Live use

  • We are fortunate to always work with pro sound companies, but I know it isn't that way for everyone.


    But, if I was playing a gig with crap monitors, my guitar would not be in them at all.


    Which is why i never have my guitar in anything but my guitar cab (which is mostly there for the benefit of having any sound on stage for my fellow musicians) and my in ears. which is run straight from my rig so soundguys can't mess with my own monitoring of myself.

    And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

  • Thanks for all the helpful advice guys. I will try the lower gain setting next time I'm in the rehearsal studio & see how that goes

  • We have a medium size JBL PA and it sound just as good as my monitor DXR8. I dont have powered amp. If you use youre guitarcab as a reference when making rigs, i understand you dont get the same sounds troug PA. I use my Kemper 98% live and choosed it just because i am tired of carry heavy amps and cabs.. my DXR8 plays louder than my Koch 2x12 or CAE 2x12. not same bottom as the CAE, but a very good stage sound together with in-ears. But my point is, To get the most out of your Kemper sound, its important to have a good PA and a deasent mixer to bring this sound out to your speakers! when making rigs its important to use a neutral sourse.

  • I've been using my Powerhead for a few months now, most of the time with a Celestion loaded closed back guitar cabinet and the cab simulation deactivated on the monitor output. Of late, I've been experiencing some bad tone days and haven't been able to figure it out until today.


    I created all my patches through the cab but also use the headphone output, main outputs to PA and also main outputs to in ear monitors. I'm mostly using profiles from The Amp Factory and despite creating some great sounding patches, i end up relying on a small handful that sound good through everything.


    My eureka moment today came when i considered what my favourite patches had in common; the profiled cabinet. I realised that a patch i make with a Marshall type cabinet in the profile still sounds great through my cab, as it is very much like a Marshall cab and also sounds great through the main outputs. If I select a profile created with a different type of cab, that's when it starts to go wrong. If I find a Vox profile that sounds good through my cab, it doesn't sound so good through the other outputs. You're always going to tweak an amp to suit the speakers so if you profile with Alnico Blues, you'll want to tweak it when using Celestion V30s but you'll also be adjusting the main outputs as well. As the monitor and output EQs are global, there's no easy way to fix it between patches.


    I've accepted there's always going to be a compromise when using the Kemper the way I do, if I want to mimic a ton of different amps I'll need to stick to using a FRFR but I really don't need that, I just want a good selection of tasty tones. Ultimately, once the drummer starts, the subtleties of my tones become rather pointless!


    I've now changed my patches by selecting profiles that sound good through the cab and the main outputs. It didn't take that long and it's always fun creating new patches on the Kemper.