Anyone Using the Kemper for an Acoustic Rig?

  • Hey Folks,


    New guy here - just received my Kemper earlier this week and had a few days to play around with it to get it ready for an acoustic gig I'm playing this weekend. I think I should be good to go...after a lot of trial and error I think I have a couple really good acoustic rigs setup and was curious if anyone else is doing the same. The idea for me was to be able to use both my acoustic and electric and have a single pedal board/rig to drive both vs having to bring out separate boards, an amp, etc... So far, I think it'll work.


    One question though...I'm not entirely sure any rigs that are even available for download have any effect/impact on running an acoustic signal through the Kemper. I turn off both the amp and cabinet simulation and just use the EQ and effects so I think it's fairly worthless to bother with downloading acoustic profiles from the rig exchange as an example because I believe that those are more suited for folks that want to use their electric guitars and get an acoustic tone. My thinking is that one could take any rig really and just turn off the amp and cabinet simulations and that's all you need to do for a true acoustic setup, right?


    I threw a YT video together with my initial impressions...curious to hear from any other folks who are using the Kemper for double duty and how they have their rigs setup for live performances...


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  • I play just about anything with strings and pickup(s) through my Kemper. Sometimes I use acoustic-amp profiles, sometimes it is just FX and/or EQ. Sounds like you have a great setup already.

  • If you want some professional preamp colouration, maybe take a look at Bert Meulendijk's Acoustic Pack. It's only 10 Euros I think.


    He's put together a very-nice selection of gear combinations which I think are intended primarily for piezo-acoustic use, but my guess is that they'd sound pretty-damned-fine on conventionally-mic'd acoustics too.

  • I use my Kemper for acoustic on occasion - I use one of M. Britt's presets from his Forrest Gump, oopes, I mean Box of Chocolates pack. Questions of commerical vendor and rig aside, I love the flexibility of being able to use the Kemper as both an electric and acoustic rig.


    Edit: you asked about the performance set up. I have one set up with five different acoustic preamp rigs and I just use the one that sounds best for the room. Each has a modulation effect or two, reverb and a tap delay. Nothing fancy. At home I sometimes use the looper to solo over but playing live I am usually part of an ensemble so haven't explored that.

  • I downloaded Bert's acoustic pack and i have to say, I don't like any of them with my acoustics. They all have the amp simulation enabled (cabinet sim is off for all of them) and I just don't like what that does to the natural sound of the acoustic. I plugged my 335 in and messed around with some of those presets and that kind of a setup would work...using an electric to emulate an acoustic - but so far at this point the best sound I've come up with for my acoustic is to just have the EQ on - cab and amp sims turned off. Of course, using the effects and stomp sections as needed.


    I guess at that point I'm basically just running the guitar signal through the Kemper untouched essentially...sans any effects or EQ that get applied. Either way, that's what I've found sounds best to me so far and frankly, I think what I've got dialed in sounds pretty killer and that's saying a lot from the rig I am coming from with my acoustic (Strymon pedals, Rupert Neve DI, etc...).


    I use a Maton 808TE and a Gibson J45 as my primary acoustics and had to make some minor adjustments to the profiles because the Maton has active electronics and the Gibson has a LR Baggs with no volume or tone controls.

  • Ive used the KPA for the few acoustic songs in our live set for a few years and its been great. Mostly use the stock Kemper "Acoustic B" profile. Adjusted the Compression slightly and was good to go. It sounds great through the PA. I also use a Maton acoustics. An EBG-808 (w AP5 Mic electronics), as well as a TE-1 which just has a piezo (no onboard mic). Use the exact same profile for both and the guitars differences sound true and honest.

  • I downloaded Bert's acoustic pack and i have to say, I don't like any of them with my acoustics. They all have the amp simulation enabled (cabinet sim is off for all of them)

    I'm sorry to hear that @klincejr...I don't know what your set up looks like but let me explain what I did. Yes, the amps are enabled because I profiled some acoustic pre amps like the aura and the venue DI and some high end pre amps like the chandler TG2 and Germanium etc. The profiles are in fact "luxury" DI's and are tweaked to fit nice into a track. To achieve that I boosted or cutted off some frequencies that are imho important to let an acoustic guitar sound nice.
    They are ment to be used on a full range system, not on a 12" loaded guitar cab...
    I use a Martin D41 and a Gibson J50 loaded with LR Baggs Anthem pu systems and that combination works perfect for me.
    I can't make everybody happy, I know, wish I could..

  • Hey Bert - no worries...my post wasn't disparaging your work for sure..


    All I was saying was that for my scenario the best use of the Kemper with an acoustic so far isn't to use any of the modeling features...just run it through...really using the Kemper as an effects pedal and a DI since I'm coming out of the XLR outputs in stereo to my mixer.


    The modeling tends to color the sound in a way that I don't like - and that's not just with your stuff but with every other acoustic profile I've downloaded. The only use I've gotten out of any of them is to use the amp modeler so that you get gain control and can push the gain a little to get it to break up a little. This has proven nice in a looping situation where you want to get a little louder/dirtier but not over the top. I've got a couple presents where I've used the morph mode to stomp the pedal twice and doing so turns on the amp modeler, makes a few EQ adjustments and bumps the gain up a little to get it dirty.


    I'm super happy with the effects in the Kemper and the acoustic 'sound' I'm getting. It took a little work but I've got a gig tonight and I'm pretty excited about using it and trying out the new stuff. I'm coming from a pretty nice acoustic rig that I was using prior so my expectations were pretty high. I'm using a Maton 808TE and a GIbson J45 as my 2 acoustics and they both sound fantastic.


    Thanks again Bert - as I mentioned I'll get some use out of your stuff so it's not $$ wasted for sure. I actually got a few nice sounds I like with my 335...just haven't had time to dial them in.

  • I absolutely love the Kemper for acoustic shows. We typically just do a couple of acoustic songs in our regular show but we do a lot of acoustic shows and I almost cringe when I have to do a show without the Kemper as I've gotten so used to having all the toys at my disposal.


    A long time ago I found an Avalon preamp rig on the Rig Exchange (Baktus maybe?) and I used it for a long time. I just turn off the cabs and use the amp and eq portion. I add a bit of post amp compression just to even it out because piezo pickups can have a really hot transient attack. I use a pure booster in the x slot for a solo boost or now with morphing I can add a boost or a screamer (set really low) that just adds a bit of midrange for single notes to sound bigger and less plinky. Plus I love have a bit of reverb on acoustic.


    Lately, I've been using one of my ADA Tube Pre rigs for acoustic but I bounce back and forth. I also have to cover the organ part in our version of Marc Cohn's "Walkin' in Memphis" so even on acoustic gigs, the rotary effect sounds fabulous.


    In instances where I have to cover an acoustic for one song and don't want to have to switch to an acoustic, I just use on of my Boss Acoustic Sim rigs and it sounds ok. It's not as good as a real acoustic, but it's passable for a song.

  • Hey Michael! First of all I totally dig your presets! Thanks for all the work you have done...


    Also - Jeremy is a really good buddy of mine...he and I played in a band together and were roomates for years in college right before he joined Lonestar. He and Wally both using the Kemper were the ones that got me thinking in that direction. I met you a long time ago when my wife and I lived in Nashville and he invited me to come out and see you guys when you played in town.


    I'll check out the Avalon one and see if that does anything for me. Thanks so much for chiming in and thanks a TON for your work with the Kemper profiles...it was HUGE decision making factor for me buying one.


    Maybe you could share some of the acoustic profiles you use? :) What acoustics are you using these days?


    Take care!

  • I usually use my Tom Anderson Crowdster with Lonestar because I don't ever have to worry about it feeding back and the Baggs preamp that Tom and Lloyd came up with sounds incredible. I have a few other acoustics, but I always have to content with low notes taking off and feeding back when the monitors get too loud. My most recent acoustic acquisition is a Gibson J35 that sounds like a cannon.

  • So, I played my first gig with the Kemper last night. Super happy with the outcome. The sound was killer, loved the remote. My wife and I were solo last night so I put together a few patches with the blooming type delay with long'ish decays and it really did a nice job filling things up. Even had two different guys that were guitar players come up and ask me about my rig saying it was the best they'd ever heard an acoustic sound.


    Very happy with my rig now - killer smallish acoustic setup...A&H Qu-16 into EAW Redline 12's. We use Nuemann KMS-105's and you know my guitar rig now. Happy as a kid in a candy store.


    Appreciate all the responses here - I'll continue to tweak and such and if I come up with anything interesting I'll be sure to post back.

  • I’m having exactly the same problem as above- I have

    Downloaded multiple profiles both commercially available and from the rig exchange and I cannot get a good acoustic sound. By no way am I being disparaging about anybody’s work and I’m very grateful for all the efforts - I think perhaps the problem is more me I am not doing things correctly.


    My gear is also complicated and not your average...


    I have an Emerald x10 carbon fibre with double pickups - piezo and neck magnet. You can use a mono out which sums both pu’s (you have ability to mix onboard) or stereo out for outboard mixing.


    Any help would be great


    J

  • Strange enough I have tested "everything" in the RE for "acoustic guitar" but for steel string stuff I always return to the Frnazkowiak "Acoustic E" profile made with a Baldringer Pre..I just tweak it to my needs.And it takes "everything" ie EQ,FX and even tons of OD.


    For Nylon..the "Aura ny 7" profile in the RE is highly usable.I just roll of the highs and twaek a bit with EQ,compression etc..good enough to get a "controlled nylon"-sound (with a good classical guitar of course) without all the Feedback-issues you often get when you do micing or use a "cheap preamp" through FOH without any good soundcheck.And yes..soundguys hate Nylon Guitars..I just plug in my takamine nylon into the Profiler..and that's it.


    All that being said.


    I wait for the announced "acoustic sim" and I really hope this will " be it".High hopes here..