Kemper Profiling Amp
May 2012 Guitarist 119
£1,299
GUITAR AMPS
W
e first heard about the
Kemper Profiling
Amp in January 2011
in the run up to the Winter
NAMM show. While it
promised to be a genuine game-
changer in the decades long
quest to synthesise the sound
of the valve g uitar amplifier,
we must admit to regarding it
with a degree of cynicism.
On the NAMM show floor –
amid a sonic tempest of multi-
directional shredding and bass
guitars with inordinate
numbers of strings – it was
difficult to tell if the KPA was
anything more than another
digital modelling ‘solution’
destined for white elephant
status. The Johnson J-Station,
anyone? Yet fast-forward to
2012, and not only are we
holding a Kemper Profiling
Amp in our hands, but there is
the unmistakable sound of a
buzz building in certain circles.
It’s clearly time for Guitarist
to fire this thing up and
investigate, but for those to
whom the KPA is still
mysterious, let us pause to
examine the concept. Since the
SansAmp arrived in 1989, amp
modelling, first analogue then
later digital, has sold the
promise of access to a library of
guitar sounds at a much lower
cost and with considerably
greater convenience than
buying the ‘real thing’.
Increasingly, software
modellers such as IK
Multimedia’s AmpliTube and
Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig
allow the more technologically
savvy of us to create customised
guitar sounds using emulated
amplifier, effects, speaker and
microphone combinations that
would be way beyond either our
budgets or the realms of
practicality in the old-
fashioned, analogue domain
of hot glass and moving air.
That’s all well and good, but
we guitarists are pugilists at
heart. From the bloodied
knuckles and glorious noise
of performance, the best of us
make something like art. Our
culture is bound up in ritual,
superstition and myth – and we
like it that way. We know great
tone and it sure as hell doesn’t
come from ones and zeroes.
But what if there was a digital
modelling amplifier that could
turn the tables? Rather than
saying, for example, “our
engineers analysed a JTM45
and based on their results,
here’s our British Blues preset,
now deal with it,” the exciting
thing about the Kemper is that
you can use it to capture the
sound of your JTM45, right
where it hits that sweet spot,
with the microphone you prefer
and that mic preamp that just
adds a certain something.
Then you can refine the
‘profile’ you’ve made while
A/B-ing the digital signal with
the original using the Kemper’s
onboard EQ, and save the sound
alongside the library of 200 or
so profiles that comes pre-
loaded, with access to hundreds
more via the Rig Exchange
section of the Kemper website.
If you fancy a little more spice
you can clean up or crank the
KPA’s onboard gain control to
go way beyond the level of drive
available on your original amp,
adjust sag, tweak the audible
effects of pick attack and even,
thanks to what Kemper claims
The Rivals
There’s nothing quite like the
KPA but the Fractal Audio
Systems Axe-Fx II (£1,993)
is the obvious competition,
and it’s already been widely
accepted in the metal
community. Otherwise,
software-modelling solutions
such as Native Instruments’
Guitar Rig, IK Multimedia’s
AmpliTube and Line 6’s POD
Farm are all available in a
wide variety of configurations
and at various price points.
Kemper Profi ling Amp
£1,299
It’s new and groundbreaking, but don’t run for cover. Does
Kemper’s much-hyped Profiling Amp really take digital
modelling to the next level? by Chris Vinnicombe
You can save a profi le of your amp
alongside the library of 200 or so
profi les that come pre-loaded
http://vault.guitarist.co.uk
Now that is a comprehensive menu!
White balance? It’s an amp, not a camera…
GIT354.rev_kemper.indd 119 3/21/12 10:54:24 AM