Slipping farther away from the light...

[pompeiisneaks]

Take the blue pill.
As we all hear differently, and have differing tonal goals and tolerances, anything that will satisfy that itch and provide the tonal nirvana that drives inspired playing is valid. For many of us that means several, or dozens, of amps. For some the simulations are plenty close enough. There are many benefits of such a simacralum. I need the amp to respond like a tube amp, not just sound mostly like one. But i'm a tube snob, biased in this matter. I'm not going to use one, but i'd think better of it if it had a tube in it, even at a retardedly low voltage.

Now on that note, I've tried several that had the tube, and they sounded horrid. I once had a digitech foot pedal with a 12AX7 in it, didn't do it. I have had two different vox valvetronix with tubes, still doesn't cut the mustard like a real full tube amp. On the other hand, I still really can't tell the difference between the kemper and tube amps.

~Phil

[Lauri]

Do Kempers and other digital modeling amps have tone controls and other knobs to fiddle with? So, for example if you load up a tweed bassman profile, are there pots to adjust tone stack controls and presence or do you have to load up a different profile for different tone stack settings? I haven't tried any modeling amps but from the videos I've seen it looks like operating them is a big hassle compared to a regular amp.

[norburybrook]

the Kemper has a full set of tone controls plus various EQ's you can drop into pre or Loop FX slots. However they are NOT the same as the controls of the profiled amp, they act the same on any profile. So If you have a profile of a tweed deluxe then the person who has profiled the amp would profile it at various tone/Volume settings to give you a good set of profiles of tones the amp will produce.


The 'profile' of an amp is static 'snapshot' of the mic'd amp and or the straight line out. Many commercial profilers, myself included include 20-30 different snapshots that cover what the amp in question can do. My #102 pack contains 28 separate profiles for example including some profiles using the Dumbleator.

if you go to my web site there is a section of Kemper profiles in the shop and you can hear audio demos of what the Kemper sounds like for anyone interested.


https://www.marcuscliffe.com/




Tweaking the tone knobs on the Kemper will not give you the same response as tweaking the tone stack on the amp but they work well for tone shaping and can give tones unavailable on said amp, so it's not all bad.


I love my kemper and use it in the studio and live but given the opportunity I still love my amps. I'm actually looking into trying a two notes Torpedo load box and IR speaker sim. This will allow me to plug my amps into the torpedo and use speaker IR's to go straight into the recording console with no noise.


I will report back when I get round to this.


Marcus

[xtian]

The Helix amp models sound very true to life, and the tone controls operate BETTER than the real thing. For example, I've built about three dozen amps, and where there's a Bass or Presence pot, these controls affect the tone only for, at best, 50% of their rotation. Even actual vintage Fenders and Marshalls have this problem, though a bit less, because the manufacturers have the resources to spec exactly the pots required for the job.

On the Helix, the tone controls are effective for 100% of their range, smoothly, giving an even greater range of tones than the target amp.

[pompeiisneaks]

Yeah and don't get me wrong, other peoples input is still right, this is 100% an opinion based response. I love the sound/feel, I love the controls, I've had some models that have the right feel but are a bit muddy and I bring up the treble and presence and they shine instantly, etc.

I still LOVE my tube amps as well, and plan on profiling them to see how good of a job I can do. I may also component roll the dumble to try skyliner, HRM, etc. as well as swapping out from #124 to 138 etc.

Then I can profile them all, and have all of them on tap

I'll likely eventually buy a new power transformer and maybe output as well while at it for the marshall dual and then profile that one also

~Phil

[xtian]

I tried the Variax Standard (Strat style) and just didn't like it. The guitar didn't...agree with my sense of touch, I guess? I'm just not a Strat guy any more.

Now I have the JTV-59, which is the Les Paul style version. I like this one much better. Native (magnetic pickups) playability is good, though it's pretty heavy (8.75 pounds).

The acoustic instruments are good! On hearing the playback, I probably wouldn't even think to ask if it was an emulated instrument. Check it out:

[Phil! I still can't figure out how to embed audio!]

[pompeiisneaks]

I tried the Variax Standard (Strat style) and just didn't like it. The guitar didn't...agree with my sense of touch, I guess? I'm just not a Strat guy any more.

Now I have the JTV-59, which is the Les Paul style version. I like this one much better. Native (magnetic pickups) playability is good, though it's pretty heavy (8.75 pounds).

The acoustic instruments are good! On hearing the playback, I probably wouldn't even think to ask if it was an emulated instrument. Check it out:

[Phil! I still can't figure out how to embed audio!]

You have to get the actual link first (so an external link is easy) but since you hadn't yet 'posted' the attachment, it isn't available as a direct file for you, until you 'edit' it after posting, I just right clicked on your audio attachment link, added it here, and clicked the 'mp3' link:

[martin manning]

The acoustic instruments are good! On hearing the playback, I probably wouldn't even think to ask if it was an emulated instrument.

Hmm... Identifiable as Banjo and sitar tones, but not quite authentic; they definitely sound processed to my ear. Hearing the audio only, I would be inclined to ask "What makes it sound like that?" In live performance, it would indeed be surprising to hear those sounds coming from a guitar.

[drew]

Et tu, Knopf?

[norburybrook]

Et tu, Knopf?

My fault I'm afraid....he called me a year or so ago as he knew I had one. he got one then said he was going to use it live...I tried to persuade him not to......he didn't listen



sad day for tube amp......


M