New Rig... New Questions...

  • First newbie thread. A quick bit of background...


    I'm coming over from the 11 Rack. Purchased the unpowered rack and remote package. Primarily using this rig in the home studio, playing through a set of JBL 2328 monitors and sub.


    As the 11 was lacking in so many areas, I wanted to use pedals on the front end so I bought a VooDoo Lab GCX and GCP to do all the switching. I was using a JHS Morning Glory or a Lovepedal clone for most settings and also a Fulltone Ultimate Octave. These were used and switched with 6-8 patches that were my go to sounds. I never got my Crybaby or Whammy out to use but intended to.


    So, on to the questions...


    1. To pedal or not pedal. That is the question... Can I get all the above stuff in the Kemper, realistically?
    2. If I decide to go with the pedals, should a keep all the VooDoo stuff or just run everything from the floor and us the Kemper Remote?
    3. Is there an advantage one way or the other?


    Now the sound questions...


    1. A lot of the factory patches have drastic volume differences. Is this normal?
    2. A lot of the patches I have tried out from other sources, MBritt for one, sound quite dark. Normal?
    3. Are most people using a cabinet instead of monitors?


    Thanks again for the warm welcome and your time to read and help out!


    Strat

  • Hey Strat,


    Yeah, Michael's Profiles are generally-darker-sounding. Makes 'em bite less when cranked, which is a good thing. Knock a point or two off the bass in the EQ stack and you'll probably be pleasantly-surprised.


    I don't know about the other pedals, but you could try the wahs linked to in my signature.


    As for advantages one way or the other, I reckon if you can live with the Kemper's effects alone, the obvious one is a lighter / simpler rig.

  • I use a GCX & GCP and still use a few pedals. I like the versatility it offers. You can switch on and off the effects on the Kemper, if you set a switch to momentary you can also use the morph feature without additional pedals.


    The one thing it does not do well is the looper functions and wah. The wah works best if you plug the pedal directly into the Kemper ( when using the GCP pedal inputs I get lag).


    If you need any help getting stuff setup, let me know.

  • I use just the Kemper, no pedals at all (except a Dunlop Volume X for expression/wah/volume). I have a remote. I really like the simplicity and find I can get everything I really want/need. The only thing Kemper doesn't have that you get with external pedals is those very specific sounds (for instance an overdrive like a Tim pedal or something or a very unique effect pedal like some EHX stuff) Most of the other stuff is in there. Depending on what your needs are, I'd say you would be fine without any pedals. It is so much easier too!


    If you need the sound of a particular pedal, you can usually just find a profile of the amp that particular pedal is trying to copy anyway, that's where most of them come from - although you wouldn't get the combination of a particular amp and a particular OD pedal, but there are a lot of profiles out there and I bet you could find just about anything.


    And Yes, @Monkey_Man is right, Michael's profiles are darker sounding on purpose so when they get turned up loudly, they don't have shrill highs, that is actually something I like about them. I just tweak them a tiny bit and they work great.