First Gig with the new Kemper rig

  • I still need to spend some time with the eq out front running some multi-track recordings back to adjust things, but since we are booked solid for the next couple of weeks, it will have to wait until things settle down. I think I may have a bit much on top still.


    Setup was kind of a pain. I have my Kemper in a rack with a power supply strip and a harmonizer. The cable mess was hard to get though and cost me some time on setup. I am actually sitting here right now with my box-o-parts from parts express and making myself a nice connection panel before next weeks gig.


    This rack has 8 connections total.


    • 2 MIDI (in and out)
    • 1 TRS footswitch for a 3 button controller for the TC Helicon harmonizer
    • 1 female XLR input into the harmonizer
    • 1 male XLR output out of the harmonizer and into the mixer
    • 1 TS input from my guitar
    • 2 XLR stereo outputs from the Kemper into the mixer.


    I created a snake for the 2 MIDI cables with some black plastic conduit and just roll that up inside the rack for storage.


    The other 6 inputs are going to be on the panel by tomorrow. I also ordered some longer XLR patch cables and got colored ones so that I can keep them plugged into the mixer and pack them up with it (I use an X32 Rack mixer). That way I can have the mixer face down with the plugs up and the Kemper's rack face down with the plugs up at the same time and make the connections like this before laying them one on top of the other. The 3 ft patch cables were too short to do this so I ended up on my side laying down trying to hook things up on the last gig.


    The Kemper has some balls. Too much in some cases. I am finding that the other guitar player is having difficulty cutting into the mix with the Kemper since he tends to like a warm sound from his rig and lacks high mids. He is having to use less distortion to cut better.


    I am not so sure I shouldn't have a bit less gain myself. It is great when you are jamming by yourself, but gets a little messy in a gig when you have too much gain.


    There were some balance issues with my rig setup as well, but all in all, things really sounded good. The night went off without a hiccup.


    It took me a couple of years to fine tune my VHT rig. Hopefully I can get my Kemper rig there in 6 months ;)


    It was a pleasure playing on the Kemper. It is hard not to love the tone.


    .... and rumor has it that Uno4Kemper is sending me my glow in the dark stickers ...... which I really did need. The stage was dark and the foot pedals on the FCB1010 are small and hard to read in the dark.


    In a bit of time, the Kemper rig is going to be very easy for me to work with. I sure didn't miss carrying my 4x12 cab and head last weekend! My back is one happy camper. My ears are pretty happy too.

  • Well done OneEng, really glad your gig went well and you're loving the Kemper ;)


    Coincidentally, it was my first gig with the Kemper last Saturday night too, was just a function band gig so nothing to exciting but good fun. We play mostly funk and soul tracks so generally I play clean Fender or Vox profiles with just a few of the 30 or so songs we play requiring some OD sounds. For these I used the Morgan AC20 with slightly pushed gain with humbuckers.


    Setting up the Kemper for me was much simpler as I used my DXR10 as backline and didn't go FOH. This was simply due to logistics, but I love the flexibility of this set up. I can use the DXR10 as a personal monitor if I can go FOH and mix my own amount of 'more guitar in this monitor'! or as on Sat, can just use it more like a traditional backline amp.


    Sounds were good, but think I need a bit more on the top to cut the mix better: lots of what I do are the rhythm parts including plenty of wah. Btw, I have seen people having issues with the wah on the Kemper, once calibrated I have found the FCB1010 fine with the Kemper cry baby wah. My OD sounds also needed a bit more on the high end too, mainly to cut through the other guitarist. I sound similar to the other guitarist in OneEng1's post as I love warm, mid-dialed lead sounds, but sometimes they don't cut through and need adjusting.


    Anyway, all in all, I am in love with this box of tricks. Every day I want to play it and it was great at its first gig, just a little bit of tweaking needed, but I expected that as most of the time I have to work out the sounds I am going to use at 'shhhhhhh the children are asleep' friendly volumes!

  • Thanks guys.


    I spent tonight with a soldering iron and some 4-10 screws putting together my patch panel.


    Lots of issues!


    First off, I put it all together, then hooked everything up. Yuck! Hum, buzz. So I unplugged the harmonizer figuring it was where most of my issues were. That cleaned things up considerably.


    I put my main outs directly into my A&H Zed 10FX I keep at home. The output was noisy .... and just didn't sound right.


    So I start playing around with various ways of listening to my Kemper.... starting with the headphone output on the Kemper .... Ahhhh. There it is! That sweet sound again.


    Hmmm. So then I revert to what I had been doing by using a pair of ballanced 1/4" TRS connections into a stereo input on the Zed. Again .... Ahhhh. Nice sound.


    I plug into the XLR inputs .... and I notice the gain is off the charts. I turn down the channel gains as far as they will go. It is still a little loud, so I go into the kemper and turn down the outputs.


    Ok, so the noise is gone, but the sound is still lifeless in my headphones. I switch back to the stereo input ... sweet.


    So then I plug the 1/4" TRS into the mic channels ...... It has much less gain ..... but it is lifeless! Then it hits me. I have both channels panned up the middle. There is no stereo image!


    One last fix. I put an XLR to 1/4" adapter on the Kemper XLR main outs directly into my mixer channels and everything is fine.


    Everything was my fault. One interesting side note. The ZED only has a max of -10db input gain on the mic inputs. You really CAN'T put anything even remotely hot into a ZED mic input. The 1/4" inputs have a much better tolerance to hot inputs though. My X32 had no issues at all with the Kemper output.


    Whew. So that was fixed.


    The harmonizer input simply had a swapped wire. Fixed!


    So everything is back up and running well. I have a very fancy patch panel on the back of my Kemper rack for this weekend's gig (a wedding), and everything is sounding great.


    I am still waiting on those longer XLR patch cables to come in the mail. That will really make life easier.

  • If I think of it, I realize that this need to tweak is a good thing: it helps a lot in making the notorious "digital sound all the same" statement false.


    :thumbup:

    That is absolutely true. "My sound" is how I like my tone. I doubt that the way I like my tone is exactly like everyone else. This was also true of my VHT rig. My rig didn't sound exactly like every other VHT rig because I set it up to sound the way I like it to sound.


    The fact is the Kemper can be setup a zillion ways to achieve a dizzying array of different sounds. I bet my Kemper sounds quite different than yours ;)

  • Hey, OneEng1, thanks for relating your experiences. :thumbup:

    No problem.


    I am still loving the tone machine I have found.


    It is interesting though. I find myself backing off of the gain on many rigs to get an even more pleasing tone than I already had. Hmmm.


    I have a wedding party tomorrow night. I'll post on the improvements to my rig on setup time. Hopefully things will go more smoothly than last time.


    Next weekend is the annual Scorpions Motorcycle Club party. By then I should have all the kinks worked out of the system ;)


    Oh, and I received my Uno4Kemper glow-in-the-dark decals. Those would have come in handy last weekend as we were on a pretty dark stage.


    Ever notice how much you use the fret dots on the side of the neck of the guitar? Dark stages suck ;) I guess dark stages help to break bad habits.

  • Second gig last night (wedding reception).


    The new patch panel really helped out. I had everything plugged in and the PA up and running in about 45 minutes.


    The Kemper is proving to be the most consistently good sounding rig I have ever owned. It just doesn't change from gig to gig and therefore, once you dial your show in, it always sounds that good.


    I am using the FCB1010 and the Uno4Kemper chip. I finally got my glow-in-the-dark stickers and I have to admit, it made it easier to quickly see the pedals on stage for patch changes.


    I use the x slot for my boost. Unfortunately, this lands on the 9 pedal which isn't the most convenient pedal to hit for boosting up and down in a song. Anyone know of a way to get my boost post rig and have it assigned to either 6 or 10 pedal (one on the end)?


    My other beef with the FCB1010 is the foot switches are a little too close together. It also lacks a toggle feature (my last pedal board and efx unit you could hit the same pedal and it would toggle between that patch and the previous one ..... which was very useful). Mr. Kemper, if you are building a KPA foot switch, please consider this feature.


    The other guitar player mentioned that the Kemper seems to cut into the mix better than the VHT did. Never thought I would ever own anything digital that cut into the mix better than a tube amp ;) That has always been my biggest problem with digital heads. Specifically the Line 6 stuff. It may sound good in headphones, but playing live, they just get squashed and disappear in the mix. The only solution is to raise the volume and then you just have more mush.


    The Kemper remains true to the character of a tube amp in this regard and cuts into the mix like a good tube amp should.


    I have also noticed that with my Kemper, I can get great sound from my bridge pickup (Fender American Strat with Lindy Frailen pickups). My VHT rig sounded too harsh to use the bridge pickup alone. The Kemper has unique .... and usable sound on every pickup position.


    I truly couldn't be happier with this rig.

  • Shrinking your feet? :)

    I'll give it a try ;)


    Hopefully when Mr Kemper gets around to releasing a dedicated foot controller, it will have ample space between foot switches (and at least a 40x4 graphic LCD).


    I am tempted to build one myself ;) Might make a fun side project for all the spare time I don't really have!