# Differences between Kemper's profiles for recording and live shows



## pstry (Apr 27, 2014)

Hi guys! 
For seven years me and my guitarist played on a set consisting of: Mesa Dual + Maxon OD808 + Mesa 4x12 and we simply loved that sound. We decided to switch to Kempers without the poweramp. On stage we use monitors FRFR. Last saturday we performed live and were f****** dissappointed with the sound. The sound was great as far as our studio monitors went, but live? That was a completely different story - it all sounded weak, without a punch, the guitars sounded as if played from a CD. They were not powerful enough to sound through the bass guitar or even a drum kick.
Where is the problem? Is there a possibility to get close to Kempers sounding alive while playing live? Do I need to tweak EQ somehow on stage? Amp up the mids, lows or pickattack, less presence and treble? Mayby I should blend mics? e906 + SM57, and make a littlebit darker profile. When the profile in studio monitor is fine, on stage monitor sounds very noisily. 
I was also at soundcheck Amon Amarth before the show. Guitars sounded terrible, but with the whole band was beautiful. 

Do you have any way to do this?
Thanks!


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## edsped (May 4, 2014)

Boost the mids a lot, cut the highs big time, cut the lows, cut some gain.


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## Lokasenna (May 4, 2014)

For starters, you ideally want to tweak your live patches at live volumes. The human ear doesn't pick up frequencies the same at different volumes, so what sounds heavy and chunky in your bedroom will sound completely different when you dime the volume.

In addition what edsped suggested, if you've got a free slot, you could try the Soft Shaper effect after your amp section. Setting the distortion on it pretty low (2-3 out of 10, say) can give you a bit of grit like a cranked amp without otherwise messing with your tone. Also try playing with the internal parameters in the Amp section - power sag, a bit of amp compression, and maybe rolling off the definition to keep your highs are slicing through people's eardrums.


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## Maverick187 (May 8, 2014)

Treat it the same way as a normal tube amp. Boost mids, cut gain, set bass and treble to suit. Obviously you are going to need to tweak at stage volumes just like a normal tube amp and then you will be good to go. 

That being said you are going to want to make sure youve got a great profile too. Lasse Lamerts pack off the KPA site is great - and if youve got a studio I highly recommend making your own profiles to your own tastes


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## vansinn (May 9, 2014)

Lokasenna said:


> For starters, you ideally want to tweak your live patches at live volumes. The human ear doesn't pick up frequencies the same at different volumes, so what sounds heavy and chunky in your bedroom will sound completely different when you dime the volume.



Yup, check out Wikipedia on Fletcher&#8211;Munson curves


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## alexhell (May 12, 2014)

I have never experienced this live. Ok, maybe my sound is a little bit different or something, but never disappointing. I test it out on different PAs, big ones! I use the SINMIX profiles both live and in studio, they are the best!


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## Drew (May 12, 2014)

I don't know the size venue you're playing, but it's worth keeping in mind that until you get up to arena-sized venues (and even then, to a limited extent) the house speakers are really more there to reinforce the sound of the guitars coming off the stage then to provide all of their sound. 

This is probably even more true of your monitor mix; from the back of the room, your guitars may very well have actually sounded fine as that far back it's mostly the FOH mix you're hearing anyway. On stage, however, all the low rumble of the cab way off axis is just missing, so your guitars are going to sound pretty anemic by comparison. 

I don't know if a Kemplar can do this, but is there any way to send an emulated speaker to the board, but then run a preamp-only signal into a poweramp and then a 4x12 to monitor from on stage? I've played through AxeFXes set up like this before, and it's a pretty good compromise; the Axe sounds and feels like an amp when you bypass all the emulation and run it through a poweramp and cab, but then you get the convenience of a great, repeatable, and user-friendly DI feed that the sound guy can work with that'll still sound great, to play over the mains.


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## jase (Jun 30, 2014)

Did you guys profile your amps yourselves? If you blend mics, watch out for phasing issues, which could make your sound more shit. I profile my own amps with 2 mics, and I also profile the OD together. You can try this if you haven't already. 

When I use the Kemper live, I have a profile which I have two parametric EQ's in the X and Y slots. One I use to cut and the other I use to boost. When I go to do a sound check, I can quickly tweak the 2 EQ's. And as others have mentioned, cut the bass and boost the mids. With the parametric, you can quickly sweep the frequencies with a knob to find which it is that lets your sound cut the mix. 

Or you could profile a few versions of your amp with different micing positions and find one that sounds best when you do your sound check.


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