Kemper Profiling Amp
120 Guitarist May 2012
£1,299
GUITAR AMPS
is “digital alchemy”, alter the
size of your virtual cabinet from
a huge stack right down to a
cigarette packet.
There’s also a fully loaded
set of effects and, once you are
happy with your sound, you
can grab the (hungry man’s)
lunchbox-sized KPA and jet
off to a studio or gig halfway
around the world with your
signature sound in your
carry-on luggage. It has to be
too good to be true, doesn’t it?
In Use
Although the Kemper is capable
of profiling your whole signal
path including mic preamps,
channel strips and a blend of
more than one microphone if
that’s your preference, the
simplest way to set it up and
start making a profile is to first
plug into your amp of choice as
you normally would and dial in
a sound that you are happy
with. Once you’ve done that,
plug your guitar into the KPA’s
instrument input, and then
connect your regular
amplifier’s input to the KPA’s
direct out/send and your mic of
choice to its return jack. Then
connect the KPA’s master
outputs to your mixer or
powered speakers to monitor
your signal.
Next, Kemper advises that its
best to browse through the pre-
loaded profiles onboard the
KPA for one that’s similar to the
amp you intend to profile,
switch back and forth between
this and the incoming signal
from your amp and tweak the
input gain until they are
roughly equal in level. Select
whether you are profiling a
clean or distorted sound so that
the KPA compensates, then hit
‘start profiling’.
This is the moment when
everything goes a bit Twilight
Zone as the Kemper sends
genuinely unsettling white
noise through your amplifier
and you either laugh or cry,
depending on your disposition.
The product manual explains
what these sounds are doing in
greater detail, but suffice to say
the KPA is collecting data about
such characteristics as
frequency response, impedance
and dynamic distortion curves
to take what the company refers
to as a ‘fingerprint’ of the
reference amplifier.
This is where Kemper says its
proprietary technology is
superior to the dynamic
convolution algorithms used in
the modelling process by other
manufacturers. Visit the About
Profiling section of the Kemper
website to be baffled or
enlightened depending upon
how much attention you paid in
science lessons at school…
Next, if you’re modelling a
dirty amp sound you can use
the ‘refine profile’ function and
strum some big chords while
the Kemper uses the
intermodulation generated to
create an even more accurate
profile. Once you’re happy, you
can store the sound in the KPA
as a new rig and bring the
Kemper’s onboard gain,
preamp definition and power
sagging controls into play to
further tweak your newly
created sound.
Like us, this is where you’ll
probably experience feelings of
disbelief and a ‘eureka’ moment
when you realise how
accurately the Kemper has
captured the sound of the
amplifier/signal chain that you
are profiling. If it’s a high gain
circuit (as evidenced by our
experiments with the EVH
5150-III) you have the added
bonus of all extraneous noise
being removed from the
equation. So you can play with
serious levels of filth with none
of the associated noise and
without the noise gate closing
audibly or stif ling sustain.
Admittedly, the experience of
playing a digital profile through
a full-range speaker system
doesn’t feel the same or enable
the same level of interaction
between player and equipment
as it does when you are in the
room with a conventional valve
amplifier, but that’s not
The exciting thing about the Kemper is that you can use
it to capture the sound not just of a JTM45, but the sound
of your JTM45, right where it hits that sweet spot
http://vault.guitarist.co.uk
Once your amp is profiled you can further adjust gain, tone and much more besides. Once you’ve exited the display setup menu of course. Ahem…
GIT354.rev_kemper.indd 120 3/21/12 10:54:29 AM