Kemper Profiling Amp
122 Guitarist May 2012
£1,299
GUITAR AMPS
still catered for by MIDI
switching and flexible outputs
that allow you to feed a cab sim-
free signal to a third-party
power amp and normal guitar
cabinet onstage via the monitor
output, while the main output
feeds the whole profile, cab
included, to the PA.
Outside of the studio and onto
the stage, this old-fashioned
guitar player can’t imagine
retiring his much-loved Dr Z
just yet, but there are certainly
plenty of big-name players out
there such as Machine Head’s
Phil Demmel and Animals As
Leaders’ Tosin Abasi currently
using the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx
for whom the idea of taking a
digital rig out on the road is less
alien. It’s certainly a way to
keep tour costs down, and the
advantage of the Kemper is that
you can take profiles of the
exact analogue amp sounds
that you used on record out on
the road with you.
Verdict
We can’t emphasise enough
that the Kemper is a product
that is best suited to serious
musicians. For everyday
bedroom noodling, a low-end
modelling amp is ideal. But if
you’re the type of guitarist who
The Bottom Line
We like: The best modelling
sounds we’ve ever heard;
enormous flexibility and
real-world practicality
We dislike: Could be a little
more practical and robust
Guitarist says: A product
that finally delivers on the
promise of digital modelling.
A truly revolutionary piece of
kit for serious recording
guitarists and producers
Kemper
Profiling Amp
£1,299
Germany
Digital modelling amplifier
with proprietary profiling technology
375 (l) x 165 (d)
x 214mm (h)
5/11
LED buttons for FX,
stompbox, stack, amplifier, EQ,
cabinet selection, modulation rate/
intensity, delay feedback/mix, reverb
time/mix, three-band master EQ, gain,
volume, noise gate, master volume,
mode, rig selection, soft buttons for
various additional functionality
Front panel: HiZ
guitar 1/4-inch jack input, headphone
output. Rear panel: Direct send jack
(with ground lift), return jack (with
ground lift), return female XLR (with
ground lift), monitor output jack (with
ground lift), twin footswitch jacks,
MIDI in, MIDI out, MIDI thru, S/PDIF
out, S/PDIF in, USB out, USB in,
network port, twin master output
XLRs, twin master output jacks
Third party (not
supplied), for switching presets or
MIDI (not supplied)
Over 200 onboard
amplifier profiles and dozens of
cabinets and FX. More available to
download/share via online
community and onboard storage
space for hundreds more
records regularly, or a
producer who wants 24/7
access to a personal library of
refined and tested guitar
sounds wherever you happen
to be on the planet at any given
time, the Kemper Profiling
Amp is the product of the
decade so far.
It’s not difficult to imagine
that there will be demand for
this technology in a more
convenient rackmount
housing, or a more robust,
roadproof enclosure. The
important thing to remember
is that the KPA is one of the
modern breed of products that
is growing up in public, with
direct input from its user base.
Firmware updates are simple
thanks to the unit’s USB
connections, so you are buying
into a constantly evolving
platform that is only going to
get better. These are truly
exciting times.
Test results
Live use is catered for by fl exible
outputs that allow you to feed a signal
to a third party power amp and cab
http://vault.guitarist.co.uk
necessarily a weakness in a
studio context. These days, it’s
commonplace to track guitar
parts in the control room while
the sound coming back through
the studio monitors is a mic’d
amplifier situated in the live
room, removing the physical
immediacy between musician
and amplifier but allowing for
a much better feel of the way
parts sit in the overall band mix.
This is the context in which
the Kemper truly excels and it
proves possible to create amp
profiles that are good enough
to fool three sets of very
experienced ears during our
testing process. At one stage, we
even find ourselves unplugging
the reference amplifier just to
make sure that it’s definitely the
Kemper that we’re hearing and
there isn’t some elaborate hoax
taking place! We’ve heard
various approaches to digital
modelling sound good in the
studio before but this is as close
to a ‘real’ mic’d valve amp sound
as to be indistinguishable.
The Profiling Amp’s
performance mode – which
will apparently allow you to
arrange your rigs in setlist
order, among other things – is
a firmware update away at the
time of writing. But live use is
Kemper has a performance mode in
the works to enhance live usefulness
GIT354.rev_kemper.indd 122 3/21/12 10:54:36 AM