My Kemper vs. Axe- Fx II experience

    I have owned the Ultra for years and the Axe II since Jan. 2012.
    When my KPA arrived last week, I had the expectation that it might be in a similar league with the Axe II, only using a different, interesting new approach.


    In my "real amp life" I'm mainly an AC 30 player. Also with modelers. I like to have options, of course, but tend to use one model 90% of the time.
    Also with the Axe, i've used nearly exclusively the AC 30 TB model.


    In the KPA I found a beautiful AC 30 profile recorded in a Nashville studio, captured with a nice blend of 2 microphones (forgot which ones cause I'm not at my machine now).
    This profile has a nice grit to it and I can give the tone a character from super clean to fairly crunchy simply by changing my picking attack and with a little use of the volume pot.
    I instantly fell in love with this profile, and I mean, REALLY fell in love.
    Could play for hours and never stop.


    What happened then I had not imagined. Turned on the Axe and loaded my best effort AC 30 patch (after years of tweaking experience), which I had always been quite content with.
    Couldn't stand it now after playing the KPA. The highs sounded so unnatural to me and the mids had a honky character I couldn't dial out. No chance.


    I was shocked. Stopped playing and started over after a few hours. This time I started with the Axe. Sounded good. Changed to the KPA. Sounded excellent, much better! Switched back to the Axe. Could not stand it AGAIN!
    I really had not expected this.
    Next I set up a blind listening test for my wife. She's very lovely but the first to admit to be not being very musical. :)
    I randomly plugged in to the Axe or the KPA and played, being amplified by an Atomic FRFR.
    Result: She picked the KPA from the Axe EVERY time, every time qualifying the KPA as clearly better sounding.
    She is right. I really feel that profiling means a paradigm shift. Modeling as known to us maybe is past and history.


    After the difference in sound quality was so evident with the Axe being so inferior i couldn't even imagine to use it again for amp tones. The effects? Sure they are somewhat limited in quantity in the KPA but the quality is very good and I found that I can get very musical results in very short time, actually it's quite more practical than using effects in the Axe.


    My summary: I really didn't expect this to be such a clear outcome. I'm quite excited over the KPA (and I'm not getting excited so easily). I could have imagined to keep both the Axe and the KPA initially, but my Axe is already sold by now.
    Behause the KPA is in a superior league. Amazing!

    Wow doc 8o , coming from you it has a certain weight..Happy that the Kemper is doing it for you! :thumbup:

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    That's what happened to me too, quite a similar story. What I'm getting out with my Tele and Strat using Kemper & Marshal Golub profile is something that I never experienced with Axe Ultra or II.

    Oh my sentiments EXACTLY! I've spent years trying to enjoy the AxeFx's and just couldn't do it. I'm like "It must be me! no it's just not sounding musical...must be my playing, or my tweaking or... :cursing: " Sold the Axe FxII and am FINALLY after years getting the BASS, CHIME, SUSTAIN ETC... that I longed for. I damn near feel betrayed with the AxeFx :cursing:
    Will never look back.
    CH

    I had similar experience. However I only had the Axe Standard but I think the Axe 2 is not far away from the standard (soundwise). The amps and cabs within the KPA play in another league :thumbup: The Axe sounds always a littel bit sterile others would call it clear, Hifi-like. I often miss the dirt and warmth in the Axe-Sound.


    For some kind of music like Jazz, Pink Floyd or U2 I would prefer the axe over the KPA because of the better effects. You can get an outstanding wide stereo sound from the Axe when you use effects like reverb, delay and chorus.

    Edited 2 times, last by Kermit ().

    In my previous experience with Fractal gear (i had a Standard and an Ultra, both amazing machines) i think that the main issue with the fractal modelling is that Cliff has always tried to remove what he calls "defects" in the behaviour of the originals amp.
    That's why they sound very good but not as the real thing. Indeed the Kemper takes all the nuances of the particular amp/speaker/microphone and even cable interaction: of course this means that it can sound weird with a bad profiling chain.


    The "other side" is that Fractal modelled amp probably sound better when connected to a guitar amp/speaker, because of the complete separation of the amp/cab blocks.
    So i'm waiting for more direct profiles from KEMPER , and i think that it would be a good idea to have a separate direct profiling option.


    EDIT: Fixed!!! :love:

    Yes, got the same experience.
    After a few minutes with the KPA at home I was sure this is a keeper.


    Then I tried to find out all the advantages of the AxeFX II - there are some - but after a few days I put the AxeFx to eBay - and got 50Euro more than I paid :)


    Still love the KPA - I wanted to play some 'plexi' patch this morning (for a few minutes) - at 13:00 I fond myself still playing and decided to stop ;)

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    Quote from Jimmyno

    The "other side" is that Fractal modelled amp probably sound better when connected to a guitar amp/speaker, because of the complete separation of the amp/cab blocks.
    So i'm waiting for more direct profiles from KEMPER, and i think that it would be a good idea to have a separate direct profiling option.

    Fixed

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


    The same here..
    Only my first gig ,about one year ago with Axe seemed to be nice..You know..all that jazz about Axe..Vai,Petrucci..and now me ;-)..
    But after next gigs I started to hear more details in sound and it's plastic ,strange honkey quality..
    After 12 months I already hated Axe Fx..I play a lot of rock versions of Mozart,Beethoven..etc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi5KQzwZqJU ..And I just couldn't play all staccato,fast passages cause the fill was so unnatural to me..
    Now with KPA it's all way around..As more I play the more I love this box..:-) Amazing IMHO...


    The only problem to me is the lack of whammy and pitch transposer/harmonizer which I use in few of my orginal composition and "Owner of the Lonely heart" by Yes cover song..and controlling mix of delay,reverb etc with expression pedal in it's full range...For this reason I'm gonna use again my G-Major2 as an effect box..as long as I will get those effects implemented in to KPA..
    Thanks,