Placed my order last night!

    I ordered a powered rack last night!


    I'm super excited since I've been gassing for a Kemper for years, but I'm also a bit nervous that it won't be what I expect it to be.


    But mostly I'm just psyched!!


    I don't have the other gear required for live use at the moment, so it's going to be an expensive headphone practice rig and recording solution for the time being. I may end up using it on wedding gigs and possibly with my two original rock bands at some point! I'm just nervous about it sounding alive enough on stage - all this 'amp in the room' talk has me a bit concerned. But who knows...that might all melt away as soon as I plug it into a cabinet or FRFR wedge.


    It's all brand new to me....been playing tube amps for 20+ years and I'm taking the plunge into the future (present?).


    So if anyone feels like listing their 'Top 3 Things Every New Kemper Owner Should Know' have at it!


    -Calaban

    Hi Calaban you are defo going to be blown away with how good the KPA is, that for a fact I know.


    My 3 things that a new kemper owner should do is


    1 buy a few profiles from The Amp Factory (I personally didn't have much luck with the factory rigs but I know others did and you might like them to) As soon as I brought a few from Andy at TAF my KPA came to life


    2 Read the Wiki that is floating about here on the forum, and read the manual :)


    3 Don't be afraid to experiment with the KPA and try and get a feel of how it all works.


    These are my personal 3 things that I think a new KPA owner should do but I'm sure others will chime in with there thoughts :)


    Enjoy it when it arrives buddy :)

    There's only one thing you really need to make sure;
    Use GOOD headphones (and/or GOOD speakers). Do yourself the favour and don't listen to audio bliss through crappy gear. If you already have really good headphones or speakers, then you're 100% safe. :)


    Ok, there's another one:
    Take care of your fingers. The Profiler will make you play for hours and you wouldn't be the first to end with sore fingers after the first night of wow.


    Cheers
    Martin

    Hi Calaban,


    I'm a little different from you as I use IEM's rather than FRFR. Can't speak to the differences in how you approach FRFR. Here are the 3 areas that helped me the most.


    1) Find a couple of profiles that are in the ball park and spend time with the various settings. I do have a few TAF profiles and it just makes sense that you can get a better foundation based on their method vs. some dude putting a 57 in front of their cab although there are also well made user created profiles. I find that you can get similarly voiced profiles to sound essentially the same with the proper tweaking. It certainly takes less time than rolling through tons of profiles (although it is fun).


    2)Wiki has been extremely helpful to me and gives an excellent baseline of knowledge.


    3)Learn about EQ and the guitar frequency range. Makes a huge difference in ending up with a profile that needs little to no tweaking out front at the gig.

    Thanks for all the great advice folks. I will certainly read the manual, and I have been reading the Wiki for a while now.


    I will need to invest in a decent pair of headphones. At the moment I'm stuck with a very basic set of computer/gaming headphones. I know these will not suffice in the long run, but for the next few weeks at the very least they will have to do. Any suggestions on good studio headphones? I know next to nothing about what makes a set a headphones good or bad.


    I am planning on purchasing some Amp Factory profiles eventually...but doesn't the KPA already come with some?
    I am looking mainly for clean to mid-gain. I'm a Fender guy mostly, but now with the KPA I'm excited to experiment with different amps.


    I'm planning on spending a good bit of time just getting to know the amp and practicing with the parameters and workflow before trying to use it at rehearsal or live. Plus, it will be some time before I can
    even purchase a FRFR monitor or standard guitar cabinet (probably a 212)


    This is so exciting....can't wait!


    Thanks again

    Quote from Calaban


    I am planning on purchasing some Amp Factory profiles eventually...but doesn't the KPA already come with some?
    I am looking mainly for clean to mid-gain. I'm a Fender guy mostly, but now with the KPA I'm excited to experiment with different amps.


    Yes it does. You'll find lots of good profiles fitting in your territory in the profiler.

    You 'll love the KPA - yes you get a few hundreds profiles with your KPA.


    Good speakers are the key.

    (All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with soundside.de)


    Great Profiles --> soundside.de

    1. Plenty of Sleep before hand.
    2. Make sure you put cream on your fingers
    3. Coffee


    The rest is the fairytale ending... Love, & happy ever after etc!.


    But seriously.. spend a while with the unit, find what It can do, read the wiki, read the manual. don't rig switch too quickly when you first plug in.. just play whatever is on at the time, and familiar yourself with it.. so that when you do rig switch you know what you need to do to make it better. (if at all)


    Good Luck!.

    1:Update firmware to 2.5
    2:use a windows 7/8 pc or mac and download rig manager.
    over 5000 free profiles and a bunch are unbelievablely accurate to the real amp, try them and all the stock profiles before you buy profiles. It would take years to go through all the stock rigs and free ones on rig exchange. Using the rig manager makes it fun and easy though.
    3:it takes time look for the right profile 4 you that sounds good with your setup there are a bunch.


    Im using the powerrack into a 412 marshall MA cab with celestion t75 (16 ohm)
    Some profiles are real dull and fizzy. Because they are meant to be used with FRFR speakers. but a bunch like pete turleys and many others are unbelievable. They will melt your face.


    I play with a very loud drummer and our bass player has a 1000 hartke bass amp. But the power rack cuts REAL good. Just use the eq and the awesome built in studio eq
    I sold my marshall jvm410 and mesa roadking 2 I will never look back. No more $200 tube/valve swap days (RoadKing 2)


    Congrats on your purchase turn it up loud (BE CAREFUL WITH HEADPHONES) and dont damage your hearing too bad but take your time with it.


    The kemper powerrack is the most fun I've had playing guitar in a long time. My fingers hurt.

    Edited 10 times, last by Lash ().

    Quote from Calaban

    Any suggestions on good studio headphones? I know next to nothing about what makes a set a headphones good or bad.


    It's easy to spend a fortune for headphones, of course. But don't get fooled by "the higher the price, the better they must be".
    I've been using Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro (80 Ohms) for ages and I'm using them every single day with a smile in my face. They are GREAT value for money. They are closed-back cans, which certainly isolates you from the world around. I do prefer this over open-back headphones.


    The Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro are offered in different impedances (32, 80, 250 Ohms). There is a slight difference in sound when you compare them directly, the 250 Ohms being the best. But many years ago I decided to go with the 80 Ohms version because these are loud enough on pretty much all devices I connect them. The 250 Ohms version don't get as loud as the 80 Ohms version on some devices and you would need an extra headphones amp. The 32 Ohms version is louder than the others but they're probably targeted to those who don't care about the extra quality compared to the loudness.


    The Beyerdynamic DT-770 can be considered studio headphones ... and are among the best rated ones. When you take the price into account (135 Euro) , then they easily win against other brands and models. Imho, you can't go wrong with them. :)

    Congratulations on the purchase. My top 3:
    1) Read the manual, particularly with respect to "input settings", which will make the maximum impact on your first impressions about the Kemper
    2) Don't be afraid of the stock profiles. While some users swear by the commercial profiles they buy, I've gotten great results from just the stock profiles, as well as the thousands of free profiles uploaded by some of the great users on this forum to the rig exchange.
    3) Download the Rig Librarian and latest firmware. This will give you the best perspective to enjoy the Kemper Amplifier as it is today!

    Got my toaster running thru a set of Presonus Sceptre S8s which replaced my older Alesis M1Active MKIIs. I liked the MKIIs, but the Sceptres are on another level. Hope to get a pair of Atomic CLRs some day. As stated before by many, many times - the KPA is the most amazing piece of gear (I've ever owned). To finally get pro-sounding results, tracked direct, while having access to near any amp you could want. Incredible! You're gonna dig it in a massive way.

    Thanks again for all the tips everyone!


    My KPA is arriving tomorrow. Unfortunately I probably won't have any time to play with it until Monday night! I might go insane knowing that it's sitting on my desk waiting for me.


    I'm going to follow all your advice, but I'm sure I'll have a million more questions in the weeks and months to come.


    Cal

    Quote from Calaban

    Thanks again for all the tips everyone!


    My KPA is arriving tomorrow. Unfortunately I probably won't have any time to play with it until Monday night! I might go insane knowing that it's sitting on my desk waiting


    Cal


    Same thing happened to me last week. But man was it worth the wait.
    O ya the biggest tip of all: use all your vacation time from work



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