How to use pedals with the kemper amp and a couple of questions that have come up during use

    Hey, relatively new owner who has been getting more into my kemper amp over the last couple of days.


    I've noticed that my pedals react pretty differently with my kemper compared to my tube / modeling amps.


    Dirt pedals don't usually give a volume boost. The only way I can get more output from ymkemper, besides increasing the master/non master volumes is to increase the input sensitivity of the clean and distorted channels. Could someone explain exactly why there are two separate 'input' sensitivities for clean and distorted even though the amp itself only has one input jack? Any tips for pushing profiles without increasing the kemper's gain? (which usually sounds pretty bad IMO. seems like the best gain setting is the one that the profiler used at the time of the profiling)


    My delay and reverb pedals seem to have increased repeats/regeneration on virtually all profiles compared to tube/modeling amps. This seems strange to me. What's going on with that?


    Thanks, this is an incredible unit and I want to learn how to use it effectively with my setup.

    Welcome to the community. While the kemper does perform differently, I would recommend sticking it out to learn as much as you can. This box is so powerful.


    There are multiple inputs. One in the front and then an “alternate input” on the back. You also have an effects loop in the back that’s great for your wet/dry setup.


    I would highly recommend watching Tone Junkie TV on YouTube. His explainer videos are some of the best content available on the Kemper. This video in particular will let you see what’s possible for a single profile / input sensitivities.


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    Overall, your dirt pedals probably shouldn’t be adding much volume to your overall signal chain. It should just be affecting the tone. If you need a volume boost, there’s a great one in the Kemper. Are you using a powered or non-powered Kemper?


    I don’t know what’s happening to your delays and reverbs, but just remember that you’re hitting the front of the amp. You’ll want to make sure the Reverb and delays are turned off on the Kemper for the profile your playing.


    As far as the Kemper Gain knob. Best practice is to NOT increase it at all. You can clean up the gain and still hold true to the original tone of the amp. But as soon as you use that knob to increase the gain, things go haywire. It’s not meant to be a replacement for the amp’s gain knob. If you need more gain, find a profile of the amp with more gain. I appreciate the profilers who include multiple gain settings in their sets.

    I got a powered head but I'm not using the powered out with my setup. My initial plan for the kemper was to run it into my Orange cabs but I realized that the v30's color all the tone so much that it defeats the purpose of having a unit like this. I was thinking passive FFR but ended up just going with some relatively cheap powered JBLs. Does the job, but I would like to get a pair of high quality and very flat headphones in the future for tone sculpting.


    I typically play on very clean channels and then blast them with high gain fuzz. Don't know if this is optimal for what I do but it's given me decent results so far.


    When I get some extra cables I'll run the time based pedals in the effects loop. Not sure what's going on with them either.


    What's the typical use of the alternate input in the back?


    Thanks for the info!