Cab On or Cab Off when playing with a cab?

    So i have had my KPA (powered version) for almost 3 weeks now. Of those 3 weeks, with work, playing acoustic shows, general Dad stuff, and being down with the flu for a week and a half, I have only really put 4 hours into this thing. I hope to do some more tomorrow but I have a question for all of you.
    When you are using your guitar cab, do you turn the cab on or off on the kemper?
    I know this all comes down to personal preference, and with mine, I seem to like the sound of the cab on even though I am using my cab with it.
    Has anyone else done this as well?
    I know its not the "right" thing to do, but then again, its mine :)
    Just wanted to see if anyone else has come to this decision as well.
    Cheers! :)

    ultimately, everything is based on taste....but! The Cab Off button has it's place on the Monitor Out section so you can run a power amp and cab or if you got a powered KPA just the guitar cab. If you run a FRFR cab, you can leave the "Cab On".


    You might get a different less representative sound not switching off the Cab section in this scenario since you are now projecting, Cab and Mic into your guitar cab. But it's up to you. Have fun :)

    Apologies for the length of this reply - but I had this very dilemma too.


    I think I’d been used to playing with cab simulation on accidentally through a rocktron prophesy for years, and putting this through a cab gave me a really clear compressed high gain lead sound which I just couldn’t get any other way.


    So with the kemper it was the same, and without the cab sim on, the distortion sounded fuzzy and saturated instead of smooth and cutting and I really need this crisp lead tone, so I started with cab sim on playing through a cab too.


    But in a live situation (especially with another guitar in the band) this extra filtering (you’re playing essentially through a cab, through another cab, and the frequency ranges and signal are heavily attenuated, twice.) and it’s really hard to stand out in the mix. particularly at loud volumes - it’s really noticeable when there’s another amp to fight with in the room. I realised this wasn’t how it’s meant to be and figured I’d bite the bullet and try to deal with the good old fashioned approach.


    So I started turning the cab sim off for the guitar cab output and trying to find a decent sound that way. I’m getting there, auditioning lots of rigs on rig manager to get the character I’m after and using careful tweaks and EQ (I find setting the distortion stomps to negative numbers works well for heavy sounds) and the sound is a lot fatter all around (and louder for gigs) I also found I don’t need quite as much gain as I thought I did and the merged profiles really help (you also get the same sound over headphones/master outputs as you do out of your cab this way, which might be very important for you, it sure is for in-ear monitoring and sending direct outs to mixing desks)


    As an extra tip:- There’s also the “pure cabinet” setting to investigate. Hold the rig button in the system menu to get into artist mode, scroll through to page 5 “cabinet tweaks) and you’ll find pure cabinet in there - you can change the intensity of it, and this really shapes the sound and takes the fuzz out of it, I find about 5-6 sounds most balanced.


    So, I’d really recommend trying to find a good sound through your cab, without cab sim on and try and adjust to it.


    Of course, everyone is right when they say use your ears, and if it sounds right to you, then go with it. But if playing with a really heavy and really loud band is a concern - then mind what I said above.

    I use both, depending on the profile. I'm in a weird situation. I have a 3-way Polytone stereo cabinet, probably designed for keyboards. I don't use the monitor out, I run my ADA Stereo Microtube power amp and 3 way cabinet off the 2 x 1/4" jacks, and I run FOH through the XLR jacks. So, if I turn off the cab, it also affects my FOH sound. In the end, the profile determines which way I go. Some profiles, sound ok with the cab off, Some sound terrible. Whatever works, that's how I save the profile.

    You know it all depends on the sound and the amp and the profile that you are using, sometimes using a Cab with the cab on is good and sometimes it's not, depending on your taste and ear. I use an Engl 4X12 cab and a lot of the Engl profiles and on some of them it sounds good with and on some of them it sounds good without.

    Quote from Ingolf

    [quote='viabcroce','http://www.kemper-amps.com/forum/index.php/Thread/19699-Cab-On-or-Cab-Off-when-playing-with-a-cab/?postID=216673#post216673']With some real cabs, I've had the best sonic results by keeping cab on.


    :)


    Another +1.


    Use your ears. ;)[/quote]......X's2.. sometime on , sometimes off, depending on the profile.

    Quote from Ingolf

    [quote='viabcroce','http://www.kemper-amps.com/forum/index.php/Thread/19699-Cab-On-or-Cab-Off-when-playing-with-a-cab/?postID=216673#post216673']With some real cabs, I've had the best sonic results by keeping cab on.


    :)


    Another +1.


    Use your ears. ;)[/quote]......X's2.. sometime on , sometimes off, depending on the profile.

    Yup - just yesterday in my current set up of using both a DXR10 from the main out and a 2 x 12 from the Speaker Out, I found with some of my JCM 800 profiles a nasty metallic noise through the 2 x 12 with the cab off.....cab on it sounded great. I'm using the DXR10 for definition and cut and 2 x 12 for warmth - greedy I know :)