Welcome to the Family
Why do I do this to myself?
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Welcome!
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2 days early!
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Welcome it will be worth the wait trust me
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2 days early!
MM
I wish! It shipped today but will not get in my mitts until Wednesday.
And when UPS says "By End of the Day" around here that usually means "So damned late, it might as well be the Start of the Next Day."
Brian
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D'Oh! Bummer, Brian.
Still, the silver lining is that you can get ahead on sleep in the meantime; you'll probably need it.
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Where I was at the time, it took around 4-5 months for mine to arrive and I paid almost twice because of customs. Was debating flying oversea just to go purchase it abroad. Still totally worth it; it has changed my life in many ways as I was also new to digital gear. I still use and mess around with other gear depending on the situation but since the day I got it, the KPA has been the main rig I use when things get real. Anyway, welcome.
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MM
I wish! It shipped today but will not get in my mitts until Wednesday.
And when UPS says "By End of the Day" around here that usually means "So damned late, it might as well be the Start of the Next Day."
Brian
Kemper is so cool that you will play so much and sleep so less that kemper's lights will became the "Star of the Next Day",
Tomorrow you will see... i received mine late at night too, but i could not resist to unbox it and plug it right way on my desk and play a bit with my headphones... Awesome dreams...
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I also have an H&K Statesman 6L6. I need to find some profiles for that one.
I've definitely seen Statesman Profiles.
OK, just had a poke around:
Choptones has a "Hughes & Kettner Statesman Dual EL34 Head" pack. It's not the 6L6 you're after, but EL34 valves are nothing to sneeze at.
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so far this thing is sounding great. the first few profiles i went through got me nervous.
i have since found several awesome sounds in the Free Rig Packs that are in the unit.When making the transition from physical amps to a Kemper, there are a couple of fundamental concepts to keep in mind that will help you better understand what you're getting from the unit. You probably already know most of this from reading threads here but I'll offer it just in case.
If you've spent any time at all playing through traditional amps, the first instinct is to compare what you hear from the Kemper with what you're used to hearing when standing in front of your tube amps, i.e. the "amp in the room" sound. To the shock and horror of many, after spending a sizable amount of money on a Kemper, they find that it doesn't sound the same. This often leads to an initial impression that it doesn't sound as good, when in fact it's comparing apples to oranges.
A Kemper is a snapshot of a miked guitar cabinet. That's what we hear on our favorite records, but we always hear that in the context of the mix. If you heard the soloed guitar track, in many cases it would sound like crap compared to standing in front of your amp. At the very least, it would certainly sound different. Moving a mic even an inch makes a radical difference in sound, so imagine comparing the very specific thing a mic hears with its little one inch diaphragm pointed at a small area of the speaker to what your ears capture standing a few feet away from the cabinet.
When you start mentally comparing the sound of your Kemper to the sound of a miked cab in a recording instead of the "amp in the room," the satisfaction level goes up immeasurably since it's an accurate comparison.
The other thing to keep in mind when listening to different profiles is context. I love the sound of an EVH. That said, I'm a classic rock guy. Someone who dials in and mikes up a high gain tone that's meant for metal is often going to get a very different type of tone than I might go for playing, well, Van Halen. But you don't really get that when browsing profiles. You just see "5153 High Gain." Okay, high gain for who? I may listen to it based on my stylistic expectations and say, "Yuck." A metal guy may rave about how great it is. And we'd both be right.
When I first started listening to profiles, with a subconscious expectation of hearing classic rock sounds, I was frequently disappointed and thought the fault was with the Kemper. "Really? This is the best Marshall you can do?" Once I realized that both the amp settings and the way they're miked are done to sound good for the kind of music the profiler is targeting, it all made sense. And I did find profiles that were oriented towards my stylistic preferences that were, "Holy crap, I can't believe this isn't the real amp" good. Enough so that I sold every amp I owned.
If you keep these two points in mind when evaluating what you're hearing from your Kemper and profiles of choice, you'll have a lot more fun with it. We subconsciously compare things whether we realize it or not, so if you can rewire your brain to compare what you're hearing to what it's supposed to be instead of what you were used to hearing pre-Kemper, then it all comes together. At least that was what happened for me.
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Display More
When making the transition from physical amps to a Kemper, there are a couple of fundamental concepts to keep in mind that will help you better understand what you're getting from the unit. You probably already know most of this from reading threads here but I'll offer it just in case.
If you've spent any time at all playing through traditional amps, the first instinct is to compare what you hear from the Kemper with what you're used to hearing when standing in front of your tube amps, i.e. the "amp in the room" sound. To the shock and horror of many, after spending a sizable amount of money on a Kemper, they find that it doesn't sound the same. This often leads to an initial impression that it doesn't sound as good, when in fact it's comparing apples to oranges.
A Kemper is a snapshot of a miked guitar cabinet. That's what we hear on our favorite records, but we always hear that in the context of the mix. If you heard the soloed guitar track, in many cases it would sound like crap compared to standing in front of your amp. At the very least, it would certainly sound different. Moving a mic even an inch makes a radical difference in sound, so imagine comparing the very specific thing a mic hears with its little one inch diaphragm pointed at a small area of the speaker to what your ears capture standing a few feet away from the cabinet.
When you start mentally comparing the sound of your Kemper to the sound of a miked cab in a recording instead of the "amp in the room," the satisfaction level goes up immeasurably since it's an accurate comparison.
The other thing to keep in mind when listening to different profiles is context. I love the sound of an EVH. That said, I'm a classic rock guy. Someone who dials in and mikes up a high gain tone that's meant for metal is often going to get a very different type of tone than I might go for playing, well, Van Halen. But you don't really get that when browsing profiles. You just see "5153 High Gain." Okay, high gain for who? I may listen to it based on my stylistic expectations and say, "Yuck." A metal guy may rave about how great it is. And we'd both be right.
When I first started listening to profiles, with a subconscious expectation of hearing classic rock sounds, I was frequently disappointed and thought the fault was with the Kemper. "Really? This is the best Marshall you can do?" Once I realized that both the amp settings and the way they're miked are done to sound good for the kind of music the profiler is targeting, it all made sense. And I did find profiles that were oriented towards my stylistic preferences that were, "Holy crap, I can't believe this isn't the real amp" good. Enough so that I sold every amp I owned.
If you keep these two points in mind when evaluating what you're hearing from your Kemper and profiles of choice, you'll have a lot more fun with it. We subconsciously compare things whether we realize it or not, so if you can rewire your brain to compare what you're hearing to what it's supposed to be instead of what you were used to hearing pre-Kemper, then it all comes together. At least that was what happened for me.
Chris
Thanks for the great advice. I sort of went through this when I got my SRL. The Amp in the Room vs how a mic'd up cab sounds. Pete Thorn did a video on it.
I found a lot of great ones yesterday in Rig Manager's Factory Rig Packs.
I plan to do a Direct Profile of my Carvin Legacy today and do the side by side thing.
I want my wife to hear how great this thing really is since she suggested I get it. Yeah she's that awesome!
Brian
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I want my wife to hear how great this thing really is since she suggested I get it. Yeah she's that awesome!
Wow, you really hit the lottery!
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If you've spent any time at all playing through traditional amps, the first instinct is to compare what you hear from the Kemper with what you're used to hearing when standing in front of your tube amps....
Chris did a great job explaining this. There is another explanation that I just found in the Addendum in case any noob like me wants to read more about it.
In this section starting page 56:
PURE CABINET (or "how to cure a decades-old sound disease")
Brian
