Best way to achieve a solo boost

    The problem with using the guitar volume knob, especially for boost, is that it's incredibly difficult (impossible?) to be truly consistent with it, and it will drive FOH engineer crazy. When dealing with decibels of volume in your signal, precision and consistency is essential in a live setting, otherwise your guitar is at risk of either suddenly fading/disappearing under the mix or shouting over the mix, unpredictably. Sound engineers hate that, and it isn't particularly pleasing to the audience... or bandmates.... or me, heh. I have just gotten my Kemper and also having trouble determining the best way to do lead boost, as well, but I am inclined to set up and lock a persistent post-pre boost or eq that I can engage, at will, as previously mentioned. Adding additional (physical) stomps into the loop or in front of the Kemper also doesn't appeal to me, because I got a Kemper to simplify my rig and eliminate complexity, and adding additional gear to mix defies that goal. Changing the profile/amp volume also doesn't appeal to me, either.

    Edited once, last by Section8 ().

    I tend to have a separate patch which will generally have a bit more delay and mid boost and the volume set to give me 4db across the board. I do have some compression on the desk though to flatten out any inconsistencies across patches so it probably ends up at about 3db FOH.

    Quote from HMVMike

    I tend to have a separate patch which will generally have a bit more delay and mid boost and the volume set to give me 4db across the board. I do have some compression on the desk though to flatten out any inconsistencies across patches so it probably ends up at about 3db FOH.

    Similar approach here.

    Quote from HMVMike

    I tend to have a separate patch which will generally have a bit more delay and mid boost and the volume set to give me 4db across the board. I do have some compression on the desk though to flatten out any inconsistencies across patches so it probably ends up at about 3db FOH.


    Are you saying that you lock a compressor, which is shared by every rig, to level out dynamics across all your rigs? That sounds compelling. Do you do this before or after the preamp stage?

    i just set up a rig with a boost in the X slot of about 3.5 db. I save that rig on #5 on my remote in all performances and I can use separate effects for each performance depending on song. I also keep the boost in most of my rigs throughout the performances but have it turned off. I then can just hit one of the effects switches on the remote if I want to boost a certain rig that's different than the main lead tone in slot 5.

    Tried lots of things ...but ..BB Preamp (a real pedal) in a front of KPA works for me very, very good.
    BB doesn't colour original Kemper sound at all , it is pretty neutral -except giving more sustain and that dense gain .
    It is fantastic tool for feedback as well.


    I do not add too much gain on BB, anly maybe about 10, max 10:30am or so .
    Also , I keep volume on the same level, maybe 11:30 am max .
    Treble and bass -depending on guitar and rig it self.
    On that way my lead sound is not too much louder than say rhythm sound (BB switched off ) ,but thankfully to more density it just cut the mix as lead solo has to be.


    The best thing is that BB somehow amplify dynamic of Kemper , and using guitar Volume and Tone posts is now an incredible dynamic experience .

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    Edited once, last by Rescator ().

    Quote from HMVMike

    Not within the Kemper. My rig goes stereo out into the desk and then I have a compressor inserted into the channels on the desk.


    If I'm going out to another desk I just use a dedicated aux out tapped at post FX.


    I gotcha. Wow, that's a cool rackmount mixer!

    Hi - this thread is a bit old..
    But before opening another one for a minor question, I put it here:
    I use the volume pedal with positive settings (0..5) for boosting.
    Can someone say, what the number means here? Is it dB or just ... an number? How much would be 3dB boost?
    The background: we dont have rehearsals too often - and I want to keep the "soundcheck time" low...
    Sometimes I find a new rig, that I want to check with the band. I will have to level it (as good as I can) at home to match volume with my other rigs.
    At rehearsal, I have to do the fine tuning with the band. After that, I would have to fine tune my soloboost to be 3 dB above that leveled sound. Can I skip the soloboost part, with a standard setting?
    I still am sometimes confused, which value is taken... the best thing would be to lock volume pedal to always boost 3dB... Not sure, if the setting is the same for all rigs? No matter if clean or dirty? (I have the volume pedal position at the last possible...)

    I'm recently quite new to the going FR-FR on stage, I now go straight to the desk, have my Friedman monitor in front of me and run direct to my Marshall 4X12 behind me, before I used to use direct profiles straight to the cab and have it miced traditionally with an SM57.


    Like Ingolf, I usually found that when in the practice room using just a standard guitar cab I thought 4db boost was right when being next to the cab. I did get complaints quite often thought when playing live that my guitar solos were too quiet and I'm by no means a mid range scooper so lack of mids wasn't an issue.


    I found that 6db boost works best for me with a extra touch of mids and standard delay/reverb combo. 6db to my eyes seemed like it would be far too much volume increase for a solo channel but it feels good on stage even with my monitor facing me it doesn't blow my head off when I kick in my lead sound. Last week I heard a video of us playing and at 6db the solo level sounded perfect over the rest of the band so I'm sticking with it. I've never noticed any desk guys rushing to pull down the faders either when I'm doing a solo so all must be well.


    I like quite smooth lead/solo tone, think Dave Murry and more recent Neal Schon type of sound where the neck pickup is warm and smooth but not muddy and the bridge still cuts but is also quite smooth if that makes sense? I find the default settings in the Kemper Lead Boost stomp (pre amp stack) perfect for this and never tried it till quite recently but it really helped me get the sound I was aiming for. It basically warms and smooth the tone while adding a touch of saturation and sustain and like the Pure Booster doesn't effect the tone the same way using an overdrive like a tube screamer would. All my volume boosting for the solo rig are done with the rig volume control on the Kemper rather than any post stack EQ/Booster or the cab section as I like to run direct to my cab as well with cab driver disabled on monitor out only.


    I always set up a separate rig for my lead sound rather than going the stomp effect type route as I like a totally different effects setup than my rhythm sounds.