Kemper Profiler MK 2

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Yeah it makes sense. The kemper has underlying models or saturation/drive styles and is then doing a bunch of EQ matching to the source. Those models cant magically create something from nothing or change their fundamental character.

I’ve heard that many times over the last few years - I think it came from the patent right? What I’m wondering is ‘how is Mk2 different in respect of this point’?

The communication when they first spoke about Mk2 profiling seemed to be along the lines of ‘lots more data points in the capture’ which is for sure one way to increase accuracy. I’m saying this from the perspective of someone who doesn’t fully understand how this is done so please do correct me / educate me :). From my current understanding, more data points would make things better.

But….. does it still use the same core models inside the unit and it’s then matching the source with improved data points / eq that can use more data points? Or are there now more models inside it too? Are there more points on the EQ it applies if that’s still what it’s doing?

I’ve only tried to profile one amp and the results were awful (and I speak as someone who was very happy using other people’s profiles so it’s not me disliking the Kemper sound). I originally thought that this was my fault for being crap at making a profile (and that may well be a factor - I’ll find out when Proxy lands!) but over the course of time I heard a lot of chatter out there in the world that Kemper mk1 didn’t cope well with amps that had a good amount of power amp distortion.

The amp I was trying to profile was a Matamp C7. I spoke to the owner of Matamp (not in respect of making a profile - the very concept of anything digital offended him!) but we discussed the ‘Matamp sound’. He was in love with power amp distortion and the C7 is an angry little thing that is all about the back end falling apart to simulate a (much more powerful) old-style amp pretty much melting at a somewhat more reasonable volume. It came out at a broadly similar time to the Cornford Harlequin - there was a small surge of amps that you could potentially crank at home to get everything cooking. The owner of Matamp’s comment was that some other makers did everything in the preamp and he thought those amps sounded like ‘wasps in a bottle’. He was forthright in his preferences and opinions :) He also said that, if he rated the amp’s wattage the same way other manufacturers did, it would be sold as a 20-25w amp, not a 7w. He said they were ‘Yorkshire Watts’. He’s quite the character. And he’s not kidding about the volume - I gigged the C7 in in a 9 piece band with a brass section and I couldn’t run it flat out as you could only hear me playing badly at that point :). Was the wrong amp for that band.

So where I’m going here is wondering if the ‘more datapoints’ message Kemper gave will be enough to cope with back end distortion amps like this one? Or are there now ‘more models in there too that the datapoints are applied to’? I’m not sure how much they can have changed with the process considering the apparent lack of hardware changes. It doesn’t matter to me any more as I’m not going for a Mk2 but I’m still interested as a concept and hope the Kemper fans get something that works better for them :)
 
I’ve only tried to profile one amp and the results were awful (and I speak as someone who was very happy using other people’s profiles so it’s not me disliking the Kemper sound). I originally thought that this was my fault for being crap at making a profile (and that may well be a factor - I’ll find out when Proxy lands!) but over the course of time I heard a lot of chatter out there in the world that Kemper mk1 didn’t cope well with amps that had a good amount of power amp distortion.
If theres "an art" to doing captures then imo the technology or unit is flawed / semi flawed. If the goal of the thing is to take a great capture then why should you have to do hacks and weird things to make it work. Anyone should be able to use the walkthru guide and make "the best capture possible".

But that isnt the case for Kemper v1, a bunch of people had their bags of tricks like doing captures of captures or having to do weird things post capture "to make it good". ToneX v1 also had this kind of bizarre mojo where if you tried to do high gain captures it just wouldnt do it, but you could use some techniques like making the amp less bright or nudging the gain back a hair or two and the capture wouldnt meet in the middle and come out a bit better, but it was a balancing act.

NAM and ToneX v2 for the most part just work. You can question the 1:1 accuracy for sure but the hitrate of bad captures is like 1/100 for me or something, which is nothing what ToneX v1 used to be.

Anyway I have no idea what theyre doing for Kemper v2. I just assumed more data points means more detailed EQ matching. I doubt the underlying distortion models have changes but maybe the matching filters are just more detailed in some manner. It still just sounds like a "better" version of the old tech (which is fundamentally different to wavenet approaches).
 
that's great, whatever the frack that means. :unsure: :rofl

You have to know your history to get that reference. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" was a phrase used by the Dai Li and Long Feng to maintain a forced illusion of peace and order within the Earth Kingdom capital. By silencing talk of the Hundred Year War, they kept citizens complacent, Ignorant, and controlled, ensuring that the elite remained insulated from the conflict.
 
There's clearly an art to mic'ing a cab and dialing in a good sound. I think this is most of the battle.
IMO it’s not really something that can be done without knowing the context, and so the skill transitions to being able to pick the right profile for the right situation. Micing a cab and dialing a tone in is relatively easy, but it’s so context dependent. There’s no guarantee any previously made sound is just going to work in a new context, and more often than not, it won’t and will need its own tweak.

That’s why I think a handful of direct profiles and a good cab editor is way more useful to hone in on a sound.
 
You have to know your history to get that reference. "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" was a phrase used by the Dai Li and Long Feng to maintain a forced illusion of peace and order within the Earth Kingdom capital. By silencing talk of the Hundred Year War, they kept citizens complacent, Ignorant, and controlled, ensuring that the elite remained insulated from the conflict.
You mean you need to to know "that" part of history. I'm more a math and science student. Even though I will now research it due to it relevancy to today world. :unsure: ;)
 


So.....

This was posted in the Kemper forums on the 2.0 thread and then the thread was closed.

Now, I have heard plenty of videos where I felt the 2.0 was clearly better. I am more pointing out the behavior on the Kemper forums.
 


So.....

This was posted in the Kemper forums on the 2.0 thread and then the thread was closed.

Now, I have heard plenty of videos where I felt the 2.0 was clearly better. I am more pointing out the behavior on the Kemper forums.

An incredibly rational take and my respect has gone up a notch for them just saying it how it is.
The v2 sounded way better than the v1 and the palm mutes went from broken to massively usable. That's a huge win for kemper imo, I dunno why they'd be upset. It's not identical to the amp but its in the realm of acceptability now.
 
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Boy, I really wish I hadn't broken my back carrying all these Kempers!!
 
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