3.0 Firmware and you - what's it really mean?
The biggest change Kemper has made to their firmware in some time is the new 3.0 firmware, which introduces merged profiles. To understand what a merged profile is, we really have to look at what a regular profile and a direct profile is, how the Kemper dealt with them in earlier firmwares and what 3.0 really does. So....
The old way
Let's say we make a great profile with our favorite amp, mic and cab in firmware before 3.0. If we turn off the cabinet, the Kemper guesses what part of the sound was the mic and cab and which part was the amp. While it was usually a good guess, it still wasn't perfect - how would the Kemper know what was the basic tone of the amp without the cab and mic?
Let's go the other way - we make a new profile that's direct only without the cab emulation. We add our favorite cab to this - and again, the Kemper has to guess as to what part of the mic and cab were really the mic and cab and which part was the direct amp. It may sound good or bad, but it's not going to be accurate.
Let's go the other way - we make a new profile that's direct only without the cab emulation. We add our favorite cab to this - and again, the Kemper has to guess as to what part of the mic and cab were really the mic and cab and which part was the direct amp. It may sound good or bad, but it's not going to be accurate.
What 3.0 really does
3.0 Allows you to make a profile with your cab and mic, then with the same amp settings, make one of the direct out from the amp and then merge - or combine them. This means any 3.0 merged profile, if you turn the cab off, is going to be accurate to the amp, and if you run the cab - it will be accurate to the cabinet and mic combo you used. It's like having two profiles in one. Plus if you take two merged profiles and swap cabs, the results should be much more realistic than the old way.
so why would I want merged profiles?
Lots of reasons! You can run a cabinet with an amp onstage and then run your cab/mic tones to front of house live and they both will be accurate - before you had to either run your onstage cab with an inaccurate direct profile and accurate FOH, or accurate direct and inaccurate FOH. This also means if you use a cab and power amp for practice like I do, and a FOH/direct to board setup for live use, that you can use the same profile for both. Saves space and time!
So merged profiles always sound better, right?
They sound better if you're going to use both types of setups - poweramp and cab, or recording/direct out. If you're still just using your Kemper for recording - the individual profiles are going to sound the same. Ditto if you only use your Kemper life with a FRFR monitor and to front of house. It is more accurate when you take the cab off the profile though, but this does not mean that older profiles from Pete's Profiles (or anywhere else, for that matter) are suddenly useless.
Where do we go from here?
I and all other commercial profilers were told by Kemper to not make merged profiles available until 3.0 became a full release. Now that it is, all of my profile sets from now on will feature Merged Profiles. There's no way to go back on old profiles and make them Merged - they will have to be redone from scratch. They are the same profile folks have enjoyed in the past and will enjoy into the future. As time allows some profile sets may be totally redone, but every profile set created from now on will be a merged set. This is going to cut down on the number of profiles in each of my sets, as you are really getting two sets in one and it does add time and complication to the profiling process.
Here are links to the first two of many Merged Profile sets I offer:
Here are links to the first two of many Merged Profile sets I offer:
And two profile sets that were created before 3.0, but include 'direct out' profiles so you can create your own Merged profiles from them. This was when the merged profiling was announced and being tested, so I couldn't include already merged profiles in the set. However, I could and did provide direct profiles so you can make your own.