Looking at a Kemper profile lineup, profiles of the same amp name sometimes split into a "standard" and a "Boosted" version.
This isn't a mere part-number difference. A judgment — whether to treat a boosted sound as a separate capture, or not make it at all — is made each time.
CSL doesn't make booster profiles unconditionally. Here I sort out what criteria decide making, or not making, a Boosted profile.
What is a booster doing?
A booster is gear that lifts the signal going from guitar to amp, before it enters the amp.
There are types of lifting. Simply raising volume, emphasizing a certain band, adding slight distortion — the character differs by model.
Important: a booster isn't making the sound. What a booster changes is the state of the signal before it enters the amp. How the amp receiving that signal responds as a result — this is the true nature of a boosted sound.
Which is exactly why a booster's effect depends strongly on the amp's response. Use the same booster and, with a different amp, the result differs.
CSL's standard capture takes the "nothing inserted" state as baseline
For its standard profile capture, CSL basically takes the state with no external gear including boosters inserted as the baseline.
The reason is simple: without first recording the raw amp's response, there's no foundation for comparison.
Whether a boosted sound is good or bad isn't asked here. Not a story of good or bad, but a recording-side agreement of "keeping the nothing-inserted state as baseline."
Precisely because there's a baseline can you add variations beyond it in a meaningful form. Increase individual variations alone without a baseline and you lose track later of what's being compared to what.
Boosted isn't a replacement for the standard capture
When CSL makes a booster profile, it's added as a separate variation, not replacing the standard capture.
A concrete example is the Ex-pro 31volt SOLO BOOSTER CSL actually uses.
This booster, by driving its circuit at 31V, has a headroom different from low-voltage gear. It's a product treated as a clean booster, not a type that adds strong distortion.
But this isn't a story of "we use it constantly because this booster is excellent." For CSL, this gear is positioned as a tool for making one more condition against the standard capture.
When capturing as Boosted too, it aligns the same cabinet, same mic position, same input conditions as the nothing-inserted capture. The only condition changed is the presence of the booster. By narrowing the changed condition to one, it's easier to see what's working when compared.
Amps where the effect shows, and amps where it doesn't
Passing through a booster doesn't change all amps the same.
An amp with gain margin converts the booster's input change into response relatively clearly. It's easy to see the distortion density increasing or the rise changing.
On the other hand, an amp that's already used up its gain, or one not so sensitive to input, sometimes shows a small change even passing through a booster. If there's almost no audible difference, the meaning of separately capturing it as Boosted thins.
CSL judges whether to make a Boosted profile after confirming this difference per amp.
Rather than increasing the lineup on the premise "using a booster makes it better," it adds Boosted only when it could judge "this amp's booster difference is worth recording."
Preparing Boosted for an amp with a small difference only increases options for the buyer, who has a hard time actually feeling the difference. Increasing the lineup itself isn't the goal.
The order CSL considers a Boosted capture in
When considering a Boosted profile, CSL roughly confirms in the following order.
First, in the standard-capture state, grasp that amp's response and gain margin. Next, keeping the same input conditions, same cabinet, same mic position, add only the booster and ring it.
On top of that, confirm whether the difference from the standard capture is audible not as a mere volume difference but as a difference of distortion quality and rise.
When the difference is audible, prepare a separate Boosted variation. When the difference is small, don't make Boosted and keep only the standard capture as the product.
The reason for this order isn't to sell a booster capture as a "special feature." It's the idea that precisely because there's a baseline called the standard capture does the additional capture called Boosted hold up in a comparable form.
The meaning of recording at CSL
What CSL wants to keep isn't the story that passing through a booster always makes it better.
First record the nothing-inserted state as a baseline, and separately record how the booster acted against that baseline, with conditions aligned. This is the positioning of the Boosted profile for CSL.
The presence of a booster is also a matter of taste. Which is exactly why, rather than deciding which is correct, there's meaning in recording both with conditions aligned.
In short
A booster isn't a device that makes the amp's sound but a device that changes the signal before it enters the amp.
CSL takes the nothing-inserted standard capture as baseline and treats a Boosted profile as a variation added on top.
It doesn't prepare Boosted for all amps. It judges whether to capture after confirming, per amp, whether the booster difference is worth recording.