It would be very nice to be able to separate the amp and cab to use other cabs in an original Amp+Cab Capture.
I remember Doug mentioning that this is feasible. Also the Kemper has that feature and imo it works pretty good. Would be cool to have that in the QC as well.
Do you mean removing the cab from a capture of an amp+cab? So you would basically get the same result as if you used a load box with the amp only?
But you don’t get the same feel and sound result with the DI option. Been there, done that a lot.
Having the ability to remove the cab keeps the interaction that was captured while letting you use stock cabs or other mic’d cab combinations. The naming at this point would be chaotic since nothing standard and defined has been followed in a lot of cases, but if the cab/speaker/mic were noted then you can have a large interchange within the community.
Maybe on the amp block page have a button marked CAB. On/Off?
Interresting, didn’t know this was possible, if it works as you described that would indeed be a useful feature!
It’s puzzling that some of these features that have been around on other products were not implemented into the QC at startup. I realize that you have to do your own thing, but this and the midi/footswitch operations (lack of) is really a mystery.
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Had a couple of Kempers over the years, and tried the amp/cab-separation feature extensively.
I did tests where I profiled the same amp head with two different cabs, everything else was identical.
I then switched the cabs between the profiles. In theory, if the Kemper could distinguish between the head and cab in the profile, there would be no difference. But there was quite a marked difference, so no, the Kemper could not correctly differentiate between the head and cab in a profile, and I would wager that neither can the Neural software. I would love to be proven wrong though, as that would be a huge game changer, and close the gap in flexibility between modeled amp/cab and captures.
For now, I use a Suhr reactive load (as that and the Fryette are pretty much the only load boxes on the market that has a close to accurate impedance curve, which makes it ideal for capturing DI-amps).
I’m with the previous poster on this; I really don’t think this sort of feature could ever be accurate & if you want the option to use your head on it’s own as well as your head + cab then the best way to go about this is to do two separate captures (one with the cab & one without).
How an amp feels when using a load box comes down to the quality & type of the load box used. Firstly, you want to make sure you only use load boxes with a reactive load (so that it reacts to the input signal like a speaker would rather than being a flat brick-wall type of load) &, secondly, you want to find a load box that has an impedance curve that matches your preferred type of speaker. There’s three options that are worth considering if you ask me:
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Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander - If versatility is important to you then this device might be the ticket as it allows you to match the impedance curve of many different types of speaker & you could change it to match the appropriate/preferred speaker for each amp you capture.
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Suhr RL - the perfect device if you want something simple that accurately matches the impedance curve of a Greenback speaker (this is my choice as I’m the type of cat that uses Greenbacks for everything).
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Fryette Power Station - For those who prefer the feel of a V30 speaker.
Do you mean an amp should sound similar if you capture only the amp (DI) while being connected to cab A and then capture the same amp while being connected to cab B? I don’t think you should expect the amp to behave similar with different cabs, as long as it’s a tube amp, even if the cab is not included in the capture. But maybe I misunderstood your post.
No, I mean that let’s say you have your plexi head, then make a Kemper profile with it throough a greenback cab, and a separate profile through a V30 cab. The Kemper then allows you to separate the plexi from the respective cabs in the profile. So in essence, when you take the V30 cab from the second profile and load that onto the cab block in the greenback profile, then profile A should sound identical to profile B (that is the idea at least). However, it doesn’t. Thus we can assume that the Kemper can not correctly separate the amp from it’s cab in a captured profile.
I still think the assumption is questionable. The amp’s behavior is influenced by the connected cab. The cab is not just EQing the signal. That’s why e.g. on the AxeFX speaker impedence curve and many other speaker related parameters are part of the amp block, rather than the cab block.
Digitally separating amp from cab (A) and then digitally applying a different speaker type (B) is expected to result in a different sound and response than capturing the amp with the second speaker (B) in the first place. Some of the first speaker’s influence is still baked into the amp capture and probably only the “IR-part” of the cab is subtracted from the signal and replaced by another IR.
I guess there is no “correct” way to do it due to the fact that any tube amp’s characteristic is influenced by whatever load is connected to it. Be it different speakers or different load boxes. In the case of Kemper it might just be another option to shape the tone in the sense that if you digitally swap the cab and it sounds good, then don’t try to compare it with swapping the cab in the real world.
I agree, in the Axe 3 I used to play around a lot with the impedance curve feature, really made a difference to my ears. Also why I’ve opted to use the Suhr for DI-capturing. I wish people would be better at writing details about how they captured an amp or a pedal with the QC, now many captures are just empty on info and you have no idea how the amp or pedla was set during capture.
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Kemper use their proprietary algorithm called CabDriver to do this separation - but they are very clear that this is only an approximation, and for perfect results, the amp needs to be captured separately. Kemper use so-called “merged profiles”, created by capturing the amp with and without cab. This enables you to make the decision later if you want to use the full chain or just the amp without the cab.
Personally, I tend to use DI / load box profiles with my favorite impulse responses - helps me avoid sonic vertigo from having different cabs with different profiles when playing live.
Yes, I may lose the specific signature of influence ot the speaker on the amp behavior, but to me, that effect is neglegible compared to the effect of changing an IR, so I’m happy with that choice.
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I you like, you can contribute here in order to establish better description of captures: