Hi!
My name is Heather. I babble a lot. I ordered a Kemper Rack, and it is sitting in the local FedEx building today, scheduled to be delivered tomorrow (before 8pm) 
I have been playing guitar for over 37 years (also play piano/keys and bass). I have played in bands that have travelled the country (USA), as well as running FOH, doing LD work, helped with monitor systems, and worked in studios (both sides of the glass). I also worked with several digital audio companies during the first decade of the 2000s. My Dad is a Jazz musician (sax is his primary, also piano, some guitar), and My Uncle is the bass player in The Remains. Several family members also play piano and/or other instruments, and I was around musicians/music from day one.
I will only say this about My (horrid) experience with Fractal: I bought the first version, returned within the try-out period; bought the Axe-FX II and sold it several months later. I benefitted from two (in)valuable lessons: I learned that I do not care for it, and I had someone take Me under their wing and I got the most intense course on IRs I could ever hope for (using Octave for most things 
). Unfortunately, it also soured Me on hoping that modeling and anything similar would ever be part of My world. Until...
While rabbit-holing on YouTube, I came across Chappers and The Capt vids, and one had them pitting Kemper vs Tube Amps. And then I saw Michael Wagener praising Kemper. Michael I trust. His comment about "...the right hand being wrong..." with other digital offerings was the key, as it has been My greatest complaint thus far. His word was enough for Me to take a deep breath, and order a Kemper (rack). So, now I have a little kid in Me jumping up and down like it is My birthday tomorrow, while the sceptic/realist/party pooper in Me is off to the side, arms folded, saying, "Your presents are things you will never wear, never use, and you will have to waste your precious time returning them all." The little kid stops celebrating every so often to make a face at the sceptic, and even flipped the bird a few times
Hope I did not type too much, and I hope the Fractal part does not upset anyone (here). I truly am excited! I am not looking to replace tube amps, but rather I want another option that expands My composing and recording world.
I got to hear Beatles stories, and much more, when I was allowed to be around them, and could stop babbling, as little kids will do with adults HAhHAha!
, and this is almost always something quite up front for Me, enough to make playing through them unpleasant at best. Even with the very, very brief time I have spent with the Kemper (tried two guitars with vintage and mid-output pickups), and with NO system tweaks (completely fresh out-of-the-box, plug in and play!), it is a very different experience from past experiences I have had. With the Kemper, My immediate (and possibly/likely? wrong) conclusion is that it is like... Oh! It is like having an amp mic'd up in another room, and that amp is dimed, or at least being pushed quite hard, and I am in the CR hearing it through the monitors (at a very low level, in this case). My brain is a little baffled by it, as I know the amp is actually right there in the room with Me, it is NOT very loud, but it is behaving as if it were, and thus it should not behave in this manner.This is different than other experiences because as I lower the volume on the guitar, and ease up on the pick, it is reflected in what I am hearing with the Kemper, albeit STILL sounding like a cranked amp (being played through with a guitar with volume lowered), whereas with other gear, it has NOT been that way, and I have experienced the pick attack remaining as prominent even with the volume rolled back nearly all the way. So, I am going to try making some profiles with My amps at different levels to see how it is reflected when I play through those profiles. I hope that all made sense 
).
