Kemper DI Box | Why You Need One | An Inside and Out Review with Examples | Tony Mckenzie
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2016
- Ah The Kemper DI Box.. an overpriced nothing... or is it? Check out this Inside and Out Unbiased Full Review and exactly why you really do need on if you own a Kemper Amp. Great for seeing more about Kemper amplifiers too and why I still have mine!
Its expensive for the money. But is it really worth all that hard earned money? and can it really be any better than just a $40 DI Box from other companies? Does it have magical powers that can change the way you profile amps in to the Kemper? Find out by watching.
This review shows you much more than just the DI box... with examples at the end of the video of actual capturing with the DI and the results... not to be missed.
If you like this review then visit www.tonymckenzie.com and my CZcams channel where there are hundreds more reviews like this one.
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE AND RING THE BELL. And if you like the video then thumbs up! Thanks - its always appreciated and I won't bombard you with reviews!
(c) A B Mckenzie 2016. All Rights Reserved.
All Trademarks Acknowledged. - Hudba
Good vid. I swear you could be Paul McCartney’s long lost brother!
I'm similar... just missing the cash and talent :) Stay safe.
I really love your personality man. I love the the upbeat vibe you have in your videos.
Good to know that guys do like my presentation - my humour can be weird (like the rest of me :) Thanks for watching... its always appreciated - it takes a long time to do all this stuff and without viewers its nothing.
Congratulations on your health and album Tony love your videos keep up the greate work
Thanks for watching - appreciated.
Tony your the best reviewer of all time...thank you.
Very kind words and thanks for watching.
Tony is absolutely off his lips. Absolute legend!
Absolutely :) Thanks for watching.
tony your the man !!!
Really not that easy to review! Thanks for watching.
If you happen to already own a load box or attenuator I'm sure the DI line out would work just as well as this box for profiling with the Kemper.
Likely true I agree... but Kemper does not say anything about that aspect ;-) Thanks for watching.
Great video young fella! In short I bought a Hughes and Kettner Grand miester 40 from your tutorial a while back, best purchase I ever made. Has a DI and power soak built in and works well with my recording software. I own one of the original pre amp rack mounts, a Digitech 2112 with 2 12ax7 tubes in it. I still smile every time I use it. Ya its old and outdated but so am I. I have tried the Kemper and the axe fx 2, and I still go back to the Digitech. Always like your videos, this 61 year old guy from Canada says so! TC
Aha the Grandmeister I still have my Grandmeister 36 and while it has a couple of features that are on the 40 I declined to spend the money for the difference... but the 40 is even better no doubt. A 2112 I have not used but have seen them. Indeed I'm old and outdated... well, sort of :)
The Kemper can sound very good and I'm no FX anything fan. I was using the Kemper just the other night with recordings we're on right now and it does sound good with the right profile. But there's nothing like just turning on the amp and playing... and with the Kemper (and the rest) its like running windows with update this and update that. A bit of a pain really. Thanks for those kind words Dave they are appreciated and thanks for letting me know about the H&K. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the reply Tony, wasn't expecting it, never get an answer from the you tube blogs. Love yer vids here, Dave from Canada says so
My bro still owns 2 jcm 800 50 watt heads that still rocks my socks
Well Dave, I purposely go out of my way to answer almost every post on my channel because I feel that is the right thing to do especially when someone has spent time on the videos and also spent time commenting. All too often on the 'throw away' internet nobody has any time for anyone... but that's not the way I was brought up - its only good manners to reply to guys who watch the videos. So if ever you post, unless I miss it or am no longer here?? then I will always reply. Warm regards from the UK. In any case we'll be trading more pretty soon :)
Getting rarer these days especially if they are not hacked... hang on to them.
Great review and video! very interesting.
Thanks... I was surprised by the results really... Thanks for watching.
***** Surprised at how good they are? Kemper truly is a miraculous piece of kit!
Agreed it's probably the best out there right now.
I spent years (and money) looking for tone. And in the Kemper I have it all. Sure, maybe not quite as good as the real thing but *so* close. Nirvana!
Yes it IS a great piece of gear. I have updated mine from powerless to powered, messed around an awful lot and it just keeps right on going :) Not sure if you saw this video: czcams.com/video/ymyMzfjphxI/video.html its interesting and I have not really seen many guys do it...
Hey Tony! First of all thanks for a great review. There's literally NO info at all about the Kemper DI on the web, not even at Kemper-amps.com, so this video was really helpful to me. Just to be clear... Do you use speaker-cables from your amp and all the way through the DI to the cabinet, or do you use common instrument-cables?
Hi Rune... well you should use speaker wire for speakers and shielded for guitar level right? but me? I use often what ever is lying around if the truth is known. They all seem to work :)
My advice is do what you should and don't follow me on that one! And as far as any info on this DI I found exactly the same... nothing. So bearing in mind the Kemper DI is not particularly cheap, I decided to see what you get for the money... inside was a revelation. I did comment on the case and the cost of that and it's one thing that stands out, they could have made the DI much cheaper but did not - seems aesthetics meant more to them. In reality, I think the case promotes the Kemper brand and that was the reason for such a housing for the DI. Just my opinion of course... Kemper tell me nothing and TBH never have.
In any case coming back to the cables, the results sounded good in reality and my 'guess' is that it might matter a bit less than we think on the cable type :) but I could be wrong. If you find the definitive answer (maybe in the manual) just post it on here as I'm sure others will ask at some stage. Good question too!. Thanks for watching.
It's settled then, I'm gonna wear my life jacket and use speaker-cables. :-)
I can see why the price can be an issue. Other DI's may probably work just as good for half the price, but at least you're ensured that with the Kemper DI, you (in theory) will get the best direct profile as possible. For me it's a cheap and time-saving alternative instead of doing ordinary studio-profiles with amp, cab, mic etc. Having a library of direct profiles in fact seems even more attractive to me giving the possibilities of changing your cab/speakers without loosing "The Heart" of the sound.
My brother bought me the Kemper DI for my birthday and the first profile i'm going to do is a Fender Customshop ToneMaster Head. I'm really excited about it... :-)
Have a great day Tony.
Ha... classic :) ... and yes I understand the time saving for sure. But TBH for me I don't spend much time changing cabs around... I like the Marshall 1960 cabs (as you will see in the video) so there's not any real incentive to change... but others just like yourself can get incredible flexibility from cab changing it does make a big difference to any sound. et me know how you find the DI when you have used it... always useful to get other opinions. Thanks.
I'm just curious Tony: Do you think the Kemper does a decent job of capturing the nuance and tone of your JTM 45 that you built yourself? Thanks for another solid review.
Good question - I think 'if you are very careful' then it can get near. 'The same' is a very difficult question to answer really but I had never done the DI stuff and captured just the amp before and when I chose the 1960 cab on the captured profile on this video (irrespective if it sounded the same on the video) it did sound strikingly similar. And as you might expect, when I chose other cabs (in the Kemper) that profile really does change a lot - probably similar to the captured amp and the chosen cab. Not quite the same answer that you wanted, but overall I do still think the Kemper has a lot to offer. It's a pity that it's grown in cost somewhat due to exchange rates etc. On all 'profiles' if you have noticed, people profile the amp at different levels e.g. clean, distorted rhythm, lead, etc. and the profiles sound pretty much the same as the original amp when you do that. But I had a question just recently that asked 'if I profile an amp at say rhythm distorted and then turn the gain down does the profile mutate to the same tone as the amp turned down'... and that is a really good point. I have not really tried that myself but personally I reckon there might be some difference because the tube amp will work differently at different overloads... if you know the answer to that one then post it here... thanks for watching.
Hi Tony, first of all thanks for the review. I'm not English so I missed some points on your video. I understand that the Kemper DI box is over priced, but I don't understand if the standard DI box could do the same, did you tried ? I didn't listen a comparison between the DI profile and the standard mic profile on your video, did you tried as well ? And if you did what do you think about the result ? Sorry for my English, thank you.
No problem with your English ;-) To be honest I did NOT try a different DI box... maybe I should have. I don't really think that the Kemper DI box is anything particularly special and I'm pretty sure that most similar DI boxes would work. This is a passive one remember, but there are some pretty good active ones out there too. Hope it helps and thanks for watching.
To me the whole point of this is so that you can capture an "DI" profile of an amp and then add it with impulse responses of cabs later on, giving you more options within the unit, or if you have the power amp version, you run it into a cab live, perfect for travel.
Exactly... that's what I said :) Thanks for watching.
From the looks of the inside pics, this unit appears to be a simple external direct out device for a tube amp, and not a classic "direct box" like you would use with a PA. Most direct boxes have transformers or active electronics to provide a true differential signal to be sent long distances over a XLR cable, the Kemper box does not appear to. I haven't seen this pointed out anywhere. I would expect if anyone would use the Kemper DI box with long cable distances as they would a traditional direct box, they might be disappointed with the results (mainly increased noise and poor frequency response with long cable runs). Also its ability to isolate grounds might not be as good. But if you are using the box for making Direct profiles only with a Kemper, it will do a fine job.
Thanks MB my electronics skills are not yours :)
When you opened the box up and I saw the few resistors and the other blocks with 4u7 on ( I suspect they were polyester capacitors ), it just looked like a simple potential divider with the caps as decoupling. It does seem an excessive price for what you get. Your suggested price point at 30 quid seems high, it should be alot lower IMO. Unfortunately this is the case with electronic products - you're paying for the knowledge of what goes into it rather than the component parts. Good, honest review.
Yes I was surprised at what was in there too. Seems they wanted to show off the case and promote the brand. But like I said, most users I think would not care about the shape of it as long as it does the job. This did but at that IMO high price. Thanks for those kind words BTW for seeing the review as exactly what it is. Thanks for watching too. Good input.
Hi,
"Star screw" is a torx screw, quite usual here in europe. The screw worn out less than a classical cross screw
That might be true but its less common here. Ask yourself why would anyone go to the trouble of putting 'star screws' on screws for a cover that probably would never even come off if it had not been for my review. It's rather over engineered because there is so little inside the unit. Kemper are not alone and I have seen something similar on some expensive IT equipment emanating from the USA. I opened that in about 30 seconds flat and the USA guys could not (it seemed) understand that they went to all that trouble to protect their IT gear and I opened in in seconds with an everyday flat screwdriver. Maybe if Kemper has thousands of these screws 'lying around' but I really could see no reason for them to be honest.
But on the plus side it the DI box did do what they said. I just wonder if any other DI box would work the same? Anyone with that experience please do post here.
Thanks for the info on those screws too... quite helpful... and thanks for watching.
Do you think this would work well with the Quad Cortex or do you recommend anything else?
Honestly, I have not tried it with a Quad Cortex :( so I would not like to say... just in case. But thanks for asking and watching too.
If I understand correctly, when you do this, because the speaker cab is connected, the DI signal that gets profiled is subjected to the fluctuations from variable speaker impedance and transformer interaction. so you get the sag and the bloom, without the speaker sound.
I don't think so. I believe that the speaker does not come quite in to the equation... although I could be wrong re the electronics in there - looks like mini transformers.
First Tony, thanks for your very informative videos, especially the internal pics of the products. VERY informative stuff there. In the Kemper Direct profiling, the speaker is a very important part of the profiling, as the speaker interacts with the power amp in the profiled amp (varying impedance of the speaker over frequency, return EMF from the speaker coil, this interacts with the power amp in the amp, etc). This speaker/amp interaction is very important in the Kemper philosophy, which is to use as neutral a power amp with the Kemper as possible, and capture the tube power amp tone in the Direct profile.
Exactly... the use of the DI allows speaker IR's to be loaded separately without the encumbrance of a partially changed signal for the profile through the speaker?
Wonder how it stacks up against the Lehle P-Split III and other DI boxes?
Sorry Richard... I don't have them to check :( But I always thought that for what it is its about double the value :)... thanks and stay safe.
Tony, correct me if I'm wrong for I haven't profiled through the Kemper, but the tutorials I've seen include plugging the head of the amp direct into the Kemper so that it captures the head separate from the cab. Wouldn't that mean it captures a direct signal and an impulse response independent of one another? Does that make a DI sort of unnecessary?
Also, listened to a number of studio profiles and merged profiles and I'll be damned if I couldn't tell a difference between them.
Hmmm seems not. The profile is a profile without cab influence.
Merged profiles are great for playing trough a guitar cab. You turn the cab simulation of, and it just feeds the amp only signal trough the cab. And since you profiled the DI signal of the amp alone, without the speaker and cab, you get the correct signal. When you turn the cab sim off on a studio profile, the kemper actually removes the cab simulation trough some sort of cab removal algorithm, but its never gonna be the same as the actuall DI signal you get from the amp.
But I was under the impression that by using the DI box a cab never comes in to play - so in that way you ARE getting just the amp. When I flip cabs in the kemper you can hear the difference of course and as others say if the cab is turned off and you push through the guitar cab then it's as it originally was re the sound. I did that in the review but maybe I missed something re the question.
Will you share the bother profile ? 😀
Actually Jacob I will. I have some profiles on Kemper at the moment including the Dumble clone I built, but the Bogner Brixton will be going on there... remember without a cab... thanks for watching.
@@tonymckenziecom hello, can you share your profiles?
@@axelstell3 My profiles (at least some of them) are already available on the Kemper download area... search for tonymckenzie or tonymckenzie.com
Do you know where i can buy one of these in the UK?
Good question Liam... I bought mine direct from the Kemper site under accessories. I guess anyone who sells Kemper (andertons for example although I hate promoting that company) can get them.
do my Neve D.I box will do the job? thank you
Neve DI :) very nice.
I wonder if anyone has tried to do a DI profile with a cab clone or torpedo live
I have a cab clone but have not tried that... maybe I will and post it on here. Thanks for watching.
14:55 TRENT REZNOR APPROVES
:)
Do yo know this video about the Kemper Di box
czcams.com/video/K_3mkmR-xI8/video.html
Hi Johannes... I can't say I have seen it before... and It's not in English (from what I saw) so for me it is generally not understandable. But always worth seeing other videos about Kemper... not a bad piece of gear if getting a little old these days. I suspect there will be a new one in the not too distant future somehow. Thanks...
SNATCH. lolol.
Definitely not worth the price.
The physical unit I agree is out on price... but the idea behind it was cool. If anyone has tried out a regular DI on a Kemper and got similar results that would also be interesting. But the idea opens up that fact that you can profile 'just the amp' and I do think that's a useful thing. Thanks for watching... appreciated.
There are better D.I.s, more functions, better spec, better smaller build, for much less cost, that will do this ones job and many other jobs. Thanks for replying.
I just wonder if they did anything special on this one for the Kemper... I did touch on that in the video a bit. There's no info of course and that's a shame really. Well at least it can be seen what's inside and maybe someone knows more than I do about this one. But you are right there are many more at substantially less cost... it was expensive. Thanks...
Michael Britt, perhaps the most notorious commercial Kemper profiler said the Kemper DI is far and away the best DI he's used, for what that's worth.
sir, get your facts straight for crying out loud
Really... well they are as straight as they come... I guess it's easy to criticise huh? especially when you leave no facts about 'crying out loud'. I certainly am not perfect... but looking at your profile... neither are you. Thanks for watching.