So I've Had My Kemper Next To My AX8 For Several Days Now, Need Advice

  • I'm surprised you can't find good high gain sounds and it might depend on what you are playing through....can you not profile some of the AX8 gain sounds?


    I assume you've tried some of the diezel, ENGL and Mesa profiles?

    Hey V8guitar ! Good

    I would think that at profiling the Ax8 gain sounds would still sound like Kemper to my ears. Kemper has this thing on the cab section where it just sounds the way I described it before. I do find this stiffness works great for cleans and edge of breakup tones much better than for high gain for some reason. Im playing thru a Friedman Asm-12 with the Low cut switch on and/or thru into my scarlett 6i6 and beyerdynamics dt770 studio headphones.


    I was actually thinking trying running both as in a Wet/dry setup but then its just get confusing.


    I was running the kemper into the Ax8’s loop and there was this Diezel profile i like. So I bypassed the cab block in it and used one of sinmix Ir’s i have bought for the ax8. It sounded more open, thumpy and less spiky. More clear to my ears.


    Thanks V8guitar ☕️

    Edited once, last by javcab08 ().

  • I tried an Axe FX III a couple of months back and couldn't get a nice high gain tone out of it...I was too used to the Kemper sound, tone and feel. Keep looking at profiles, there are some really good ones out there, javcab08.

    Hey !!

    I know there’s some good ones out there just dont know where lol.

    I did tweaked John Deiley Stl tones Northlane’s Diezel Ch3 profile a bit, specially at the cab block, and little on the amp block in Definition and pick. Also lowered the stomp gain a bit. It sounds better to me. Also watching tonejunkie’s kemper videos has helped me a lot in understanding the kemper.


    It kind of feels like owning both products helps with understanding their capabilities and strengths.


    Thanks jonathanthomas83

  • So... Honestly, if you're playing ~75% super high gain stuff, I'd say stick with the AX if it just works for you. You need to like your sound in order to perform your best. If you're not getting that vibe from Kemper, then its probably not the best option for you. However, you do have an option on just selling the AX8 and buying a solid Overdrive/BB/Distortion pedal and not missing out on anything. That wouldn't necessarily ring true for the AX8 since you can't just go and buy a clean pedal. I would also note that you should be able to find at least one profile that moves you in a pool of 13k free and countless professionally made/commercial profiles that are available. I'd start with looking at Diezel's, Orange, or Trainwreck profiles galore.

  • Happy to help if I can...I have no experience of the Ax8 but I know its a great unit. Simplicity is a priority for me so personally I would keep looking for the 1 solution but as BryanGonzo said, you need to find a sound that moves you. Kemper high gains do work for me. I know you are saying you hear some missing "x" factor so maybeit isn;t the right unit for you.


    I just bought the cililab Herbert rigs, which I think are pretty good.


    Anyway, good luck!

  • So... Honestly, if you're playing ~75% super high gain stuff, I'd say stick with the AX if it just works for you. You need to like your sound in order to perform your best. If you're not getting that vibe from Kemper, then its probably not the best option for you. However, you do have an option on just selling the AX8 and buying a solid Overdrive/BB/Distortion pedal and not missing out on anything. That wouldn't necessarily ring true for the AX8 since you can't just go and buy a clean pedal. I would also note that you should be able to find at least one profile that moves you in a pool of 13k free and countless professionally made/commercial profiles that are available. I'd start with looking at Diezel's, Orange, or Trainwreck profiles galore.

    Hey Thanks BryanGonzo , I cant recreate some of my ambient, worship and beautiful cleans on the Ax8. I do play both cleans and not so much high gain over saturated, I mostly play high gain up to 3 o clock and thats pushing it. im thinking about doing a 4 cm between the Kemper and Ax8 having the fractal ir's take over but still having kemper cleans. I've been thinking about just keeping the Kemper eventually and work my way around the stiffness i find in some high gain profiles, the thing is that some profiles have too much gain on them as we know the kemper is not a modeler so I never tweak the gain knob at all, otherwise the profile itself gets lost.


    Thinking about what overdrive pedals I could get ( JJ rockett Archer with graphic eq, Pro Tone Tosin Abasi, and sell the other unit to afford these, a remote and maybe a Two Notes Audio device.


    I did this already Kemper into Ax8 loop but I was missing my Eventide Space Reverb.

    Anyone any good profile makers you would recommend BryanGonzo ? take care


    Happy to help if I can...I have no experience of the Ax8 but I know its a great unit. Simplicity is a priority for me so personally I would keep looking for the 1 solution but as BryanGonzo said, you need to find a sound that moves you. Kemper high gains do work for me. I know you are saying you hear some missing "x" factor so maybeit isn;t the right unit for you.


    I just bought the cililab Herbert rigs, which I think are pretty good.


    Anyway, good luck!

    Hey V8guitar, I like the simplicity of the Kemper. I will look into the cililab Herbert rigs.


    Thanks again. Take care V8guitar.

  • I agree with you that the Kemper cleans are amazing. Although most people always seem to suggest that cleans are easy and digital amps stand or fall on the quality of their gain sounds. I totally disagree. For me one of the hardest thngs to capture is the feel of a clean or lower gain amp and the Kemper does it wonderfully.


    However, I don’t ever find the overdrive sounds stiff or unnatural in any way. Again,I find it sounds and feels pretty much exactly like the real amps (even when profiling my own amps and A/B testing them).


    If you fnd the amp too Stiff try tweaking the amp block itself. One of the most useful controls is Definition. Experiment with that. However if it is “feel” that is the issue try tweaking power sag, tube shape, tube bias and compression. The amp compressor isn’t meant to be a compressor effect but a way of dialling in the way power tubes naturally compress when driven hard. A little can go a long way.


    Also dn’t be afraid to reduce the gain. I regularly do that and it works exactly like rolling the guitar volume back a little on a drven amp. I actually make 10 profiles of the same amp at the same settings but just raised the gain knob one number each time. Then A/B tested them against each other with the gain reduced. The driven sound with the guitar volume rolled back was near as damn it the same as same profile with the amp gain reduced. This was pretty much identical to the profile with the amp gain reduced.


    Increasing gain is a different beast and can get unnatural pretty quickly.

  • We are here to help...I guess I was saying that please keep looking at profiles and some of the settings e.g. power sag etc. The Cililab was just an example, loads of high gain profiles out there.


    There are some neat videos on youtube that focus on some of these deeper settings...

  • I agree with you that the Kemper cleans are amazing. Although most people always seem to suggest that cleans are easy and digital amps stand or fall on the quality of their gain sounds. I totally disagree. For me one of the hardest thngs to capture is the feel of a clean or lower gain amp and the Kemper does it wonderfully

    This. This so much!


    Since I found a Laney Lionheart profile, I didn't appreciate how real and well the Kemper does cleans and how close it gets to the real thing. Something I haven't heard in any other modeller I've tried.

  • @Javacab08


    If you do praise and worship, I have two tips for you:


    1) Download Brian Carl's sound presets. He hooks you up with all the essential delay presets and reverbs (almost as satisfying as a big sky).


    2) I use nothing but MBritt profiles and Tone Junkie. I have Pack 1, 2, and 3 from MBritt and the everything pack from tonejunkie. Got it at $100 from a sale.


    Brian Carl is one of the band "Passion" guitarists. He has some pretty decent profiles, but his sound sets are the best. I do find that turning down the mix/duration slightly is nice, but he has some pretty decent tone building skills and all of his tones (clean, rhythm, swells, lead) are loaded unto performances which you can save to the stomp/effect sections or just copy from one profile to another. Changes the way you do worship through a Kemper in my opinion, super simple and streamlined.

  • Hey BryanGonzo where could I find the preset sounds ? Are you talking about effect sounds or profiles ( per song profiles ) ?


    I do have tonejunkie’s profiles which were the main reason I bought a kemper again.


    For High Gain Im pretty pleased with Choptones profiles. But for worship I do play and love Tonejunkie’s and Brian Carl’s I have I think just what he has posted on the P&W kemper facebook page.


    For Bigsky type of reverbs I trust tonejunkie’s but I do also have my Eventide Space Reverb pedal in the kemper’s loop.


    Let me know were could I download the Brian Carls sound presets.


    Take care. thanks a lot !!