Every day of the week, I wake up thinking I’m going to be greeted by the news of another company joining the amp modeling trend. Not so long ago, Fender released a much-awaited floor powerhouse with a 4-digit price tag that promised to dominate the market.
Well, that’s old news because the German company responsible for the amp simulator revolution and the even more meaningful profiling technology is back with a solution that we all wanted and needed.
Yes, the German giants tried to make a Kemper profiler fit inside a pedal that’s the size of two regular stomp boxes. But, did they succeed?
Follow me and let’s find out together!
Table of Contents
Kemper and The Profiling Revolution
Christoph Kemper is a German engineer who saw an opportunity to help musicians live a better life and carry less gear around by cloning amps and putting them all inside a single box. Thus, in 2011, the “profiling” technology took its first steps.
I’m not going deep into the mumbo jumbo about how it works, but through impulse responses, the profiler can “capture” the sounds and behavior of a real amplifier under optimum studio circumstances and allow you to take that sound with you on the road.
But that’s not all, because the next thing that started happening was that a small community got together and started sharing their profiled amps so everybody could enjoy playing them live. Furthermore, many elite-level artists have shared some of the tones they use to make people scream in arenas around the world.
This technology created a revolution from which amplifier brands are still trying to wake up.
Imagine this: you were spending thousands of dollars shipping your favorite amplifiers around the planet to get bashed and damaged by transportation just to play with those familiar, amazing, uncanny tones. Then, a company comes along and tells you that you can use those same tones while your gems stay at home safe and sound and you rock the stage consistently night after night.
Moreover, imagine if you could have the consistency of sounding exactly the same every time you step on the stage. Well, that’s the Kemper Profiler revolution.
You can buy a traditional Kemper in several configurations:
- Kemper Profiler Stage Floorboard Amp Profiler
- Kemper Profiler Rack Rackmount Profiling Head
- Kemper Profiler Power Rackmount (600-watt Rackmount Profiling Amp Head)
- Kemper Profiler Head
- Kemper Profiler Power Head (600-watt Profiling Head)
You can control those with the Kemper Profiler Remote Foot Controller, plug it into the Kemper Kabinet 200-watt 1×12″ Cabinet, and even take it to the gig in your very own comfy Kemper Profiling Amp Bag.
Well, big news is waiting for you a couple of paragraphs away, a new addition to this list that’s ready to make history on its own.
Who’s Using the Kemper Profiler?
Let me tell you that you can find Kemper gear not only on some of the most important stages around the planet but also in recording studios around the globe. Yes, imagine being able to throw in a ‘60s Vox, a ‘50s Fender tweed, a Mesa Rectifier, or a combination of those and your favorite amps at the twist of a knob or at a couple of clicks.
Let’s make a list so you can see how broad the Kemper user (and fan) base is:
- John Mayer
- Adrian Belew
- Pat Metheny
- Hans Zimmer
- Dino Cazares (Fear Factory)
- Munky (Korn)
- Vernon Reid (Living Color)
- Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
- Tom Dumont (No Doubt)
- Steve Lukather
- Monte Pittman (Madonna)
- Mark Knopfler
- Martin Gore (Depeche Mode)
- Jonny Buckland (Coldplay)
And the list could go on forever including big names of bands and guitar players filling stadiums and arenas as well as producers and pub-sized acts.
Enter the New Era, The Kemper Profiler Player Pedal
Speaking of pub-sized acts, what if the big news was that you could tap into all that processing power, killer tones, a virtually endless library of amps, and a couple of studio-grade FX in a single, small unit the size of two regular pedals?
Well, the wait is over and the people at Kemper have finally released the Kemper Profiler Player, a smaller version of the big Kemper so you can load in all your favorite presets and hit the road with your favorite amps in a single pedal that fits your pedalboard.
But that’s not all, because this small unit also fits among your home studio gear and you can use it as an interface to record killer guitar tones into your favorite DAW. Afterward, you can simply unplug it, Velcro it to your pedalboard again, and take those exact same tones with you on the road.
Live
The live application of this pedal is, in my opinion, where it performs the best. I mean, you can use it as a powerhouse to solve most of your needs for clean, overdriven, and distorted tones. Just like if you were taking your favorite head to the gig.
In this approach, I found it most useful at the end of my pedal chain. Yes, exactly as if I was going from my favorite pedals to the head and hearing it through a speaker (mainly the on-stage wedge speaker). It features a balanced XLR output to go straight to the mixing board so, for example, if you play with in-ear monitoring, you’ll be in guitar heaven in every gig.
A different approach could be to go to a powered speaker, like Kemper’s, Fender’s, or Headrush’s, and hear yourself through that while the front-of-house people are pushing your guitar tone through the PA.
This is, perhaps the closer you can get to the feel of playing with a real amp, sans the hassle of placing a microphone in front of it.
Furthermore, you can hit the PA with whatever you want from a 2×12 to a 1×15 or even a 4×12. Yes, you can get the same kick, punch, and low-end from the 4×12 at a pub volume!
In this sense, I really love the fact that you have an overall volume knob and also a gain knob on the other side. That, and the ability to select what the switches do, is, to me, a winner.
In the Studio
In the studio, in my opinion, the Kemper Profiler Player isn’t the best choice. I say this because, once you enter the digital realm, you can tap into a much bigger tonal library just from the software side of the matter. Yes, you can acquire guitar-oriented software for a fraction of the price of this Kemper and do a whole lot with it.
Furthermore, in that scenario, all the benefits of the portability and size tend to be unnecessary and you’re left with a way too expensive gizmo that can do something you can do for less with some software.
If you were to purchase a Kemper Profiler Head, then that’s a different story because that will allow you to make profiles of your own amplifiers. Moreover, you can create much more complex signal chains and have more tones at your disposal which makes it worthwhile to spend that amount of money.
Now, if you own a Kemper Profiler and want a pedal version of those tones you can take to the gig, then this pedal is a complete winner.
A Profiler that Can’t Profile
This is an important aspect to clear out before we move on: You can’t profile your amp using only the Kemper Profiler Player. Yes, it’s a profiler that can’t profile your favorite amps. Nevertheless, you can access a huge library of tones at your disposal.
Yes, after over 11 years of intense work by a growing community, I doubt there’s anything you can’t get from the shared-tones forum.
Is It Easy to Use?
The Kemper Profile Player is very intuitive and easy to use. Perhaps, the biggest intimidating factor for those of us who come from old-school multi-effects processors is that there is no screen to handle things live.
Instead of that, the Kemper has the proud, glowing Kemper logo in the middle.
What you do have is all kinds of buttons and knobs to modify some key parameters on the fly. Also, you can access five presets per bank, and you can even assign a footswitch to go up and down from any bank.
The Rig Manager Software
I’m going to say that the approach Kemper chose, removing the screen and adding Bluetooth capability, is a great idea. You can hook up your pedal to your phone and use the Rig Manager Software to make changes on the spot. Also, it allows you to access the over 20,000 user-generated rigs in the library and use them the same night.
The Bottom End: A Killer Library of Sounds at a Fraction of The Price and Weight
Kemper isn’t just another player joining in the profiling/amp modeling trend. On the contrary, it’s hard to think of such a trend if it wasn’t for Kemper in the first place.
Although it has a hefty price tag, can’t profile, and it’s not really a full Kemper Profiler head in a box, this killer Kemper pedal is the perfect solution to the demands of many elite-level and underground players.
Happy (profiled-amp) playing!
