Posts by ehabBar

I think it’s the synergy 5050 poweramp

Quote from nightlight

I wonder why the LXII was never released. That video is from 2012.

the new synergy 5050 poweramp is designed by Fryette and it looks like the lx2.

http://synergyamps.com/shop/hardware/syn5050

I just bought a syn1 on reverb and the seller had all the synergy system (combo, head, and all the modules) but wasn’t particularly happy with the 5050 poweramp.

I’m thinking I should start profiling the synergy preamps and use them with my tube power amp and see how they compare.

Quote from DonPetersen

If you feel that your guitar tends to drive the distortion too hot (or too soft) for most of your Rigs, then calibrate your guitar by adjusting Distortion Sens accordingly.

Quote from DonPetersen

nope

it affects the amount of distortion on all distorting rigs.

So is it like a global “gain” setting? that’s when you start to lose me, where to draw the line between distorted and clean rigs? Even clean rigs have some degree of clipping or distortion in them if we are using tube amp analogy. I’m really confused.

Quote from pippopluto

If the input clips (and yo can tell it by the Input LED) the parameter to check would be Clean Sens, which (among other things) accounts for the PU's output level.
DS is just a global distortion control, and will not affect the PU-Input relationship.

I was referring to the video tutorials on Kempers YouTube channel. They said that if you want to adjust for pickup output use distortion sens to globally affect all rigs. I never really understood what clean sens does. They say it controls the difference between clean and distorted volume. I’ll mess with it and see how it relates to pickup output. Thanks!

Quote from DonPetersen

The pickups play no part in the Profiling process.

Other than how you set the amp, obviously

Obviously I still have a lot to learn about this whole process lol. Never tried to profile an amp and I don’t see myself doing it anytime soon. For most of us mere mortals, Kemper allows us to try amps profiled by pros or at least people who have access to good amps and professional recording setups.

I would love to try profiling at some point down the road.

Quote from Dimi84

In other words: pickup A into amp with preamp gain at 8/10 and particular settings may sound great. But hot pickup B into the same set up -- real SET up -- may push the amp in a relatively different way. It's not even just about "distortion level", at that point, imo, but other meaningfully separate tonal characteristics. Of course this depends on how the amp works and how we construct our concepts.

Now if the profile is ideally faithful to the "amp at that setting" and reacts much he same way, it should reflect the "poop" tone you'd get with the hot pickup into the real source tone at the profiled settings. But... reducing distortion sens, at that point, would reduce distortion level while these other, meaningfully-separate-from-distortion characteristics will still be retained on some level.

And these may not work in your favor.

Then again, it's also possible that you like how the profile (WITH kemper gain/distortion sens reduced) of amp at 10/10 sounds like compared to real amp tone at 7/10 or profile of that setting, considering you'd be maintaining some of the "character" of the amp at the higher preamp level, but ending up with less distortion... In fact, I've had quite a few cases like this myself.

But imo this can be more complex when pickups are quite different, relatively speaking For me, all the more reason to profile amps. And surely I think the above can be relevant in the whole "what kemper's missing" discussion in terms of narrowing down things.

I think Kemper knows how the amp would react at the current gain level and below. Also I wonder if it’s better to use a high output pickup when profiling because any other pickup used later on with the profile will be less gainy. Therefore it will not be loading the input as the original pickup used for profiling.

Quote from Dimi84

Typically I set up a rig for a particular guitar and purpose.

Switching guitars.. Especially pickups.. It's enough to ruin whatever mojo was there, perhaps surprisingly often.

But that's quite similar with the analog source tone, not just the profile.

I think the buffer helps unify different pickup outputs into something that doesn’t clip the Kpa input in a harsh way. I have a less Paul with very hot pickups that sounds like shit on all my kemper profiles (commercially bought). I almost swapped the pickups on the guitar because it was unusable with any kemper profile. It clipped the input in a very harsh way. I tried decreasing distortion sens as recommended by kemper but still it didn’t sound right. Now when I use this guitar with the buffer it’s like night and day. Actually now I don’t really have to worry about different guitar pickup outputs. All the pickups I have are useable with all the profiles I have on the kpa.

Maybe it’s all in my head, that’s why I need other people to help me confirm or dismiss this whole thing.

Everything is better with tubes, I even added some tubes to my protein shake this morning lol.

Quote from Nikos

All can help..

I have studio monitors (tannoys) which are great for mixing(' love them) but they are so "lifeless" that they "suck" by the meaning of the word(' hate them)..I wonder if a little "bit of tube" can help here..not only for electric guitar but also other string-stuff.

so I ordered this thing

https://ifi-audio.com/products/micro-itube2/

To tubify my monitor signal.

Will keep you posted if you’re interested.

Quote from Nikos

this is very interesting..please keep us updated about these buffers..the Sarno looks great.

I will post a new thread dedicated to the whole process once I compare them all. I’m excited for the sarno too. Especially the variable impedance control.

The only thing I compared was the buffer in and out of the signal chain. And it does change the feel in a positive way imo. I think the main issue is the interaction between the pickup and the input stage.

I think if you profile your own amp then use the profile on the kpa, the result maybe the same even the same feel might be copied because all the other variables are unchanged.

The problem arises when you use a different pickup or guitar. Something gets lost somehow.

It’s more of a general feeling of the units response rather than sound. It’s hard to explain, it’s like the difference between a tube rectified vs ss rectified amps. It’s a difference in how the notes bounce under your finger. With Kemper I feel the response is dampened a little. Like having sex with a condom lol.

Quote from FarleyUK

Shame that won't really work for those of us with wireless units...

Hmm, I never really thought of that. What about adding the buffer after the wirelesss receiver?

Quote from Alienator

It is hard to explain what I mean but maybe you experienced a similar thing:

The Kemper is perfect for strumming stuff. The sound itself is always perfect, yes, no complains about that.

But let me exaggerate to make clear what I mean: My problem occurs not only with slower solo playing and arpegiated stuff but especially when I play fast single notes - "technical stuff" with let's say a high gain Plexi profile (scales, arpegios, tapping) the expected response is not a hundred percent there while play. The Kemper does not react as expected (=tube amp), it seems to suck life from my playing and my fingers at every single note that I don't hit hard and clear enough. Does this make sense? The notes seem to die out much easier and faster than with my amps or even modellers. I have to hit the strings very much harder and play much more accurately to achieve a similar tonal result which can be disturbing while playing. The Kemper is not at all forgiving with sloppier playing or weakly hitting a note within a fast passage - the note will die out much more easier. So the amp feeling while playing is not realy there. I've tried with compressors, boosts etc. but this does not really fix it.

Does this make sense for you? Is it a mere "sustain issue"? Do I miss anything or have you experienced similar issues? How do you fix this?

Thanks

I hear you! I usually play with my fingers (no pick) through semi dirty cleanish amp. I noticed the difference in dynamics between kemper and tube amps the minute I started using the kemper. The sound is great and the dynamics are close but not there yet.

This is my first post here on the forum but I wanted to share my experience hopefully it would be useful to crazy people like myself and you. I bought hundreds of profiles and messed with almost all of the settings in the KPA and still I couldn't fix the problem, until I came across some videos on youtube that helped me a lot. check out the Fryette Modeling Workshop Videos on Youtube:

I ended up buying an old valvulator (on reverb) followed by a Glass-A tube buffer followed by a Sarno Black Box. They are all tube buffers that helps your guitar pickups interact with a tube stage before it goes into kemper. The dynamics and sparkly tube pixie dust is back (or at least I think it is back).

I like the valvulator more than the glass A because it adds some balls and oomph to the signal. both are unity gain buffers so no change in volume or frequency response. Just change in dynamics and playability. I'm still waiting for my black box to come so I can evaluate it against the valvulator and glass A.

Please let me know if this helps at all.

Cheers,

Ehab