kemper and a conventional amp, the reaction between the player and a regular guitar cabinet is probably the biggest hurdle for me.
Me coming to terms and accepting those differences can open up a new realm of possibilities, as I found out yesterday with the pa speaker, and a low quality one at that. The profiles sounded closer to the originals, the differences between amp types was more distinct than I achieve with my em12 as it's character causes all of the profiles to have a more common tone overall, it is smoother sounding but at the cost of losing some of the quality's of what makes the actual amp sounds like it does. What also stood out was the difference in the sound of the effects, they were clearer and more defined which was to my liking. So I'm moving forward with the change to a pa speaker, I think the pros out-way the cons and I'll have to adapt.
Couple of points from me:
1) You are not an irritation, we have all been through periods of finding the right set up so we all understand your pain
2) There is NO perfect monitor solution, only what is best for you. And I mean this for all solutions, not just the KPA. Guitar cabs have massive impact on the sound, so every monitor solution you try, you almost have to start again
3) Not everyone loves the Kabinet. I do like mine BUT I also don't think about it too much as its mainly just for me to hear, I care more about the FOH sound. Also, increasingly I'm using it less and less because I'm tending to use the in house monitors, making it redundant
4) I think there is an element of this being in your head. I've often seen people get an amazing sound out of gear and then I play it and...oh, where did it go. The old addage of sound being in your fingers is true but I also think we hear other people different to ourselves. I'm convinced my sound isn't that great but so many people have told me it is. I even check with sound engineers at gigs and they say its great, so there is an element I suspect where you sound better than you think you do. I go round this cycle of " this sounds different to how I remember when I played it last week"...of course it doesn't but my head tells me something isn't quite right...
Feel for you dude!
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1) Thank you, I appreciate that
2) Starting over has become old and takes the fun of just sitting down to play away, I'm more than ready to find a few good profiles and call it a day. I do have mild ocd, when I'm working on a project it actually helps me as I'll get intently focused and work out the details in my head before my feet hit the ground hundreds of miles away, which has been helpful. It has not however been helpful in this particular situation, I have been to zoned in on one aspect of the signal chain and lost all ability of rational thought in making a decision.
3) My wife and I have been to four smaller concerts since 2018 where Kempers were in use, all but one had in ear monitors only. Michael Britt was the only person using a cabinet onstage (his signature Valvetrain) but his main monitoring source looked to be in ears.
4) That's usually where the greatest battles occur, in our own minds, and I'm absolutely guilty of that in this instance. I've watched a few videos in the past week where musicians, their techs and foh operators expressed the same shared conclusion about moving to units such as Kemper or Axe-Fx, the signal is consistent which helps eliminate many of the variables that are present with conventional cabs and mics as they go from venue to venue. If they can make that transition with all they have laying on the line and say it has made their jobs easier, someone such as myself really shouldn't be having problems.
I don't know if Howard has done so but it could be interesting to compare a combo side by side with the same Kemper's profile.... Just to see...
I know sometimes i dislike my sound even in the same room, same guitar, same profile, same pickups position, tone, volume....The day after i love it
The biggest percentage of perceived sound from one moment to the next probably only exists in the mental realm. I've learned that when ringing out a room, hit it and forget it, you can question your settings until you make yourself physically ill but that doesn't accomplish anything. Ringing out an empty room is usually a worst case scenario, if it sounds good then bodies wont make it worse. There are to many variables that contribute to the sound at any given time, number of people present, the temperature, ear fatigue etc... and that is just indoor venues. And as you stated, what sounded good one day to you might not the next, but step away a few days and it's a whole new world when you return. I just didn't apply that knowledge in this case, I was looking at it as two entirely different animals when really they share a lot of common elements, again, brain fog, it is my failure, I just got stuck in a very narrow mindset.
So here's what comparisons I have done. I've had the profiler for six years and for the last two it's been a struggle, switching from one speaker to another and I think a big part of it was the sound I had grown accustomed to from the first four years of ownership. I had used a combo as a monitor for the Kemper by plugging into the effects return, the tone was pretty dark. I never plugged my guitar into another amp during that time and didn't realize just how dampened the sound was. When moving on to different monitors from there everything has sounded harsh, but I now believe most of that was my perception of the sound. I went to my buddies music store about a week ago to catch up and played through a few of the amps he had while there, they all had some fizz to them as you added a little gain. I broke out what few band recordings I have that are in digital format from thirty plus years ago and gave them a quick listen, my guitar tone had a lot of fizz to it that I don't remember, I didn't notice back then but I do now. Same results from a twenty year old recording also.
The only thing I have at home is the old combo amp that I have had for 11 years, same one I used with the Kemper, but not a matching profile to compare to the same model amp. You made me curious so I pulled it out, a Fender Mustang III, not the greatest amp around but I played it for five years without issue and enjoyed myself. I remember the 3 or 4 patches that I had generally gravitated to so I fired it up and cycled through them, and guess what, they were fizzy and on the bright side. But to make completely sure I got my old guitar out that I played through that amp with, same result. I think V8guitar got it right, self inflicted in the grey matter area.