Better live sound with your Kemper

    Hello guys!, first of all, this is a personal opinion, as a result of many gigs in many places and working with audio engineers with more... or less empathy.


    What I have learned over the years with modelers, and now with Kemper, is that... to get the best live sound, it´s not to do a focused job on eqs, compression, etc. What really works great is to leave the amp as natural as possible, using only the EQ of the amp itself, as you would with any traditional equipment.


    What often happened to me, when the sound tests started, I used to "argue" with the audio engineer about my amp, that the signal was already coming from my amp equalized, how I like it, but with time I realized that they don't like it, many times they left the signal flat, but outside it didn't sound like it should sound, it could be the place, the reverb, the front of house sound system that has a particular sound, this made them angry, because the sound was very unpredictable and they make some "against eq" corrections that gave a worse sound.


    Over the years I have learned from them, from the audio engineers that it is best to give them what they expect, the sound of a natural guitar amp, with its darkness, or high frequencies when they see some Marshall or a Mesa. they know what they have to do to make your sound great, everything changes when you play on a large stage, a "Plaza de Toros" or bullring, a closed area. It's my recommendation, you'll get a better sound with your natural amp sound, I'm not talking about effects, obviously.


    Best is leave the guitar sound treatment for the recording studio sessions, although sometimes we confuse sounding a guitar with "that sounds like that album that I like", which was also recorded 20 years ago , haha, let's not forget that the same amp and guitarist sound different in different albums for many reasons, mixing eq, master eq, studio equipment. etc.


    Anyway, I hope that with this advice you enjoy a pleasant live experience with your Kemper, and... get along with the audio engineer. : D


    Comment what you think about this topic. Greetings to all!

    There is a lot to be said for your post. Each venue will make your amp sound different with the room or PA/ desk and it is the job of the engineer to compensate for these factors. Processing your guitar sound in a nice room or studio will not be what it sounds like it a venue.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

    Like 1

    I play at my church every Sunday, a larger size church, 1500 people or so, we have Top notch gear, Allen and Heath computerized board with Allen and Heath ME1 individual monitor mix boxes.
    No cabinets or speaker monitors on the stage, everything is in ear…
    I know when I have a sound guy that thinks my tone is too warm. two weeks ago I could hear a ton of high freqs in my tone… ripping my ears apart like glass on cement. After sound check I went back to the guy at the board, he said, ‘your guitar tone is too warm, I have a high pass filter set to clear it up, I like a lot of sizzle to guitar tone ‘ … I told him ‘I don’t’... and that I would do it at my amplifier (Kemper) and to leave me completely flat.
    At least once a month I have to go and remind whoever is at the board to leave my sound alone, I have tested it numerous times and recorded it at church and I love what I hear…
    I am 53 years old and have been playing for 30 years, gigs, churches, bars, I have yet to meet a sound guy who fully understands guitar tone…

    Quote

    At least once a month I have to go and remind whoever is at the board to leave my sound alone, I have tested it numerous times and recorded it at church and I love what I hear…
    I am 53 years old and have been playing for 30 years, gigs, churches, bars, I have yet to meet a sound guy who fully understands guitar tone…


    It is interesting that now with the profiler the sound guys actually leave my sound alone..most of all because I tell them that I have many different banks with 3-4 sounds for each song I do..this is enough to make them think about "consequences" if they screw up the big picture.... ^^


    There are a thousand reasons not to trust the engineer,specially when you play support for some bigger headliner.I dont need to list them here..most guys will know what I mean.. ;)

    While I find that many FOH engineers will set the eq on my guitar channels, all of them are pretty happy to work with the Kemper. The tone out front is always very nice.


    I have been working with IEM's for over 20 years now, and wouldn't really ever want to go back. I believe that it is best to let the FOH engineer set the over-all tone and level. My performances then set the relative level and tone between rigs.


    This has been a good recipe for me anyway. I guess I am with the OP. Let the FOH engineer do their job and you will be rewarded with a good band mix.

    Unless we are on a very big stage, a cabinet with a mic will almost always have more drums and cymbals in it than guitar tone. So our engineer was fully supportive of my migration to Kemper. He listened to a few sounds and made minor adjustments and later we added that to the Kemper eq so he could leave my sound flat.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

    Like 1

    I have problem with the sound guy very often about flat sound. He can't set his eq on flat. :( I am trying to set my sound like a guitar amp and to my mesa cab it sounds like a guitar amp, but he set his eq like hi/mid/low cut and my Kemper sounds bad. Is here anyone, who can't tell me, how bad is my tone?

    And don’t forget the sound engineer will try to let the guitar amp sound good next to all the other instrument and vocals. Guitar, Keys and vocals are in the same frequentie spectrum so eq edits are needed to let each voice come through.......

    The sound guy will always win this argument...If you have a good one your band will sound good even if he tweaks your sound (if he knows what he's doing he is probably doing it for good), if you have a bad sound engineer the band will sound bad even if you have the greatest guitar tone ever :)


    In small places your sound comes mostly out of your cab, so you relatively know what the audience gets, but in bigger stages you dont get that type of control...


    So I agree with the guy that suggested you trust the sound guy and leave him do his job...If he sucks you wont get the results you want anyway!

    Quote from SQUAREHEAD

    I understand what you’re saying Jimmy, but in my scenario, when the sound guy is screwing up my tone, it comes right into my in ear monitors and my playing suffers because of it

    Fair enough. I just realised through the years that the tone we enjoy as guitar players (I personally like too much low end for example) sometimes may not be the ideal for a good band mix. That's why I prefer to use a cab on stage to get the exact guitar tone I like to hear with no concern if it "cuts" well (big ballzy low end and mids, less treble and presense) and leave the rest to the sound engineer, but this is just my own way of doing it. Cheers!

    Quote from drunkenmans

    Over the years I have learned from them, from the audio engineers that it is best to give them what they expect, the sound of a natural guitar amp, with its darkness, or high frequencies

    Yep, with a Eng at the desk, I totally agree.


    It's so tempting to tweak your kpa guitar tones to be closer to whats typically needed in a band mix (ballpark high/low pass's etc), and send that, but when you have no idea how it's sounding through FOH, you're not really doing anyone any favors.


    My best success has been to simply aim for a great mic'd amp tone that conveys the emotion you're going for, and let the Eng do their job to adjust & make it all fit together beautifully as a band though the mains.

    In this case, let him give you an all but guitar signal, feed it in the AUX of the KPA and use the KPA's headphone out for your personal monitoring.

    Quote from SQUAREHEAD

    I understand what you’re saying Jimmy, but in my scenario, when the sound guy is screwing up my tone, it comes right into my in ear monitors and my playing suffers because of it

    Quote from SQUAREHEAD

    I understand what you’re saying Jimmy, but in my scenario, when the sound guy is screwing up my tone, it comes right into my in ear monitors and my playing suffers because of it

    This is exactly why I take a separate feed from my Kemper. The sound they need out front is probably not suited to in ears.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

    The sound engineer has to make the entire mix sound good. They're in a unique position and have specific skills to make this happen.


    Typically guitarists are "guitar-centric" and think they know more about mixing than the engineer. I'm with the OP - set it flat and let them make it fit the mix.

    Quote from fourstrk

    In this case, let him give you an all but guitar signal, feed it in the AUX of the KPA and use the KPA's headphone out for your personal monitoring.

    Exactly!
    This lets you EQ the sound you hear in your monitors and you can even apply Space just to your own mix.