Need help going from good to great!

  • gigged the kemper for the first time last week. It was pretty fun to use a Carr Slant 6 for cleans, a Dr. Z ZWreck for dirt and a cranked marshall JTM for leads. Loved that! Overall, I was pretty satisfied, but not quite.


    We use in-ear monitoring and typically amps/cabs are in isolation so you really don't hear or feel them at all except for in the monitors/house. As we got cranked up, our other guitarist had a great tone - big, fat and round. Sounded beautiful!


    My tone was really good, but sounded (at least in comparison) a bit thin and distant. That's the best description I could find...


    I played around with reverb/delay settings and even bumped up rig volume settings but just couldn't quite get where I wanted to be. Again, this is in comparison to our other guy.


    Would love any thoughts you have about bringing the tone a bit forward (not brightening) and making it feel bigger.


    Thanks!

  • When you say you played around with 'verb settings, did you try removing it altogether?


    IMHO, it's not really required in a live setting except for special effects. There's plenty of 'verbage going on in most venues by the very nature of their being filled with loud sound.


    Removing it will bring the guitar forward and make it seem thicker, IMHO.

  • When you say you played around with 'verb settings, did you try removing it altogether?


    IMHO, it's not really required in a live setting except for special effects. There's plenty of 'verbage going on in most venues by the very nature of their being filled with loud sound.


    Removing it will bring the guitar forward and make it seem thicker, IMHO.

    This Nicky. Normaly i didnt use reverb i a live situation especially when delay is on. Delay on is enough room. The other thing is to boost the mids and play with the definition and clarity parameter when tweaking at rehearshal level to fit in the band sound. Pure cab is also a thing. These tweaked rigs are soundind a little muddy at bedroom level, but in a bandcontext they are great. I have the same experience with profiles f.e. from Bert. Very midrangy at bedroom level but perfect in a mix or live use.


    Edit: Also the eq's and the boost stomps are great tools.

  • @jesusrocker First of all, you're dealing with a digital machine (superb though)...but what you put in, comes out.
    Bedroom "laws" are different from live/studio "laws"...
    Too much low and high end won't work in a live situation, your guitar is gonna disappear.
    Try (when you have really good profiles) the studio EQ post stack. Try 2k to get your guitar more upfront, cut below 100 hz so you will not interfere with the bass but you can try some 150 to get some more balls.
    As Frank @Eltzejupp said, try a pure boost pre stack (1 db to perhaps 2,5 db), works great !!


    And Nicky @Monkey_Man, when you're using in-ears it's not really nice to play without any reverb at all imho

  • Agreed, Bert. Haven't done it, but I can imagine.


    I don't know if it's possible on the Kemper to send delay and other FX to FOH, but not the 'verb, whilst still hearing all FX including the 'verb in one's IEM's. Obviously one could send a completely-dry signal to FOH...