Changing

Hello All,

I've been using the Kemper Profiler for a little over a year, I also own a few tube amps and cabs so it made sense to go the Kemper route as I could be able to profile my own amps and record/gig with "them" at a much lower weight penalty.

Over the period I've owned the Kemper, I've tried profiling my amps a couple times, but I'm mostly home based and have serious limitations in volume usage and gear (mikes and mike-pres, separate rooms, etc) availability when compared to any average recording studio, so I never did get higher than average results and my profiles always felt like pale similar copies (at best) of the real deal.

I resorted to buying "pro quality" profiles online, mostly from the big names (Mbritt, Big Hairy Profiles, Choptones, etc) .. I spent quite a bit of money but ended up with a decent collection of amp snapshots, very usable in the studio and live, the sound quality is undisputable, it does sound awesome in the right conditions.

However, it didn't quite sound exactly as I wanted it to .. it never does!
One does need to tweak sounds to your liking, right?
Well, this is where the Kemper philosophy fails, imho: the Kemper takes a snapshot of an amp, under certain conditions, and that's pretty much it! You can then tweak it to a limited extent by adding eq and flavoring certain dynamics but if you change it too much it degrades the signal quality and it won't sound "real" anymore.

I struggled with this for a long time, and ended up playing my real amps way more than my Kemper.

A few months back I stumbled upon Leon Todd's youtube channel and it made me curious because, this guy also had a lot of real amps and was obviously so excited with the Fractal Stuff.

It felt like a contradiction to me because as I was actually an owner of the original first Line6 POD ... and hated the darn thing into oblivion .. I was put off modeling for decades. So I pretty much ignored everything since, until now.

I started following on Leon's videos and got increasingly interested in testing the Axe FX, so I eventually took the plunge and ordered one.

It's here! It's been a few days! I frieking LOVE it!!! Finally I can tweak into infinity and it always sounds awesome!

Thank YOU to whoever worked hard to develop this thing, you did an amazing job!
 
Ex Kemper user here as well. Had one for over 6 years. I too chased after profiles that promised a lot but simply didn’t work for me. Previously had an Ultra before that. So glad I came back and tried the III. Extremely happy. Leon is a gift to this community. He does amazing work.
 
Thanks for this post.

I have wanted to try the KPA for several years, but have always resisted the urge to buy one. Every time I get close to buying one, I run into a post like this that reaffirms my reluctance to pick one up. I'm sure I would enjoy the KPA, but it would just end up being another piece in the endless gear quest and would open the door for endless profile searching/shuffling (I know myself and I would definitely go down that rabbit hole).

Enjoy the AxeIII. I have been having fun playing mine and focusing on music rather than the gear.
 
Is the kemper profile non-linear when it gets done with its whole dial-up apocalypse thing? I read that it basically just matches the EQ, it sounds
pretty good when they get the whole rig dialed up and take the snapshot but I've never actually played on one before
 
Is the kemper profile non-linear when it gets done with its whole dial-up apocalypse thing? I read that it basically just matches the EQ

Not sure what you mean by non-linear o_O

It matches both the amp gain structure and dynamics and will be eq'd/shaped by whatever you have on the mix, so the miking is extremely important and will have a big impact on the final result.

The best profiles are usually put out by recording engineers that have a keen ear for miking and above average resources at their disposal.
I mean, it can be done "at home" but results will be average at best, unless you get really lucky.

I've never tried doing it with a loadbox/IR ... that should be interesting, I can still try that some day, I still have my kemper.
 
what you mean by non-linear

Linear being 1:1 waveform output, like how Cliff was talking about how most early guitar amp modelers was just wave shaping and you could tell easy depending on what signal went in exactly what you'd get out.

Non-linear being what it is now in the AxeFx 3, where the distortion is component modeled, and changes and interacts with itself constantly, non linear behavior, just like an amp.
 
Congratulations, it only gets better the more you use it too. The KPA is a great piece of gear but the III is in a league of it's own ; a true inspiration machine.
 
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