Posts by sampleaccurate

Quote from stilltrying5150

i’m not trying to be disrespectful, but why would you want to import anything from cab maker? There are free profiles and paid of the BEST cabinets on earth. I want to learn some thing if I am missing something. Again no disrespect.

First of all THANKS to everyone for the warm welcome.

To address your question, I have a lot of Redwirez cabinets in wav format that I already purchased. Some of them are quite good IMO. I just want the ability to use them in the Kemper. Despite the ease with which I can get great tones with the KPA by using other peoples studio profiles, I also want to be able to put a cab I already own and like on any amp. By taking both direct and studio profiles of my AXE or a tube amp, I have the luxury of the flexibility to radically change the cabinet sound in the non-merged studio profiles I create or download, as well as being able to slap any one of the hundreds of Redwirez cabs on profiles I create or download. It's probably more flexibility and complexity than I need, but NOTHING compared to the complexity of editing patches on the unit I used to use. In time perhaps I'll discover I don't need them but for now I see no harm in using Cab Maker to batch convert some great cabs that I'm familiar with to use in the Kemper. I've already achieved some good results using the converted Redwirez cab IRs.

Quote from Monkey_Man

LOL Well, I actually felt bad at the time 'cause I'd have liked to have been less-succinct; I felt my tone was a little on the dry-and-not-forthcoming side. I'm very-grateful that you appreciated the spartan reply, man.

I've not heard of the criticism that it doesn't work well with modellers. As per your experience, I've found it superb. As a bonus, it "removes" the latency one might otherwise have felt from a given plugin modeller or hardware unit. I found this with the POD HD500, for example.

As another bonus, one can tweak the Profiles into areas that the original modellers couldn't go.

Another bonus I've discovered is the lack of hiss and hum on the profiles that's present on the amp being profiled. That's my experience at least. I hope that's not my imagination from tired ears.

I play at home for fun and compose original music on my DAW. I don't have a need to duplicate tones, only get what I consider to be good ones that I like. I've also been the owner of an AXE FX II for several years. During that time I think I've managed to program about 20 different tones that I like. Those were developed only after hours and hours of tweaking per patch. In my opinion the unit sounds FANTASTIC but only if the countless number of parameters are set properly.

I was growing a little frustrated with the amount of time it took me to develop new tones. After hearing about the Kemper I decided to give it a try. All I can say at this point is that I wish I had done this years ago. I've had the unit for 2 days, and after that short period of time with assistance from some of the kind folks here on the Forum I've been able to develop several new tones in addition to profiling with extreme accuracy some of my favorite tones on the AXE FX that were developed over a period of years.

What surprises the heck out of me is the accuracy with which the Kemper duplicates the tones I use. I've had time to profile three of my favorite tones from the AXE FX modeler and the Kemper is literally indistinguishable from the AXE FX to my ears.

I try to avoid being critical of anything unless it's necessary but I'll make an exception in this case so that everyone understands my evolution in guitar tone technology. One of the things I don't like about the AXE FX has nothing to do with the unit itself but rather the condescending attitude I see on the Forum from members and in particular from the owner of the company. I've seen people who just shelled out over $2,000 get told to "RTFM" by the company's owner rather than just let others answer questions from newbs who haven't had time to read the mammoth sized manual. When I first purchased it there was a bug in one of the chorus algorithms. I discovered this the first day I owned the unit. It had been completely missed during beta testing by one of their so-called expert Forum members. Another thing I didn't care for was the fact that beta testing is apparently restricted to a few individuals as opposed to the KPA where if I so desire I can test out the new firmware with spring reverb for example.

Being uncertain whether or not I was doing something wrong I asked a very simple question about whether there was a bug in the chorus. In short order other members duplicated my problem which apparently had not been caught in beta testing. Rather than an apologetic "thanks for finding the bug, we will fix it in the next firmware release", instead the reply from the owner of the company was to belittle the problem by calling it an "obscure, esoteric" type of chorus only a few people use (which was far from the truth). Needless to say I wasn't very happy with that response particularly since I just shelled out a couple of grand for this man's device. What was really shocking and disappointing was that other members started piling on by reiterating his comment about how I didn't "need" that kind of chorus. How nice of them to tell me what I need and what I don't need!!! I've witnessed others undergo similar experiences.

My other criticism is that after painstakingly crafting tones, if one decides to install the latest firmware you can kiss all your tones goodbye. This process becomes maddening after a while and I won't miss it one bit, particularly when I hear no improvement. In some cases not only does your tone change, it completely disappears when an amp model is discontinued. All that said the AXE FX is a nice piece of hardware and an EXCELLENT modeler. The problem for me is I'm weary of programming modelers and the basic technology of recreating an amp using a real time circuit simulator isn't anything new or groundbreaking and doesn't fit my needs nearly as well as a device like the KPA. Little did I know this until 2 days ago. That's all it took for me to realize THIS is what I've been looking for but just didn't know it.

Back to the Kemper. Everything I read about it is absolutely true or if it's not the truth is actually better than what I've read. As an example I've read in more than one place that the top end or highest frequencies in the KPA don't match the amps they were profiled from. As someone with excellent high-frequency hearing I simply don't share that opinion. Every Nuance of the profiles that I've taken sound identical to the source they were profiled from to my ears. It also makes no sense to me because the raw distorted amp sound has more high frequency content than any usable sound and is only filtered by the cabinet, so it seems to me a slightly brighter cabinet would solve any "problem" having to do with less pronounced highs.

To make a long story short I'm thrilled to death with the performance of the KPA. All of the claims made by Kemper about the KPA are true. In fact, I believe the performance and accuracy of the KPA is even better than advertised.

I'm looking forward to many years of enjoyment with my new KPA and selling the AXE FX after profiling my favorite sounds, which the KPA does flawlessly to my ears.

I'd also like to thank everyone on the forum for welcoming a newb and answering questions that are found in the manual before users like me have a chance to read all of it. It sure beats "RTFM", something I've seen a lot of "elsewhere".

Quote from Ingolf

Cabdriver is not the only way to separate amp and cab, that’s the point.

A direct amp profile that gets subtracted from the studio profile taken with the same settings in one go will make a 100% accurate merged profile because cabdriver doesn’t need to calculate an estimation between amp and cab portion any more.

If you feel that studio profiles and merges profiles don’t sound the same I'd suggest to open a support ticket.

No need for a support ticket. I was doing it wrong. I'm not sure what I was doing but after the responses from you and sambrox I now understand HOW the KPA "knows" which studio and direct profiles have the same amp model (it assumes the two profiles chosen for "merging" use the same amp with the same settings - that's the part I didn't understand).

Now that I understand that, I went back and carefully went through the process of taking both the complete studio profiles as well as the direct amp profiles and now I'm getting exact matches.

Operator error pure and simple on my part.

I've owned the KPA for 2 days. I haven't had time to read the manual but some parts aren't perfectly clear. You and others have been kind enough to help me get this figured out without growing impatient with the classic "RTFM" response. I'm a big believer in reading manuals and I'll read the KPA manual in depth from cover to cover, but answering my questions gives me the ability to make certain my unit functions properly while I still have time to return it to the American distributor for replacement rather than have to send it in for warranty service. Using the manual alone would take more time than I have during the return period. Unless I find mine is defective (highly unlikely) this is a keeper for certain and will soon replace my AXE FX II.

Thanks again Ingolf, your help and patience are very much appreciated.

Quote from Monkey_Man

They're not Profiles; they're Cabs, that's why you're not seeing them as such and why RM can't see them.

They'll have been added to the Cab-preset list in your KPA, so choose any Rig and browse the Cabs from within the Rig.

Thanks for the help Monkey Man. Problem solved!!!

FWIW, I purchased the Kemper a couple of days ago, so I haven't had time to read the entire manual. I appreciate the direct response rather than "RTFM". I will study it in depth in time. I've also owned an AXE FX II for years and I find myself tweaking it more than playing through it. A friend suggested I look into the KPA and I'm very glad I did. After only 2 days I've created more usable tones than I created with the AXE FX in many weeks.

I think both are good units and I'm not here to endorse or knock either, but I will say that I like the tone of this forum a lot more, and I like the simplicity of "programming" the Kemper a lot more than the AXE. My plan (which seems to be working quite well) is to profile the 10 to 15 or so tones I use with the AXE FX, both complete studio profiles as well as direct amp profiles, then sell it and keep the Kemper. I think there's a place for both depending on what you want to do with it, but my use tends to favor the Kemper. Quite frankly I'm blown away by it. I expected to get close to the tones that I'm profiling but not the EXACT (to my ears anyway) matches I'm getting. I've already matched a Shiva, VOX AC30, and Boogie MKIIC+ leads and all 3 sound IDENTICAL to the AXE FX they were profiled from. I once read that the Kemper didn't work well with profiling modelers. I can attest that for me (a 2 day old newb) the KPA does an excellent job of profiling a modeler.

I digress though.

Thanks again for putting up with me until I have time to thoroughly read the manual and other posts on the forum. Your assistance is VERY MUCH appreciated. If it weren't for your answer I wouldn't be able to use the Redwirez cabs I own and converted using Cab Maker until I did a lot more reading. Too many times on the "other" forum newbies get told "RTFM" rather than someone taking a couple of minutes to write a useful reply.

Quote from sambrox

No, it subtracts the DA profile from whichever studio profile you have copied the Cab from.

Bingo. That makes total sense. So it doesn't "remember", rather you tell it the profiles use the same amp when you select them to merge.

Thanks for clearing that up.

I've got a lot of cabinet IRs in 44.1kHz 16bit wav format. I used Cab Maker to convert them to kipr profiles to use the cabinets with my direct profiles.

However, when I put them in the Shared folder on a USB stick and attempt to import them to the KPA, it says it imported when actually none were imported.

When I browse through my profiles they aren't there.

Rig Manager confirms there are the same number of profiles before and after I attempt to import them.

What am I doing wrong? I'm using the latest versions of Cab Maker and KPA firmware. I observed the 30 character limit.

Quote from sambrox

In order to create a merged profile :

Take a studio profile. Now, without altering any settings, take a Direct Amp profile (where there is an attenuating DI box between the power amp output of the amp you are profiling and the speaker). Now go back to the studio profile, bring the Cab section into focus and hit copy. Go back to the DA profile, bring the Cab section into focus and hit paste. Now hit Merge. Voila. A merged profile, which includes the original studio profile, the DA profile, and an accurately separated Cab portion, arrived at by subtracting the Direct Amp profile from the studio profile. This, by the way, is the only time the Merge option should ever be used. When adding a Cab to any old DA profile, you don’t need to merge. Only use it if you’re profiling.

With that all said, you are right about using Cabs from any studio profile that hasn’t been merged; here CabDriver will come into effect and the result will be less authentic than when using merged (separated) Cabs, although the results can be just as pleasing, if not more.

Does the KPA "remember" the last two profiles taken and is that how it "knows" which studio profile to subtract the direct profile from to calculate the true cabinet response? I think my mistake may have been to not take the profiles back to back.

The responses are much appreciated BTW. Thank you.

Quote from Ingolf

If the profiling was done in one go, i.e. doing the studio profile, then the direct amp profile, then the merging, without changing any settings between the two profiles, the merged profile will sound like the studio profile.

I'm seriously confused about this statement.

Isn't the studio profile you refer to above a NON-merged profile? Isn't Cabdriver the ONLY way to separate a cab from the amp in non-merged profiles? If that's true wouldn't the studio profile and the merged profile sound different?

After trying this many times there's always a difference in my studio profiles vs. the direct amp profiles merged with the studio profile's cab even when the profiles are taken back to back. They're close but definitely not the same.

I don't understand how can the KPA can separate the amp and cab in the non-merged studio profile in order to use the cab on a direct profile without using Cabdriver.

Theoretically, knowing both the direct profile and a combination of direct and cab (studio profile) would allow separating the amp and cab, but how does the KPA know that the cab copied from a non-merged studio profile "goes with" the direct profile it's being pasted into so that it can calculate the exact response as opposed to the approximation by Cabdriver?

I can find nowhere in the manual where it indicates that a studio profile and a direct profile taken back to back will sound the same if the cab in the studio profile is copied and pasted into the direct profile, nor does it make any sense to me how the KPA associates the two profiles. It seems to me Cabdriver is used for any non-merged studio profile when copying the cab to paste into a direct profile, and as a result the profiles don't sound the same. Similar but not the same.

What am I missing? Any clarification would be much appreciated. I thought I understood how this worked until I read the above.

Quote from Ingolf

If the profiling was done in one go, i.e. doing the studio profile, then the direct amp profile, then the merging, without changing any settings between the two profiles, the merged profile will sound like the studio profile.