Kemper has just announced a brand new unit called Profile Player. It’s promoted as a more compact alternative of their flagship profiler heads and rack units, offering the same sonic qualities.
Although not the first to get into the digital realm of replicating multiple guitar amplifiers in a single unit, Kemper is the company that pretty much changed the game in the business. The Kemper profiler proved to be a potent unit that ended up persuading even some of the most persistent vintage guitar gear lovers.
However, in more recent years, the trends were changing. Although Kemper also has their floor unit or solutions that include elaborate floor-based controllers, it seems that they’ve been a little outpaced by brands that made compact amp sims and profilers. These include IK Multimedia’s Tonex, Universal Audio’s analog modeling UAFX line, Line 6’s HX Stomp, Strymon Iridium, and many others. Even Boss hopped onto the train with their recent IR-200 and IR-2 units.
Whether it’s late or not, we’ll leave that up to you. But Kemper has now launched a potent new unit called the Profiler Player. According to their official statement, the unit’s power lies in the company’s new Liquid Profiles technology.
This is a profiler, not a modeler. It means that it brings profiles of actual physical amps and rigs, as opposed to modeled simulators. This offers “consistent accuracy and also a convenient package for touring, traveling, and studio use,” as the official statement reveals.
Main Features
The Profiler Player is a compact floor unit, about the size of two average guitar pedals. At the same time, it comes with an abundance of different amp tones, as well as individual effects. Kemper promises the same quality as you’d get with their famed profiler units, and you can load pretty much any profile from the vast library.
So this isn’t your old-school physical unit with a bunch of amp tones and effects on it. Instead, it’s a “fusion” of a physical unit that works with Kemper’s massive library of profiles. Profile Player isn’t capable of doing the actual profiling like Kemper’s flagship units, but you can still use pre-made amp profiles, load impulse responses, and tweak effects.
This is all doable using its USB, WLAN, or Bluetooth connection. You can even dial in your perfect tone using your phone.
The signal chain of the Profiler Player has four individual effects modules. It can use two effects before the amp stack and then two after. There’s a total of 136 effects settings.
There are a lot more features here, including a tuner, ability to work with other distortion pedals in your signal chain, MIDI compatibility for controls, on-board noise gate, and a lot more.
Controls and Connectivity
The pedal’s main interface comes with a bunch of controls, including basic stuff like the 3-band EQ, gain, and master volume. More advanced control comes with the rig volume knob. There are also three foot controls for the usual switching.
On the back side of the unit, there’s the usual input and two outputs for stereo operation. There’s also a headphone out and a ground-lifted XLR, which allows for direct front-of-house connection without any need for DI boxes. There’s also a separate jack for external controllers.
Apart from the aforementioned USB, WLAN, and Bluetooth connections, it’s important to note that the unit is compatible with Mac, PC, Android, and iOS devices. Using the Extended Rig management, you get access to about 20,000 user-generated rigs.
Price and Availability
Kemper’s Profile Player has just been announced but it’s now available through your usual retailers. We can also notice that there aren’t any direct product reviews on YouTube. So the company probably kept this one under wraps for a while. But you can find them through the likes of Sweetwater and Andertons.
As of this writing, the set price in the US through Sweetwater is just under $700. Meanwhile, Andertons lists it at £619 in the UK. For more info, you can visit Kemper’s website here.
Photos: Kemper
