So...Can the Kemper Profile Mesa Amps? Let's test it.

DLC86 said:
I'm actually hearing the opposite, the first one seems to have a bump around 1-1.5 kHz to my ears (and speakers)
Click to expand...
Does this mean we can hear what our minds expect?

Not saying you are. I went back and forth trying to match the sound by ear. No match eq. And was definitely finding it difficult and was hearing different based on what played prior.

Happens to all of us.
 
yeky83 said:
Agreed.

But for the fun of discussing... what is the sound of a MB Dual Rectifier anyway? If @Deadpan posted any of those three clips by itself, would any one of us point out how it's not a Dual Rectifier sound? In that sense, isn't the Kemper good 'nuff? It promised a Dual Rect and as far as you know and believe, you got it... unless you're doing the profiling yourself that is.
Click to expand...
And let's put it this way....

It would be akin to putting a microphone on a real cab and going "I don't need to sanity check or compare different positions, I'll just go with whatever comes out" - which nobody in their right mind would do. At some point throughout your "career" you're going to compare different sounds to be able to decide which ones you prefer.

So in that sense, it really doesn't matter what is real and what is not. What matters is how they contrast against one another, and if they deliver the goods.
 
Deadpan said:
Does this mean we can hear what our minds expect?

Not saying you are. I went back and forth trying to match the sound by ear. No match eq. And was definitely finding it difficult and was hearing different based on what played prior.

Happens to all of us.
Click to expand...
Sure, perception is always subjective and also influenced by other factors (speakers, room, etc.), but in this case the difference is pretty obvious... and the opposite thing we were hearing was just different things in the end, I was talking about upper mids and @Orvillain about lower mids
 
Deadpan said:
It should be obvious now which is the real amp...
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Just my 2 cents.

The point of the Kemper is to accurately capture your amps. Not to do blind shootouts. So from a practical standpoint, you would know what your DR sounds like at its settings and then profile it. These clips show that they do not sound similar. Imo which one is the amp and which one isn't doesn't really matter. The Kemper did not accurately capture the amp.

If I'm getting a capture device, I want it to sound as close as possible to my favorite amp settings.
 
Deadpan said:
It should be obvious now which is the real amp...
Click to expand...
The second one in this last sample is the closest to the third one in the first sample, so I say that's the real amp, while the first one doesn't really match any on the first sample (but it's hard to tell which is which without knowing how your particular amp sound)
 
Mongillo19 said:
Just my 2 cents.

The point of the Kemper is to accurately capture your amps. Not to do blind shootouts. So from a practical standpoint, you would know what your DR sounds like at its settings and then profile it. These clips show that they do not sound similar. Imo which one is the amp and which one isn't doesn't really matter. The Kemper did not accurately capture the amp.

If I'm getting a capture device, I want it to sound as close as possible to my favorite amp settings.
Click to expand...
Now imagine a whole cottage industry of profile creators growing up based on and around technology that was never particular accurate, it was just novel at the time. Now imagine how defensive most of them might be when any old boner on the internet can prove to some degree that the products they sell, aren't accurate to the real thing. Now imagine a whole raft of users who are both emotionally and financially invested in not only the piece of gear itself, but also the additional profiles they've purchased for it, and imagine how unresponsive they would be to any analysis whatsoever of this gear and these phenomenon.

I thought earlier about starting a bingo card for this. So what would we have?

"It sounds better than the amp"
"M.Britt knows how to profile"
"I wasn't trying to get them similar anyway"

What else?
 
Orvillain said:
Now imagine a whole cottage industry of profile creators growing up based on and around technology that was never particular accurate, it was just novel at the time. Now imagine how defensive most of them might be when any old boner on the internet can prove to some degree that the products they sell, aren't accurate to the real thing. Now imagine a whole raft of users who are both emotionally and financially invested in not only the piece of gear itself, but also the additional profiles they've purchased for it, and imagine how unresponsive they would be to any analysis whatsoever of this gear and these phenomenon.

I thought earlier about starting a bingo card for this. So what would we have?

"It sounds better than the amp"
"M.Britt knows how to profile"
"I wasn't trying to get them similar anyway"

What else?
Click to expand...
pew pew sauce GIF
 
The only takeaway of this thread is that the Kemper apparently can't capture all nuances of whatever amps it might be.
For someone being interested in minute details and/or capturing their own rigs to replace them with the Kemper (for whatever reasons), that might be a crucial aspect.
For my own purposes, if I was interested in such kinda sounds, each of the posted examples would be fine and I'm absolutely sure I could tweak any of them enough to suit my needs.
 
yeky83 said:
Huh, so the amp was sample 3 then 2? My Kemper-mids calibration is all off! XD
Click to expand...
Probably, actually the waveforms don't look identical for those neither, but they're the closest for sure (maybe he reamped the track again for the second sample?).

EDIT: but even 2 and then 1 could look kinda similar if we correct the panning on the second sample, but my ears still perceive 3 and 2 as the closest

Do I win your kemper if I guessed everything right @Deadpan ? :p
 
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The real amp, last in both clips should be the same clip. I did however change the level a few times trying to match MP's clips.

Let's throw Tonex into the discussion:



No edits just the capture as it came out.
 
Deadpan said:
And if I try to make the sound similar:



Of course, you can nitpick differences. That's ok.
Click to expand...

pretty noticeably different again, honestly I wouldn't be thrilled if I was trying to capture a tone and that was the closest the unit was giving me. Tbh I usually think the Kemper is closer than that, otherwise I never would have bought one in the first place.

I prefer the first one. Low end sits in a totally different place between the two, low end in the first one is big and loose, 2nd one is leaner and a bit fizzier as a result.
 
Deadpan said:
The real amp, last in both clips should be the same clip. I did however change the level a few times trying to match MP's clips.

Let's throw Tonex into the discussion:



No edits just the capture as it came out.
Click to expand...

This definitely sounds much closer... maybe a tiny difference on the low end but it's negligible

PS: I compared FM9,Tonex and NAM a while ago here: https://thegearforum.com/threads/fm9-vs-nam-vs-tonex-comparison.1688/

Look how close the waveforms are, especially NAM which is pretty much identical to the fm9
 
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